Elizabeth I was treated with similar suspicionshe too entertained questionable characters (such as her advisor, John Dee), and produced no official heir. Catherine sent Pomponne de Bellivre to Navarre to arrange Margaret's return. [56] The Catholics took Rouen, but their triumph was short-lived. Ronsard may be referring to Artemisia, who drank the ashes of her dead husband, which became part of her own body. The 10 years from 1560 to 1570 were, politically, the most important of Catherines life. The Guise brothers set about persecuting the Protestants with zeal. Catherine now rallied both Huguenot and Catholic forces to retake Le Havre from the English. Her marriage to Henry would remain childless. Catherines first great political crisis came in July 1559 upon the accidental death of Henry II, a traumatic bereavement from which it is doubtful that she ever recovered. In fact, a large population of Italiansbankers, silk-weavers, philosophers, musicians, and artists, including Leonardo da Vincihad emigrated to France to promote the burgeoning Renaissance. Both of her parents died within weeks of her birth, leaving her an orphan. Knecht 1998, p. 28, gives the English translation ""The girl has been given to me stark naked." Catherine de' Medici was born Caterina Maria Romula de' Medici[7] on 13 April 1519 in Florence, Republic of Florence, the only child of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and his wife, Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, the countess of Boulogne. She was crowned in the Basilica of Saint-Denis on 10 June 1549. In 1578, she took on the task of pacifying the south. In 1793, a revolutionary mob tossed her bones into a mass grave with those of the other kings and queens.[114]. Catherine believing her daughter had died in the forest, while Clarissa never knew who her birth parents were. Three of her sons were kings of France: Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. For the next thirty years, France found itself in a state of either civil war or armed truce.[54]. Art historian Henri Zerner has called this monument "the last and most brilliant of the royal tombs of the Renaissance. Caron's vivid Mannerism, with its love of ceremonial and its preoccupation with massacres, reflects the neurotic atmosphere of the French court during the Wars of Religion. [38] The English ambassador reported a few days later that "the house of Guise ruleth and doth all about the French king". Its principal purpose was to execute the edict and, through a meeting at Bayonne in June 1565, to seek to strengthen peaceful relations between the crown and Spain and to negotiate for Charless marriage to Elizabeth of Austria. Monsieur de Guise is dead. Margaret outlived her former husband, her mother, her father and all her siblings. WebFrance Catherine de Medici was born in Florence (Firenze), Italy on April 13th and is known to be one of the most important women during the Renaissance period. Clarissa de Medici. She was the only one of Catherines children to inherit her good health. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Her ability and eloquence were acclaimed after the Spanish victory of Saint-Quentin in Picardy in 1557, possibly the origin of her perpetual fear of Spain, which remained, through changing circumstances, the touchstone of her judgments. [140] Catherine and Henry's inability to produce an heir for the first ten years of their marriage gave rise to suspicion of witchcraft. Nevertheless, the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed on 8 August 1570 because the royal army ran out of cash, conceded wider toleration to the Huguenots than ever before. In 1537, he had a brief affair with Philippa Duci, who gave birth to a daughter, whom he publicly acknowledged. The start of Season One, in 1557, Diane de Poitiers was actually 58 years old. Over the years, Catherine gave birth to ten children of which five were daughters. Philip II excused himself from the occasion. "[72] When Jeanne did come to court, Catherine pressured her hard,[73] playing on Jeanne's hopes for her beloved son. The challenges Catherine faced were complex and in some ways difficult for her to comprehend as a foreigner. Your email address will not be published. At first Catherine kept him very close to her, and even slept in his chamber. She had known Mary since the age of five and a half, when the little Scottish queen was brought to Paris and raised alongside Catherines own children. To save Catherines life, baby Joan dead or dying had her legs broken to remove her from her mothers womb. WebHenry II was the philandering king of France who carried out an affair with Kenna, lady-in-waiting to the queen of Scotland, despite already being married to Catherine de' Medici.He was an ambitious man, especially when it came to taking England, which he spent years trying to do.Following his son's marriage to Mary Stuart, Henry descended into madness At the same moment, eight members of the Guise family were rounded up, including the Duke of Guise's brother, Louis II, Cardinal of Guise, who Henry's men hacked to death the next day in the palace dungeons. