Unlike the proposals of Poissy, the edict was law, which the Protestants accepted and the Catholics rejected. Both of her parents died within weeks of her birth, leaving her an orphan. [109] On 23 December 1588, he asked the Duke of Guise to call on him at the Chteau de Blois. This plan also had the added advantage of removing the Huguenots from France, but it failed to interest the Ottomans.[61]. Her merciful Edict of Amboise (March 1560) was followed in May by that of Romorantin, which distinguished heresy from sedition, thereby detaching faith from allegiance. Clarice Orsini (c. 1453 29 July 1487) was the daughter of Jacopo (Giacomo) Orsini (see Orsini family), lord of Monterotondo and Bracciano, and his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini. Art historian Henri Zerner has called this monument "the last and most brilliant of the royal tombs of the Renaissance. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Margaret of Valois was the third daughter and seventh child of King Henry II of France and his Italian queen, Catherine de Medici. 15 Feb 1471, d. 28 Dec 1503. This lends some weight to the suggestion that people were labelled 'witches' simply because they did not act the way a woman would have been expected to act, or simply to suit personal or political agendas. Under her son, Francis II, power was retained by the Guise brothers. [4] Catherine decided to launch a drive to enforce the Edict of Amboise and revive loyalty to the crown. She wrote to Bellivre, "Never have I seen myself in such trouble or with so little light by which to escape. Author of. [107] The king's actions effectively ended her days of power. Born: April 13, 1519, in Florence, Italy. [135] Barbara Ketcham Wheaton and Stephen Mennell provided the definitive arguments against these claims. Unlike his brothers, he came to the throne as a grown man. "[126] After Henry II's death, Catherine set out to immortalise her husband's memory and to enhance the grandeur of the Valois monarchy through a series of costly building projects. The death of Pope Leo in 1521 briefly interrupted Medici power until Cardinal Giulio de' Medici was elected Pope Clement VII in 1523. The surgery removed part of the birthmark, but left Clarissa greatly disfigured due to the use of potions. [134] The end of the Valois dynasty so soon after her death brought a change in priorities. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. The murder triggered an aristocratic blood feud that complicated the French civil wars for years to come. [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. WebBorn into the one of the great families of the Italian Renaissance, Clarice Orsini was the daughter of Jacopo Orsini of Monterotondo, a man whose family had made its fortune as mercenaries. In 1585, Margaret fled Navarre again. [88] Francis died of consumption in June 1584, after a disastrous intervention in the Low Countries during which his army had been massacred. At first Catherine kept him very close to her, and even slept in his chamber. [119] After Catherine's death, a decline in the quality of French portraiture set in. This rejection was one basic element in the outbreak of civil war in 1562, in whichas she had predictedCatherine fell, politically, into the clutches of the extremists, because the Catholic crown might protect its Protestant subjects in law but could not defend them in arms. 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. Catherine's husband, now Henry II, had been cared for at age eleven by Diane de Poitiers, who was twenty years his senior. Blunt calls Caron's style "perhaps the purest known type of Mannerism in its elegant form, appropriate to an exquisite but neurotic society." 16th-century Italian noblewoman and queen consort of France, Consorts to debatable or disputed rulers are in. He was also a Huguenot while Margaret was a Catholic. 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. Margaret would later write that she trembled whenever she was summoned by her mother. 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. 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. 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]. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King Henry II and the mother of French kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). By 1610, the school patronised by the late Valois court and brought to its pinnacle by Franois Clouet had all but died out. How old was Catherine de Medici when she got married? The League took control of much of northern France to secure French ports for his armada. [127] These included work on the Chteau de Montceaux, Chteau de Saint-Maur, and Chenonceau. As a Farnese he felt no obligation to keep Clement's promises, broke the alliance with Francis and refused to continue paying her huge dowry. What was Catherine de Medici best known for? As dauphine, Catherine was expected to provide a future heir to the throne. [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. 