Frank Tallett is Head of the School of Humanities at the University of Reading and co-Director of its Centre for the Advanced Study of French History. His previous publications include War and Society in Early Modern Europe, 1495 1715 (1992, 2nd ed. 2002), Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism since 1750 (with N. Atkin, 2003) and, as co-editor, The Right in France from the Revolution to Le Pen (2003).