as a
minor!--"que l'on cognoisse les desordres qui out este jusques icy _par
la minorite du Roy vostre frere_, qui empeschoit que l'on ne pouvoit
faire ce que l'on desiroit." Avis donnez par Catherine de Medicis a
Charles IX., pour la police de sa cour, etc., printed in Cimber et
Danjou, Archives curieuses, v. 245-254.]

[Footnote 735: "Di natura benignissima, e cerca di gratificare ciascuno,
e massime gl' Italiani quanto piu gli e possibile, ed e tanto amato, non
solamente da tutta la corte, ma da tutto il regno che e cosa
incredibile." Rel. del clar^mo Giovanni Soranzo, 1558, Relaz. Ven.,
ii. 429, 430.]

[Footnote 736: "La Royne mere, ambitieuse et craintive." Mem. de
Tavannes, ii. 256.]

[Footnote 737: Relaz. di Giovanni Michiel (1561), Tommaseo, i. 426.]

[Footnote 738: La Planche, 204, 205: "The Duchesse of Valentinoys and
Duches of Buillon are commaunded, that neither they nor any of theirs
shall resort to the courte.... The yong Frenche Quene hath sent to the
Duches of Valentinoys, to make accompt of the French King's cabenet and
of all his jewels." Throkmorton to Queen, July 13, 1559, Forbes, State
Papers, i. 158, 159.]

[Footnote 739: Regnier de la Planche, p. 203: "Lequel (Henry) ... avoit
entierement resolu, apres avoir acheve ces mariages, et renvoye les
estrangers, de les dechasser arriere de soy, comme une peste de son
royaume." So Hist. eccles., liv. iii. I can scarcely agree with De Thou
(ii., 681, liv. xxiii.) in supposing Catharine deceived in the character
of the Guises: "Comme elle ne connoissoit pas encore le caractere de ces
Princes, elle crut qu'ils se soumettroient en tout a ses volontes," etc.
This statement does injustice to the perspicacity of Catharine, who for
so many years had been quietly, but none the less carefully, studying
these courtiers and all others that figured on the stage of French
politics. La Planche, with his usual acumen, makes much of the advantage
which this circumstance conferred upon her (_ubi supra_): "La royne
mere, italienne, florentine, et de la race des Medicis, et qui plus est,
ayant depuis vingt-deux ans [rather, for twenty-five years] eu tout
loisir de considerer les humeurs et facons de toutes ces gens, regardoit
ce jeu, et sceut si bien empoigner l'occasion, qu'elle gaigna finalement
la partie."]

[Footnote 740: For a full and not uninteresting account of the
obsequies, see the pamphlet already referred to: "Le Trespas et l'Ordre
des obseques," etc. Par