This volume traces the development of France and its identity in a period replete with crisis, from the Albigensian crusades in the first half of the 13th century, through the Hundred Years War, to the beginnings of the Italian wars in the 1490s. There are expert contributions covering state-building, the political world, the economy and society, the relationship between crown and provinces, the Hundred Years War, and the role of the nobility and a strong focus on relations between the centre and the regions builds upon recent developments in the historiography of France in this period. The text includes a separate chapter on the nobility provides a useful introduction to this important area of late medieval historiography.