Catherine de' Medici (13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King Henry II. She was the mother of French kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III, and a cousin to Pope Clement VII. The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" since she had extensive, albeit at times varying, influence on the political life of France.Thomson, 98; Sutherland, Ancien Régime, 3; Neale, The Age of Catherine de Medici.
Catherine was born to the Medici family in Florence to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne. In 1533, at the age of 14, she married Henry, the second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France, who would become Dauphin of France (heir to the throne) upon the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536. Catherine's marriage was arranged by Clement VII. Henry largely excluded Catherine from state affairs during his reign, instead showering favours on his chief mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who wielded significant influence in the court. Henry's sudden accidental death in 1559 thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail 15-year-old Francis II. When Francis II died the next year, she became regent on behalf of her 10-year-old son Charles IX and thus gained sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life but outlived her by just seven months.
Catherine's three sons reigned in an age of almost constant civil and religious war in France. The Catholic Guise faction tried to displace her sons in its attempt to establish its own dynasty to rule over France. Catherine also tried to think of ways to weaken the Guise Faction, which treated her scornfully. The problems facing the monarchy were complex and daunting. However, Catherine kept the monarchy and state institutions functioning, if at a minimal level. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Calvinist Protestants known as Huguenots. However, she failed to fully grasp the theological issues that drove their movement. Later, she resorted in frustration and anger to hardline policies against them, also pleasing the hardline Catholic party.Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, 272. In return, she was blamed for the persecutions carried out under her sons' rule, in particular the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, during which thousands of Huguenots were killed in France.
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.Knecht, 272. For a summary of the fluctuations in Catherine's historical reputation, see the preface to R. J. Knecht's Catherine de' Medici, 1998: xi–xiv. In practice, her authority was limited by the effects of the civil wars, and she suffers in comparison to what might have been had her husband the king lived to take responsibility or stabilise the country. 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.Sutherland, Ancien Régime, 20. Without Catherine, it is unlikely that her sons would have remained in power.Sutherland, Ancien Régime, 26. Catherine has been called "the most important woman in Europe" in the 16th century.Strage, Mark (1976). Women of Power: The Life and Times of Catherine de' Medici. London and New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich. Prologue, p. xi.
Birth and upbringing
Catherine de' Medici was born Caterina Maria Romula de' MediciFrieda, Leonie, Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France, p. 14 ("the baby received the names Caterina, a Medici family name, Maria, since it was the day of the Holy Virgin, and Romula, after the founder of Fiesole"). on 13 April 1519 in Florence, Republic of Florence, the only child of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, the countess of Boulogne. 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. According to a contemporary chronicler, when Catherine was born, her parents were "as pleased as if it had been a boy".
Within a month of Catherine's birth, both her parents died: Madeleine died on 28 April of puerperal fever, and Lorenzo died on 4 May.Knecht 1998, p. 8 (dates of death); Héritier 1963, p. 15 (cause of Madeleine's death). King Francis wanted Catherine to be raised at the French court, but Pope Leo refused, claiming he wanted her to marry Ippolito de' Medici.Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, 8. Leo made Catherine Duchess of Urbino but annexed most of the Duchy of Urbino to the Papal States, permitting Florence to keep only the Fortress of San Leo. 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.Frieda 2003, p. 22 (New York edition).
Catherine was first cared for by her paternal grandmother, Alfonsina Orsini. After Alfonsina's death in 1520, Catherine joined her cousins and was raised by her aunt, Clarice de' Medici. The death of Pope Leo in 1521 briefly interrupted Medici power until Cardinal Giulio de' Medici was elected Pope Clement VII in 1523. Clement housed Catherine in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, where she lived in state. The Florentine people called her duchessina ("the little duchess"), in deference to her unrecognised claim to the Duchy of Urbino.Young, The Medici: Volume II, 15.
