Since childhood, Catherine de Medici was haunted by unpleasant nicknames. She was called Death's Child because her mother died of puerperal fever after giving birth, and her father died a few days later. At court she was called the Merchant's Wife, hinting at her lack of noble origin. Her subjects called Catherine de Medici the Queen of Death, as the period of her reign was marked by bloodshed and strife.
Childhood and youth
Catherine Maria Romola di Lorenzo de' Medici, Duchess of Mantua, future Queen of France, was born on April 13, 1519. WITH youth she was accompanied by the wealth, fame and benefits enjoyed by her father's family of Medici bankers, who ruled Florence, as well as the connections and status of her mother's family, de la Tour.
But Catherine felt lonely and deprived of love. She lost her parents and was raised by her grandmother Alfonsina Orsini. After the woman’s death, Aunt Clarice Strozzi took over the care of the child. Catherine grew up with cousins: Alessandro, Giuliano and.
Members of the Medici family repeatedly became popes, so the superiority of the family is difficult to underestimate. The power was not unconditional. The family's position was often precarious, and little Catherine was in danger. Thus, in 1529, during the siege of Florence by the troops of Charles V, a raging crowd almost hanged a 10-year-old girl on the city gates. A strong word saved the young duchess French king Francis I. Catherine was taken to the Siena monastery, where she received an education for 3 years.
At the monastery, she was attacked by invaders sent by the rulers of Florence, but Catherine managed to escape. Realizing that they had come for her, the girl cut her hair and put on a monastic dress. She appeared before her enemies and offered to take her to Florence in such a way that people would know how nuns were treated.
Catherine was lucky: the girl was transferred to a monastery with strict detention and her dignity was not insulted. The cruelty that Catherine de Medici faced as a child influenced the formation of her character. The unrest soon subsided, the Medici regained power, and Catherine received the title of Duchess of Urbino. She became an enviable bride with a rich dowry.
Giulio Medici (Pope Clement VII) took care of the girl’s future. She was married to the son of the French king Henry. The wedding of young people took place in Marseille in 1533. The marriage, beneficial for both families, strengthened the connection between Italy and France. The former received a representative at the French court, and the latter received lands for which they had been fighting for more than 10 years.
Queen of France
Catherine de Medici ruled France during bloody battles and constant battles between Catholics and Huguenots. The country was overcome religious wars which led to the civil war. Catherine was unable to stop what was happening. She lacked the wisdom and cunning to manage the conflict. The Queen approached the problem from a political perspective, and attention should have been paid to the spiritual aspects of the confrontation.
Catherine was regent of France under three sons who ascended the throne: Francis, Charles and Henry. The first to face the struggle between the Huguenots and Catholics was young Francis, who ascended the throne as a 15-year-old teenager. Two years later he fell ill with ear gangrene and after two weeks of illness died at the age of 17. Charles IX took his brother's place on the throne. The war was gaining momentum, and the Medici could not calm it down, leading the country on behalf of their son.
Catherine decided to solve the problem by connecting families. She planned to marry her daughter Margarita to a Huguenot, the son of Jeanne d'Albret. Before the wedding, Catherine and Jeanne met. The ruler did not like the future relative. Therefore, when Jeanne died suddenly before her son's wedding, Catherine's bad reputation was strengthened. The version of poisoning did not go away with the mouths of courtiers and common people.
The wedding of Margaret of Valois and Henry of Navarre did take place. It was attended by Huguenots and Protestants. At the festival, the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny met the future king. They quickly found mutual language. Catherine de Medici was afraid of the admiral's influence on her son and ordered the death of the unwanted nobleman. The attempt failed.
Henry began an investigation, as a result of which everyone would know about the act of the “black queen”. The inquiry was stopped by St. Bartholomew's Night, which occurred from August 24 to 25, 1572. Researchers are still arguing about whether the Medici provoked it.
That night 2 thousand people died in Paris, and throughout France 30 thousand Huguenots fell victims. The killers did not stop in front of children, women and old people. This is how Catherine de Medici earned the hatred of the entire country.
Catherine's main goal was to preserve the throne for the Valois dynasty. Fortune did not favor her. Sons, ascending to the throne, died. Charles IX died at the age of 23 from tuberculosis, from which all the queen's sons suffered. The throne went to Henry III, recently crowned in Poland. In fact, Henry ran away to rule France. He removed his mother from the throne, allowing her only to travel and sometimes take part in royal affairs.
Personal life
Catherine de Medici did not receive sufficient quantity love in childhood and did not find the desired warmth in marriage. Having gotten married, she hoped to see support and support in her husband. But the young lady did not shine with beauty and no matter how she tried to conquer her husband with fashionable clothes, his heart belonged to another.
From the age of 11, Henry II was in love with Diane de Poitiers. The court lady was 20 years older than her lover, but this did not stop her from accompanying the heir to the throne through life. The sensible beauty was superior to the Medici. Catherine understood that it was not easy to compete with her rival, because she was a stranger at court. Only the right decision was to maintain friendly relations with her.
A year after the wedding of Catherine and Henry, Pope Clement VII died, and his successor refused to pay a significant part of the dowry offered for Catherine. The Medici's position was shaken even more. Nobody wanted to communicate with her.
The queen's infertility became a big problem. After becoming Dauphin of France in 1547, Henry had a child on the side and began planning a divorce. But the legal wife managed to get pregnant. This was facilitated by doctors and an astrologer.
After the birth of her first child, Catherine gave birth to 9 more children. The twin girls, who appeared last, almost killed their mother. The first was stillborn, and the second lived just over a month.
