François II, the son of Henri II and Catherine de Medici, ascended
the throne in 1559 on the accidental death of his father in a jousting
accident at the hands of Gabriel de Montgomery. Dumas chronicled this
accident in his romances Le Page du duc de Savoie and Les Deux Diane.
The teenaged King was married off to Mary, Queen of Scots, but, as
described in L'Horoscope, died at the age of 16. The widowed Mary set
off to assume the throne in Scotland, and to meet her eventual fate at the
hands of her rival, Queen Elizabeth of England.
