It was only after Leo's death in 1521, that his successor, Adrian VI, restored the duchy to its rightful owner, Francesco Maria I della Rovere. The wedding, a grand affair marked by extravagant display and gift-giving,[19] took place in the glise Saint-Ferrol les Augustins in Marseille on 28 October 1533. [21] King Francis lamented, "The girl has come to me stark naked."[22]. Catherine was unable to control Henry in the way she had Francis and Charles. They depict events held at Fontainebleau in 1564; at Bayonne in 1565 for the summit meeting with the Spanish court; and at the Tuileries in 1573 for the visit of the Polish ambassadors who presented the Polish crown to Catherine's son Henry of Anjou. Her relationship with her mother never did improve it was as if Catherine resented Margaret for being the healthiest child. 500: Catherine de Medici The Mother of three Kings, 500: Catherine de Medici Patron of the arts and follower of the occult. He was tried in November, found guilty of offences against the crown, and sentenced to death. Catherine de Medici was born in Florence, Italy, on April 13, 1519. Through the intervention of Doctor Jean Fernel, the royal couple went on to have 10 children. Historica Wiki is a FANDOM Games Community. Huguenot writers later accused Catherine of murdering her with poisoned gloves. Catherine de Medici was best known for being the queen consort of Henry II of France (154759) and regent of France. To avoid questions about the baby's distinguishing birthmark, she gave the baby to Nostradamus' father. [18] When Francis I of France proposed his second son, Henry, Duke of Orlans, in early 1533, Clement jumped at the offer. The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" since she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France.[1]. Anyone who tells you differently is a liar. [135] Barbara Ketcham Wheaton and Stephen Mennell provided the definitive arguments against these claims. [141] An infertile woman, and in particular an infertile queen, was therefore regarded as 'unnatural' and a small step from supernatural. Clarissa educated Catherine, along with her own children, and Catherine was happy in her new atmosphere living with her aunt. Clement summoned Catherine from her beloved convent to join him in Rome where he greeted her with open arms and tears in his eyes. In 1556, Catherine nearly died giving birth to twin daughters, Jeanne and Victoire. Frieda 2003, p. 47 (NY edition). However, the death of her uncle Clement on 25 September 1534 undermined Catherine's standing in the French court. [65] She told the Venetian ambassador in June 1568 that all one could expect from Huguenots was deceit, and she praised the Duke of Alba's reign of terror in the Netherlands, where Calvinists and rebels were put to death in the thousands. Henry was a prize catch for Catherine, who, despite her wealth, was of common origin. [38] The English ambassador reported a few days later that "the house of Guise ruleth and doth all about the French king". He called her not only the mother of the king but the mother of the state. For a summary of the fluctuations in Catherine's historical reputation, see the preface to R. J. Knecht's. Catherine insisted on visiting the field herself and when warned of the dangers laughed, "My courage is as great as yours". Born: April 13, 1519, in Florence, Italy. Catherine stayed by his bedside, but Diane kept away, "for fear", in the words of a chronicler, "of being expelled by the Queen". Clarissa Delacroix was born in 1539, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici of France and King Henry II of France's boyhood friend Richard Delacroix. "[100], Henry was unable to fight the Catholics and the Protestants at once, both of whom had stronger armies than his own. [53] Guise, who called the massacre "a regrettable accident", was cheered as a hero in the streets of Paris while the Huguenots called for revenge. Catherine was born in Florence to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne. About 1538, at the age of 19, Henry had taken as his mistress the 38-year-old Diane de Poitiers,[27] whom he adored for the rest of his life. Clarissa de Medici. [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. [134] The end of the Valois dynasty so soon after her death brought a change in priorities. [117], An inventory drawn up at the Htel de la Reine after Catherine's death shows her to have been a keen collector. Essentially, however, there exists no concrete proof that either woman took part in the occult, and it is now believed that Catherine's trouble in providing an heir was in fact due to Henry II's penile deformity.[142]. