When the crown passed to her son Charles she was free from any serious anxiety as to her own position and her influence in the government.

The new king, on announcing to the Parliament the death of his brother, wrote to them that "confiding in the virtues and prudence of the queen-mother, he had begged her to take in hand the administration of the kingdom, with the wise counsel and advice of the King of Navarre and the notables and great personages of the late king's council." A few months afterwards the states-general, assembling first at Orleans and afterwards at Pontoise, ratified this declaration by recognizing the placement of "the young King Charles IX.'s guardianship in the hands of Catherine de' Medici, his mother, together with the principal direction of affairs, but without the title of regent." The King of Navarre was to assist her in the capacity of lieutenant-general of the kingdom.
Twenty-five members specially designated were to form the king's privy council.

[_Histoire des Etats generaux,_ by M.Picot, t.ii.

p.

73.] And in the privacy of her motherly correspondence Catherine wrote to the Queen of Spain, her daughter Elizabeth, wife of Philip II., "Madame, my dear daughter, all I shall tell you is, not to be the least anxious, and to rest assured that I shall spare no pains to so conduct myself that God and everybody may have occasion to be satisfied with me.