biography
| name: |
Catherine de' Medici
|
pronunciation:
[maydeechee]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1519–89)
|
| biography:
| Queen of France, the wife of Henry II, and regent (1560–74), born in Florence, NC Italy, the daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino. Married at 14, she was slighted at the French court, but during the minority of her sons, Francis II (1559–60) and Charles IX (1560–3), she assumed political influence which she retained as queen mother until 1588. She tried to pursue moderation and toleration, to give unity to a state increasingly torn by religious division between the Catholic Guise faction and the Huguenots, but she nursed dynastic ambitions, and was drawn into political and religious intrigues, conniving in the infamous Massacre of St Bartholomew (1572). After the accession of her third son, Henry III, she continued to rule the court, and unsuccessfully attempted religious reconciliation between the Protestant and Catholic factions. |
|
|
