This book was published by Eyre Methuen and University of California Press in hardback in 1974.

Methuen tentatively commenced a series on French monarchs but sadly this seems to be both the first and the last of the line. Although this is a volume of only 233 pages of text plus the requisite bibliography and index, is an excellent account of this French king and the middle of the 15th Century.

Henry VI of England and Charles VII of France reigned in opposition and in parallel. The length of their reigns were almost identical to the month, from 1422 to 1461 (although Henry returned for a brief encore). The different perspective it gives on this period of the Hundred Years war, where France rallies against the invader, provides the reader with a wonderfully full account of both countries during this difficult time.

It is, however, more of an account of the person and the court rather than the nation. The author sets out his purpose in the preface to “...study a peculiarly enigmatic medieval king by using the evidence in a rather more selective fashion [compared with a conventional biography]”. He is unapologetic about his use of Charles, the one who held power, as the focus of the book and in that measure it is more in the nature of a popular history. It dwells on the politics and intrigue of the court with the English presence in France as a backdrop. It is in summary a clear and engaging account of the king’s long reign, focusing on significant events rather than one continuous narrative. Students of the period will be rewarded for the effort. It remains, after forty years since it was issued, the only biography in English of this monarch.

Malcolm Graham Allan Vale was Lecturer in History at the University of York at the time of the book’s release. Dr. Vale would subsequently be posted as Tutor in Medieval History at St. John's College Oxford, and would write ‘Henry V: The Conscience of a King’ for Yale (2016), again in his area of speciality.

I have credited Miriam Hodgson as editor of this work. She is the Methuen representative thanked by the author in the Preface for seeing the book to publication. Who knows what she might have produced as a Series Editor for the Methuen French Monarchs series!

1. • Buy the California edition from Amazon USA or ABE
   

2. • Buy the Methuen edition from Amazon UK or ABE