1588 [Transcriber's note: "d." has been used here as a substitute for the "dagger" symbol (Unicode U+2020) that signifies the person's year of death.] {210} SECTION 3.

THE WARS OF RELIGION.

1559-1598 [Sidenote: Francis II, 1559-60] Henry II was followed by three of his sons in succession, each of them, in different degrees and ways, a weakling.

The first of them was Francis II, a delicate lad of fifteen, who suffered from adenoids.
Child as he was he had already been married for more than a year to Mary Stuart, a daughter of James V of Scotland and a niece of Francis of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine.

As she was the one passion of the morose and feeble king, who, being legally of age was able to choose his own ministers, the government of the realm fell into the strong hands of "the false brood of Lorraine." Fearing and hating these men above all others the Huguenots turned to the Bourbons for protection, but the king of Navarre was too weak a character to afford them much help.