France

David Chandler tells how Napoleon’s first battle with the British saved the vital port of Toulon – and opened the door to a glittering military career.

Michael Broers describes Napoleon’s efficient police-state and shows how the system became a model for rulers throughout Europe.

Douglas Johnson reconsiders the circumstances in which de Gaulle relinquished his position as President of France and his mythic legacy in French history.

Stewart MacDonald asks a key question of the wars which dominated the history of Europe in the First half of the Sixteenth Century.

Prince Louis Napoleon was forty when he won the election for the French presidency on December 10th, 1848.

To mark the quincentenary of Louis Xll's accession in 1498, Glenn Richardson examines the French king's reign and suggests significant points of comparison with Henry Vll of England.

Richard Vinen questions whether the recently convicted Maurice Papon was charged with the correct crime.

Bonaparte has sometimes been acclaimed as the greatest military commander in history. In our final article in this series, David Gates reviews his contribution to the art and science of warfare.

Signed on 13 April 1598, the Edict of Nantes granted rights to France's Calvinist Protestants, known as Huguenots.

How Napoleon laid up trouble for future generations of Frenchmen by kick-starting Prussian and German domination of Eastern Europe.