Rival Ambassadors at the Court ol Queen Mary. By E.
Harris Harbison. .Princeton and Oxford University Press. 24s.) THE present study is a serious account of the diplomatic negotia- tions of Antoine de Noailles and Simon Renard, who represented France and the Empire at the English Court from the last months of the reign of Edward VI until the summer of 1556. A great part of the book is concerned with the events leading up to the marriage of Queen Mary with Philip II. The information collected in regard to the personalities of these envoys is interest- ing and much of it is now printed in English for the first time. This study is very solid, balanced, sound and in no way modern. The bibliography of Mr. Harbison's book is good and the annota- tion exhaustive. He has made use of manuscript sources, and his account of the shifting parties in the Privy Council has definite value. The whole work is competent and it contains a -pleasant tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Royal! Tyler. The argumentation of the thesis is clear, but the style is difficult. Henry II of France had "the uneasy suspicion that his cold, calculating rival was no gentleman." Renard "foresaw that many of them (the privy councillors) would soon scramble to get on the band-wagon." " Bishop'Gardiner," according to Mr. Harbison, "was too much the typical Englishman to be swayed by rational argument." This approach brings back all the nineteenth-century certitudes.
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