The Horoscope: A Romance of the Reign of François II (Classic Reprint) Paperback -

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Excerpt from The Horoscope: A Romance of the Reign of Franois II Bethisy, by the hired bravos of his deadly foes, the Guises. In Ascanio we have our earliest glimpse of Catherine de Medici, then newly arrived at the French court, and newly wedded to him who was then only a younger son Of France, but who came to be King Henri II. In the Two Dianas we meet her again, first as the despised and neglected consort Of the king, compelled to submit to the humiliating ascendency of the beautiful Diane de Poitiers, but content, with her brood of possible kings about her, to bide her time; and later, after the king's sudden and extraordinary death, begin ning to play the part which, under Dumas' auspices, in the matchless romances Of the Valois series, we have watched her play throughout the reigns of Charles IX., whom she loved but little better than Francois II., and Henri III., who was the dearest to her heart, as he was almost the most despicable of all her sons. In the Two Dianas poor Francois is shown to us in a somewhat more favorable light than in the Horoscope. W eak, spiritless creature that he was, the fervent, devoted love which he is commonly supposed to have felt for his queen, the ill-fated Mary Stuart, has seemed to be the only ray of sunshine and romance in his brief and gloomy reign. The Baron de la Renaudie will be remembered as a prominent actor in that part of the Two Dianas which deals with the earlier religious troubles aid the conspiracy of Amboise. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.