did catherine de medici have a daughter named clarissa did catherine de medici have a daughter named clarissa

[130] As the centrepiece of an ambitious new chapel, she commissioned a magnificent tomb for Henry at the basilica of Saint Denis. When Henry II died in 1559 Catherine de Medici went on to rule France in the name of her sons for the next 3 decades, until her death in 1589. Blunt calls Caron's style "perhaps the purest known type of Mannerism in its elegant form, appropriate to an exquisite but neurotic society." At the meeting of the Estates, Henry thanked Catherine for all she had done. In 1558, she was considered for Don Carlos, the eldest son of King Philip II of Spain. [119] After Catherine's death, a decline in the quality of French portraiture set in. Clarissa Delacroix (1539-1557) was the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici and the French noble Richard Delacroix. In an age of civil war and declining respect for the monarchy, she sought to bolster royal prestige through lavish cultural display. Pettegree, 154; Hoogvliet, 105. She even encouraged the king to spend more time with Catherine and sire more children. In this cause, he recruited the great Catholic princes, nobles and prelates, signed the treaty of Joinville with Spain, and prepared to make war on the "heretics". Later, she resorted in frustration and anger to hardline policies against them. [32] Catherine brought her up with her own children at the French court, while Mary of Guise governed Scotland as her daughter's regent.[33]. Its principal purpose was to execute the edict and, through a meeting at Bayonne in June 1565, to seek to strengthen peaceful relations between the crown and Spain and to negotiate for Charless marriage to Elizabeth of Austria. Catherine de Medici was the queen consort of Henry II of France (154759) and regent of France. However, she was never in a position to control the country as a whole, which was on the brink of civil war. He cared for her and also arranged her union to Henry, Duke of Orlans, the second son of King Francis I of France, in early 1533. In the words of historian R. J. Knecht, "she underestimated the strength of religious conviction, imagining that all would be well if only she could get the party leaders to agree". The young couple had been married the year before at Amboise as part of the alliance between King Francis I of France and Lorenzo's uncle Pope Leo X against the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. She wrote to her daughter Elisabeth: "My principal aim is to have the honour of God before my eyes in all things and to preserve my authority, not for myself, but for the conservation of this kingdom and for the good of all your brothers". Three days later, Admiral Coligny was walking back to his rooms from the Louvre when a shot rang out from a house and wounded him in the hand and arm. [69], Catherine looked to further Valois interests by grand dynastic marriages. The chronicler L'Estoile reported that she cried all through her lunch that day. [24] According to the court chronicler Brantme, "many people advised the king and the Dauphin to repudiate her, since it was necessary to continue the line of France". Eight months later, Jacques Clment stabbed Henry III to death. Jeanne replied: "Pardon me if, reading that, I want to laugh, because you want to relieve me of a fear that I've never had. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life but outlived her by just seven months. Claude and Charles would go on to have nine children, of which seven would survive to adulthood. Possibly Catherines most concrete achievement was the Edict of January 1562, which followed the failure of reconciliation. Catherine then spent an hour trying to make Margaret presentable again. Historians regard the occasion as an early example of Catherine's statesmanship. Clarissa Delacroix was born in 1539, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici of France and King Henry II of Frances boyhood friend Richard Delacroix. [31] The surviving daughter, Victoire, died seven weeks later. Catherines second great political crisis came with the premature death on December 5, 1560, of Francis II, whose royal authority the Guises had monopolized. She is also known for her involvement in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (1572)part of the CatholicHuguenot wars (Wars of Religion; 156298)and for being mother to three kings of France. Catherine also made many visit in returns and Charles was said to be genuinely fond of his mother-in-law. "[112] She left in tears. He sent the Duke of Alba to tell Catherine to scrap the Edict of Amboise and to find punitive solutions to the problem of heresy. This lends some weight to the suggestion that people were labelled 'witches' simply because they did not act the way a woman would have been expected to act, or simply to suit personal or political agendas. [] In short, she was a true daughter of France, having good mind and ability, which she proved by seconding wisely and ably her husband, M. de Lorraine, in the government of his seigneuries and principalities.1. At times he even felt well enough to dictate letters