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Calvinist Protestants, or Huguenots, as they became known. On 17 August 1563, Charles IX was declared of age at the Parlement of Rouen, but he was never able to rule on his own and showed little interest in government. Franois Clouet drew and painted portraits of all Catherine's family and of many members of the court. She gave birth to ten children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived to marriageable age. My name is Moniek and I am from the Netherlands. Henry's death in 1559 thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail 15-year-old King Francis II. Margaret would later write that she trembled whenever she was summoned by her mother. At an early age, she was offered as a bride for her sisters widower King Philip II of Spain, but nothing came of that. In this cause, he recruited the great Catholic princes, nobles and prelates, signed the treaty of Joinville with Spain, and prepared to make war on the "heretics". Catherine de Medici, wife to one French king and mother to three more, died at Blois in 1589. Simply click 'close' in the top right corner to continue reading! She was one of the most influential personalities of the CatholicHuguenot wars (Wars of Religion; 156298). On 5 January 1589, Catherine died at the age of sixty-nine, probably from pleurisy. [122], Many of Caron's paintings, such as those of the Triumphs of the Seasons, are of allegorical subjects that echo the festivities for which Catherine's court was famous. She presided over his council, decided policy, and controlled state business and patronage. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-de-Medici, World History Encyclopedia - Catherine de' Medici, History Learning Site - Biography of Catherine de Medici, Lorenzo di Piero de Medici, duca di Urbino. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The Venetian ambassador, Gerolamo Lipomanno, wrote: "She is an indefatigable princess, born to tame and govern a people as unruly as the French: they now recognize her merits, her concern for unity and are sorry not to have appreciated her sooner. After her brother's premature death in 1519, she educated his daughter Catherine, the future Queen of France . [105] When Catherine tried to go to Mass, she found her way barred, though she was allowed through the barricades. Catherine stayed by his bedside, but Diane kept away, "for fear", in the words of a chronicler, "of being expelled by the Queen". She also met her daughter Elisabeth at Bayonne near the Spanish border, amidst lavish court festivities. Catherine de' Medici (Italian: Caterina de' Medici, pronounced[katerina de mditi]; French: Catherine de Mdicis, pronounced[katin d medisis]; 13 April 1519 5 January 1589) was a Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. The last two daughters were twins; one of the twins, Joan, died during the delivery and the other, Victoire, died a few weeks later. It is also necessary to understand this political struggle of the Catholic crown with its own ultramontane extremists and to perceive its fluctuations in changing circumstances, in order to realize the fundamental consistency of Catherines career. When Francis II died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her 10-year-old son King Charles IX and was thus granted sweeping powers. [32] Catherine brought her up with her own children at the French court, while Mary of Guise governed Scotland as her daughter's regent.[33]. In 1570, Charles IX married Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. Clarissa Delacroix was born in 1539, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici of France and King Henry II of Frances boyhood friend Richard Delacroix. [84], Henry married Louise de Lorraine-Vaudmont in February 1575, two days after his coronation. I began this website in 2013 because I wanted to share these women's amazing stories. He will not be spoken of again. She was born in Florence, Italy, on April 13, 1519. [76] Coligny was carried to his lodgings at the Htel de Bthisy, where the surgeon Ambroise Par removed a bullet from his elbow and amputated a damaged finger with a pair of scissors. [91] Catherine cut Margaret out of her will and never saw her again. His life was saved by the illness and death of the king, as a result of an infection or an abscess in his ear. Catherine wrote to Henry of Charles IX's death: "I am grief-stricken to have witnessed such a scene and the love which he showed me at the end My only consolation is to see you here soon, as your kingdom requires, and in good health, for if I were to lose you, I would have myself buried alive with you. