The period of French history from Louis XI to the Wars of Religion is rarely discussed by historians as a coherent whole. Surveys of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century have tended to put the emphasis on the distinction between 'late medieval' and 'early modern' characteristics.

This book stresses the continuity between medieval and Renaissance France in its institutions; social framework and religious ideas, while taking account of new economic developments from the end of the fifteenth century and the impact of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.