The Death of Louis XIV

Versailles, August 1715. At the venerable age of 76, having reigned for 72 years, Louis XIV feels weak and nauseous, and realizes he is living his last days. Doctors, servants and courtiers take turns at the bedside of the man who has become too weak to chair the council or to go pray in the chapel. Having resigned himself to bed, Louis suffers from a sharp pain in his leg, which causes him to suffer terribly.

Called from Marseilles, Dr. Lebrun, who has the reputation of performing miracles, concocts a so-called infallible elixir. But the ineffectiveness of the treatment provokes the anger of his colleagues and precipitates the royal’s death.