Henry II of France has inherited his…

Henry II of France has inherited his father’s fight against Charles V.

A weak monarch, whose court has increasingly become a center of rivalry between the families of Montmorency and Guise, Henry's administration, having expanded the practice of selling government offices, has brought the crown to bankruptcy.

Anne, duc de Montmorency, the constable of France, had returned to favor at Henry’s accession in 1547: his thirty-three-year-old nephew, Gaspard de Coligny, is appointed admiral of France in 1552 on the death of Claude d'Annebaut.

Gaspard, born at Châtillon-sur-Loing in 1519, had come to court at the age of twenty-two and begun a friendship with Francis of Guise.

Coligny had distinguished himself in the campaign of 1543, and was wounded at the sieges of Montmédy and Bains.

He had served in the Italian campaign in 1544 under the Count of Enghien, and had been knighted on the Field of Ceresole.

Returning to France, he had taken part in different military operations; and having been made colonel-general of the infantry (April 1547), had exhibited great capacity and intelligence as a military reformer.

That year he had married Charlotte de Laval (d. 1568).