Charles IX was 10 years old when he succeeded his older brother François II. From the beginning of his reign, in 1560, he opened the Estates General convened by his mother and Michel de l'Hospital. The latter ensure the guardianship of the young king, and lead a policy of conciliation towards the Protestants. It is a failure, during the marriage of his sister Marguerite de Valois and Henri de Navarre, the religious tensions of the country revive. On the night of August 23 to 24, 1572, the king ordered the assassination of the Protestant leaders (massacre of Saint-Barthélemy). Charles IX then becomes more and more isolated. It was his brother Henri d'Anjou (intendant and lieutenant general of the kingdom) who embodied the Catholic clan while his other brother François d'Alençon plotted with the Protestant nobility. Of fragile health, he died of tuberculosis at the age of 23, he would also have contracted a rare form of hematidrosis (blood sweat), He had married Elisabeth of Austria in 1570, but the marriage had remained without a male heir. His brother Henri d'Anjou ascends the throne.
The Renaissance in France is often reduced to the reign of King François I, a sort of prosperous period before the horror of the Wars of Religion. However, it is more accurate to begin this period with Charles VIII, the first king of the Renaissance, and to conclude it with Henry II. For political r