Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici (April 13, 1519 – January 5, 1589), born in Italy as Caterina Maria Romola di Lorenzo de' Medici, and later lived in France under the name Catherine de Médicis, was Queen of France as the wife of King Henry II of France, of the Valois branch of the kings of France, and mother of three further kings of that branch.

Early life

Born in Florence, she was a daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and a French princess, Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne. Her only maternal aunt was Anne, Countess of Auvergne. Her mother died on April 28, 1519 when Catherine was only fifteen days old. Her father died on May 4, 1519 when Catherine was only twenty-one days old.

She succeeded her childless aunt Anne as Countess of Auvergne in 1524. Catherine was sent to a convent to be educated; she was fourteen when she was married (on October 28, 1533), at Marseille, to the duke of Orléans. At her wedding ceremony, Catherine is thought to have worn the first pair of high heels in recorded history. The duke of Orléans' older brother François was alive at the time, but he would become King Henry II of France.

Her uncle was Pope Clement VII (the pope who refused to grant Henry VIII of England a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon).

Life with Henry II

It was the pope who arranged her marriage negotiating with Henry's father François I of France. François, still engaged in his lifelong struggle against Charles V, was only too glad of the opportunity to strengthen his influence in the Italian peninsula, while Clement, ever needful of help against his powerful protector, was equally ready to hold out some bait.

Catherine was intelligent, but during the reign of François, she exercised very little influence in France. She was young, a foreigner in a country that had great weight in the world of politics, of unproven ability, and over-shadowed by more important persons. For ten years after her marriage, she had no children. For 25 years after her marriage she was overshadowed by her husband's mistress, Diane de Poitiers. In consequence, whispers of a divorce began at court, and it seemed possible that Francois, alarmed at the possible extinction of his royal house, would listen to such a proposal. But Catherine did eventually produce children, and François lived long enough to see his grandchildren before he died.

When her maternal aunt the Duchess of Albany died in 1524, Catherine inherited the County of Auvergne.

As queen

A year after their marriage in 1533, Henry began a long-term affair with Diane de Poitiers following the death of her husband, who had been a close friend to Henry's father Francois I. During the reign of her husband (1547–1559), Catherine lived a quiet and passive life but observed what was going on. Catherine was extremely jealous of the relationship between her husband and de Poitiers, but had little authority to change it. Henry was loyal to de Poitiers, and trusted his mistress completely, and he was under her influence for the next 25 years. During this period, de Poitiers would be in control of any decisions made behind the scenes, with Henry's consent, including the signing of certain royal documents, and taking part in political decisions. Evidently she was quite competent in her role, and did not abuse her authority.

In 1552, when the king left the kingdom for the campaign of Metz, Catherine was nominated regent, but with very limited powers, as de Poitiers was still making most of the king's decisions with his blessing. When Henry II was badly wounded in a jousting event in 1559, however, Catherine took control. She limited access to her husband, and did not allow Diane de Poitiers to see him at all, even though he requested her presence repeatedly. When he died, Catherine had Diane exiled, and for the first time was able to wield power.

After Henry II's Death

Her son's wife, Mary, Queen of Scots, little disposed to meddle with politics on her own account, was managed by her uncles, the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise. The queen-mother, however, soon grew weary of the domination of the Guises, and entered upon a course of secret opposition. On April 1, 1560 she named as chancellor Michel de l'Hôpital, who advocated a policy of conciliation.

On the death of her son François II (December 5, 1560), Catherine became regent during the minority of her second son Charles IX of France and found before her a career worthy of the most soaring ambition. She was then forty-one years old, and although she was the mother of nine children, she was still vigorous and active. She retained her influence for more than twenty years in the troubled period of the French Wars of Religion. At first she listened to the moderate counsels of l'Hôpital to avoid siding definitely with either party, but her character and the habits of policy to which she had been accustomed tended to be at odds with this stance.

Like many of that time, she adopted as some of her more famous if not admirable practices, the arts of finesse, lying, and even assassination by poisoning in carrying out her role of statesmanship in particular. Rumors of a hidden or trap door to dispose of the bodies of her victims brings to light a more sinister side of the renaissance queen.

By habit a Catholic, but above all fond of power, she was determined to prevent the Protestants from getting the upper hand and almost equally resolved not to allow them to be utterly crushed, in order to use them as a counterpoise to the Guises. This "trimming" policy met with little success, and one civil war followed another toward the end of her life. In 1567, after the Enterprise of Meaux, she dismissed l'Hôpital and joined the Catholic party. Having failed to crush the Protestant rebellion by arms, she resumed, in 1570, the policy of peace and negotiation. She conceived the project of marrying her son, Francois, Duke of Anjou, to Queen Elizabeth I of England, but that did not come about.

