CATHERINE de' Medici, Queen of France. Daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and of Maddalena de la Tour d'Auvergne, Countess of Boulogne, born in Florence on 13 April 1519, died at Blois on 15 January 1589. In 1533 she married the second son of Francis I of France, Henry, Duke of Orléans, who, upon the death of the Dauphin three years later, became the presumptive heir to the throne. Even after the death of Francis I in 1547 and the accession of Henry II, Catherine lived in the background, devoting herself entirely to the education of their ten children.
A widow in 1559, she prudently remained in the shadows during the brief reign of Francis II, whose guardians were the Duke of Guise and his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine. However, with the accession of Charles IX in 1560, she managed to have herself proclaimed regent; yet she failed to prevent the climate from developing in which the Wars of Religion were to flare up. During the period of these bitter disputes, she remained undecided between Catholics and Huguenots. In 1563 she promulgated the Edict of Amboise on freedom of conscience. Once again it was ambition that decided her, seeing a danger in the influence that the Huguenot admiral Coligny was gaining over the young Charles IX. The attempt on Coligny’s life in 1572 was only partially successful. The king ordered a rigorous and impartial inquiry, and Catherine, whose threatened ambition was compounded by fear for her own safety, gave her supporters a free hand in the massacre of St Bartholomew’s Night (24 Aug. 1572; V. BARTHOLOMAIC, NIGHT OF ST).
In her later years she attempted a policy of balance between the warring factions, but succeeded only in incurring the hatred of all.
Her personality was complex: greedy for glory, she felt the allure of political power; though Italian, she understood and defended the sense of nationhood that was uniquely French. A woman of scant religious faith, she operated on a political-religious plane, guided by the dictates of a ruthless raison d’état. More often than not, she was dominated by events rather than dominating them.