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Sebastian instead had Clarissa poisoned to fulfill Nostradamus' prophecy that Mary's arrival at the French court would cause Catherine's firstborn's death; Clarissa was technically Catherine's first child, and her death supposedly saved the sickly Prince Francis, the oldest legitimate child, from his own death. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. She is also known for her involvement in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (1572)part of the CatholicHuguenot wars (Wars of Religion; 156298)and for being mother to three kings of France. Catherine, in bed with a lung infection, had been kept in the dark. From that moment, she abandoned compromise for a policy of repression. Catherine saw little of her husband in their first year of marriage, but the ladies of the court, impressed with her intelligence and keenness to please, treated her well. She took to her bed with a fever. Although Catherine spent ruinous sums on the arts,[133] most of her patronage left no permanent legacy. For the first ten years of the marriage, the royal couple failed to produce any children together. She shared the same birthmark as her father, so Catherine had Nostradamus' father, a physician, attempt to remove the birthmark from Clarissa. Catherine had no more children. Claude was born on 12 November 1547, and she too suffered from childhood ailments, like her elder sister. It is essential to understand this in order to discern the coherence of her career. WebCatherine de' Medici married Henry, Duke of Orlans, the future Henry II of France, in Marseille on 28 October 1533. [81] On 29 September, when Navarre knelt before the altar as a Roman Catholic, having converted to avoid being killed, Catherine turned to the ambassadors and laughed. On 18 February 1563, a spy called Poltrot de Mr fired an arquebus into the back of the Duke of Guise, at the siege of Orlans. Because their birth very nearly cost Catherine her life, the king's physician advised the king that there should be no more children; therefore, Henry II stopped visiting his wife's bedroom and spent all his time with his longtime mistress, Diane de Poitiers. As Guise entered the king's chamber, the Forty-five plunged their blades into his body, and he died at the foot of the king's bed. Catherine, Diane, and Prince Francis all fainted. Greg Bryk, an actor, played him. [99] "Take care", she wrote to the king, "especially about your person. Of the chateaus she designed herselfincluding the TuileriesChenonceaux was her unfinished masterpiece. Knecht 1998, p. 28, gives likely incorrect dates of 25 September 1533 for the death of Pope Clement VII and 12 October for the election of Pope Paul III. His dying words were "oh, my mother" The day before he died, he named Catherine regent, since his brother and heir, Henry the Duke of Anjou, was in the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, where he had been elected king the year before. Margaret later recalled that she saved the lives of several prominent Huguenots during the massacre by keeping them in her rooms and refusing to admit the assassins. Catherine herself had been educated by Cosimo Ruggeri in astrology and astronomy, which were closely linked in her day[143] and were an academic rather than a Satanic activity,[144] although his general background and favourite status suggests there was more to it than that. [57] Catherine, however, was delighted with the death of her ally. The imperial ambassador reported that in the presence of guests, Henry would sit on Diane's lap and play the guitar, chat about politics, or fondle her breasts. Babelon, Jean-Pierre. In October 1586, therefore, he had Margaret locked up in the Chteau d'Usson. Catherine de' Medici's patronage of the arts, "Eglise Saint-Ferrol les Augustins | Marseille 13", "The long barren years of Catherine de Medicis: A gynaecologist's view of history", "The "infertility" of Catherine de Medici and its influence on 16th century France", "History's Black Widow: The Legend of Catherine de Medici", Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess of the Palatinate, Louise Marie Adlade de Bourbon-Penthivre, Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, Genealogical tables of the House of Medici, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Catherine_de%27_Medici&oldid=1152284564, French people of the French Wars of Religion, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Italian-language text, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the New International Encyclopedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de' Medici. [120], Beyond portraiture, little is known about the painting at Catherine de' Medici's court. "[112] She visited her old friend Cardinal de Bourbon on 1 January 1589 to tell him she was sure he would soon be freed. [29] Henry gave the Chteau of Chenonceau, which Catherine had wanted for herself, to Diane de Poitiers, who took her place at the centre of power, dispensing patronage and accepting favours. [146] As a result, some (more extreme) authors[147] believe Catherine to