Catherine de’ Medici was a very powerful woman of the late Middle Ages, known mainly for her role as Queen Consort to King Henry II of France. Born into the ruling family of Florence, Italy in the early 16th century, young Caterina (as she was known in Italian) was sent to France at the age of 14 to marry the second son of King Francis I. She became Queen Consort Catherine of France from 1547-1559 when her husband became king after his older brother Francis contracted one of those medieval colds and died. King Henry II was more enamored with his mistress (Diane de Poitiers) than his wife so he largely excluded Catherine from power and prominence at court. Nevertheless, Catherine was a baby-making machine and produced 11 children in all. She was also the ultimate Medieval “Momager†– three of her sons became Kings of France, one daughter became Queen Consort of Spain and another daughter eventually became a Queen Consort of France, as well. After Catherine’s husband King Henry II died in a freakish jousting accident when she was forty, three of her sons would rule in succession between 1559 and 1589 (Francis II, Charles IX and Henri III). These 30 years are often referred to as “the age of Catherine de’ Medici”. Unfortunately for Catherine de’ Medici, history has been unkind when remembering what troubles she caused, but there’s no denying that ambition and gusto of hers! She was a bossy, sometimes ruthless Aries after all (and she was also really into astrology, séances, consultations with the famous “seer†Nostradamus, etc). She enthusiastically injected herself into the reigns of her sons but her misguided attempts at jockeying for power were thwarted by the raging civil war between the Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants) at the time. Historically, she is given the shameful blame for ordering the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572) where 10,000 Protestants were killed. Still, Catherine was a woman in a man’s world, so she took her power as mother to play regent and minister to the kings of France (her sons were, for the most part, “Mama’s Boys†so this wasn’t too difficult). As her last reigning son King Henri III said in apparent defense of her: “Was she not compelled to play strange parts…in order to guard, as she did, her sons, who successively reigned through the wise conduct of that shrewd woman? I am surprised that she never did worse.â€
