MARIE DE' MEDICI, wife of Henri IV. of France, was the daughter of Francis I., grand-duke of Tuscany, and was born at Florence, April 26, 1573. She was married to Henri, Dec. 16, 1600, and in the following September gave birth to a son, aftenvards Louis XIII. The union, however, did not prove happy. Marie was an .obstinate, passionate, waspish, and withal dull-headed female, and her quarrels with Henri soou became the talk of Paris. She was—as such women are apt to be—wholly under the influence of favorites. A certain couple, who professed to be man and wife, Leonora Galigal and Concini, exercised a most disastrous influence over her mind, and, of course, encouraged her dislike to her husband. The assassination of Henri (May 14,1610) did not much grieve her, and she was even suspected of complicity in the act, but nothing was ever ascertained that could incriminate her. For the next seven years she governed as regent, but proved as worthless a ruler as she had been a wife. After the death of
Conemi a sort of revolution took place. Louis XIII. assumed royal power. Marie was .confined to her ONVI1 house, and her son refused to see her. Her partisans tried to bring about a civil war, but their attempts proved futile; and by the advice of Richelieu, then bishop of Lucon, she made her submission to her son in 1619, and took her place at ,court. Marie hoped to win over Richelieu to her party, but she did not in the least com prehend that mighty genius; however, she soon enough found out that he had no mind to be ruled by her, whereupon she resolved, .if possible, to undermine his influence with the king. Wr intrigues for this purpose failed; she was imprisoned in Compiegne. whence she escaped, and fled to Brussels in 1631. Her last years were spent in utter destitution, and she is said to have died in a hayloft at Cologne, July 3,1642.