The long-awaited release from her rival Diane de Poitiers, who broke Catherine personal life, came in 1559. During the knight's tournament, the king received a life-threatening injury. A splinter from a spear fell into a crack in the helmet and damaged the brain through the eye. Ten days later, Henry II died and his favorite was expelled.
Death
Catherine died in January 1589, 6 months before Henry III. The cause of death was purulent pleurisy, which the queen contracted while traveling in France. The ruler's body was not taken to the royal tomb in Saint-Denis, as the people threatened to throw it into the Seine.
Sarcophagus of Catherine de Medici Later, the urn with the queen’s ashes was taken to the tomb, but there was no place for burial next to Henry II. Catherine de Medici found last refuge not far from him.
Memory
The Medici dynasty was famous for its philanthropy and patronage of art and science. Catherine was no exception among her relatives. On her orders, the Tuileries Castle, the Soissons Hotel, a wing of the Louvre and other magnificent buildings were built. The queen's library consisted of ancient manuscripts and books numbering in hundreds of copies. Ballet was also a novelty introduced by Catherine de Medici.
The biography of the French queen is complete interesting facts. The story of her ascension to the throne and reign became the subject of several films. In 2013, the series “Kingdom” was released on television, telling the story of the life of. Catherine de' Medici plays in the story important role as the mother of Francis, the groom of the Queen of Scots.
- Catherine de Medici was the first to wear heels at the French court. The girl tried to compensate for her short height. Her dresses were to the taste of the French ladies, who repeated the outfits of the crowned lady. Corsets and underwear also appeared thanks to the Italian fashionista.
- The Medici were called the “Black Queen” for the color of her robes, which she did not change after the death of her husband. She was the first lady to dress in black rather than white as a sign of grief. Thus a new tradition emerged. Most portraits show the Queen in mourning attire.
- Of Catherine’s 10 children, only her daughter Margarita lived to an old age, dying at 62. dedicated the novel “Queen Margot” to the royal person. Henry III died at the age of 40, and his brothers and sisters did not live to see 30. The daughter of Catherine de Medici, the Spanish Queen Elizabeth of Valois, lived 23 years.
- The Medici were superstitious. At the birth of children, she required calculation of the location of the stars under which the babies were born. The Queen had a special astrological book, on the pages of which were moving constellations. By moving them, she made combinations for horoscopes.
- In the center of Paris, in the Les Halles district, there is a monument reminiscent of Catherine's estate located here, the Medici Column. It is an architectural part of the Queen's Astronomical Observatory.
- In 1560, when tobacco was brought to Europe. Catherine did not smoke it, but ordered it to be ground into powder so she could snort it. For its healing properties, the courtiers nicknamed snuff “the queen’s potion.” This name echoed the reputation of a poisoner attached to Catherine de Medici.
The idea for such a post matured a long time ago - when I saw in one LiveJournal post a fairly well-known costume historian in his circles, among others, this portrait:
Under the portrait with the attribution “Catherine de Medici and her brother Francesco,” a rather lively discussion broke out about how much the features of the future ruler of France were already visible in this girl, how similar she was to herself in adulthood, etc. Moreover, what struck me most was that the author of the post himself also participated in these discussions. While I was thinking about whether I wanted to intervene, someone came and said that, guys, wake up and open your eyes - this is not the same Catherine de Medici, and she didn’t and couldn’t have had any brothers. All this together, once again, brought me to a sad thought about the intuitive distrust of specialists who study anything “from antiquity to the present day.” For, even if you close your eyes to the brother who came from nowhere, then the level of painting of this portrait, and the costume on the girl, everything simply screams that this is the beginning of the 17th century, and not the beginning of the 16th, especially for a specialist in the history of costume. Everyone is human, and everyone can make mistakes, but this is one of those gross mistakes that a specialist, who also gives public lectures in Moscow, cannot afford.
Of course, this is not the first and not the last mistake of this kind, even if we take only this costume historian, so I would like to repeat for the umpteenth time - there is no need to study anything “from antiquity to the present day,” and most importantly, in isolation from " great history"and numerous auxiliary disciplines - the approach must still be comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and genealogy, my dears, is our everything. It is not for nothing that in all countries, in all schools, at the beginning of the 20th century, it was a compulsory discipline, even in a very truncated form, like the history of the ruling dynasty.
But let's return to our Catherine de Medici. So who is depicted in this wonderful portrait?
I think that I will not reveal a great secret if I say that Queen Mother Catherine of the Medici family was not happy with her children. The eldest son, Francis II, named after his famous grandfather, King Francis I, was entirely under the influence of the Guise brothers, whom Catherine did not like, considered upstarts, but with whom she was forced to reckon. Due to the fact that Francis was married to the Guises' niece, Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland, whom he adored since childhood, their power was stronger than that of their mother, despite the fact that Catherine was formally the regent. But, I repeat several times, all of Catherine’s children both loved and, at the same time, feared her, and always expressed deep respect and reverence for her. Francis, as is known, died shortly before his 17th birthday, leaving no heirs.
Mary Stuart, Queen of France and Scotland, wife of Francis II Catherine's second child was a girl who was named Elizabeth. In my purely subjective opinion, it was Elizabeth, and not Margot, who was the most beautiful princess of the house of Valois. Just like Margarita, Elizabeth inherited black hair and brown eyes from her mother, and was distinguished by tact, sophistication, grace and impeccable artistic taste.
