Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/592

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584 REVIEWS OF BOOKS October prevent him giving up Roussillon and freeing the duke of Orleans, is a little difficult to reconcile with the view of Anne's extraordinary ability, were it not that her Bourbon interests were tending to distract her attention from a court where she had ceased to be predominant. The Comptes de 1' Argenterie prove beyond doubt that the regent was not without a love of money on her own account : her acceptance of presents is certain from documents in the municipal archives of Lyon ; her advice to her son-in- law Charles of Bourbon to make an alliance with the emperor for the preservation of his feudal independence cannot be wholly reconciled with a high-minded and unselfish policy for the welfare of France. It would have been hard indeed for one who had played so great a part on the stage of the court to retire into complete obscurity and to show no resent- ment towards the brother who preferred his young wife and his own way to the authority of an elder sister, however able. Mr. Bridge, how- ever, has saved himself from criticism by meeting nearly every possible objection to his view and by acknowledging that Anne was not wholly in advance of the statecraft of her time ; and we can fully concur in his estimate of her political ability and of the great value of her rule during the minority of Charles. And the dame de Beaujeu had none of the cold-blooded cruelty of Louis XI. As Mr. Bridge says, ' the bloodless victory is, in truth, the distinguishing mark of Anne's regime '. E. C. LODGE. Histoire de Lorraine. Tome II. De 15-52 a 1789. Par ROBERT PABISOT. (Paris : Picard, 1922.) Bibliographic Lorraine, 1 juillet 1913 31 decembre 1919. (Nancy : Berger- Levrault, 1921.) M. PARISOT'S second volume merits, for its exactitude and method, praise equal to that which we gave to his first. 1 As a book of reference it is authoritative, containing the judgements of the latest scholarship on many questions that have been much debated, and the bibliographies for each chapter are unusually full and valuable. Few regions give so much attention to their local history as does Lorraine, and the university of Nancy encourages this study by publishing periodical bibliographies as fascicules of the Annales de I'Est. The war interrupted such publications, but the bibliography recently published notices a very large number of books and articles written between 1913 and 1919, on the history, geography, literature, and archaeology of Lorraine with a special chapter devoted to writings on the war. M. Parisot is president of the commission which has compiled this work, and himself writes many of the criticisms of historical books. It is clear that Lorraine patriotism affects his view of French history, and he constantly protests that Lorraine was right in resisting the encroach- ments of France in the seventeenth century and would have preferred independence to absorption in the eighteenth. He admits that Richelieu, Mazarin, and Louis XIV acted in the interests of France and according to tradition, but 'those who do not base their judgements on success, who 1 See ante, xxxv. 444.