be the creator of the Black Mass, a Satanic inversion of the traditional Catholic Mass, although there is little to prove this aside from Jean Bodin's account in his book De la dmonomanie des sorciers. [70] After Catherine's daughter Elisabeth died in childbirth in 1568, she had touted her youngest daughter Margaret as a bride for Philip II of Spain. She gave birth to ten children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived to marriageable age. [125], Catherine de' Medici's great love among the arts was architecture. Kill them all! It has been suggested that Catherine educated her son, Henry III, in the dark arts,[145] and that "the two devoted themselves to sorceries that were scandals of the age". Under Salic law, by which only males could ascend the throne, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre now became heir presumptive to the French crown.[35]. [74] The wedding took place on 18 August 1572 at Notre-Dame, Paris. The throne of France was held by Francis I, also known as Francis On 11 April 1572, the wedding contract was signed, and Henry headed for France to be reunited with his mother and his new bride. Catherine was born in Florence to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne. [34] Their proxy wedding, in Paris on 22 June 1559, was celebrated with festivities, balls, masques, and five days of jousting. Biography Early Life Catherine's daughter, Marguerite, was understandably not thrilled with a scheme that involved her mother seducing her husband by proxy. The Protestants looked for leadership first to Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, the First Prince of the Blood, and then, with more success, to his brother, Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Cond, who backed a plot to overthrow the Guises by force. She was left with a desire for revenge against her mother, saving Mary, Queen of Scots from Colin MacPhail when Catherine sent Colin to rape her in 1557; she then helped Colin in attempting to escape from prison by marking another prisoner for death in his stead. Henry IV was later reported to have said of Catherine: 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 crownour own [the Bourbons] and the Guises? Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [67] "We have come to the determination to die, all of us", Jeanne wrote to Catherine, "rather than abandon our God, and our religion. [50] Catherine failed because she saw the religious divide only in political terms. Young Elisabeth constantly suffered from childhood ailments and had not inherited her mothers robust health. The Duke of Guise launched an attack into the woods around the chteau. At the age of five and a half, Mary was brought to the French court, where she was promised to the Dauphin, Francis. In 1556, Catherine nearly died giving birth to twin daughters, Jeanne and Victoire. In the Treaty of Nemours, signed on 7 July 1585, he was forced to give in to all the League's demands, even that he pay its troops. Author of. She was also an influential patron Henry allowed Catherine almost no political influence as queen. [86], In 1576, in a move that endangered Henry's throne, Francis allied with the Protestant princes against the crown. 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? In the Series Season One Season Two Season Three Season Four The death of Pope Leo in 1521 briefly interrupted Medici power until Cardinal Giulio de' Medici was elected Pope Clement VII in 1523. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); To celebrate the 500th birthday of the formidable Catherine de Medici, we will be posting seven articles over the next seven days about her. 16th-century Italian noblewoman and queen consort of France, Consorts to debatable or disputed rulers are in. In 1568, she was beaten, punched and had her hair pulled out by Catherine and her brother Charles after a secret affair with Henry of Guise. [47] As a result, when Francis died on 5 December 1560, the Privy Council appointed Catherine as governor of France (gouvernante de France), with sweeping powers. Thenceforth the problem of religion was one of power, public order, and administration. They witnessed the first three civil wars and her desperate struggle against the Catholic extremists for the independence of the crown, the maintenance of peace, and the enforcement of limited toleration. Listed works of art included tapestries, hand-drawn maps, sculptures, rich fabrics, ebony furniture inlaid with ivory, sets of china, and Limoges pottery. Henry III's assassination ended nearly three centuries of Valois rule and brought the Bourbon dynasty into power. Henry wrote a note to Villeroy, which began: "Villeroy, I remain very well contented with your service; do not fail however to go away to your house where you will stay until I send for you; do not seek the reason for this my letter, but obey me." Jeanne finally agreed to the marriage between her son and Margaret, so long as Henry could