She was the mother of three kings, the wife of another and the niece of a powerful pope and those links aren’t even the most interesting things about a woman who ended up having a whole age named after her. She’s a controversial figure, even now, but her impact on royal history is undeniable.
Catherine de Medici was born into the famous aristocratic Florentine family on 13 April 1519 and would go on to become one of the most powerful women in Europe. She was the daughter of Lorenzo de’Medici, Duke of Urbino, and his wife, Madeleine. The couple were young, glamourous and players in one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe. Yet by the time their daughter was a month old, they were both dead.
Catherine’s parents had both died by the first week of May 1519, leaving her an orphan. She was raised by her family members until a major shift in power saw the Medicis overturned and she was taken hostage in 1527. She lived in a series of convents for 3 years and while it was relatively peaceful for her, in 1529 the city was besieged with the troops calling for the young girl to be killed and her corpse displayed naked.
Catherine was eventually rescued. Pope Clement VII, who was her mother’s brother, set about trying to find a husband for his young niece. King Francis I of France proposed his second son, Prince Henri. Catherine and Henri were married in October 1533 when they were both just fourteen years old. Clement died soon afterwards, leaving Catherine somewhat unsupported in her new role.
Henri was only minimally interested in his wife and took many mistresses. His relationship with Diane de Poitiers became legendary but left his young wife out in the cold. Catherine also didn’t become pregnant, exposing her to rumours and the possibility of her marriage being annulled. However, Catherine and Henri eventually had a large family together including eight surviving children. Three of them would go on to be King of France.
First the French throne had to pass to Henri which it did in 1547 when King Francis died. King Henri II was now in total charge of France but he tried to marginalise his queen and even gave a palace she desired, the Chateau of Chenonceau, to his favourite mistress, Diane de Poitiers.
Henri died twelve years later, in 1559, and it was then that Catherine gained power. She played a major role during her sons’ reigns and quickly showed her guile in claiming more power and authority.
Though she technically did not have a guaranteed role as the mother of the monarch, her sons depended on her. The first to reign was Francis II. He ruled alongside his young wife, Mary, Queen of Scots, but still worked closely with his mother. A power battle developed at his court between the Bourbons and the Guises.
When Francis II died, in 1560, another of Catherine’s sons took the throne. The10 year old King Charles IX depended on his mother as regent, a position she had quickly secured by deftly playing the Bourbons and the Guises off against one another. Queen Catherine now held power and had no intention of yielding it again.
It would lead to swirls of rumours about her that have turned her into a queen called ‘serpent’ by some. As she looked to make dynastic matches for her children, she negotiated with Jeanne, Queen of Navarre. Catherine wanted her own daughter, Marguerite, to marry Jeanne’s son, Henri. The two women met at court and eventually agreed a wedding. Jeanne returned home and died just months later. Soon, whispers began that Catherine had sent her a pair of poisoned gloves.
The marriage of Henri of Navarre and Marguerite of France went ahead, regardless, but the drama ramped up just days after the wedding when Catherine and her son, King Charles IX, became fearful of a revolt by Huguenots. A tumultuous series of events led to the t. Bartholomew Day’s massacre which saw thousands of Huguenots killed in Paris and beyond.
In 1574, Charles’ death at 23 meant that a third son of Catherine and Henri II would sit on the French throne. While King Henri III was an adult, he was close with his mother and considered her invaluable to his council.
Catherine died shortly before the end of Henri’s reign in 1589, meaning that she lived through the reigns of five French monarchs: her father-in-law, her husband, and three of her children.
But there was one more twist in her tale. King Henri III died just seven months after his mother and was succeeded by Henri of Navarre meaning Catherine’s daughter, Marguerite, was now Queen of France. It was another chapter in a fascinating story that was always far more than Catherine’s ancestors.
