pickThere is a lot of detail- approx 1/3 of the pages are footnotes- in this accounting of a 500 year old crime. It is well researched & I was impressed at how much documentation survives. It starts out by following the Provost of Paris who did some fine detective work w/i the technological limits of his time. We also get a fascinating look at French politics of the time- and there are unfortunate parallels to be drawn. Once the murder is solved the
bookandbedandtea book goes on to examine the repercussions of the murder as it leads to a civil war, which weakens French defenses and resources such that they cannot fend off the English king Henry V when he comes campaigning in France. He wins at Agincourt, despite the odds, and comes out ahead in the Hundred Years War, which the author posits may have turned out differently had not the Orleanists and the Burgundians been at each other's throats. 3w
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