The period following the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis and the death of Henry II in 1559 is of crucial importance in the history of France and of Europe; yet little that is satisfactory has been written about it. To this, the work of Dr N.M. Sutherland is a notable exception. Princes, Politics and Religion, 1547-1589 brings together all her major articles, not already reprinted elsewhere, together with an introduction and two completely new contributions. While mainly focusing on the immediate origins and early decades of the French civil wars, she also deals in a wider sense with the great ideological struggle of the sixteenth century.