At the age of 14 she was married to King Philip II of Spain and remained in history under the Spanish name Isabella de Valois. Catherine sincerely admired her daughter, and due to the fact that their relationship was close and warm, Catherine had very high political hopes for Isabella, believing that she, with her beauty, gentleness and high intelligence, would be able to influence the tough policies that Spain led towards the French Huguenots, forcing Catherine to act rashly and belligerently. But Isabella, having seen enough in her childhood of, to put it mildly, an extremely peculiar marriage of her parents - the power of the favorite and the tears of her mother, was immensely grateful to Philip for the respect and understanding that he showed her from the very first days of her marriage. An absolutely political union turned into a union of love, and, to Catherine’s great chagrin, Isabella gently but unconditionally made it clear to her that she would always and in everything share her husband’s views. The meeting of Isabella and Catherine 8 years later was a shock for the Queen Mother, and she bitterly complained to those close to her that “her daughter had become completely Spanish.” Six months after this meeting, Isabella died while trying to give Philip an heir to the throne.
After the death of Francis II, his younger brother Charles IX, who was 10 years old at that time, ascended the throne of France. Catherine, who was already anticipating unlimited power, as far as was possible under those conditions, was disappointed both in her hopes and in her second son. Of course, the weak, and in many matters weak-willed king, despite all the respect, did not trust his mother, did not dare to openly resist her decisions, but loved to do everything his own way behind her back. Despite the real power in her hands, Catherine's political position was very difficult. France was torn apart from within by religious wars, foreign policy Philip II of Spain reproached her for being too lenient towards heretics (Huguenots), of whom there were almost more in France at that time than Catholics, and this, on the other hand, threatened the throne.
The behavior of the suspicious Charles, who either brought Catholics or Huguenots led by Coligny closer to him, did not make Catherine’s task of stabilizing the situation in the country easier. In an effort to gain outside support, Catherine, as a true monarch of the Renaissance, preferred the policy of dynastic marriages. Having married her eldest daughter, Elizabeth of Valois, to the King of Spain, she chose the daughter of Emperor Maximilian II, Elizabeth of Austria, for Charles. The choice was successful - one of the most beautiful princesses At that time, the soft and gentle Elizabeth adored her husband, but Charles almost openly preferred the company of Marie Touchet, with whom he had a son. Thus, this marriage union did not live up to the Queen Mother’s hopes. Karl died of lung disease a week before his 24th birthday.
The next king to ascend the throne of France was Catherine's favorite son. It is very difficult to write about Henry III - he was such a controversial personality - not a single historian can give him at least an unambiguous portrait, and the task of this post does not include assessing his personality. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to the emotions of Queen Mother Catherine.
She was always admired by Henry's mind, comparable to hers, which was a good century ahead of his time, she highly appreciated his elegant manners, although some then believed that such manners were excusable only for sophisticated ladies, but there was a flip side to all this: managing Henry , how she managed his older brothers, Catherine could not. And she voluntarily submitted to this. She set herself a goal: to serve the interests of her son and, in particular, to achieve peace in the south of the country. She travels a lot, negotiates, trying to do everything so that nothing threatens her Henry’s throne. And her biggest disappointment was the discovery of the fact that Henry, despite all his outward respect, took all of Catherine’s efforts for granted, practically did not take her opinion and experience into account, and most often acted as it was convenient for him, and not as was necessary which will ultimately lead to his death. The first in a series of similar actions was his marriage, by his own choice, to the Guizov’s niece, Louise de Vaudemont. He took revenge on his mother for not allowing him to marry his greatest love, Maria of Cleves. And the last was the order to kill the Duke of Guise, which turned into the murder of the king. Fortunately, Catherine did not live to see this moment.
Mary of Cleves, passionate love of Henry III.
The behavior of the younger children never brought anything but irritation and grief to Catherine. François, Duke of Alençon, spent his entire life scheming against his brothers. Trying to channel his energy and cunning into the right direction, Catherine, following her logic of dynastic marriages, took him to England as a consort for Queen Elizabeth. Nothing came of this venture, despite the fact that, to the great surprise of modern historians, Elizabeth highly appreciated the sophisticated Prince Valois, even despite the nickname “little frog” that she gave him. In any case, when Francois died, mourning was declared at the English court, and the ambassadors noted with surprise the tears in Elizabeth's eyes.
Catherine’s attitude towards Margot, the youngest of her daughters, is generally well known to everyone from the unforgettable series “Queen Margot”, however, the reality was much worse - Catherine and Henry had to lock Margot in isolation in the castle, “until she somehow “I didn’t disgrace you,” said the Queen Mother, and ultimately, Catherine stopped calling her daughter by name and crossed her out of her will.
Looking at this whole, to put it mildly, bleak picture, some of the Queen Mother’s actions become much clearer. And yet, in this dark kingdom there was a ray of living light - Catherine had an outlet among her children in the form of her middle daughter - Clotilde or Claude, as she was commonly called.
Claude de Valois was not a beauty - she had a hump and she limped, but in her softness and tact she resembled her older sister Elizabeth, and, out of political necessity, Catherine sacrificed her - at the age of 11, Claude of France was married to Duke Charles of Lorraine III. To the great surprise of the French court, the marriage turned out to be successful and based on mutual respect and trust. Claude gave birth to 9 children and died of complications at age 27. Catherine's grief was simply enormous. And she focused all her unspent feelings of love on her eldest granddaughter - daughter Claude Christina of Lorraine.