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. [85] Catherine did all in her power to bring Francis back into the fold. Catherine de Medici, also called Catherine de Mdicis, Italian Caterina de Medici, (born April 13, 1519, Florence [Italy]died January 5, 1589, Blois, France), queen consort of Henry II of France (reigned 154759) and subsequently regent of France (156074), who was one of the most influential personalities of the CatholicHuguenot wars. [92] Her role in his government became that of chief executive and roving diplomat. [25] Divorce was discussed. She was not primarily responsible for the more far-reaching Treaty of Saint-Germain (August 1570), but she succeeded in disgracing the Guises. WebCatherine and Clarissa have a very complicated relationship. 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. WebClarice Orsini (on the left) with her sister-in-law Bianca Maria de' Medici. The Queen of France had faced many challenges all her life to have revolutionized what France is today. Omissions? He remarried to Marie de Medici and had several children by her. Charles had been largely brought up at the French Court and Claude probably knew him well. By 1610, the school patronised by the late Valois court and brought to its pinnacle by Franois Clouet had all but died out. Catherine built two new palaces in Paris: the Tuileries and the Htel de la Reine. [31] The surviving daughter, Victoire, died seven weeks later. Catherine could not hold back her sobs. She gave birth to ten children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived to marriageable age. Catherines second great political crisis came with the premature death on December 5, 1560, of Francis II, whose royal authority the Guises had monopolized. During this time, she presided over a distinctive late French Renaissance culture in all branches of the arts. Jeanne finally agreed to the marriage between her son and Margaret, so long as Henry could remain a Huguenot. In what has been called a coup d'tat, the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guisewhose niece, Mary, Queen of Scots, had married Francis II the year beforeseized power the day after Henry II's death and quickly moved themselves into the Louvre Palace with the young couple. Jeanne replied: "Pardon me if, reading that, I want to laugh, because you want to relieve me of a fear that I've never had. Over the years, the two Queens were to maintain an energetic correspondence. On 34 April 1559, Henry signed the Peace of Cateau-Cambrsis with the Holy Roman Empire and England, ending a long period of Italian Wars. Margaret retained her titles and was financially taken care of, and perhaps for the first time, she had a good relationship with her husband. On 20 August 1560, Catherine and the chancellor advocated this policy to an assembly of notables at Fontainebleau. Henry hired Swiss troops to help him defend himself in Paris. A poem by Ronsard, engraved on its base, tells the reader not to wonder that so small a vase can hold so large a heart, since Henry's real heart resides in Catherine's breast.[132]. She shared the same birthmark as her father, so Catherine had Nostradamus father, a physician, attempt to remove the birthmark from Clarissa. Mark Strage described these years as "the happiest of her entire life". She was born with her father's birthmark on Catherine outlived all her children except Henry III, who died seven months after her, and Margaret, who inherited her robust health. Catherine did not hesitate to exploit her new authority. [88] Francis died of consumption in June 1584, after a disastrous intervention in the Low Countries during which his army had been massacred. [45] Neither saw the need to punish Protestants who worshipped in private and did not take up arms. Knecht, 272. Despite her considerable power, Leeza is the least favorite of Catherine's children, and underneath her tough facade is a legitimate desire for her mother's affections. Catherine had at least taken the precaution of marrying Margaret, her youngest daughter, to Navarre. 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". They formed an alliance with England and seized town after town in France. The start of Season One, in 1557, Diane de Poitiers was actually 58 years old. The legend that de' Medici introduced a long list of foods, techniques and utensils from Italy to France is discredited by food historians. 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]. The 10 years from 1560 to 1570 were, politically, the most important of Catherines life. Catherine travelled to Chtellerault where she bid farewell to her 13-year-old daughter. This afforded the Calvinists licensed coexistence with specific safeguards. As time passed and the likelihood of children from the marriage receded, Catherine's youngest son, Francis, Duke of Alenon, known as "Monsieur", played upon his role as heir to the throne, repeatedly exploiting the anarchy of the civil wars, which were by now as much about noble power struggles as religion. Victoire was born safely but Joan did not want to come and Catherine began to weaken quickly. Art historian Henri Zerner has called this monument "the last and most brilliant of the royal tombs of the Renaissance. Catherine and the king then beat her, ripping her nightclothes and pulling out handfuls of her hair.