Catherine of Medici facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Catherine de' Medici |
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Catherine de' Medici, attributed to François Clouet, c. 1555
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| Queen consort of France | |||||
| Reign | 31 March 1547 – 10 July 1559 | ||||
| Coronation | 10 June 1549 | ||||
| Born | 13 April 1519 Florence, Republic of Florence |
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| Died | 5 January 1589 (aged 69) Château of Blois, France |
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| Spouse | Henry II, King of France | ||||
| Issue | Francis II, King of France Elisabeth, Queen of Spain Claude, Duchess of Lorraine Louis of Valois Charles IX, King of France Henry III, King of France Margaret, Queen of France Hercule François, Duke of Anjou Jeanne Victoire |
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| House | House of Medici | ||||
| Father | Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino | ||||
| Mother | Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||
Catherine de' Medici (April 13, 1519 – January 5, 1589) was the wife of Henry II of France.
Catherine was the daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici. She was born in Florence, Italy. She was born Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de' Medici.
Catherine was married to Henry II of France when she was 14 years old. Their children were:
- Francis II of France
- Elizabeth of Valois
- