A former councillor of the Parliament, for a long while chancellor under Francis I.and Henry II., and again summoned, under Francis II., by Catherine de' Medici to the same post, Francis Olivier, was an honorable executant of the party's indecisive but moderate policy.

He died on the 15th of March, 1560; and Catherine, in concert with the Cardinal of Lorraine, had the chancellorship thus vacated conferred upon Michael de l'Hospital, a magistrate already celebrated, and destined to become still more so.

As soon as he entered upon this great office he made himself remarkable by the marvellous ability he showed in restraining within bounds "the Lorraines themselves, whose servant he was," says the Protestant chronicler Regnier de la Planche; "to those who had the public weal at heart he gave hope that all would at last turn out well, provided that he were let alone; and, to tell the truth, it would be impossible to adequately describe the prudence he displayed; for, assuredly, although if he had taken a shorter road towards manfully opposing the mischief he would have deserved more praise, and God would perhaps have blessed his constancy, yet, so far as one can judge, he alone, by his moderate behavior, was the instrument made use of by God for keeping back many an impetuous flood under which every Frenchman would have been submerged.
External appearances, however, seemed to the contrary.

In short, when any one represented to him some trouble that was coming, he always had these words on his lips: 'Patience, patience; all will go well.'" This philosophical and patriotic confidence on the part of Chancellor de l'Hospital was fated to receive some cruel falsifications.
A few months, and hardly so much, after the accession of Francis II., a serious matter brought into violent collision the three parties whose characteristics and dispositions have just been described.

The supremacy of the Guises was insupportable to the Reformers, and irksome to many lukewarm or wavering members of the Catholic nobility.