In 1974, he suggested other historians of the 17th century to "see, and study, minister-favorites not only in a national context but as a 'European phenomenon.
'"[3] His seminal 1974 Annales article on "royal favourites" has been credited as an important comparative study on the subject.
[4] He argued that the simultaneous success of several 17th-century minister-favorites in their respective countries was not coincidental, but reflected some change that took place in the period.
Elliot and Lawrence Brockliss's work (that culminated in the collection of essays The World of the Favourite), undertaken to explore the matter put forward by Bérenger, became the most important comparative treatment of this subject.
[4] In 1975, he published what in the 2020s was still the only modern survey of the financial relationship between Government and Estates in the period between the Peace of Westphalia and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.