Catherine De'Medici was the wife of one king of France and the mother of three.
Catherine De'Medici, the wife of one king of France and the mother of three, was the daughter of Lorenzo De'Medici, Duke of Urbino, and was born at Florence in 1519. In her fourteenth year she was brought to France, and married to Henry, the second son of Francis I. The marriage was a part of the political schemes of her uncle, Pope Clement VII, but as he died soon after, she found herself friendless and neglected at the French court.
It wasn't until the accession of her eldest son, Francis II, in 1559, that she found some scope for her ambition. The Guises at this time were in power, and Catherine entered into a secret alliance with the Huguenots to oppose them. On the death of Francis II, in 1560, and accession of her second son, Charles IX, the government fell entirely into her hands.
She entered into a secret treaty with Spain for the annihilation of heretics and subsequently into a plot with the Guises, which resulted in the fearful massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. This event brought the whole power of the state into the hands of the queen mother, who boasted of the deed to Roman Catholic governments, and excused it to Protestant ones.
About this time she succeeded, by gold and intrigues, in getting her third son, afterwards Henry III, elected to the Polish throne. But her arbitrary and tyrannical administration roused the opposition of a Roman Catholic party, at the head of which was her own fourth son, the Duke of Alencon. It is generally believed that she was privy to the plans that led to his death. Many vexations preyed on the proud heart of the queen mother in her last days; and amidst the confusion and strife of parties, she died at Blois on January 5, 1589, unheeded and unlamented.
