was, for a person of her
crooked policy and inordinate ambition, not to be thought of for an
instant. The readiest solution was found in abolishing the office of
lieutenant-general. This could be done only by declaring the termination
of the minority of Charles. For this an opportunity presented itself,
when, on the seventeenth of August, 1563,[291] the queen and her children,
with a brilliant retinue, were in the city of Rouen, on their return from
the successful campaign against Havre. That day Charles the Ninth held a
"lit de justice" in the palace of the Parliament of Normandy. Sitting in
state, and surrounded by his mother, his younger brothers, and a host of
grandees, he proceeded to address the assembled counsellors, pronouncing
himself of full age, and, in the capacity of a major king, delivered to
them an edict, signed the day before, ordering the observance of his Edict
of Amboise and the complete pacification of his kingdom by a universal
laying down of arms.[292] True, Charles was but a few days more than
thirteen years of age; but his right to assume the full powers of
government was strenuously maintained by Chancellor L'Hospital, upon whom
devolved the task of explaining more fully the king's motives and
purposes. Then Catharine, the author of the pageant, rising, humbly
approached her son's throne, and bowed to the boy in token that she
resigned into his hands the temporary authority she had held for nearly
three years. Charles, advancing to meet her, accepted her homage, saying,
at the same time, in words that were but too significant and prophetic of
the remainder of his reign: "Madame ma mere, you shall govern and command
as much or more than ever."[293]

[Sidenote: Charles and the refractory Parliament of Paris.]

The Parliament of Rouen, flattered at being selected for the instrument in
so important an act, published and registered the edict of Charles's
majority, notwithstanding some unpalatable provisions. Not so the
Parliament of Paris. The counsellors of the capital were even more
indignant at the slight put upon their claim to precedence, than at the
proposed disarming of the Roman Catholics--a measure particularly
distasteful to the riotous population of Paris.[294] The details of their
opposition need not, however, find a record here. In the end the firmness
of the king, or of his advisers, triumphed. At Mantes[295] Charles
received a deputation from the recalcitrant judges, with Christopher