In 1527, the Medici were overthrown in Florence by a faction opposed to the regime of Clement's representative, Cardinal Silvio Passerini, and Catherine was taken hostage and placed in a series of convents.Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, p. 11. The final one, the was her home for three years. Mark Strage described these years as "the happiest of her entire life".Strage, pp. 13, 15 Clement had no choice but to crown Charles of Austria as Holy Roman Emperor in return for his help in retaking the city.Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, 10–11. In October 1529, Charles's troops laid siege to Florence. As the siege dragged on, voices called for the 10-year-old Catherine to be killed, stripped naked and chained to the city walls. Some even suggested that she be handed over to the troops to be raped.Strage, p.15 The city finally surrendered on 12 August 1530. Clement summoned Catherine from her beloved convent to join him in Rome where he greeted her with open arms and tears in his eyes. Then he set about the business of finding her a husband.Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, 12.
Marriage
On her visit to Rome, the Venetians described Catherine as "small of stature, and thin, and without delicate features, but having the protruding eyes peculiar to the Medici family".Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, p. 14. 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.Hay, Denys, ed., The Letters of James V, HMSO (1954), p. 173, 180–182, 189, When Francis I of France proposed his second son, Henry, Duke of Orléans, in early 1533, Clement jumped at the offer. Although distantly related in several ways, Henry was a prize catch for Catherine, whose Medici family, despite its wealth, was of common origin.
The wedding, a grand affair marked by extravagant display and gift-giving, took place in the Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins in Marseille on 28 October 1533. Prince Henry danced and jousted for Catherine. The fourteen-year-old couple left their wedding ball at midnight to perform their nuptial duties. Henry arrived in the bedroom with King Francis, who is said to have stayed until the marriage was consummated. He noted that "each had shown valour in the joust".Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, 16. Clement visited the newlyweds in bed the next morning and added his blessings to the night's proceedings.
Catherine saw little of her husband in their first year of marriage, but the ladies of the court, impressed with her intelligence and keenness to please, treated her well. However, the death of her papal cousin on 25 September 1534 undermined Catherine's standing in the French court. The next pope, Alessandro Farnese, was elected on 13 October and took the title Paul III. 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.Frieda 2003, p. 47 (NY edition). Knecht 1998, p. 28, gives likely incorrect dates of 25 September 1533 for the death of Pope Clement VII and 12 October for the election of Pope Paul III. King Francis lamented, "The girl has come to me stark naked."Frieda 2003, p. 48 (NY edition): "J'ai reçu la fille toute nue." Knecht 1998, p. 28, gives the English translation ""The girl has been given to me stark naked." He cites Cloulas (Catherine de Médicis, 1979, p. 57), who gives the French as "J'ai eu la fille toute nue", without citing a source.
Prince Henry showed no interest in Catherine as a wife; instead, he openly took mistresses. For the first ten years of the marriage, the royal couple failed to produce any children together. In 1537, he had a brief affair with Philippa Duci, who gave birth to a daughter, whom he publicly acknowledged.Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, 29–30. Henry legitimised the child under the name Diane de France; he also produced at least two sons by other women (Knecht, p. 38). This proved that Henry was fertile and added to the pressure on Catherine to produce a child.
Dauphine In 1536, Henry's older brother, Francis, caught a chill after a game of tennis, contracted a fever and died shortly after, leaving Henry the heir. Suspicions of poison abounded, from Catherine to Emperor Charles V. Sebastiano de Montecuccoli confessed under torture to poisoning the Dauphin.
As dauphine, Catherine was expected to provide a future heir to the throne.Knecht, Catherine de' Medici, 29. According to the court chronicler Brantôme, "many people advised the king and the Dauphin to repudiate her, since it was necessary to continue the line of France".Knecht, 29. Divorce was discussed. In desperation, Catherine tried every known trick for getting pregnant, such as placing cow dung and ground stags' antlers on her "source of life", and drinking mule's urine. On 19 January 1544 she at last gave birth to a son, named after King Francis.
After becoming pregnant once, Catherine had no trouble doing so again. She may have owed her change of fortune to the physician Jean Fernel, who allegedly noticed slight abnormalities in the couple's sexual organs and advised them how to solve the problem. However, he denied ever providing such advice. Catherine quickly conceived again and on 2 April 1545 she bore a daughter, Elisabeth. She went on to bear Henry a further eight children, five of whom survived infancy: the future Charles IX (born 27 June 1550); the future Henry III (born 19 September 1551); and Francis, Duke of Anjou (born 18 March 1555), Claude (born 12 November 1547) and Margaret (born 14 May 1553). The long-term future of the Valois dynasty, which had ruled France since the 14th century, seemed assured.