Christina was quite beautiful and had a purely French charm. A girl lived and was raised at her grandmother’s court in Paris. The last thing Catherine managed to do in her life was to find a good match for her beloved granddaughter. Just at this time in Florence, under very mysterious and dramatic circumstances, the Grand Duke of Tuscany and a very distant relative of Catherine, Francesco de' Medici and his second wife Bianca Capello, died of poison. Francesco's younger brother Ferdinand de' Medici ascends to the throne of Florence. The marriage was beneficial to both parties, and in April 1589 Christina de Lorraine arrived in Florence. Ferdinand was one of the best Grand Dukes of the Medici family. He was loved, the duchy prospered, Christina was happily married, and she named her second girl, born in 1593, in honor of her beloved grandmother, to whom she was very grateful - Catherine de Medici. It is this girl - another Catherine from the Medici family - who is depicted in the famous portrait with which we began our story.)
Catherine de Medici the Younger in a wedding dress.))
Catherine de Medici can be called the most “hated” woman in history. “The Black Queen”, poisoner, child killer, instigator of St. Bartholomew's Night - contemporaries did not spare epithets for her, although some of them were unfair.
Child of death
The sinister image of Catherine de Medici was not the invention of Dumas. She was born under a terrible star. It’s no joke, immediately after birth in 1519 the child was dubbed “the child of death.” This nickname, like a trail, will accompany her throughout her future life. Her mother, 19-year-old Duchess Madeleine de la Tour, died six days after giving birth, and her father, Lorenzo de' Medici II, died two weeks later.
Catherine de' Medici is credited with poisoning her husband's elder brother, Francis, the Queen of Navarre, Jeanne Dalbret, and even her son, Charles IX. Her most terrible prank was St. Bartholomew's Night.
However, she did not become the “Black Queen” because of her reputation. Catherine wore black mourning for the first time. Before this, in France, white was considered a symbol of grief. In some ways, and in fashion, she was the first at court. Catherine mourned for her deceased husband Henry II for 30 years, she made broken spears as her emblem, and her motto was “This is the reason for my tears and my pain,” but more on that a little later.
According to the marriage lottery, Catherine was chosen as the wife of the second son of the French king, Henry of Valois. But the marriage became virtually fictitious. The king already had the love of his life - his children's teacher Diane de Poitiers. He had been in love with her since he was 11 years old. She already had illegitimate son from the king, and Catherine, on the contrary, could not get pregnant. The situation was complicated by the fact that the Medici loved her husband. Subsequently, in one of her letters to her daughter, she wrote: “I loved him and will be faithful to him all my life.”
The French court rejected her, as did Henry. They kept saying behind my back: “Merchant’s wife! Where does she care about the noble Valois! Poorly educated, ugly, barren. When, after the death of the first contender for the throne, Francis, she became the wife of the Dauphin, the situation did not improve.
There were rumors that Francis I, Henry's father, had practically agreed to annul his son's marriage to Catherine.
Meanwhile, the cult of Diana flourished at court. Henry II adored his favorite until his death, when she was already 60. He even performed at tournaments under her flowers. The queen next to her is just a shadow. In order to somehow gain her husband’s favor after the birth of such long-awaited children, she gave them to Diana to raise. At court, Catherine completely dissolved in the politics that the king and his Diana were engaged in. Perhaps, if this had happened in Russia, she would have ended her days in a monastery.
Trendsetter
But during the life of Henry II, Catherine remained with her own path, in which she had no equal: she was the main trendsetter in all of Europe. The entire aristocracy of France listened to her taste.
It was to her that the fair sex of Europe owed subsequent fainting spells - she set a limit for the waist - 33 cm, which was achieved with the help of a corset.
She also brought with her from Italy heels that concealed the shortcomings of her short stature.
Ice cream came with it to France. It first appeared at her wedding, which lasted 34 days. Italian chefs served a new dish every day, a new variety of these “ice pieces.” And after that, their French colleagues mastered this dish. Thus, the first thing that Catherine de Medici brought to France became the only thing that took hold there. The dowry was quickly squandered, all her political contributions led only to the fall of Valois, but the ice cream remained.
Nostradamus is a favorite
The position of shadow with the king's favorite did not suit Catherine. She did not give free rein to her emotions and patiently endured all the insults of the court, but universal contempt only fueled her vanity. She wanted her husband's love and power. To do this, Catherine needed to decide the most main problem- give birth to an heir for the king. And she resorted to an unconventional path.
Even as a child, when she studied at a monastery in Siena, Catherine became interested in astrology and magic.
One of the main confidants of the French queen was the predictor Nostradamus.
Contemporaries said that it was he who cured her of infertility. It must be said that the traditional folk methods that she used were very extravagant - she had to drink a tincture of mule urine, wear cow pus and fragments of deer antlers on her stomach. Some of it worked.
From 1544 to 1556 she continuously gave birth to children. In 12 years she gave birth to ten children. Just a fantastic result.
Francis, Elizabeth, Claude, Louis, Charles Maximilian, Edward Alexander, who would later be Henry III, Margaret, Hercule, the last adored son, and in 1556 the twins Victoria and Jeanne, but the latter died right in the womb.
The name of Nostradamus is also associated with the most important prediction in Catherine’s life. Historian Natalya Basovskaya says that once the queen came to him with the question “How long will her sons rule?” He sat her down by the mirror and began to spin a wheel. According to Francis the Young, the wheel turned once, he really ruled for less than a year; according to Charles the Ninth, the wheel turned 14 times, he ruled for 14 years; according to Henry the Third, 15, and he ruled for 15.
In the family
On July 10, 1559, Henry II died due to wounds received at the tournament. The enemy's spear slid across his helmet and pierced his eye, leaving a splinter in his brain. Catherine de Medici put on her famous black mourning, made herself a symbolic emblem of a broken spear and prepared to fight her way through her children to power. She succeeded - she achieved the status of “governess of France” under her sons. Her second heir, Charles IX, solemnly declared right at the coronation that he would rule together with his mother. By the way, his last words were also: “Oh, mom.”
