lter themselves.
The Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise, with the queen mother,
maintained that Francis was in all respects competent to rule; that he
had already passed the age at which previous kings had assumed the reins
of government; that the laws had prescribed the time from which the
majority of subjects, not of the monarch, should be reckoned;[734]
that, if too young himself to bear the entire burden of the
administration, he could delegate his authority to those of his own kin
in whom he reposed implicit confidence. There was, therefore, no
necessity for establishing a regency, still less for assembling the
States General--an impolitic step even in the most quiet times, but
fraught with special peril when grave dissensions threaten the kingdom.

[Sidenote: Catharine de' Medici assumes an important part.]

With the advent of her eldest son to the throne, Catharine de' Medici
first assumed a prominent position, although not an all-controlling
influence at court. During the reign of Francis the First she had
enjoyed little consideration. Her marriage with Henry, in 1533, had
given, as we have seen, little satisfaction to the people, who believed
that her kinsman, Pope Clement the Seventh, had deceived the king; and
Francis himself, disappointed in his ambitious designs by the pontiff's
speedy death, looked upon her with little favor. For several years she
had borne no children, and Henry was urged to put her away on the ground
of barrenness. Nor was she more happy when her prayers had been
answered, and a family of four sons and three daughters blessed her
marriage. Her husband's infatuation respecting Diana of Poitiers
embittered her life when dauphiness, and compelled her as queen to
tolerate the presence of the king's mistress, and pay her an insincere
respect. Excluded from all participation in the control of affairs, she
fawned upon power where her ambitious nature would have sought to rule.
Concealing her chagrin beneath an exterior of contentment, she
exhibited, if we may believe the Venetian Soranzo, such benignity of
disposition, especially to her own countrymen, that it would be
impossible to convey an idea of the love entertained for her both by the
court and by the entire kingdom.[735]

[Sidenote: Her timidity and dissimulation.]

[Sidenote: She dismisses Diana of Poitiers.]

Hypocrisy is the vice of timid natures. Such, we have the authority of a
contemporary, and one who knew her well, f