To convince foreign enemies plague and famine haven't weakened France into an easy prey, Catherine insists on a lavish coronation for Francis, while vindictive Narcisse keeps withholding the promised grain. Both are duly cross when Mary undercuts his authority by promising on her own accord a deal to free late king Louis's protestant prisoners of religious conscience for grain from German duke Charles Schuler. The political nightmare grows when the prisoners are abducted, as turns out by prince Condé, in a private deal to free his bastard's mother who was seized by Calvinists in Amsterdam. Sebastian starts his duties as royal deputy, looking into the crimes to profit from the plague, and isn't amused his naive wife practically accepted a castle as bribe from profiteering frauds. Francis consults a medium, haunted by a woman claiming to be possessed by his late father's ghost.
—KGF Vissers