[71]. [30] Diane never regarded Catherine as a threat. Catherine's three sons reigned in an age of almost constant civil and religious war in France. Three of her sons became kings of France, while two of her daughters married kings and one married a duke. 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. Catherine's marriage was arranged by her uncle Pope Clement VII. [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. Some historians have excused Catherine from blame for the worst decisions of the crown, but evidence for her ruthlessness can be found in her letters. [129] Poets lauded her as the new Artemisia, after Artemisia II of Caria, who built the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus as a tomb for her dead husband. Unlike the proposals of Poissy, the edict was law, which the Protestants accepted and the Catholics rejected. Catherine de' Medici's parents die when she was a baby; however, it was from separate sicknesses. [89] Catherine wrote, the next day: "I am so wretched to live long enough to see so many people die before me, although I realize that God's will must be obeyed, that He owns everything, and that He lends us only for as long as He likes the children whom He gives us. "[90] The death of her youngest son was a calamity for Catherine's dynastic dreams. However, three months after his coronation at Wawel Cathedral, Henry abandoned that throne and returned to France in order to become King of France. [] In short, she was a true daughter of France, having good mind and ability, which she proved by seconding wisely and ably her husband, M. de Lorraine, in the government of his seigneuries and principalities.1. She was buried, but she went on to escape from her gravesite. I have done to him what he was going to do to me. In spite of Henrys abiding attachment to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, Catherines marriage was not unsuccessful and, after 10 anxious years, she bore him 10 children, of whom 4 boys and 3 girls survived. Margaret of Valois was the third daughter and seventh child of King Henry II of France and his Italian queen, Catherine de Medici. In the words of historian R. J. Knecht, "she underestimated the strength of religious conviction, imagining that all would be well if only she could get the party leaders to agree". The treaty became known as the Peace of Monsieur because it was thought that Francis had forced it on the crown. On one occasion, in March 1578, she lectured him for six hours about his dangerously subversive behaviour. "[112] She visited her old friend Cardinal de Bourbon on 1 January 1589 to tell him she was sure he would soon be freed. Both of her parents died within weeks of her birth, leaving her an orphan. 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 Her three other daughters did survive to adulthood. Over the years, Catherine gave birth to ten children of which five were daughters. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Calvinist Protestants, or Huguenots, as they became known. [14] In October 1529, Charles's troops laid siege to Florence. He often hid from state affairs, immersing himself in acts of piety, such as pilgrimages and flagellation. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Henry insisted on riding against Montgomery again, and this time, Montgomery's lance shattered in the king's face. [19] Clement visited the newlyweds in bed the next morning and added his blessings to the night's proceedings. She begged him to ensure that Elisabeth eats but two meals each day and only bread in between meals. Tragically, Elisabeth had died two weeks earlier after giving birth prematurely. The surgery removed part of the birthmark, but left Clarissa greatly disfigured due to the use of potions. Henry VIII was king of England and still (mostly) happily married to Catherine of Aragon. She was born less than 20 years ago to the couple while the Queen's husband was away. [4] Some time later, she gave birth to Francis . After her brother's premature death in 1519, she educated his daughter Catherine, the future Queen of France . Because Paris was held by enemies of the crown, Catherine had to be buried provisionally at Blois. Moving on to the fortress of Carlat, Margaret took a lover called d'Aubiac. He depended on Catherine and her team of secretaries until the last few weeks of her life. [107] The king's actions effectively ended her days of power. When King Francis I died on 31 March 1547, Catherine became queen consort of France. She