CATHARINE DE MEDICI, Queen of Henry II of France: b. Florence 1519; d. Blois, France, 5 Jan. 1589. She was the only daughter of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino, and the niece of Pope Clement VII. Francis I consented that his son, Henry, should marry her only because he did not believe she ever would ascend the throne, and because he was in great want of money, with which Lorenzo could furnish him. The marriage was celebrated at Marseilles in 1533. She was the mother of four sons, of whom three became kings of France in her own lifetime. They were Francis II, 1559-60; Charles IX, 1560 74; and Henry III, 1574-89. Catharine was equally gifted with beauty and talents, and had cultivated her taste for the fine' arts in Florence; but at the same time imbibed the perverted principles of politics then prevailing in Italy. Catharine's ambition was unbounded. She sacrificed France and her children to the passion for ruling; but she never aimed steadily at one great end, and had no profound views ofpolicy. The situation in which she was placed, on her arrival at the French court, gave her great opportunity to perfect herself in the art of dissimulation. She flattered alike the Duchess d'Etampes, the mistress of the King, and Diana de Poitiers, the mistress of her own husband, though these two ladies hated each other. From her apparent indifference she might have been supposed inclined to shun the tumult of public affairs; but when the death of Henry II in 1559 made her mistress of herself, she plunged her children in a whirl of pleasures, partly to enervate them by dissipa tion, partly from a natural inclination toward prodigality; and in the midst of these extrav agances cruel and bloody measures were ex ecuted, the memory of which still makes men shudder. Her authority was limited under the reign of Francis II, her eldest son, who, in consequence of his marriage with the un fortunate Mary Stuart, was entirely devoted to the party of the Guises. Jealous of a power she did not exercise, Catharine then decided. to favor the Protestants. If it had not been for herpatronage, by which the ambition of the chiefs of the Huguenots was stimulated, the conflicting religious opinions in France never would have caused such lasting civil wars. Cath arine felt herself embarrassed by this indulgence toward the innovators, when the death of Francis II placed the reins of government, dur ing the minority of Charles IX, in her hands. Wavering between the Guises on one side, who had put themselves at the head of the Roman Catholics, and Condi and Coligny on the other, who had become very powerful by the aid of the Protestants, she was constantly obliged to resort to intrigues, which failed to procure her as much power as she might easily have gained by openness of conduct. Despised by all parties,
but consoled if she could deceive them; taking arms only to treat, and never treating without preparing the materials for a new civil war, she brought Charles IX, when he became of age, into a situation in which he must either make the royal authority subordinate to a powerful party, or cause part of his subjects to be mas sacred, in the hope, at best a doubtful one, of subduing faction. The massacre of Saint Barthol omew was her work. She induced the King to practise a dissimulation foreign to his character; and as often as he evinced a disposi tion to free himself froma dependence of which he was ashamed, she knew how to prevent him, by the fear and jealousy
she excited in him by favoring his brother Henry, 'fAfter the death of Charles IX Catharine became agaia regent of the kingdom, till the return of henry III, then king of Poland. She contributed to the many misfortunes of his reign by, the meas ures which she had adopted previously to its commencement, and by the intrigues in which she was uninterruptedly engaged. At her death, France was in a state of complete dismember ment. The religious contests were in reality very indifferent to her. The consequences she was not able to conceive. She was ready to risk life for the gratification of her ambi tion. She was equally artful in uniting her adherents, and in promoting dissen sion among her adversaries. To those who directed her attention to the prodigal expendi ture of the public treasure, she used to
•One must live? Her example contributed greatly to promote the corruption of morals which prevailed in her time. Her manners, however, were elegant, and she took a lively interest in the sciences and arts. She procured valuable manuscripts from Gieece and Italy, and caused the Tuileries and the Hotel de Soissons to be built. In the provinces, also, several cas tles were erected by her order, distinguished for the beauty of their architecture, in an age when the principles of the art were still un known in France. She had two daughters, Elizabeth, married to Philip II of Spain in 1559, and Margaret of Valois, married to Henry of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. Consult Alberi, (Vita de Caterina de' Medici' (Florence 1838) ; Balzac,
Catherine de Medicis' (Paris 1864) ; Chime!,
Stuart et Catherine de Medicis' (id. 1858) • Sichel, (Catherine de' Medici and the French Reformation' (London 1905) ; The Later Years of Catharine de' Medici> (ib. 1908) ; Zeller, (Catherine de Medicis et les Protestants' (Paris 1889) ; La Ferriere,