Who was Catherine de' Medici and why is she historically significant?
Catherine de' Medici was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King Henry II, and the mother of three French kings: Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. She has been called the most important woman in Europe in the 16th century because she wielded extensive political influence during the reigns of all three sons, effectively serving as regent and chief executive of France through decades of civil and religious war.
What role did Catherine de' Medici play in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572?
Catherine de' Medici is widely associated with the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, which began on the 23rd of August 1572 and resulted in thousands of Huguenots being killed across France. Historians have suggested she and her advisers approved a pre-emptive strike on Huguenot leaders gathered in Paris after the wedding of her daughter Margaret, fearing a Huguenot uprising in retaliation for the earlier attack on Admiral Coligny. Evidence for her involvement appears in her own letters, though some historians have argued her authority was limited by the chaos of the civil wars.
How did Catherine de' Medici become regent of France?
Catherine became regent after her son Francis II died on the 5th of December 1560. Before his death, she made a pact with Antoine de Bourbon by which he renounced his right to the regency in exchange for the release of his brother Conde, who had been sentenced to death. The Privy Council then appointed Catherine as governor of France with sweeping powers, and she went on to preside over the council of her ten-year-old son Charles IX.
What happened to Catherine de' Medici as a child in Florence?
Catherine was orphaned before she was thirty days old: her mother Madeleine died of puerperal fever on the 28th of April 1519 and her father Lorenzo died on the 4th of May 1519. In 1527, when the Medici were overthrown in Florence, the eight-year-old Catherine was taken hostage and placed in a series of convents. During the siege of Florence by Charles's troops, voices called for the ten-year-old to be killed or handed over to soldiers to be raped. The city surrendered on the 12th of August 1530.
What was Catherine de' Medici's contribution to the arts in France?
Catherine de' Medici launched a programme of artistic patronage that lasted three decades and presided over a distinctive late French Renaissance culture across all branches of the arts. She commissioned the tomb of Henry II at the basilica of Saint Denis, designed by Francesco Primaticcio and sculpted by Germain Pilon, which art historian Henri Zerner called the last and most brilliant of the royal tombs of the Renaissance. She also expanded the role of dance in court entertainment, and the production of the Ballet Comique de la Reine in 1581 is regarded by scholars as the first authentic ballet.
When and how did Catherine de' Medici die?
Catherine de' Medici died on the 5th of January 1589 at the age of sixty-nine, probably from pleurisy. Those close to her believed her life had been shortened by distress over her son Henry III's assassination of the Duke of Guise on the 23rd of December 1588. Because Paris was held by enemies of the crown at the time of her death, she was buried provisionally at Blois; her remains were later reinterred in the Saint-Denis basilica in Paris.