Catherine de' Medici
“The truth is, not one of is innocent. We all have sins to confess.”
- The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner
I have done posts about the Borgias, so I thought that it only be fitting that I do a post on this lady. Catherine was a Florence born girl from the Medici family who were rivals of the Borgias.
Catherine was born in Florence, Italy in April 1519. Her family at the time were rich, wealthy and powerful bankers in Florence. Her died within a month of her birth, so they was raised by her grandmother and then her aunt. During her life two males in her family became Pope of Rome: Pope Leo X and Clement VII. The citizens of Florence named her duchessina (the little duchess).
In 1527, her family was overthrown by the Florence people due to Pope Clement's rule. Catherine was put into several convents and forced to work for the nuns. In October 1529, Charles V troops laid siege to Florence. As the siege dragged on, the people wanted Catherine to be killed and exposed naked and chained to the city walls. It was even suggested that she be handed over to the troops to be used for their sexual gratification. 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.
On her arrival in Rome, the Venetian envoy described Catherine as "small of stature, and thin, and without delicate features, but having the protruding eyes peculiar to the Medici family". She had suitors, including James V of Scotland who sent an envoy in his place, queuing out the door for her hand. Well she was the niece to the Pope of Roman Catholic Church.
But, finally, in 1533 Clement arranged for his niece to wed the Duke of Orleans, Henri Valois (Francis I of France's son). This was a great match as she was wealthy but came from "commoner origins".
The couple were married in October 1533 at Marseille, France. It was a grand affair with dancing and jousting. It was for a nice day for a white wedding. Sorry, I had to use that in this post. The newly-weds left the celebrations at midnight to... you know. Francis is said to have stand witness to make sure the marriage was consummated. He reported that "each had shown valour in the joust". Clement visited them the next morning in bed and gave his blessing.
Catherine saw little of her husband in the first year of marriage. He rarely came to their bed. She was well treated by her the ladies of the court who were impressed with her intelligence and keenness to please.
In 1536, Henry's older brother died of fever, pushing him and Catherine next in line to the throne. They were now the Dauphin and Dauphine of France.
In the first 10 years, Catherine didn't conceive. Henry took a mistress, openly. In 1537, one of his mistresses gave him a daughter who he acknowledged as his. Was this prove that she was barren? France needed them to have a child.
Her ability to conceive did not improve the marriage. Henry took his old governess, Diane de Poitiers, as his mistress in 1538. Diane was 20 years Henry's senior and had more influential over Henry than his wife. It was also her responsibility to raise any royal children.
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". A divorce was a option for the royal family. In desperation, Catherine tried every trick in the book for getting pregnant, such as placing cow dung and ground stags' antlers on her "source of life", and drinking mule's urine. Disgusting, I know but on 19 January 1544, she gave birth to a son, Francis.
After that she had no trouble getting pregnant again. In April 1545, she gave birth to a daughter named Elizabeth. She gave birth to 8 more children during the course of her marriage: Claude, Duchess of Lorraine, Louis of Valois, Charles IX of France, Henry III of France, Margaret, Queen of France, Francis, Duke of Anjou, Louis of Valois, Joan of Valois and Victoria of Valois.
In 1547 King Francis died. Catherine became Queen Consort of France. She was crowned in the basilica of Saint-Denis on 10th June 1549. As Queen she was given no power but to produce heirs for the dynasty. She acted as regent during his absences from France.
Henry adored his mistress over Catherine and the imperial ambassador reported that in the presence of guests, Henry would sit on Diane's lap and play the guitar, chat about politics, or fondle her breasts.Catherine as a threat to Diane. She even encouraged the king to sleep with Catherine and father more children.
In September 1551, Henry was born. He was his mother's favourite; she called him chers yeux ("Precious Eyes") and lavished fondness and affection upon him for most of his life. His elder brother, Charles, grew to detest him, resenting Henry's greater health and activity.
In 1556, Catherine nearly died giving birth to twin daughters: Joan and Victoria. Surgeons saved her life by breaking the legs of Joan, who died in the womb.Victoria died seven weeks later. Pyhscians advised that there be no more children in fear for the Queen's life, so the King stopped visiting her bed.
At the age of five and a half, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, was brought to the French court, where she was betrothed to Francis. Catherine brought her up with her own children at the French court, while Mary of Guise governed Scotland as her daughter's regent.
On 3–4 April 1559, Henry signed the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis with the Holy Roman Empire and England, ending a long period of Italian wars. The treaty was sealed by the betrothal of Catherine's thirteen-year-old daughter Elisabeth to Philip II of Spain. Their proxy wedding in Paris on 22nd June 1559 was celebrated with festivities, balls, masques, and five days of jousting.
