A masterful new survey of sixteenth-century France which examines the vicissitudes of the French monarchy during the Italian Wars and the Wars of Religion. It explores how the advances made under a succession of strong kings from Charles VIII to Henri II created tensions in traditional society which combined with economic problems and emerging religious divisions to bring the kingdom close to disintegration under a series of weak kings from Francois II to Henri III. The political crisis culminated in France's first succession conflict for centuries, but was resolved through Henri IV's timely reconnection of dynastic legitimism with religious orthodoxy.

In the late sixteenth century, the French royal court was mobile. To distinguish itself from the rest of society, it depended more on its cultural practices and attitudes than on the royal and aristocratic palaces it inhabited. Using courtly song-or the air de cour-as a window, Jeanice Brooks offers an unprecedented look into the culture of this itinerant institution. Brooks concentrates on a period in which the court's importance in projecting the symbolic centrality of monarchy was growing rapidly and considers the role of the air in defining patronage hierarchies at court and in enhancing courtly visions of masculine and feminine virtue. Her study illuminates the court's relationship to the world beyond its own confines, represented first by Italy, then by the countryside. In addition to the 40 editions of airs de cour printed between 1559 and 1589, Brooks draws on memoirs, literary works, and iconographic evidence to present a rounded vision of French Renaissance culture. The first book-length examination of the history of air de cour, this work also sheds important new light on a formative moment in French history.

The French Wars of Religion tore the country apart for almost fifty years. They were also part of the wider religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants which raged across Europe during the 16th century. This new study, by a major authority on French history, explores the impact of these wars and sets them in their full European context.

Although Marguerite de Navarre's unique position in sixteenth-century France has long been acknowledged and she is one of the most studied women of the time, until now no study has focused attention on Marguerite's political life. Barbara Stephenson here fills the gap, delineating Marguerite's formal political position and highlighting her actions as a figure with the opportunity to exercise power through both official and unofficial channels. Through Marguerite's surviving correspondence, Stephenson traces the various networks through which this French noblewoman exercised the power available to her to further the careers of political and religious clients, as well as her struggle to protect the interests of her brother the king and those of her own family and household. The analysis of Marguerite's activities sheds light on noble society as a whole.

From the construction of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower to the Fall of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen to NapolZon Bonaparte's defeat at Waterloo to Albert Camus' L'Etranger and the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, France has been a part of some of the greatest and most memorable events in human history. Author Gino Raymond relates the history of these events in the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of France. Through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on kings, politicians, authors, architects, composers, artists, and philosophers, a thorough history of France is presented.

This is the story of Paris from the Reformation to the Religious Wars. Through the works of François Le Picart, the most popular preacher from 1530-1556, the book delineates the increasing tensions sparked by Reformation ideas. Targeted by Calvin and Beza, Le Picart was considered the reason Paris remained in the Catholic fold. Exiled by Francis I for his incendiary preaching, he would later serve as a professor and lecturer coming into close contact with the first Jesuits. A fierce opponent of heresy, he helped compile the Articles of Faith, read heretical books, lectured on scripture, and presided at executions. His 270 sermons, the only substantial preaching source for this period, offer glimpses of life during these increasingly troubled times that challenge works by Denis Crouzet suggesting that France was in the grip of eschatological anguish.