's sons, Francois II, during his
brief reign of seventeen months, confided the military administration of
his kingdom to Francois, Duc de Guise, who had retaken Calais from the
English, and defended Metz against Charles V, and the "civil affairs" to
his brother Charles, cardinal, and possessor of no less than a dozen
benefices in the Church. The house of Bourbon, which might have disputed
this ascendency with them, was temporarily in disgrace because of the
treason of the Connetable, under Francois I, and the Duc de Montmorency
had lost the important battle of Saint-Quentin against the Imperialists,
in 1557, and was advanced in years. To these malcontents was added the
Prince de Conde, and the higher nobility were all indignant at seeing
the domination of France in the hands of foreigners,--the queen-mother,
Italian; the young wife of Francois II, Scotch, and the Guises,
Lorrainers. To add to their ill-humor, these foreigners, as foreigners,
claimed the precedence in matters of etiquette, and the right to walk in
procession immediately after the princes of the blood, before the chiefs
of the most illustrious houses of France.

[Illustration: COSTUME OF 1830. From a water-color by Maurice Leloir.]

Catherine de Medicis had preserved, amidst the intrigues and debauchery
of the court, but one wholesome moral sentiment,--a passionate love for
her children. The long course of mortifications which she had had to
endure at the hands of Diane de Poitiers "had effaced in her all
distinctions between good and evil." To preserve the royal power in the
hands of her sons, three of whom succeeded to the throne in somewhat
rapid succession, she considered all means legitimate. For a brief space
of time she saw herself excluded from her ascendency over the king by
the young queen, Marie Stuart, daughter of James V of Scotland and Marie
de Lorraine, whom Henri II had married to his son to assure the alliance
of Scotland against England. The discontent against the Guises led to
the "conspiracy of Amboise," in 1560, easily suppressed and punished
with the utmost severity; the young king wept at the incessant
executions, but the pretty young queen, as seems to be proven by her
"Letters," secretly approved. The queen-mother, more intelligent, gave
the keeping of the seals to the Chancellor Michel de l'Hopital, who
opposed the proposition of the Guises to set up the Inquisition in
France, and convoked the nobles at Fontainebleau to organize