She governed France in the name of a boy who needed to put both hands to his crown to keep it steady. Marie de' Medici was his mother and his regent. The difficulty would come when he wanted to govern for himself.
On 8 July 1617, a cart rolled into the Place de Grève in Paris with a woman inside it. She had spent thirty years within reach of the French queen’s hand. The crowd was there to watch a witch die.