The courtiers were not mistaken when they called Catherine “uneducated.” Her contemporary Jean Bodin subtly noted: “the most terrible danger is the intellectual unsuitability of the sovereign.”
Catherine de Medici could be anyone - a cunning intriguer, an insidious poisoner, but before understanding all the subtleties of internal and international relations she was far away.
For example, her famous confederation in Poissy, when she organized a meeting of Catholics and Calvinists in order to reconcile the two faiths. She sincerely believed that all the problems of the world could be resolved through emotional negotiations, so to speak, “within the family circle.” According to historians, she could not even understand the true meaning of the speech of Calvin’s close associate, who stated that eating bread and wine during communion is only a remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ. A terrible blow to Catholic worship. And Catherine, who had never been particularly fanatical, only watched in amazement as the conflict flared up. All that was clear to her was that for some reason her plan was not working out.
Her entire policy, despite Catherine’s terrible reputation, was painfully naive. As historians say, she was not a ruler, but a woman on the throne. Its main weapon was dynastic marriages, none of which were successful. She married Charles IX to the daughter of Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg, and sent her daughter Elizabeth to Philip II, a Catholic fanatic who broke last life, but did not bring any benefit to France and Valois. She wooed her youngest son to Elizabeth I of England, the main enemy of the same Philip. Catherine de Medici believed that dynastic marriages were the solution to all problems. She wrote to Philip: “Start arranging marriages for children, and this will make it easier to resolve the religious issue.” Catherine intended to reconcile the two conflicting faiths with one wedding of her Catholic daughter Margaret with the Huguenot Henry of Navarre. And then, immediately after the wedding, she carried out a massacre of the Huguenots invited to the celebration, declaring them in a conspiracy against the king. It is not surprising that after such steps the Valois dynasty sank into oblivion along with its only surviving son, Henry III, and France fell into the nightmare of the Civil War.
Crown of thorns?
So, how should you treat Catherine de Medici? Was she unhappy? Undoubtedly. An orphan, an abandoned wife, a humiliated “merchant’s wife” at court, a mother who outlived almost all her children. An energetic, always-busy queen mother whose political activities were, for the most part, meaningless. At her combat post, she traveled and traveled around France until ill health overtook her in Blois, where she died during her next visit.
Her “loyal subjects” did not leave her alone even after her death. When her remains were taken to Paris to be buried in Saint-Denis, the city's citizens promised to throw her body into the Seine if the coffin appeared at the city gates.
After a long time, the urn with the ashes was moved to Saint-Denis, but there was no place next to the husband, just as during his lifetime. The urn was buried aside.
Recently, historian Gulchuk Nelya published a book called “The Crown of Thorns of Catherine de Medici.” She, of course, had a crown, but can it be compared to a crown of thorns? An unhappy life does not justify her methods - “everything for the sake of power.” It was not fate, but her terrible but naive policy that destroyed in one generation the prosperous Valois dynasty, as it was under her father-in-law Francis I.
“Child of Death” - that’s what Catherine was nicknamed almost immediately after her birth. But why so cruel? Unfortunately, the little girl was born with an unhappy subsequent history: her mother died at the age of 19 on the sixth day after giving birth from puerperal fever, and her father, according to various sources, either a few days after the death of his wife, or a few months later. Of course, the child has nothing to do with it: doctors of that time did not understand that, in order not to subsequently kill the woman in labor with some virus, you just need to wash your hands when giving birth. By the time Catherine was born, her father was already hopelessly ill and weak. But nevertheless: immediately after the birth of the girl, both of her parents die, and from now on the mark of death will haunt Catherine in one way or another until the end of her life.
Much later, at the French court, she would be called the “merchant’s wife.” Indeed, Catherine could boast of more or less nobility only on her mother’s side. The father, Lorenzo the Second Medici, actually has roots in the common people, albeit in the wealthy class - merchants. But, one way or another, traders. Mother, this is what Catherine could have latched on to! Madeleine de la Tour, Duchess of Bouillon and Countess of Auvergne, was indirectly related to the French royal family.
Lonely childhood
Catherine was raised by her aunt, Clarice Medici, along with her children. Representatives of the Medici family became Popes several times and, accordingly, ruled over everyone. Several times the Medici lost their power in Florence, and several times little Catherine was in serious danger. When the troops of Charles V laid siege to Florence in 1529, an angry crowd was ready to hang the heir to the house of Medici, 10-year-old Catherine, at the city gates or send her to a brothel. After all, they were all sure that the Medici were to blame for the current situation and that they should be punished. The intervention of the French monarch Francis I saved the little duchess, and she was transported to a convent in Siena for 3 years, where she could receive a good education. And here again there is danger: the rulers of Florence are planning to take the heiress hostage. But Catherine was able to save herself: having learned that armed people had come for her and that their intentions were clearly not good, she quickly cut off her hair, changed into a monastic dress, went out to the invaders and said that only in this form would she be taken to Florence, Let the Lyuli see how nuns are treated. Of course, the girl was not a nun, she was performing a performance, but perhaps this display of courage saved her life. She was not harmed, only she was transferred to another, more strict monastery.
Based on everything described above, we see that the girl, even without having time to reach adolescence, loses her parents, sees the madness of the crowd intending to kill her, and from the very birth she cannot feel safe, she is tossed back and forth through the monasteries like a leaf in the wind. Most likely, it is from childhood that the abnormal cruelty that Catherine will show in a much more mature age grows.
