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CHARLES IX

Charles IX was king of France. He was born in 1550 and died in 1574. He was a son of Henry II and Catherine de Medici. He succeeded to the throne at the age of ten following the death of his brother Francis II, his mother becoming regent and consolidating her power during his reign. Along with the Guises his mother headed the Catholic League against the Calvinists, and her tortuous and unscrupulous policy helped to embitter the religious strife of the factions. After a series of Huguenot persecutions and civil wars a peace was made in 1570, which, two years later, on 24th August, 1572, was treacherously broken by the Massacre of St Bartholomew's. The king, who had been little more than the tool of his scheming mother, died two years afterwards, in 1574.
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