Catherine de Médicis

Catherine de Médicis

 orig. Caterina de' Medici

(born April 13, 1519, Florence—died Jan. 5, 1589, Blois, France) Queen consort of Henry II (1547–59), mother of Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III, and regent of France (1560–74). A member of the Medici family, she married Henry in 1533 and bore him 10 children. She became queen when Henry inherited the crown in 1547, and she greatly mourned his accidental death in 1559. After their son Francis became king, she began a long struggle with members of the Guise family, extremists who sought to dominate the crown. After Francis's premature death in 1560, she became regent for Charles IX until 1563 and dominated the rest of his reign until 1574. She attempted to settle the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots. She has traditionally been blamed for the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day, but, though she authorized the assassination of Gaspard II de Coligny and his principal followers, it appears that she did not authorize the massacre that followed.

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Catherine de Médicis 

Born Apr. 13, 1519, in Florence; died Jan. 5, 1589, in Blois. French queen.

In 1533, Catherine, a member of the Medici family of Florence, married Henry II, who reigned as king of France from 1547 to 1559. During the reigns of her sons Francis II (from 1559 to 1560), Charles IX (from 1560 to 1574), and Henry III (from 1574 to 1589), she determined state policy to a considerable extent. During the religious wars she sought to bar the nobles from running the affairs of state. Catherine was maneuvering in her policy-making. In 1570 she insisted on the conclusion of the Treaty of St. Germain with the Huguenots. However, in 1572, fearing the increased power of the Huguenots and especially the strength of their leader Coligny’s influence on Charles IX, Catherine was one of the principal organizers of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

REFERENCES

Castelnau, J. Catherine de Médicis (1519–1589). Paris [1954].
Héritier, J. Catherine de Médicis. Paris [1959].