Soon the unrest fades to zero, and the Medici come to power again. Catherine receives the title of Duchess of Urbino and becomes an excellent option for dynastic bargaining: after all, the girl comes with a decent monetary dowry and several Italian lands. Pope Clement VII, Giulio de' Medici, negotiates with the French king about the marriage of Catherine and the king's second son, Henry. For both sides, the party was magnificent: France received the lands for which it had been fighting for decades, and the Medici made their representative a French princess and received a place at the royal court. The wedding was scheduled for October 1533 in Marseille.
The path from duchess to queen
The wedding was luxurious, the celebrations lasted 34 days! According to contemporaries, Catherine could not boast of a stunning appearance: very small in stature and with red hair, she amazed the French court with a completely different style - her style. She appeared in public for the first time in heels! This was a new thing for the French women, and they really liked this idea; later the whole courtyard sported high-heeled shoes. And Ekaterina just wanted to increase her height at least a little! Next is her dress: Italian fashion was also very popular with the female half of the royal court. Oddly enough, for many years Catherine will henceforth be a trendsetter at the French court.
But no matter how magnificently Catherine was dressed before and after the wedding, she never won her husband’s heart. From the age of 11, Henry was absolutely and endlessly in love with his mentor, Diane de Poitiers. However, his true feelings were revealed only at the age of 19. This love went down in history as a real phenomenon: Diana was 20 years older than the king. But he loved her until his death. A stately beauty with an extraordinary mind, there was no way a little Italian could compete with her.
The Medici took a “quiet” position: she understood that there was now a cult of “Diana” at court and that it was better to be in the most adequate relationship with her. Therefore, Catherine endured. A year after the wedding, Pope Clement VII dies. His successor terminates the treaty with France and does not pay a good part of Catherine's dowry. On this score, Heinrich said: “The girl came to me completely naked.” This incident further undermined Catherine’s position at court: she could not make friends with anyone, the ladies of the court deliberately pretended that they did not understand her the first time (Catherine never got rid of her Italian accent), her husband saw only Diana in front of him, but he didn’t value her at all.
The heir to the throne suddenly dies; it was even rumored that he was poisoned. Now Henry is the Dauphin of France. A year later, he gives birth to an illegitimate child, while there are still no legitimate children from Catherine. Catherine’s barrenness is almost beyond doubt, and coupled with the lack of a dowry, it prompts Henry to think about divorce. But then Catherine becomes pregnant and then gives birth to a son. They say that her personal doctor and astrologer Michel Nostradamus helped her with this. It is not clear for what reasons, but after her first son, Catherine, already a queen, begins to give birth to children almost every year. However, when the time came for the 9th and 10th children - two twin girls, the queen was barely saved. One girl was already dead at the time of birth, the other lived only six weeks. From that moment on, doctors strongly discouraged the queen from having children in the future.
In March 1547, Francis I dies, Henry and Catherine de' Medici ascend to the throne. The king reigned for 12 years, he died completely by accident: during a knightly tournament, a sliver from a damaged spear hit Henry directly in the crack of his helmet, in the eye, damaging his brain. Henry held out for 10 days. After his death, Catherine chose a broken spear as her emblem and forever dressed in black mourning (before that, white was considered the mourning color in France). As soon as the king died, Diane de Poitiers was exiled.
Black queen
Catherine de' Medici ruled under two sons: Kings Francis II and Charles IX. Or she thought that she was ruling, because in fact there was chaos in the country: Catholics and Hugents were killing each other at every opportunity. Her 15-year-old eldest son, still just a child, came to power. The mother felt a taste of power, without which she could not live until her death.
Slowly but systematically, religious wars brewed, which later resulted in civil war. The country was torn apart by two religious parties: Catholics and Huguenots. Catherine obviously does not have enough ingenuity to resolve this conflict in the right direction. The Medici's mistake was that she saw this split from a political perspective, and therefore tried to solve it as a politician would solve it. Perhaps if she had realized that the roots of this war lay much deeper, in spiritual beliefs rather than political gain, then further terrible events could have been avoided.
Against the backdrop of one of the bloody skirmishes between Catholics and Huguenots, the young king falls ill. Due to gangrene that formed in the ear, Francis was ill for two weeks, after which he died at the age of 17. His place is taken by his 10-year-old brother Charles IX.
The conflict grew stronger. Catherine tried to decide something, ruled on behalf of her little son, and literally rushed around the country. But Catherine de Medici had her own method: she decided to marry her daughter Margaret to the Huguenot Henry of Navarre. Making marriages for Catherine was a much easier task than ruling the country, than trying to calm the war in the right ways. Before the wedding, the groom's mother, Jeanne d'Albret, an ardent Protestant, arrived. She is disliked by Catherine, although she tried not to show it. Suddenly, Zhanna died suddenly right before the wedding. And so Catherine de Medici got a new rumor, which still lives on: she was poisoned.
A wedding took place between Margaret of Valois and Henry of Navarre. To celebrate the celebration, the most notable Huguenots of the country and just ordinary people of the Protestant faith gathered in Paris. Among the guests was Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, leader of the Huguenots. An intelligent and insightful man, he quickly found his way to the heart of the 22-year-old king, who had been at his mother’s skirt all his life. Catherine sees the danger of this alliance: no, her son, the king, cannot keep the most important Hugent among his main advisers and friends, and she “orders” Coligny. But the shooter missed.
After the failed murder, they wanted to assemble a commission, and the king himself wanted this. Catherine was frightened and very much: after all, the killer was alive, which means her name might come up. Perhaps this woman saw the solution to a colossal problem lasting decades only in what she herself soon sanctioned: the “black queen” orders the beginning of St. Bartholomew’s Night from August 24 to 25, 1572.