and listen to music. "[94] She was under no illusions, however. [129] Poets lauded her as the new Artemisia, after Artemisia II of Caria, who built the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus as a tomb for her dead husband. Her essentially moderate influence was first perceptible during the Conspiracy of Amboise (March 1560), an instance of tumultuous petitioning by the Huguenot gentry, primarily against Guisard persecution in the name of the King. According to the diplomat Simon Renard, the birth nearly killed Catherine,[150] and the royal couple were advised by the King's physician to have no further children. [43] Others they drowned in the river or strung up around the battlements while Catherine and the court watched. Thus began her lifelong struggleexplicit in her correspondencewith these extremists who, supported by Spain and the papacy, sought to dominate the crown and extinguish its independence in the commingled interests of European Catholicism and personal aggrandizement. Greg Bryk, an actor, played him. He sought the support of France's constitutional bodies and worked closely with Catherine to defend the law in the face of the growing anarchy. Philip II excused himself from the occasion. Henry wrote a note to Villeroy, which began: "Villeroy, I remain very well contented with your service; do not fail however to go away to your house where you will stay until I send for you; do not seek the reason for this my letter, but obey me." Henry's death in 1559 thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail 15-year-old King Francis II. To avoid questions about the baby's distinguishing birthmark, she gave the baby to Nostradamus' father. Monsieur de Guise is dead. On 34 April 1559, Henry signed the Peace of Cateau-Cambrsis with the Holy Roman Empire and England, ending a long period of Italian Wars. Despite her considerable power, Leeza is the least favorite of Catherine's children, and underneath her tough facade is a legitimate desire for her mother's affections. Thenceforth the problem of religion was one of power, public order, and administration. She was left with a desire for revenge against her mother, saving Mary, Queen of Scots from Colin MacPhail when Catherine sent Colin to rape her in 1557; she then helped Colin in attempting to escape from prison by marking another prisoner for death in his stead. Years later, Diane, daughter of Henry II and Philippa Duci, had Catherine's remains reinterred in the Saint-Denis basilica in Paris. She later did her best to efface or outdo Diane's building work there. "Princely Culture and Catherine de Mdicis". Margaret later recalled that she saved the lives of several prominent Huguenots during the massacre by keeping them in her rooms and refusing to admit the assassins. It spread to many parts of France, where it persisted into the autumn. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In October 1586, therefore, he had Margaret locked up in the Chteau d'Usson. As time passed and the likelihood of children from the marriage receded, Catherine's youngest son, Francis, Duke of Alenon, known as "Monsieur", played upon his role as heir to the throne, repeatedly exploiting the anarchy of the civil wars, which were by now as much about noble power struggles as religion. [141] An infertile woman, and in particular an infertile queen, was therefore regarded as 'unnatural' and a small step from supernatural. Blunt, 98, 100. She went on to bear Henry a further eight children, seven of whom survived infancy, including the future Charles IX (born 27 June 1550); the future Henry III (born 19 September 1551); and Francis, Duke of Anjou (born 18 March 1555) and Claude (born 12 November 1547). In early 1572, Joan Henrys mother and Queen regnant of Navarre arrived in France feeling ill and tired but determined to see the marriage negotiations through. "[83], Henry was Catherine's favourite son. Clarissa Delacroix was born in 1539, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici of France and King Henry II of Frances boyhood friend Richard Delacroix. However, Catherine maintained the monarchy and the state institutions functioning, even at a minimum level. She inflicts her emotional pain on her mother and her siblings upon her arrival. [92] Her role in his government became that of chief executive and roving diplomat. The members of the Flying Squadron were supposedly so beautiful and so good at their jobs that they were known to make men see God, or at least worship Him in a different way. I began this website in 2013 because I wanted to share these women's amazing stories. She shared the same birthmark as her father, so Catherine had Nostradamus' father, a physician, attempt to remove the birthmark from Clarissa. Babelon, Jean-Pierre. To save Catherines life, baby Joan dead or dying had her legs broken to remove her from her mothers womb. She gave birth to ten children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived to marriageable age. She had always enjoyed her visits to Claude, and now that would never be the same. [39] For the moment, Catherine worked with the Guises out of necessity. [64] The Surprise of Meaux marked a turning