Charles being only ten years old--he was born on the 27th June, 1550--his mother, with the approval of the council of state,[216] assumed the authority though not the title of regent. Condé was released from prison and Anthony made lieutenant-general of France, while the Constable Montmorency resumed the superintendence of the army, and Guise retained his place of grand-master. When the Constable entered Orleans, he dismissed the soldiers he found at the gate: “I will take care,” he said, “that the king shall travel safely, without guard, all over the kingdom.” The members of the States-General were silent but not unobservant spectators of these things. Having been summoned to meet at Orleans by Francis II., the curious constitutional question arose, Whether they were not _ipso facto_ dissolved? but it was ingeniously argued, that though the man may die, the king does not, and therefore their sittings would be perfectly legal. The States-General, or assembly of the three orders (clergy, nobles, and commons), date from the beginning of the fourteenth century, when Philip the Fair called them together on the occasion of his quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII. They held but one session, yet, in that, they proclaimed the temporal independence of France, and scattered forever the ideas of universal monarchy entertained by the papacy. The States met at indeterminate epochs, and were at one time in a fair way to lead the European nations in the difficult path of representative government. In the assembly held at Tours, in 1484, they called for extensive reforms, and asserted a claim to be summoned every two years. They went farther, and in language as bold as that of our Petition of Rights, a century and a half later, declared that “the said States-General expected that henceforward no taxes would be imposed on the people until they had been consulted on the subject, nor unless the imposition of such taxes should be made with their free-will and consent, as the guardians and keepers of the liberties and privileges of the realm.” These resolutions came to nothing: the crown continued to levy taxes by proclamation, and nearly fourscore years elapsed before the Estates[217] were called together again. And now in 1560, when France was in great peril from internal commotions, they were to meet once more in the city of Orleans. Even had the country been entirely quiet, the financial condition of the state was such, that extraordinary means of raising supplies would have been required. The expenditure exceeded the annual revenue by ten millions, and though such a deficit may be easily met by modern finance-ministers, there were not three hundred years ago the same convenient methods of filling an empty exchequer. The Guises knew that the summoning of the States-General was a hostile measure aimed at them, but had not opposed it for two reasons: firstly, it would relieve them of the unpopularity