Catherine was zealous in the interests of her children, especially those of her favourite third son, the Duke of Anjou. She was also successful in marrying her eldest daughter, Elisabeth (b. April 2, 1545), to Philip II of Spain and then her third daughter, Marguerite (b. May 14, 1553), to Henri of Navarre. To this end she temporarily reconciled with the Protestants and allowed the Protestant Admiral Coligny to return to court and re-enter the council. But she quickly repented of this step, noting that her son Charles IX had conceived a great affection for the admiral and showed signs of taking up an attitude independent of her own.

Catherine, thinking her influence menaced, sought to regain it, first by the murder of Coligny and after that failed, by initiating in Paris what became a wholesale slaughter of Protestants by Catholics, thereafter known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. After the death of Charles IX in 1574 and the succession of her son Henri III, Catherine pursued her old policy of compromise and concessions. But her influence was nothing compared to her son's.

Catherine de Medici died on January 5, 1589 at the Royal Château de Blois, France, where today visitors to the castle can see her cabinets containing the poisons she used. She was interred with her husband in a cadaver tomb in the Saint Denis Basilica. Her successor as ruler of France, Henry IV, wrote of her:

I ask you, what could a woman do, left by the death of her husband with five little children on her arms, and two families of France who were thinking of grasping the crown--our own [the Bourbons] and the Guises? Was she not compelled to play strange parts to deceive first one and then the other, in order to guard, as she did, her sons, who successively reigned through the wise conduct of that shrewd woman? I am surprised that she never did worse. ^[1]

On her death, her possessions, including the County of Auvergne, were merged into the French royal domain by her last surviving son, Henry III. He was assassinated a short time later, thus ending the House of Valois.

During her lifetime, Catherine unwittingly had vast influence on fashions by enforcing a ban on thick waists at court attendance during the 1550s. For nearly 350 years thereafter, women employed the use of corsets, with laces and stays made of whalebone or metal to forcefully shrink their waists from their natural dimensions to as little as 43, 38, or even fewer centimetres (17, 15, or fewer inches).

In her taste for art and her love of magnificence and luxury, Catherine was a true Medici. It was also said that she was one of the most "influential people in culinary history." [1]. Her banquets at the Palace of Fontainebleau in 1564 were famous for their sumptuousness. In architecture she was especially well versed, and Philibert de l'Orme (Philibert of the Elm) relates that she discussed with him the plan and decoration of her palace of the Tuileries. Catherine's policy provoked a crowd of pamphlets, the most celebrated being the Discours merveilleux de la vie, actions et diportemens de la reine Catherine de Medecis, in which Henry Estienne undoubtedly collaborated. Catherine was reported to bring ballet from Italy, which sparked the popularity of ballet in France.

Marriage and Issue

On October 28 1533, she married Henry II of France (March 31 1519 – July 10 1559)

Ancestors

Portrayals in film and television

Marguerite Moreno plays Catherine de Medicis in Sacha Guitry's comedic Perles de la couronne (1937). Marisa Pavan played Catherine de' Medici in the 1956 film Diane. Joan Young played her in the 1966 Doctor Who story The Massacre. Margaretta Scott played her in the 1971 BBC series Elizabeth R. Katherine Kath played her in the 1972 film Mary, Queen of Scots. Virna Lisi portrayed her in the 1994 film La Reine Margot. She was also featured in "The Golden Pepperoni of Catherine de' Medici," an episode of the Nickelodeon series "Legends of the Hidden Temple" that aired during the show's second season.

Books

• Leonie Frieda, (2003). Catherine de Medici - A biography. ISBN 1-84212-725-X - Website
• Ralph Roeder, 1964, Catherine de Medici and the lost revolution. LCCN 64-18937.
• Historical novelist Jean Plaidy produced a trilogy on Catherine, consisting of Madame Serpent, The Italian Woman and Queen Jezebel. Catherine also appears in Plaidy's novels Royal Road to Fotheringay and Evergreen Gallant.
• Catherine appears in the Dr Who novel The Massacre by John Lucarotti.
• Catherine De Medici by Honore de Balzac (2004) ISBN 1419112317
• Fictitious book, where Catherine plays a major role: Daughter of Silk by Linda Chaikin Website

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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