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The purpose of this book is to describe the Duke of Rohan's role as a political leader of the Huguenot party from 1621 to 1629 placing somewhat less emphasis on his military achievements. It makes no claim to biographical completeness. The narrative is based on con­ temporary books and pamphlets and on manuscripts in the Biblio­ theque nation ale, the British Museum, and the Public Record Office. Research was also done at the Newberry Library, the Library of Congress, and at the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Library, notably in its Montauban, Tank, and French Pamphlet collections. In the preparation of this book I have received advice and assistance from many people. Personal thanks are due to William P. Kaldis, Jack Ray Thomas, and Howard S. Miller for reading the manuscript and to my wife Anna for typing several drafts of it. Marguerite Chris­ tensen, reference librarian at the University of Wisconsin, helped me secure a number of rare volumes on interlibrary loan. I would also like to thank Cynthia Kaldis for translating a large number of diplo­ matic letters from Seventeenth century Latin.

The revival of ancient Greek scepticism in the 16th and 17th centuries was of the greatest importance in changing the intellectual climate in which modern science developed, and in developing the attitude that we now call'The scientific outlook'. Many streams of thought came together contributing to various facets of this crucial development. One of the most fascinating of these is that of'constructive scepticism', the history of one of whose forms is traced in this study by Prof. Van Leeuwen. The sceptical crisis that arose during the Renaissance and Refor­ mation challenged the fundamental principles of the many areas of man's intellectual world, in philosophy, theology, humane and moral studies, and the sciences. The devastating weapons of classical scep­ ticism were employed to undermine man's confidence in his ability to discover truth in any area whatsoever by use of the human faculties of the senses and reason. These sceptics indicated that there was no area in which human beings could gain any certain knowledge, and that the effort to do so was fruitless, vain, presumptuous, and perhaps even blasphemous. StaI'ting with the writings of Hen ric us Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535) and Michel de Montaigne (1533-92), a thoroughly destructive sceptical movement developed, attacking both the old and the new science, philosophy and theology, and insisting that true and certain knowledge can only be gained by Revelation.