Ernest Renan and related ships formed a near-family, but construction in different yards and differing gun fits kept them from becoming a truly standard class. The Edgar Quinet class finally concentrated its main armament on fourteen 7.6-inch guns, demonstrating that France could simplify a cruiser battery. Yet these ships entered service as late as 1911 and marked the end of French armoured-cruiser construction. The design improvement arrived too late to solve the larger problems of slow building and dispersed industrial authority.
Chapter · 1:21:28-1:32:54
French standardisation improved only near the type's end
Ernest Renan and Edgar Quinet show France moving from yard-specific variations toward a more coherent main battery late in the armoured-cruiser era.