point in Catherine's policy towards the Huguenots. Catherine de Medici was the daughter of Lorenzo di Piero de Medici, duca di Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour dAuvergne, a Bourbon princess related to many of the French nobility. "[136][139], Catherine de' Medici has been labelled by Wiccan Gerald Gardner a "sinister Queen noted for her interest in the occult arts". I am surprised that she never did worse. Clarissa Delacroix was born in 1539, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Catherine de Medici of France and King Henry II of France's boyhood friend Richard Delacroix. Catherine was overjoyed at the match, but her joy was overshadowed by the death of her husband. "As the daughter of the Medici," suggests French art historian Jean-Pierre Babelon, "she was driven by a passion to build and a desire to leave great achievements behind her when she died. Within a month of Catherine's birth, both her parents were dead: Madeleine died on 28 April of puerperal fever, and Lorenzo died on 4 May. The birth nearly cost Catherine her life. Henry of Navarre, son of Jeanne dAlbret, and Margaret of Valois, Catherines daughter. Henry IV was later reported to have said of Catherine: I ask you, what could a woman do, left by the death of her husband with five little children on her arms, and two families of France who were thinking of grasping the crownour own [the Bourbons] and the Guises? When Francis II died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her 10-year-old son King Charles IX and was thus granted sweeping powers. They depict events held at Fontainebleau in 1564; at Bayonne in 1565 for the summit meeting with the Spanish court; and at the Tuileries in 1573 for the visit of the Polish ambassadors who presented the Polish crown to Catherine's son Henry of Anjou. As Guise entered the king's chamber, the Forty-five plunged their blades into his body, and he died at the foot of the king's bed. Joan became even sicker, and she died, shortly before her son arrived, on 9 June. King Henry took part in the jousting, sporting Diane's black-and-white colours. royal 28. Knecht 1998, p. 8 (dates of death); Hritier 1963, p. 15 (cause of Madeleine's death). Catherine outlived all her children except Henry III, who died seven months after her, and Margaret, who inherited her robust health. [62] Taken unawares, the court fled to Paris in disarray. Copyright 2023 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes. [38] The English ambassador reported a few days later that "the house of Guise ruleth and doth all about the French king". Learn how your comment data is processed. She had known Mary since the age of five and a half, when the little Scottish queen was brought to Paris and raised alongside Catherines own children. From that moment, she abandoned compromise for a policy of repression. Franois Clouet drew and painted portraits of all Catherine's family and of many members of the court. Catherines daughters Elisabeth and Claude bore children who lived into adulthood, including King Charles IX of France, Prince Louis, and Prince Henri of France. She was born with her father's birthmark on Catherine succeeded in obtaining the regency for Charles IX, with Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre and first prince of the blood, as lieutenant general, to whom the Protestants vainly looked for leadership. She also met her daughter Elisabeth at Bayonne near the Spanish border, amidst lavish court festivities. Her relationship with her mother never did improve it was as if Catherine resented Margaret for being the healthiest child. The Protestants looked for leadership first to Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, the First Prince of the Blood, and then, with more success, to his brother, Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Cond, who backed a plot to overthrow the Guises by force. Artistic, energetic, and extraverted, as well as discreet, courageous, and gay, Catherine was greatly esteemed at the dazzling court of Francis I, from which she derived both her political attitudes and her passion for building. About 1538, at the age of 19, Henry had taken as his mistress the 38-year-old Diane de Poitiers,[27] whom he adored for the rest of his life. [19] Clement visited the newlyweds in bed the next morning and added his blessings to the night's proceedings. WebCatherine de' Medici married Henry, Duke of Orlans, the future Henry II of France, in Marseille on 28 October 1533. Born in Florence, she was the granddaughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, niece of Pope Leo X and sister to Lorenzo II de' Medici. [88] Francis died of consumption in June 1584, after a disastrous intervention in the Low Countries during which his army had been massacred. Catherine de' Medici was born Caterina Maria Romula de' Medici[7] on 13 April 1519 in Florence, Republic of Florence, the only child of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and his wife, Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, the countess of Boulogne. