descended in a direct male line from a younger son of St. Louis, were
the next heirs to the throne in case the house of Valois should become
extinct. Antony, the head of the Bourbon family, was called King of
Navarre, because of his marriage with Jeanne d'Albrêt, the queen, in her
own right, of this Pyrenean kingdom, which was in fact entirely in the
hands of the Spaniards, so that her only actual possession consisted of
the little French counties of Foix and Béarn. Antony himself was dull
and indolent, but his wife was a woman of much ability; and his brother,
Louis, Prince of Condé, was full of spirit and fire, and little
inclined to brook the ascendancy which the Duke of Guise and his
brothers enjoyed at court, partly in consequence of his exploit at
Calais, and partly from being uncle to the young Queen Mary of Scotland,
wife of Francis II. The Bourbons likewise headed the party among the
nobles who hoped to profit by the king's youth to recover the privileges
of which they had been gradually deprived, while the house of Guise were
ready to maintain the power of the crown, as long as that meant their
own power.


2. The Reformation.--The enmity of these two parties was much
increased by the reaction against the prevalent doctrines and the
corruptions of the clergy. This reaction had begun in the reign of
Francis I., when the Bible had been translated into French by two
students at the University of Paris, and the king's sister, Margaret,
Queen of Navarre, had encouraged the Reformers. Francis had leagued with
the German Protestants because they were foes to the Emperor, while he
persecuted the like opinions at home to satisfy the Pope. John Calvin, a
native of Picardy, the foremost French reformer, was invited to the free
city of Geneva, and there was made chief pastor, while the scheme of
theology called his "Institutes" became the text-book of the Reformed in