FRANCIS II. of France, born in 1543, was the eldest son of Henri IL and of Catherine de' Medici. He married, in 1553, Mary Stuart, only daughter of James V. of Scotland. On the death of his father, 10th of July 1559, Francis became king, being then sixteen years of age. He entrusted the government to Francis duke of Guise and his brother tho Cardinal of Lorraine, uncles of Mary Stuart. This was the beginning of the civil and religious wars which desolated France for half a century. Anthony of Bourbon, king of Navarre, and Louis his brother, prince of Cond6, with the other princes of the blood, aud the great officers of the state, being indignant at seeing all the power of the state in the hands of two strangers, conspired against the Guises, and joined the Protestants for that purpose, as the Guises were the zealous supporters of Catholicism. In March 1560, the Guises having been informed of a conspiracy against them, removed the king and court to the castle of Amboiee ; the king named the Duke of Guise lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and a number of persons were arrested and executed. Soon after, the edict of Romorautin was issued, which constituted the bishops judges of heresy, and took the cognisance of this offence from the parliaments. It was said that the chancellor De l'flopital coneeuted to this edict in order to avoid a greater evil, namely, the establishment of the Inqui sition in France, which was proposed by the Cardinal de Lorraine.
By a former edict, issued at Eecouen by Henri II. in June 1559, all the Lutherans were declared punishable by death. The name of Huguenots, to denote the Calvinists as a distinct sect, was intro duced soon after. The Admiral de Coligni having presented to the king a memorial in their favour, it was resolved, at tho sug gestion of the chancellor be I'Hdpital, to leave them in peace, until the general council should decide, and that if the pope did not assemble a general council, a national council should be convoked in France. The king assembled the states-general at Orleans, when the prince of Cond6, on his arrival, was arrested on the charge of a con spiracy, and condemned to lose his head ; but be was saved by the death of the king, 5th December 1560, after a reign of only seventeen months. He was succeeded by his brother Charles IX., then a minor. Francis II. died of au abscess in his ear; and the rumours of poison which were spread at the time seem, according to Da Thou and other historians, without foundation.