King Henry took part in the jousting, sporting Diane's black-and-white colours. He defeated the dukes of Guise and Nemours, but de Montgomery knocked him half out of the saddle. Henry, like most men, insisted on riding against Montgomery again, and this time, Montgomery's lance shattered into the king's face. Painful. There was blood everywhere, with splinters "of a good bigness" sticking out of his eye and head.
Catherine, Diane, and Prince Francis all fainted. Henry was carried to the Château de Tournelles, where five splinters of wood were removed, but one had pierced his eye and brain. Catherine stayed by his bedside, Diane kept away, "for fear of being expelled by the Queen".
For the next ten days, Henry's state fluctuated. At times he even felt well enough to dictate letters and listen to music. Slowly he lost his sight, speech, and reason, and on 10th July 1559 he died. From that day, Catherine took a broken lance as her emblem, inscribed with the words "lacrymae hinc, hinc dolor" ("from this come my tears and my pain"), and wore black mourning in memory of Henry.
The Huguenot (protestants) leaders saw the opportunity to take over the French court, but instead were arrested and beheaded. 57 men were killed. That's a lot of heads. The Tudor would be proud.
The next year, Francis died leaving his 9 year old brother as King Charles IX. Catherine was made regent as her son was too young to rule. During the '60s, there was conflict between the two religions. The Navarre and the Guise conflict grew worse when Gaspard de Coligny ordered the assassination of the Duke of Guise in 1563.
Catherine's youngest daughter, Marguerite, was said to have been in a sexual relationship with Henry Guise. When Catherine found this out, she had her daughter brought from her bed. Catherine and the king then beat her, ripping her nightclothes and pulling out handfuls of her hair.
Catherine pressed Jeanne d'Albret (her late husband's cousin to attend court) writing that she wanted to see Jeanne's children, promising she would not to harm them. Jeanne replied: "Pardon me if, reading that, I want to laugh, because you want to relieve me of a fear that I've never had. I've never thought that, as they say, you eat little children". When Jeanne did come to court, Catherine pressured her hard,playing on Jeanne's hopes for her beloved son for an alliance. Jeanne finally agreed to the marriage between her son and Margaret, so long as Henry could remain a Huguenot. When Jeanne arrived in Paris to buy clothes for the wedding, she was taken ill and died, aged forty-four. Huguenot writers later accused Catherine of murdering her with poisoned gloves.The wedding took place on 18th August 1572 at Notre-Dame, Paris.
Three days after the wedding, de Coligny was almost killed but survived. Catherine was blamed along with Guises for this attack. Whatever the truth, the bloodbath that followed was soon beyond the control of Catherine or any other leader.
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre began two days later, became a stain Catherine's reputation. On 23rd August Charles IX ordered, "Then kill them all! Kill them all!". This seems wrong to us today as they were their guests in Paris.
At two in the morning, Catholic troops moved to kill the injured Coligny and other Huguenot leaders. Eventually all sense of order broke down; looting and fighting broke out across Paris, and over two thousand men, women, and children wound up dead.
The slaughter lasted for almost a week spreading through many parts of France, where it persisted into the autumn. "St Bartholomew was not a day, but a season". On 29th September, when Navarre knelt before the altar as a Roman Catholic, having converted to avoid being killed, Catherine turned to the ambassadors and laughed. She know seems quite evil. From that moment she was a known as the evil Italian Queen. Huguenot writers branded Catherine a scheming Italian, who used the Borgias' methods to kill.
In 1574, Charles died leaving Henry as King. But Henry was King of Poland, so Catherine was made regent until he came to France. He depended on Catherine and her team of secretaries until the last few weeks of her life. He often hid from state affairs, immersing himself in acts of piety, such as pilgrimages and flagellation.
Henry III was crowned in 1575 and married, but he had no children to assume the throne. Catherine urged Henry to settle his differences with the Guise family for the sake of France and Catholic security.
Catherine remained politically active until the end of her life, touring France on Henry's behalf and trying to maintain the loyalty of its many war-torn territories. She also built up a huge collection of books and paintings, and she built or enlarged some of Paris's finest buildings. In 1589 she became ill while dancing at the marriage of one of her granddaughters.
She died on January 5th, living just long enough to hear that Henry's bodyguards had murdered Guise, which she saw as a rejection by her son of all that she had worked for. Later that year, Henry III 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 faith in 1593 with the famous remark, "Paris is worth a Mass."
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