mpletely under
the influence of his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, she had little
authority. In 1552, when the king left the kingdom for the campaign of
Metz, she was nominated regent, but with very limited powers. This
continued even after the accession of her son Francis II. Francis was
under the spell of Mary Stuart, and she, little disposed to meddle with
politics on her own account, was managed by her uncles, the cardinal of
Lorraine and the duke of Guise. The queen-mother, however, soon grew
weary of the domination of the Guises, and entered upon a course of
secret opposition. On the 1st of April 1560 she placed in the
chancellorship Michel de l'Hopital (q.v.), who advocated the policy of
conciliation.

On the death of Francis (5th of December 1560), Catherine became regent
during the minority of her second son, Charles IX., and now found before
her a career worthy of the most soaring ambition. She was then forty-one
years old, but, although she was the mother of nine children, she was
still very vigorous and active. She retained her influence for more than
twenty years in the troubled period of the wars of religion. At first
she listened to the moderate counsels of l'Hopital in so far as to avoid
siding definitely with either party, but her character and the habits of
policy to which she had been accustomed, rendered her incapable of any
noble aim. She had only one virtue, and that was her zeal for the
interests of her children, especially of her favourite third son, the
duke of Anjou. Like so many of the Italians of that time, who were
almost destitute of a moral sense, she looked upon statesmanship in
particular as a career in which finesse, lying and assassination were
the most admirable, because the most effective weapons. By habit a
Catholic, but above all things fond of power, she was determined to
prevent the Protestants from getting the upper hand, and almost equally
resolved not to allow them to be utterly crushed, in order to use them
as a counterpoise to the Guises. This trimming policy met with little
success: rage and suspicion so possessed men's minds, that she could no
longer control the opposing parties, and one civil war followed another
to the end of her life. In 1567, after the "Enterprise of Meaux," she
dismissed l'Hopital and joined the Catholic party. But, having failed to
crush the Protestant rebellion by arms, she resumed in 1570 the policy
of peace and negotiation. She conceived the project