Did the De Medici Marry Into the De Guise Family

Catherine de' Medici Biography

Built-in: April 13, 1519
Florence, Italy
Died: January 5, 1589
Blois, France
Italian-born politician

Catherine de' Medici was married to the French King Henry II (1519– 1559) and was female parent and regent (ane who governs a kingdom in the absence of the real ruler) of three other kings—Francis II (1544–1560), Charles IX (1550–1574), and Henry 3 (1551–1589). She had keen influence over her sons and is thought past some to have authorized the famous Massacre of St. Bartholomew'south Day in 1572.

Early life

Catherine was built-in in 1519 to a powerful Italian prince from the Medici family unit. Her mother died a few days after giving birth, and her father died a week later on. Her father'southward relatives, among them popes Leo X (1475–1521) and Clement VII (1478–1534), took over her care. At the time of her birth, the Reformation was beginning with Martin Luther'southward (1483–1546) criticism of the Roman Catholic Church building. It presently spread throughout Europe. Protestants, as they came to be called, sought a truer class of their faith than that offered by the political and often corrupt (engaging in unlawful activeness) Catholic Church. French Protestants were known as Huguenots, and the rapid growth of their numbers presently made them a powerful force in French diplomacy.

In 1533 Pope Clement bundled the matrimony of fourteen-year-quondam Catherine to fourteen-year-sometime Henry, the knuckles of Orleans and younger son of King Francis I (1494–1547) of France. Catherine somewhen gave birth to 10 children, beginning in 1543. The death of her hubby's older blood brother in 1536 made Henry and Catherine next in line for the throne. Catherine's husband, now Henry Ii, had been cared for at age eleven by Diane de Poitiers, who was xx years his senior. Despite this age difference, they became lovers, and throughout nigh of Henry's reign as king of French republic, which began in 1547,

Catherine de' Medici.
Reproduced past permission of the

Corbis Corporation

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Diane had more influence over him than Catherine did. Diane was even given responsibility for raising Catherine'south children.

Teenage kings

The Cosmic leaders of France and Kingdom of spain made peace in 1559 partly considering they needed money just also so they could unite against Protestantism. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of Philip II (1527–1598) of Espana to Elisabeth, the teenage daughter of Catherine and King Henry. At the joust (a fight on horseback) held during the nuptials celebrations, however, Rex Henry was injured by a lance that pierced his eye and entered his encephalon. Henry's death a few days later brought his and Catherine's oldest son, sixteen-year-old Francis 2, to the throne.

Sensing an opportunity, Huguenot leaders quickly organized a plot to take over the court of Francis Ii. Their plan failed, and the majestic army arrested the leaders, executing l-seven of them. This did not end the conflicts in French republic; from this time frontward, the Huguenot Navarre family and the Catholic Guise family began a long struggle. The death of Francis Two the following year made Catherine regent for her second son Charles, who became King Charles IX at the age of 10. Through much of the 1560s, the two religious groups were at war while Catherine and Charles tried to avoid siding completely with either camp. Catherine tried to keep the state running smoothly in the face of this abiding tension. The feud betwixt the Navarre and Guise families became worse when the Huguenot leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (1519–1572) ordered the assassination of the duke of Guise in 1563.

The Peace of St. Germain

The signing of the Peace of St. Germain in 1570 brought a temporary finish to a decade of state of war. Among the treaty'due south provisions were the decisions that Catherine's daughter Marguerite would marry Henry of Navarre (1553–1610), the Huguenot leader, that the Huguenots would be given several territories throughout France, and that Coligny would return to his position in the imperial court. Catherine hoped he might act to at-home his fellow Huguenots while she played the aforementioned role amongst Catholics. Only Coligny rapidly moved to become a friend and adviser of King Charles Ix, leading many to believe he was planning another takeover.

Catherine decided to dispose of Gaspard de Coligny once and for all. She accepted an offering from the Guise party to have him assassinated, hoping that it would lead to revived power for her own party. The assassin shot Coligny merely failed to kill him. After talking to Catherine and his younger brother Henry, Charles finally accepted their claim that Coligny was using him, that Coligny planned to overthrow the whole Cosmic court, and he and the other Huguenot leaders should now be finished off. According to his brother Henry'due south diary, Charles at last shouted, "Kill the Admiral if you wish; but yous must as well impale all the Huguenots, so that non one is left live to reproach (oppose) me. Kill them all!"

Massacre and more conflict

At ii in the forenoon on Baronial 24, Saint Bartholomew's Twenty-four hours, 1572, Catholic troops moved to kill the injured Coligny and other Huguenot leaders. Eventually all sense of club broke down; looting and fighting broke out across Paris, and over two thousand men, women, and children wound upward expressionless. Catherine was reported to have ordered the attacks, but this has never been completely proved. Another ceremonious state of war began, simply by a strange plow of events, leadership of the Huguenot party now fell to Catherine's youngest son Francis, duke of Alençon. Placing himself at the head of the Protestant forces and dreaming of a crown, he alleged that his older blood brother Henry, who had just been elected to the throne of Poland, was no longer available to rule France.

The departure of Catherine's third son, Henry, to take over the throne of Poland prompted another Huguenot uprising. With her usual free energy, Catherine organized forces to cease it, and with her usual decisiveness, she witnessed the executions of its leaders. She besides witnessed the death of her son King Charles, anile twenty-four. She recalled her favorite, Henry, to take over equally king. Henry Three was crowned in 1575 and married, but he had no children who might eventually presume the throne. He also had disagreements with the Guise family unit, which complicated things. Catherine urged Henry to settle his differences with the Guise family for the sake of national and Catholic security.

Catherine remained politically active until the stop of her life, touring France on Henry'due south behalf and trying to maintain the loyalty of its many war-torn territories. She also built up a huge drove of books and paintings, and she congenital or enlarged some of Paris's finest buildings. In 1589 she became ill while dancing at the marriage of i of her granddaughters. She died on January 5, living just long enough to hear that Henry's bodyguards had murdered Guise, which she saw as a rejection past her son of all that she had worked for. Later on that year, Henry Three was assassinated. In another twist, it was the Huguenot prince Henry of Navarre who took over the throne; he was unable to sit upon it until he adopted the Catholic organized religion in 1593 with the famous remark, "Paris is worth a Mass."

For More Data

Knecht, R. Thou. Catherine de' Medici. New York: Longman, 1998.

Mahoney, Irene. Madame Catherine. New York: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, 1975.

Paulson, Michael G. Catherine de' Médici: Five Portraits. New York: P. Lang, 2002.

Strage, Mark. Women of Power: The Life and Times of Catherine de' Medici. New York: Harcourt Caryatid Jovanovich, 1976.

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Source: https://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Medici-Catherine-de.html

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