Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/598

584 death, which happened in 1559, by a wound he received at a tournament, introduced Catherine to the exercise of full power. Her son, Francis II, who succeeded, had never enjoyed more than a passive existence; without vices, without virtues, pronounced of age by the law, but condemned by nature to a perpetual minority, he was destined to become a blind instrument In the hand of the first person who should take possession of him.

Under these circumstances, Catherine might justly urge her superior pretensions to power; but, as the times, were turbulent and unsettled, requiring uncommon exertions of firmness, prudence, and sagacity, she deemed it prudent to associate with her in the administration, men of active minds, who should take upon them the chief burden of the state. Francis therefore, then sixteen, immediately upon the demise of his father, informed the parliament, he meant to take the reins of government into his own hands, aided by the advice of his mother, and assisted by the experience of the duke of Guise, and the cardinal of Lorrain. In endeavouring to humble the pride of the Constable Montmorenci, she so offended him that he left the court, attended by such a numerous train of friends, that his retreat wore the appearance of a triumph, and Catherine, though she wished to restrain his power, still desired to have kept him in the council, to balance the authority of the Guises, of whom she soon became apprehensive, lest it might be turned against herself; especially as they were supported by Mary Stewart, their niece, whose sweetness of temper and personal charms had given her entire ascendency over her husband. Besides it was her interest to conciliate the different factions: she had therefore recourse to the Chatillons, nephews to the constable, who accepted her offers; while all the princes of the blood, who from their