The admiral Coligny had thrown himself in the place of Saint-Quentin with a handle of men to defend it against the Spaniards and the English, but the fortifications were in so bad condition, and the besieging army so many, which it could not hold a long time.

The constable of Montmorency undertook to help it, and although it did not have which 24 000 men against 60 000, it boldly attacked the Spanish camp: while it sought to penetrate in the city, the enemy cut the retirement to him; the French Army, attacked soon de.toutes.parts, was defended with courage: many chiefs and 2 500 soldiers were killed; some thousands were done day through the enemy lines, the others were made prisoners with the constable, who had already been taken in Pavia.

Saint-Quentin succumbed fifteen days after, Coligny was taken there in its turn, and France was seriously threatened.

The duke François de Guise, who ambitionnait highest fortune, was in the forefront with his brother the cardinal, the day when the constable and the admiral, his two rivals, had fallen to the capacity from the enemy.

Appointed general lieutenant, it was as happy as skilful: it sent initially the army on the Meuse to attract the enemy there, then suddenly it recalled it to him of any haste, and put the seat in front of Calais, where the English had left only one weak garrison (January 1, 1558); as of the first day, the small one extremely of Sainte-Agathe was removed from a blow of hand; the two other forts, struck down by French artillery, were abandoned two days afterwards; the castle was carried of attack, the 6 at the evening, and the governor capitulated the 8. France passed from despair to the joy, and François de Guise was acclaimed like the saver of the fatherland.

Henri II, who married his sister with the duke of Savoy and his daughter with king d' Espagne, gave the most brilliant festivals, balls, masquerades, feasts, tournaments and tournaments where the largest lords appeared.

The last Henri day descended itself in the string which it had made establish at the end of the street Saint-Anthony, opposite the royal hotel of the Small towers, and it was made there admire by his strength and its address, but, at the time to withdraw itself, it wanted jouter with its captain of the guards, the count de Montgommery: the two riders ran up so violently that the two lances broke, and that the glares of that of Montgommery were inserted under the visor of the king, burst the eye, and penetrated to the brain.

Henri expired after eleven days of sufferings; he was old only forty and one years (July 1559).

It is starting from François 1st that the royalty is absolute, i.e.

all-powerful.

The large lords, instead of being the enemies of the king, as at the time of Louis XI, became his devoted servants, "the support of the throne" and the ornament of its court; the bishops and the abbots are also its faithful subjects, since it names them itself, under the terms of the legal settlement of 1516; the Parliament does not dare to any more to address remonstrances him, nor the Room of the accounts to limit its expenditure and its luxury; the States General fell in disuse.

The will of the king is from now on the supreme law of the kingdom; François 1st finishes his ordinances by these words: "Because such is our good pleasure" Henri II inherits this capacity and can preserve it; after him the royalty, compromised in the wars of religion, will almost lose all that it gained, then will be raised with Henri IV and will reach his apogee under Louis XIV.