1150 Reviews for, the range of items discovered and recorded. I have found only two missing items: (i) Philippe Menard, 'LTllustration d'un manuscrit de fabliau francais du xme siecle', in La cultura delVltalia padana e la presenza francese nei secoli XIII-XIV (Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 2001), pp. 255-79; (h) 'Fabliaux', in Gretchen Mieszkowski, Medieval Go-Betweens and Chaucer s Pandarus (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 38-55. The index of medieval texts and authors is a major research tool in that it provides references to the fabliaux individually. The subject index will also be invaluable for the study of broader issues: audiences and patrons, comedy, courtliness, folklore, parody, performance, psychoanalytical interpretations, women, etc. Moreover, read from cover to cover, rather than just used as a work of reference, the present volume provides a splendid guide to the genre of the fabliaux. University of Liverpool Glyn S. Burgess Commynes et les proces politiques de Louis XI: du nouveau sur la lese-majeste. By Joel Blanchard. Paris: Picard. 2008. 183 pp. 32. ISBN 978-2-7084-0834-0. On 19 December 1477 Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol and Constable of France, was executed after a trial by the Parlement of Paris on charges including lese-majeste. The fall of one of his most powerful contemporaries attracted the attention of Philippe de Commynes, who devoted three of the eight books of his Memoires to the trial. The present volume is an edition of Bibliotheque nationale de France MS 3869, the complete, official text of the trial, by the recent editor of the Memoires (Textes litteraires francais, 585, 2 vols (Geneva: Droz, 2007)). In place of a detailed exposition of the contents and context of the trial, the editor has included an essay entitled 'La lese majeste: entre categorie penale et sentiments', inwhich he reflects on different themes which, he believes, connect the trial to thework and career of Commynes. JoelBlanchard briefly touches on historical and judicial interpretations of the term lese-majeste. The rare application of the term, and the difficultyof interpreting itwhen it is used, have caused prob lems for jurists and historians. Blanchard notes two different applications of the term.One described violations of public order, such as an attack on representatives of theking, or an attack on his powers (such as forgery), tantamount to an attack on the public' body of the king. The second was more subtle, less juridical, and arose from the rupture of fidelitybetween a great nobleman and the king, which could be interpreted as an attack' on the king's private rather than public body. Itwas the second that Louis XI honed to his political purposes, although its application depended on theking's ability to impose his will on his great princes at a particular point in time. The term could be brought into proceedings late in the day, raising the stakes for those on trial. The king was in regular contact with commissioners whom he appointed to serve alongside the counsellors of the Parlement, and intervened constantly, and when he met resistance, even threatened to purge the Parlement. The trial of Saint-Pol, of his contemporary Jacques d'Armagnac, Duke MLR, 105.4, 2010 1151 ofNemours, and Louis XI's attempt to indict Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy with a posthumous charge of lese-majeste, are less important as examples of the development of judicial process during the reign than as illustrations of thatkings ability to adapt a judicial process for 'repressive and arbitrary purposes' (pp. 46-47). Commynes himself had a long and generally rancorous experience of judicial processes, partly because of his own intransigence in clinging on to confiscated rights and property. He himself dabbled in conspiracy during the minority of Charles VIII, and was lucky to escape the full rigour of lese-majeste. Blanchard con siders that these experiences made him more alert than other contemporary writers to theways inwhich Louis XI used lese-majeste to justify extraordinary measures. Blanchard raises many interesting ideas born out of his extensive knowledge ofCommynes and his context. The edition itself is clear and valuable, embellished by its user-friendly font and layout. It is accompanied by illuminating notes...