Well, for a start, Louis XIV did not live and reign during the medevial times, but in the late XVIIth century, in what is usually called "modern times". Just the fact it is considered a different period of history is sure indication that both the social and political systems were radically different.

The whole history of France since the Roman times is a long consolidation and centralization of the power around the monarchy and a national state. Each period : early middle ages, late middle ages, renaissance, modern times... sees a step up in the centralization and power of the Kingdom, exemplified by the technique you mention among others, but also by significant population and overall wealth growth (from 5M inhabitants in the middle ages to 20M by the XVIIth century, to compare to 60M nowadays).

Starting with a quick read of Wikipedia seems a must to get a foothold on the aspects you're interested in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_France

Next, I notice a discrepancy between your title and the post content, and overall vagueness in the issues you're interested in:

The title seems to imply you're interested in the daily life of various populations. If so, I'd recommend books by George Duby, although they don't seem to have been translated in English.

For a broader perspective, notably the political system and evolutions of society, Emmanuel Leroy Ladurie is more the reference author these days, and he has been translated in English as I can see on the wikipedia page. These texts are somewhat accessible, but for a head start I'd still recommend a regular text book such as

Goubert, Pierre. The Course of French History (1991).