Barante, reader of Vitet, or the historian in the face of drama

In a review of La Mort de Henri III (1829) by Vitet, Barante, historian and author of the Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne (1824), called for a theatrical revolution, in which the classical fatum would be replaced by historical fatalism: the cruel destiny of individuals would be redeemed by the consoling necessity of historical progress. This vision of Providence as immanent in history resonated with the liberal experience at the end of the Restauration.