remain a Huguenot. His troops surprised the rebels and killed many of them on the spot, including the commander, La Renaudie. Hoogvliet, Margriet. Some even suggested that she be handed over to the troops to be used for their sexual gratification. Seeing as they didn't know the other existed for the first 18 - to 20 years of their lives. "[95], Many leading Roman Catholics were appalled by Catherine's attempts to appease the Huguenots. [127] These included work on the Chteau de Montceaux, Chteau de Saint-Maur, and Chenonceau. Francis II became king at the age of fifteen. Catherine's marriage was arranged by her uncle Pope Clement VII. [85] Catherine did all in her power to bring Francis back into the fold. Catherine outlived all her children except Henry III, who died seven months after her, and Margaret, who inherited her robust health. Thus occupied, Catherine lived privately though she was appointed regent in 1552 during Henrys absence at the siege of Metz. [17] Suitors, however, lined up for her hand, including James V of Scotland who sent the Duke of Albany to Clement to conclude a marriage in April and November 1530. This is the sixth, and it will focus on her relationships with her daughters. [136][137] They point out that Catherine's father-in-law, King Francis I, and the flower of the French aristocracy had dined at some of Italy's most lite tables during the king's Italian campaigns (and that an earlier generation had done so during King Charles VIII's invasion of 1494); that a vast Italian entourage had visited France for the wedding of Catherine de' Medici's father to her French-born mother; and that she had little influence at court until her husband's death because he was so besotted by his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. She was left in the care of Nostradamus, who secretly brought her to the French court and allowed for her to live in the secret passageways of the castle, out of the sight of her family, who believed that she had died. Born on 13th April 1519, Catherine is still remembered as the 'Black Queen' of France, foe of all Protestants, and the Italian daughter of a merchant who dragged France into a series of bloody, religious civil wars. From that day, Catherine took a broken lance as her emblem, inscribed with the words "lacrymae hinc, hinc dolor" ("from this come my tears and my pain"), and wore black mourning in memory of Henry.[36]. Huguenot writers later accused Catherine of murdering her with poisoned gloves. To this end, she set out with Charles and the court on a progress around France that lasted from January 1564 until May 1565. Her relationship with her mother never did improve it was as if Catherine resented Margaret for being the healthiest child. In early 1572, Joan Henrys mother and Queen regnant of Navarre arrived in France feeling ill and tired but determined to see the marriage negotiations through. I have done to him what he was going to do to me. [96] The death of the heir to the throne in 1584 prompted the Duke of Guise to assume the leadership of the Catholic League. "[113] He added that she had no sooner died than she was treated with as much consideration as a dead goat. [128], Catherine had emblems of her love and grief carved into the stonework of her buildings. "[123] Catherine gradually introduced changes to the traditional entertainments: for example, she increased the prominence of dance in the shows that climaxed each series of entertainments. She had always enjoyed her visits to Claude, and now that would never be the same. Catherine had at least taken the precaution of marrying Margaret, her youngest daughter, to Navarre. [21] King Francis lamented, "The girl has come to me stark naked."[22]. Catherines second great political crisis came with the premature death on December 5, 1560, of Francis II, whose royal authority the Guises had monopolized. When Clarice's husband, Lorenzo, was in Milan as the godfather of the Sforza Prince Gian Galeazzo II Maria, he wrote the following letter to her: I have arrived here safely and am quite well. He sought the support of France's constitutional bodies and worked closely with Catherine to defend the law in the face of the growing anarchy. [24] According to the court chronicler Brantme, "many people advised the king and the Dauphin to repudiate her, since it was necessary to continue the line of France". When Henry II died in 1559 Catherine de Medici went on to rule France in the name of her sons for the next 3 decades, until her death in 1589. [2] In return, she was blamed for the persecutions carried out under her sons' rules, in particular the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, during which thousands of Huguenots were killed in France. [30] Diane never regarded Catherine as a threat. Some sources claim that Victoire was the one who was stillborn. Clarissa Delacroix(1539-1557) was the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici and the French noble Richard Delacroix.