travelled widely across the kingdom, enforcing his authority and trying to head off war. [125], Catherine de' Medici's great love among the arts was architecture. Elizabeth I of England's execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, on 8 February 1587 outraged the Catholic world. Franois Clouet drew and painted portraits of all Catherine's family and of many members of the court. [101] He went into hiding to fast and pray, surrounded by a bodyguard known as "the Forty-five", and left Catherine to sort out the mess. [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. The papal nuncio Salviati observed, "it is only with difficulty that we can imagine there will be offspring physicians and those who know him well say that he has an extremely weak constitution and will not live long." The treaty was sealed by the betrothal of Catherine's thirteen-year-old daughter Elisabeth to Philip II of Spain. Copyright 2023 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes. 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]. [52] On 1 March 1562, however, in an incident known as the Massacre of Vassy, the Duke of Guise and his men attacked worshipping Huguenots in a barn at Vassy (Wassy), killing 74 and wounding 104. During the period 156468, Catherine was unable, for complex reasons, to withstand the cardinal Lorraine, statesman of the Guises, who largely provoked the second and third civil wars. Writing that she wanted to see Jeanne's children, she promised not to harm them. The young couple had been married the year before at Amboise as part of the alliance between King Francis I of France and Lorenzo's uncle Pope Leo X against the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Philip II excused himself from the occasion. [102] The monarchy had lost control of the country, and was in no position to assist England in the face of the coming Spanish attack. She was just 11 years old when she married Charles, Duke of Lorraine in January 1559 in a splendid ceremony at the Notre-Dame. Claude was described with the words, In her beauty she resembled her mother, in her knowledge and kindness she resembled her aunt; and the people of Lorraine found her ever kind as long as she lived, as I myself have seen when I went to that country; and after her death they found much to say of her. She reappeared after a few hours and declared that she would offer her other daughter Margaret in marriage to King Philip. [26] Catherine quickly conceived again and on 2 April 1545 she bore a daughter, Elisabeth. She had always enjoyed her visits to Claude, and now that would never be the same. WebThe marriage was not popular in France. Then he set about the business of finding her a husband.[16]. 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". [104] Philip II of Spain prepared for an invasion of England. In 1570, Charles IX married Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. She was the only one of Catherines children to inherit her good health. Some sources claim that Victoire was the one who was stillborn. Hoogvliet, Margriet. Author of. Despite her optimism, the resulting Colloquy of Poissy ended in failure on 13 October 1561, dissolving itself without her permission. He will not be spoken of again. From that moment, she abandoned compromise for a policy of repression. Catherine appointed a mixed commission of moderates that devised two formulas of consummate ambiguity, by which they hoped to resolve the basic, Eucharist controversy. The long-term future of the Valois dynasty, which had ruled France since the 14th century, seemed assured. Surgeons saved her life by breaking the legs of Jeanne, who died in her womb. At the time, Henry was besieging Paris with the King of Navarre, who would succeed him as Henry IV of France. [69], Catherine looked to further Valois interests by grand dynastic marriages. WebClarissa Delacroix was born in 1539, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici of France and King Henry II of France's boyhood friend Richard Delacroix. She took to her bed with a fever. On 5 January 1589, Catherine died at the age of sixty-nine, probably from pleurisy. To create the necessary dramas, music, and scenic effects for these events, Catherine employed the leading artists and architects of the day. It was designed by Francesco Primaticcio (15041570), with sculpture by Germain Pilon (15281590). [120], Beyond portraiture, little is known about the painting at Catherine de' Medici's court. Margaret had put up a good show for the Queen and Joan wrote enthusiastically to her son with one point, If she embraces our religions, I may say that we are the happiest persons in the world Margaret could not have opposed this match with Henry more, but it was going to happen whether she wanted or not.
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