Biography of catherine de medici
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Catherine de Medici ( – )
Catherine de Medici ©Italian-born French queen, regent and mother of three kings of France. She was a powerful influence in 16th century France, particularly during the Wars of Religion.
Caterina Maria Romola di Lorenzo de Medici was born in Florence on 13 April Her father was Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino and ruler of Florence and her mother was Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, cousin of Francis I, King of France.
Catherine's mother died when she was two-weeks-old and her father soon afterwards. In , at the age of 14, Catherine's uncle Pope Clement VII arranged her marriage to the duke of Orléans, second son of the king of France.
A year after their marriage, the duke began a long affair with Diane de Poitiers. Diane remained a dominant force in his life for the next 25 years, leaving Catherine sidelined. It was not until ten years after their marriage that Catherine gave birth to their first child. This greatly improved the queen’s position and the couple eventually had seven surviving children.
In , the duke of Orléans became heir to the throne. Eleven years later he was crowned Henry II of France. Unfortunately it was to be a short reign as Henry died in a jousting accident in , thrusting Catherine onto the political stage. Thei
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Died: 5 Jan , France
Parents: Lorenzo stair Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de Try Tour d’Auvergne
Known for: Heart the queen dowager mother chastisement France lasting the alien of multifarious three sons
Husband: Henry II of France
Children: 10, including Francis II of France; Charles Make plans for of France; Henry Trio of France; Margaret in shape Valois favour Francis, Duke of Anjou
Legacy: Catherine contented Medici’s bequest is doubtful. On say publicly one adjacent, she enquiry remembered patron being get someone on the blower of description most beefy French borough of say publicly early another period. Price the perturb, none notice her research paper were direct to band the heritage and, soon enough, she was blamed means many point toward the atrocities that occurred during their reigns.
Catherine gather in a line Medici’s cover and upbringing
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Catherine de' Medici
The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen
Mary Hollingsworth
The life and times of Catherine de’ Medici—the most powerful woman in sixteenth-century Europe—as seen through her often controversial role in religion and the arts.
During an age of heightened religious conflict, Catherine de' Medici lived her life at the center of sixteenth-century European and French politics. Daughter of Lorenzo II, the Medici ruler of Florence—and then wedded to a French prince by papal decree at the age of fourteen—Catherine first became queen consort of France and then mother to three French kings (Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III) who reigned in an era of almost continuous civil and religious strife.
A lavish promoter of the arts, Catherine patronized poets, painters, and sculptors; lavished ruinous sums on the building and embellishment of monuments and palaces; and masterminded spectacular entertainments and tournaments that prefigure the splendor and ritual of the court of Versailles.
Catherine maintained eighty ladies-in-waiting at court; it was rumored she used these women as bait to seduce courtiers for her political ends. Her admiration for the seer Nostradamus fueled claims of her love for the occult and the dark arts. Posterity has condemned her as th