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traditional political practices that emerged during these violent, uncertain years. Bernstein quite rightfully underscores the essential royalism of most members of the League, who opposed a Protestant succession, not the monarchy. In fact, what historians have often construed as a striving for greater urban autonomy was, in the case of Poitiers and many other provincial towns, largely a function of weakening royal leadership at the centre. This situation persisted under Charles de Lorraine, duc de Mayenne, the leader of the League, until the appointment of a new governor, Charles de Cossé, comte de Brissac, in 1592.After Henri IV's conversion in 1593, Poitiers hoped to re-establish the kind of partnership it enjoyed with the Valois, only to find the Bourbon king much more inclined to intervene decisively in the town's affairs. A near fiscal revolt in 1606 against the unpopular pancarte evoked a furious reaction from the king, who made it abundantly clear to members of the town council that their privileges hinged on upholding order and delivering tax receipts. If the tenor of the relationship seemed different, its core of shared interest in realizing the benefits of mutual support still characterized Poitiers' civic culture. Bernstein's book is a significant contribution to early modern French history as well as urban history. It invites us to rethink the nature of city governance and state building during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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