This book has demonstrated that René de Challant was a transregional lord who served not only the House of Savoy, but also the King of France and the Holy Roman Emperor. He also exercised lordship himself, inheriting and defending his own sovereign claims while simultaneously considering himself a bourgeois of Berne. Since most of his lands were situated in the Valle d’Aosta, and because of his family's deep ties to the Sabaudian dynasty, he represented a forgotten dimension of the Italian Renaissance – its links with transalpine society and its often lordly and feudal character. The first, narrative part of the book shows how frequently René's political activities, both on behalf of the dukes of Savoy and in his own interest, carried him beyond northern Italy into the French, Habsburg, and Swiss lands. The thematic chapters in Part 2 clarify how the spatial diversification of the Challant fiefs affected René's political influence, in terms of kinship and family relations with other nobles, his political networks, his role as a financial broker, and his activities as a fief-holder.

Previous scholarly work on René has rarely been rooted in archival sources, the Challant corespondence in Aosta remaining unexploited. It has almost always depicted René in relationship to the dukes of Savoy and the Sabaudian state (especially during the 1860s and the 1920s), rather than considering him in relation to the political and institutional structures of the Valle d’Aosta or the lands of his other domains.