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]. Rumours of Henry's inability to produce children were by that time in wide circulation. Catherine ordered him to court and had him imprisoned as soon as he arrived. When Jeanne arrived in Paris to buy clothes for the wedding, she was taken ill and died on 9 June 1572, aged forty-three. 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. There is so much treachery about that I die of fear. Her efforts won Catherine new respect from the French people. 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. Henry allowed Catherine almost no political influence as queen. During this time, she presided over a distinctive late French Renaissance culture in all branches of the arts. On 25 November 1579, she wrote to the king, "You are on the eve of a general revolt. In 1793, a revolutionary mob tossed her bones into a mass grave with those of the other kings and queens.[114]. Catherine, Diane, and Prince Francis all fainted. Her eldest daughter was Elisabeth, and she was born on 2 April 1545. Their sister Mary of Guise had married James V of Scotland in 1538 and was the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Blunt, 98, 100. [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. 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. The Spanish ambassador told Philip II that the abscess was about to burst.[103]. 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. 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. [80], The slaughter in Paris lasted for almost a week. Claude was raised alongside her sister Elisabeth, the future Queen of Spain, and sister-in-law Queen Mary of Scotland. 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 challenges Catherine faced were complex and in some ways difficult for her to comprehend as a foreigner. From that moment, she abandoned compromise for a policy of repression. Frieda 2003, p. 48 (NY edition): "J'ai reu la fille toute nue." 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. [43] Others they drowned in the river or strung up around the battlements while Catherine and the court watched. In Banished, it is revealed that Diane was responsible for the deaths of Emone and Henrietta . "[112] She left in tears. Catherine was one of his godparents and was overjoyed to see her daughter again. [60], In 1566, through the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Guillaume de Grandchamp de Grantrie, and because of a long-standing Franco-Ottoman alliance, Charles and Catherine proposed to the Ottoman Court a plan to resettle French Huguenots and French and German Lutherans in Ottoman-controlled Moldavia, in order to create a military colony and a buffer against the Habsburg. 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. In an age of civil war and declining respect for the monarchy, she sought to bolster royal prestige through lavish cultural display. * * *. 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. The start of Season One, in 1557, Diane de Poitiers was actually 58 years old. She was later captured after villagers accused her of stealing, and she was about to be hanged when King Henry's son Sebastian de Poitiers interceded and decided to bring her to court to face trial. On 24 June 1556, Catherine gave birth to twin daughters Joan and Victoire. [45] Neither saw the need to punish Protestants who worshipped in private and did not take up arms. It spread to many parts of France, where it persisted into the autumn. "[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. [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. At the age of fifty-nine, she embarked on an eighteen-month journey around the south of France to meet Huguenot leaders face to face. To create the necessary dramas, music, and scenic effects for these events, Catherine employed the leading artists and architects of the day. He called her not only the mother of the king but the mother of the state. [8] King Francis wanted Catherine to be raised at the French court, but Pope Leo refused, claiming he wanted her to marry Ippolito de' Medici. Prince Henry showed no interest in Catherine as a wife; instead, he openly took mistresses. 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. Through the intervention of Doctor Jean Fernel, the royal couple went on to have 10 children. 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. Most of the Orsini men were soldiers, a profession which allowed them to amass huge territories around Rome and Naples. Thus began her lifelong struggleexplicit in her correspondencewith these extremists who, supported by Spain and the papacy, sought to dominate the crown and extinguish its independence in the commingled interests of European Catholicism and personal aggrandizement. She is the younger half-sister of Clarissa and Sebastian, the younger sister of Francis, Louis, Elisabeth, Claude, Charles, Henry, Henrietta and Emone. For the first ten years of the marriage, the royal couple failed to produce any children together. [35] Henry reeled out of the clash, his face pouring blood, with splinters "of a good bigness" sticking out of his eye and head. Jeanne finally agreed to the marriage between her son and Margaret, so long as Henry could remain a Huguenot. WebClarice di Piero de' Medici (14891528) [1] was the daughter of Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici and Alfonsina Orsini . [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. The death of her husband's older brother in 1536 made Henry and Catherine next in line for the throne. [148] Nevertheless, Catherine was never formally accused or prosecuted despite the fact that her reign experienced the greatest number of prosecutions for witchcraft in Italy. [124] Owing to its synthesis of dance, music, verse, and setting, the production of the Ballet Comique de la Reine in 1581 is regarded by scholars as the first authentic ballet. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. In 1561, with the support of the distinguished chancellor Michel de LHospital, she began by trying to propitiate the leaders of both religious factions, to effect reforms and economies by unassailably traditional methods, and to settle the religious conflict. Elisabeth had died, in a most Christian manner dressed in the habit of Saint-Franois, preceded to heaven by the child she carried who had received the holy water of the sacred baptism. Upon hearing the news of her daughters death, Catherine withdrew without a word to her private chapel. WebHistorically, by Louis, she had two daughters, who were influential members of the royal household- there's no mention of a son like in the show, Sebastian . Catherine de Medici was the daughter of Lorenzo di Piero de Medici, duca di Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour dAuvergne, a Bourbon princess related to many of the French nobility. On 12 May 1588, they set up barricades in the streets and refused to take orders from anyone except the Duke of Guise. Young Elisabeth constantly suffered from childhood ailments and had not inherited her mothers robust health. [23] This proved that Henry was fertile and added to the pressure on Catherine to produce a child. [92] Her role in his government became that of chief executive and roving diplomat. "[95], Many leading Roman Catholics were appalled by Catherine's attempts to appease the Huguenots. Catherine stayed by his bedside, but Diane kept away, "for fear", in the words of a chronicler, "of being expelled by the Queen". It was designed by Francesco Primaticcio (15041570), with sculpture by Germain Pilon (15281590). Where was Catherine de Medici born and raised? [48], Charles IX was nine years old at the time of his coronation, during which he cried. "[94] She was under no illusions, however. Therefore, her policies may be seen as desperate measures to keep the House of Valois on the throne at all costs and her patronage of the arts as an attempt to glorify a monarchy whose prestige was in steep decline. "[90] The death of her youngest son was a calamity for Catherine's dynastic dreams. 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. [44], In June 1560, Michel de l'Hpital was appointed Chancellor of France. Despite her optimism, the resulting Colloquy of Poissy ended in failure on 13 October 1561, dissolving itself without her permission. Three of her sons became kings of France, while two of her daughters married kings and one married a duke. Her marriage to Henry would remain childless. (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. "[72] When Jeanne did come to court, Catherine pressured her hard,[73] playing on Jeanne's hopes for her beloved son. WebDid Queen Catherine have an illegitimate daughter? In August 1563 she declared the King of age in the Parlement of Rouen and, from April 1564 to January 1566, conducted him on a marathon itinerary round France. Catherine was overjoyed at the match, but her joy was overshadowed by the death of her husband. As a baby, she was given to Nostradamus' father who tried to remove the mark but only ended up making it worse. On 8 September 1588 at Blois, where the court had assembled for a meeting of the Estates, Henry dismissed all his ministers without warning. Corrections? "Princely Culture and Catherine de Mdicis". Catherine de' Medici married Henry, Duke of Orlans, the future Henry II of France, in Marseille on 28 October 1533. "[112] She visited her old friend Cardinal de Bourbon on 1 January 1589 to tell him she was sure he would soon be freed. 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. [140] Catherine and Henry's inability to produce an heir for the first ten years of their marriage gave rise to suspicion of witchcraft. When King Francis I died on 31 March 1547, Catherine became queen consort of France. On 16 October 1568, Catherine wrote to Elisabeths husband to offer advice during Elisabeths pregnancy. King Henry took part in the jousting, sporting Diane's black-and-white colours. The members of the Flying Squadron were supposedly so beautiful and so good at their jobs that they were known to make men see God, or at least worship Him in a different way. Charles had been largely brought up at the French Court and Claude probably knew him well. 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. [82], Two years later, Catherine faced a new crisis with the death of Charles IX at the age of twenty-three. 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.