In Paris, about 2,000 people were stabbed to death; throughout France, about 30,000 Hugents died in the wake of that night. No one was spared; everyone was killed: babies, old people, women. After this night, Catherine de Medici was hated by all of France.
Henry of Navarre was saved. While his people were being slaughtered all over Paris, he was forced to convert to Catholicism under the point of a dagger (which he, in principle, soon abandoned).
Two years after St. Bartholomew's Night, Charles IX dies. The circumstances of his death were never fully clarified. Last words, or rather, the beginning phrase was “Oh, my mother...”. What did the monarch want to say? However, it is most likely that the king died of tuberculosis, since all of Catherine’s sons were susceptible to this disease.
Catherine de Medici hurriedly writes to her third son, her most beloved, Henry. She asks him to come to France and become king. By the way, Henry was recently crowned in Poland, but no, under cover of night he escapes from the people who really chose him as their ruler. Arriving in France, the first thing Henry III does is remove his mother from power. Catherine is perplexed how this can happen, but she can’t do anything about it. The only thing she was allowed to do was travel around the country and participate in some royal affairs, including trying to arrange the marriage of her granddaughter. A woman with her hands up to her elbows in blood was no longer allowed to take part in important government affairs.
Catherine de' Medici died six months before Henry III. Death overtook the “black queen” during her stormy trip around the country. The body was not taken to Saint-Denis, where the royal tomb was located: the people of Paris threatened to throw it into the Seine, just as the people of Florence once threatened to hang very little Catherine at the gates of the city. Much later, the urn with the ashes was moved to Saint-Denis, but they say that there was no place for burial next to the husband, as he was not there during his lifetime, so the urn was buried aside.
The life of Catherine de Medici - the "black queen", as her contemporaries called her - was filled with mysticism, witchcraft and terrible prophecies. For almost 30 years she ruled France, the most powerful country in Europe in the 16th century. Her name is associated with many historical events, she patronized the sciences and art, but in the memory of her descendants Catherine de Medici remained as “the witch on the throne.”Deprived of love
Catherine was born in Florence in 1519. The daughter of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, she was left an orphan from birth and was raised at the court of her grandfather, Pope Clement VII. Many of those who knew Catherine back in the papal palace noted the sharp intelligence and ruthlessness in the girl’s gaze. Alchemists and magicians were her main favorites even then. For Clement, the granddaughter was large map in the political game - he methodically looked for the best groom for her in the ruling houses of Europe.
In 1533, the wedding of Catherine de Medici and Henry of Orleans, the son of the French king, took place. Apparently, she was ready to sincerely love her young husband, but he did not need her love, giving his heart to Diane de Poitiers, who was twenty years older than him.
Catherine's life was sad. Although she behaved modestly and outwardly did not interfere in state affairs, the French did not like the “stranger”, who was not distinguished by either beauty or pleasantness in communication. Prickly eyes, stubbornly compressed thin lips, nervous fingers, always fiddling with a handkerchief - no, this is not how cheerful France wanted to see its queen. In addition, the Medici family has long and rightly had a dark reputation as sorcerers and poisoners. But what especially spoiled Catherine’s life was the fact that for ten years she and Henry had no children. The threat of divorce hung over her all this time.
What gave Catherine de Medici the strength to endure her husband’s neglect, the machinations of a successful rival, and the ridicule of the courtiers? Undoubtedly, the confidence that her time will come.
Nature endowed Catherine with the gift of foresight, although she tried to hide it from strangers. Evidence remains only from those closest to him. Her daughter, Queen Margot, glorified by Alexandre Dumas, said: “Every time her mother was about to lose someone from her family, she saw a huge flame in her dreams.” She also dreamed of the outcomes of important battles and impending natural disasters.
However, Catherine was not content with only her own gift. When an important decision needed to be made, she turned to the help of astrologers and sorcerers, many of whom she brought with her from Italy. Card fortune telling, astrology, rituals with magic mirrors - everything was at her service. As Catherine once admitted to the same Margot, more than once she was on the verge of asking her husband for a divorce and return to Italy. She was held back only by the image that appeared in the magic mirror - she with a crown on her head and surrounded by a dozen children.
Patroness of Nostradamus
Catherine's life changed little in 1547, when Henry ascended the throne. Diana continued to rule her husband’s heart and state affairs, and the unloved wife continued to seek solace from the masters of the occult sciences.
Catherine had already heard about the famous predictor Nostradamus when the thirty-fifth quatrain (quatrain) from his “Prophecies” came to her attention. It was about the fate of the French king: “The young lion will surpass the old one on the battlefield in a single duel, he will pierce his eye through the golden cage. Two wounds in one, then die a painful death.”
This was the second "bell". The first one sounded a little earlier - another astrologer, Luke Gorick, warned Catherine that her husband was in mortal danger from being wounded at a certain tournament. Concerned, Catherine insisted: Nostradamus must be invited to the court to clarify the details of the prophecy. He arrived, but the queen’s anxiety from communicating with him only intensified.
Celebrations were planned for July 1, 1559 in honor of the marriage of Princess Elizabeth, Catherine's daughter, to the Spanish King Philip II. Henry ordered the removal of part of the pavement from the Parisian street Saint-Antoine in order to organize a lists there.
Catherine already knew that the hour of trouble had come. She had a dream: there was fire again, a lot of fire. When she woke up, the first thing she did was send a note to her husband: “I conjure you, Henry! Refuse to fight today!”
He calmly crumpled the paper into a ball, not having the habit of listening to the advice of his hateful wife.
