Catherine De Medicis

Catherine de Medicis lived from 1519 to 1589. She was the queen of France and mother of three French kings. Catherine was born in Florence, Italy, into the fantastically wealthy and powerful Medici family. She married a French duke, who became King Henry II in 1567, and spent many several relatively quiet years as a wife and mother. However, after her husband and her first son, King Francis II, died, she took control of France as regent for her second son, King Charles IX. Even after he came of age, she kept a tight grip on the reigns of power.

In order to protect the power of the crown, she intervened in the conflict brewing between Roman Catholics and Protestant Huguenots. Civil war broke out in 1562, and again in 1567, but in both cases Catherine used political machinations and royal edicts to end the fighting and preserve her power. Still fearful of the Huguenots, though, she plotted to kill their leader. In 1572 her plot unfolded in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which left fifty thousands Huguenots dead.

Two years later her third son, Henry III, became king and her power waned. By then, however, she had managed to marry one daughter to King Philip II of Spain and another to the next king of France. She also encouraged the advancement of French learning, art and architecture, adding a wing to the Louvre, building the Tuileries gardens and chateau of Monceau, and assembling a celebrated library of rare manuscripts.