ABSTRACT
In May and June 1940, the lightning invasion of France by German panzer divisions brought about the worst military catastrophe in the country’s history. In the shock of defeat, parliament voted its own disempowerment and, in search of an homme providentiel, vested full constituent powers on 10 July 1940 in the First World War hero of Verdun, Marshal Philippe Pétain. This was not a vote of confidence in what history would come to know as the Vichy regime, but rather an expression of support for the paternalistic 84-year-old chosen to head it, with even a majority of Socialists and Radicals in favour.1
