Montmorency had been released from two years of Spanish captivity under the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, by which time the Guises have supplanted him and the fifteen-year-old king Francis II treats him with indifference.

Montmorency has to give up his Great Master status to the Duke of Guise.

However, his son Henri is appointed marshal by way of indemnity.

He himself retires to his estates.

Francis II ‘s powerful Guise in-laws, who see an opportunity for power and an opportunity to destroy the Huguenots in France, dominate the weak-willed French monarch.

The ensuing persecution provokes the Huguenot Conspiracy of Amboise, a plot hatched by Louis de Bourbon, prince de Condé and Huguenot leader, to abduct Francis and arrest his Guise mentors.

Some Huguenots surround the Château d’Amboise in March 1560 and attempt to seize the King in an abortive coup d'etat, but the authorities, having discovered their plan, bloodily crush the incipient rebellion.