...the Peace of Crépy—which is signed by representatives of the monarchs at Crépy-en-Laonnais in Picardie on September 18, 1544.

The treaty has been promoted at the French court by the Queen Eleanor, who is the Emperor's favorite sister, and by Francis's mistress, the Duchess of Étampes.

By its terms, Francis and Charles are each to abandon their various conflicting claims and restore the status quo of 1538; the Emperor is to relinquish his claim to the Duchy of Burgundy and the King of France is to do the same for the Kingdom of Naples, as well as renouncing his claims as suzerain of Flanders and Artois.

The Duke of Orléans is to marry either Charles's daughter Mary or his niece Anna; the choice is to be made by Charles.

In the first case, the bride is to receive the Netherlands and Franche-Comté as a dowry; in the second, Milan.

Francis, meanwhile, is to grant the duchies of Bourbon, Châtellerault, and Angoulême to his son; he will also abandon his claims to the territories of the Duchy of Savoy, including Piedmont and Savoy itself.

Finally, Francis is to assist Charles against the Ottomans—but not, officially, against the heretics in his own domains.

A second, secret accord is also signed; by its terms, Francis is to assist Charles with reforming the church, with calling a General Council, and with suppressing Protestantism—by force if necessary.

The treaty gains a poor reception from the Sultan; from Henry VIII, who believes that Charles has betrayed him; and from the Dauphin, who feels that his brother is being favored over him.

Francis will fulfill some of the terms; but the death of the Duke of Orléans in 1545 is to render the treaty moot.

Fifteen-year-old Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, marries Francis, the fourteen-year-old son of French king Henry II, at Notre Dame de Paris on April 24, 1558; she secretly agrees to bequeath Scotland to France if she should die without a son.

Henry, accidentally wounded in a joust during the celebrations following the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, had been struck in the head by a lance of Gabriel, Count de Montgomery, captain of the Scottish guard.

The king dies ten days later on July 10, 1559.

The fifteen-year-old dauphin, his eldest son by his marriage to Catherine de' Medici, succeeds him as Francis II.

Francis, having wed Mary Stewart the previous year, comes under the influence of Mary's powerful Guise relatives, who seek to destroy the Huguenots.

With her husband’s accession, Mary becomes queen of France as well as of Scotland.

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.

The failure of the prince de Condé’s so-called Conspiracy of Amboise has strengthened the power of the Guises, which has in turn frightened the Queen Mother.

Catherine attempts to balance the situation by securing the appointment of the moderate Michel de L'Hospital as chancellor, who summons the States General in the hopes of gaining peace and rehabilitating court finances.

Soon after the session begins at Orléans, Francis, a sickly and weak-willed young man, dies on December 5, 1560 after a reign of seventeen months.

His death temporarily ends the dominion of his wife’s Guise relatives, and saves Huguenot leader Condé, who had been sentenced to death for high treason.

François’ younger brother ascends the French throne as Charles IX.

Mary Stewart, widowed at eighteen and recently orphaned—her mother Marie de Guise had died at forty-five on June 11—and unwilling to stay in France and live under the domination of her mother-in-law, elects to return to Scotland and take her chances with the Protestant reformers.