Glen Richardson

Robert J. KnechtYale University Press   415pp   £25  ISBN 978 0300 118513  The court of the Valois monarchs of France reached both its zenith and its nadir in the sixteenth century. In this useful and wide-ranging book, Robert Knecht, the doyen of British historians of Renaissance France, presents detailed evidence of the origins and evolution of the Valois court. He interweaves an essential narrative of the Valois monarchy from 1483 with a thematic approach to the institutional history of the court itself. The result is, in a sense, two books for the price of one.