Gaston Du Fresne, Marquis de Beaucourt (1833-1902), began his project on Charles VII in 1856 and saw it published beginning in 1881. One must assume that a man who worked on a six volume biography of a king was not opposed to monarchy. Beaucourt had a charitable view of his subject, if not of jealous and protective admiration. And yet, he did not fail to discuss views opposed to his own. The work as a whole is a precursor in some ways to total history,...