Louis XIV, by Philippe Erlanger, (Phoenix, £12.99) Napoleon and Wellington, by Andrew Roberts (Phoenix, £8.99) Paris Between Empires, 1814-1852, Monarchy and Revolution, by Philip Mansel (Phoenix, £14.99)

THE status of France as a great power is today mostly seen as an attitude rather than a military or economic fact.

It was not always so, as three authors remind us in works which reflect an era when France was Europe's premier power.

This position of pre-eminence was first reached under le Roi Soleil, Louis XIV.

Philippe Erlanger relates how when the young Louis first ascended the throne France was divided, and threatened by both its neighbours and by ruinous civil war.

Yet in adulthood he made his kingdom the strongest on the continent, with power so ruthlessly centralised that he famously described himself as the personification of the state.

It was this threat which prompted William of Orange's coup against England's Catholic King James II, transforming England into France's enemy and leading to such famous battles as Blenheim and the Boyne.

Erlanger concedes that Louis is a figure likely to attract admiration rather than affection.

But he points out that contemporaries applauded his revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which is now seen as an absolute disaster for France, reviving religious persecution and sending thousands of Huguenots fleeing abroad.

Conversely, the building of Versailles was condemned in its day, while now it seems to many to be Louis' abiding achievement.

Andrew Roberts' book, Napoleon and Wellington, is based on the remarkable symmetry between the lives of contemporaries who never met, except in battle.

By one standard Napoleon must be seen as the "greater" figure, since his power encompassed an empire that stretched across Europe and even the Middle East.

Yet while his conquests were extinguished by his death, Wellington had not only helped to shatter French power, but had considerably strengthened Britain's Indian empire, which would last another century.

The central moral of Napoleon's career, Roberts suggests, is that: "it is better to be perhaps incompetently governed by free and changeable institutions than to be well governed by those who cannot be removed constitutionally."

Mansel takes a slightly different approach to French history, focusing on the great city of Paris and its social and cultural history, as well as revolutions and the rise and fall of empires.

Yet great and would-be great men inevitably make their appearance, for the book begins with the demise of the first Napoleon, and ends with his nephew, Louis Napoleon, seeking to steer France to European predominance once more.

The book concludes as that dream of la Gloire crashed in ruins, brought about this time not by the people across the Channel, but by a new power from across the Rhine - one which would bring its own brand of charismatic leadership to the continent, and greater destruction than even Louis and Napoleon could manage.

Updated: 09:30 Wednesday, June 18, 2003