Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie is the author of numerous books - including the immensely successful Montaillouand Carnival - and many articles. He is a researcher with a high international reputation, and the diversity of his work and range of his publications have made him one of the foremost specialists on France's monarchical period.

"The world of the nobility is as vividly evoked as that of the humble, and the portraits of the kings reveal a virtuosity which would have been the envy of Michelet. A History of France series is a work of immense quality." Historama "Magnificent! The personalities of the kings and queens of the period, (among them Louis XI, Louis XII, Henri IV, Catherine de Medici) are admirably captured. The author also provides an incisive account of social, cultural and economic trends, explains with equal clarity the causes and outcomes of the wars with Italy and of religion, and shows that the reasons the Reformation failed in France were essentially political." L'Histoire"This stimulating book has been translated with care by Juliet Vale, the bilbliography has been adapted for a British audience." Literary Review"Readers of this second volume are unlikely to be disappointed." History

• Preface. Introduction.Part I: Valois Flowering:.1. A Renaissance.2. War and Recovery.3. The Italian Adventure.4. Humanist Strategies: Variable Outcomes.5. Intolerance and its Aftermath.Part II: Valois Decadence:.6. Fracture.7. War Games.8. The Point of No Return.9. The Tree of Justice.10. The Guise and their Supporters.Part III: Bourbon Spring:.11. Broader Perspectives.12. City, Finance and Office.13. The Kingdom and the Nobility.14. National Identity.Chronology.