The reign of Louis XIV of France had a great impact on the course of European and world history. The years 1643 to 1715 were a defining epoch for western military, diplomatic, economic and cultural matters. It was an era during which the French and eventually all armies saw extraordinary changes such as the rise of large professional armies, standardized command practices, professional training, improvements in discipline and control, technical advances in military sciences and weapons thus affecting tactics, introduction of uniforms, introduction of obligatory military service, financial and logistical practices that permitted the upkeep of large armies. This four-volume series is the first to present all the aspects of the Sun King's extraordinary armed forces-the best and largest in western Europe-and their enormous influence on all other armies. His armies will be looked at in detail insofar as what they were, how they performed, who led them and what sort of world officers and men lived in through their material culture-arms, uniforms, colours, food, health care and money to name a few topics. Auxiliary forces such as the unknown yet very numerous militia forces of several types are also presented. Each volume has a wealth of some 200 illustrations, plus specially commissioned colour plates illustrating largely unknown colours and uniforms carefully reconstructed from descriptions in original documents of the period. This fourth and final part of our study concentrates on the early 18th century War of Spanish Succession. It was the largest and most difficult conflict in Europe since the Thirty Years War and unsurpassed until the Napoleonic Wars. The French army's technical and support services, many of which were the first to be organised as corps befitting a modern army, are next presented. The artillery was totally militarised and its materiel modernised to standards copied by all other nations. Engineering under the guidance of Marshal Vauban became peerless and imitated in all nations. This volume also examines the reserve forces. France had three types of militias. The-best-known is the 1688 Royal Militia, which was the first integrated system leading to what became national conscription for military service in the regular armies. Next to unknown are the Coast Guard Militia organisation that might might muster 150,000 men and, most of all, the Bourgeois Militia in all the cities and towns of the realm that probably amounted to some half a million men, many of them well armed and uniformed. The last section will be a look at the social life of soldiers, their 'families', camp followers and and sutlers. There were many women and children in the wake of regiments, as prints show and some documents elude, but they were not officially recognised in the army yet should not be forgotten. Book jacket.