Quand les rois meurent

This book offers an in-depth-analysis of documents contemporary to the final illness and death of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. Although several works came out in 2015 about the death of Louis XIV to commemorate the tricentennial of his death, Assaf's work differs by offering a day-to-day examination of the process that led to that death, from both a literary and historical perspective, analysing a journal written by the brothers Jean & François Antoine, who lived and worked in extremely close proximity to the king. The same goes for the journal written by their father, Jacques Antoine, concerning the final days of Louis XIII. He occupied the same position vis-à-vis that king as his sons vis-à-vis Louis XIV. There are other corroborating documents supporting the contents of both journals, some of which have never been examined and analysed before Assaf's work.