The celebration is grand! The crowd applauds and screams deafeningly. Of course, all precautions were taken: the spears were blunted, the participants were clad in steel armor, and strong helmets were on their heads. Everyone is excited. And only Catherine’s fingers tug at the scarf with such force that a huge hole appears on it.
As soon as the king entered the field, the signal was given for the start of the tournament. Here Henry sent his horse towards one knight, here he crossed a spear with another. “The king is an excellent fighter,” Catherine convinces herself. “And today he is especially inspired.” But my heart sank in anticipation of tragedy.
Henry orders the Earl of Montgomery, a young captain in the Scottish army, whose shield bears an image of a lion, to take up a spear. He hesitates - he remembers too well how his father almost killed another French king, Francis I, hitting him in the head with a burning torch during a game. But Henry is adamant, and the count submits.
The rivals rush towards each other. And - horror! - Montgomery's spear breaks with a crash, hitting the king's golden helmet. One fragment falls into the opened gap of the visor, piercing the eye, the second one digs into the throat.
After suffering for ten days, Henry died. And many people remembered the prophecy of Nostradamus. The cardinals wanted to send him to the stake. Peasants who believed that the prediction was actually a curse burned images of the seer. Only Catherine's intercession saved him from reprisals.
Having become regent under her minor son Francis II, she gained the coveted power. Nostradamus remained at court, receiving the position of physician. There is a story that, at Catherine’s request, he had to make another prediction for the royal house, which turned out to be no less sad.
Summoning an angel named Anael, Nostradamus asked him to reveal the fate of the queen's children in a magic mirror. The mirror showed the reign of her three sons, and then the entire 23 years in power of her despised son-in-law, Henry of Navarre. Depressed by this news, Catherine stopped the magical action. She was filled with the readiness to fight fate using any means.
Black mass
At least two episodes are reliably known when Catherine de Medici resorted to the most terrible form of black magic - the “prophecy of the Bleeding Head.”
The first episode happened on a cold May night in 1574. Francis, the eldest of the Queen Mother's sons, had long since been buried in the grave. And now the second son was dying - King Charles IX, stricken by an inexplicable illness. His situation worsened every day. Catherine had only one option left - a black mass.
The sacrifice required an innocent child, which, however, was not difficult to find. The courtier in charge of distributing alms prepared the child for his first communion. On the night of the sacrifice, the apostate monk, who had defected to the priests of black magic, celebrated a black mass in Karl’s chambers. In a room where only proxies, in front of the image of the demon, at whose feet an inverted crucifix was placed, he consecrated two wafers - black and white. The white one was given to the child, the black one was placed at the bottom of the paten. The boy was killed with one blow immediately after his first communion. His severed head was placed on a black wafer and transferred to a table where candles were burning.
Dealing with evil demons is difficult. But that night things turned out especially bad. The king asked the demon to give a prophecy. And when he heard the answer that came from the little martyr’s head, he shouted: “Take that head away!”
“I suffer from violence,” the head said in Latin in a frighteningly inhuman voice.
Karl shook in convulsions, foam flew out of his mouth in clumps. The king is dead. And Catherine, who had never previously questioned her abilities for magic, was horrified: had even the devil turned away from her offspring?
However, the failure of the terrible ritual did not change her attitude towards witchcraft. Catherine still counted on the help of magicians. When a few years later her next son, King Henry III, fell ill, she, without hesitation for a long time, again turned to those who had not so long ago served a black mass to save Charles.
Catherine was sure: you can fight against magic only with the help of magic. It was her political opponents, the Guise family approaching the throne, who condemned the young king to death. The cards told her about the damage caused by them. Her court astrologer warned her about her. And later, a servant-witness trembling with fear told Catherine about how all this happened.
A wax figure of the king was placed on the altar, at which the priest Guizov celebrated mass. They pierced her with a needle during a prayer full of threats and anathemas. They asked for Henry's death. “Because His Majesty did not die quickly enough, they decided that our king was also a sorcerer,” the narrator whispered, drawing his head into his shoulders.
Catherine just shrugged her shoulders contemptuously. Is Heinrich a sorcerer? Only fools can believe this. He is weak and weak-willed, his spirit is not ready for such tests. And communication with dark forces is, as she knows very well, a cruel, strength-consuming test. It was obvious to her: she would have to take on the monstrous sin again.
And again the child was brought into the sick room. The candle flames went out again for a moment. But this time Catherine turned out to be stronger. Death touched the king's face and retreated, Henry survived.
Death's name is Saint Germain
No matter how hard Catherine tried, she could not deceive her fate.
One of her many astrologers warned the queen "against some Saint Germain." Since then, Catherine stopped visiting her castle in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the Louvre - after all, the Church of Saint-Germain is located next to the Louvre. When making travel plans, she vigilantly ensured that her path ran as far as possible from the churches of the same name and settlements. The queen settled in the castle of Blois, which she had not previously loved, just to protect herself from any surprises.
Once, having fallen ill, she reassured her ladies-in-waiting: “Nothing threatens me in Blois, don’t worry. You heard, I will die next to Saint-Germain. And here I will certainly recover.”
But the disease progressed. And Catherine ordered to call a doctor. A doctor unfamiliar to her came, examined her and decided to watch at her bedside until the morning while she slept.
You are too tired, Your Majesty. You just need to have a good rest,” he said.
“Yes,” the queen nodded. - But who are you? What is your name?
“My name is Saint-Germain, madam,” the aesculapian bowed deeply.
Three hours later, Catherine de Medici passed away.
“I was crushed by the rubble of the house,” these dying words of the “black queen” turned out to be prophetic. A few months later, the last of her sons, Henry, followed his mother into the grave. Instead of the House of Valois, the Bourbon dynasty reigned in France.