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and stay up to date on History of Royal Women's articles! The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" since she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France.[1]. [75] A smoking arquebus was discovered in a window, but the culprit had made his escape from the rear of the building on a waiting horse. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. After Alfonsina's death in 1520, Catherine joined her cousins and was raised by her aunt, Clarice de' Medici. [93] On her return to Paris in 1579, she was greeted outside the city by the Parlement and crowds. Thus occupied, Catherine lived privately though she was appointed regent in 1552 during Henrys absence at the siege of Metz. [14] In October 1529, Charles's troops laid siege to Florence. [60], In 1566, through the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Guillaume de Grandchamp de Grantrie, and because of a long-standing Franco-Ottoman alliance, Charles and Catherine proposed to the Ottoman Court a plan to resettle French Huguenots and French and German Lutherans in Ottoman-controlled Moldavia, in order to create a military colony and a buffer against the Habsburg. He remarried to Marie de Medici and had several children by her. His designs for the Valois Tapestries celebrate the ftes, picnics, and mock battles of the "magnificent" entertainments hosted by Catherine. She is portrayed by Rebecca Liddiard. Catherine was the daughter of Lorenzo di Piero de Medici, duca di Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour dAuvergne, a Bourbon princess related to many of the French nobility. [35] Henry reeled out of the clash, his face pouring blood, with splinters "of a good bigness" sticking out of his eye and head. He shouted at her, "Your words, Madam, have led us all to this butchery. "[131] Catherine also commissioned Germain Pilon to carve the marble sculpture that contains Henry II's heart. The surgery removed part of the birthmark, but left Clarissa greatly disfigured due to the use of potions. Catherine met Coligny, but he refused to back down. At the age of five and a half, Mary was brought to the French court, where she was promised to the Dauphin, Francis. During the period 156468, Catherine was unable, for complex reasons, to withstand the cardinal Lorraine, statesman of the Guises, who largely provoked the second and third civil wars. Not much later, she actually married Philip himself when he was widowed upon the death of Queen Mary I of England. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. She shared the same birthmark as her father, so Catherine had Nostradamus' father, a physician, attempt to remove the birthmark from Clarissa. The fourteen-year-old couple left their wedding ball at midnight to perform their nuptial duties. Charles and Claude had a happy marriage, and their close proximity to the French court meant that they were able to visit Catherine often. Three of her sons became kings of France, while two of her daughters married kings and one married a duke. [40] Nevertheless, all his official acts began with the words: "This being the good pleasure of the Queen, my lady-mother, and I also approving of every opinion that she holdeth, am content and command that". Catherine de Medici was the daughter of Lorenzo di Piero de Medici, duca di Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour dAuvergne, a Bourbon princess related to many of the French nobility. [29] Henry gave the Chteau of Chenonceau, which Catherine had wanted for herself, to Diane de Poitiers, who took her place at the centre of power, dispensing patronage and accepting favours. Princess Margaret of Valois, also known as Margot,is the daughter of Catherine de Medici and Henry II. Catherine travelled to Chtellerault where she bid farewell to her 13-year-old daughter. WebCatherine de Medicis full name is Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de Medici. [101] He went into hiding to fast and pray, surrounded by a bodyguard known as "the Forty-five", and left Catherine to sort out the mess. On 17 August 1563, Charles IX was declared of age at the Parlement of Rouen, but he was never able to rule on his own and showed little interest in government. * * *. [51] In January 1562, Catherine issued the tolerant Edict of Saint-Germain in a further attempt to build bridges with the Protestants. Ronsard may be referring to Artemisia, who drank the ashes of her dead husband, which became part of her own body. Clarissa de Medici. The Guise brothers set about persecuting the Protestants with zeal. In 1536, Henry's older brother, Francis, caught a chill after a game of tennis, contracted a fever and died shortly after, leaving Henry the heir. Henry arrived in the bedroom with King Francis, who is said to have stayed until the marriage was consummated. Some historians have excused Catherine from blame for the worst decisions of the crown, but evidence for her ruthlessness can be found in her letters. Three of her sons became kings of France, while two of her daughters married kings and one married a duke. Catherine, in bed with a lung infection, had been kept in the dark. For a summary of the fluctuations in Catherine's historical reputation, see the preface to R. J. Knecht's.