Why did France give broad requirements rather than one detailed design for the Charles Martel group?
Short answerPolitics and institutional memory played a part, but the result repeated an old mistake: related ships without a genuinely standardized class design.
NotesFrench builders had already encountered the problem in the wooden steam and ironclad eras. The lesson faded after a pause in capital-ship construction and broad political direction replaced a detailed common design. The Charles Martel group becomes the warning example: closely related ships that still lack the practical unity expected of a class. Later French designs are described as more disciplined.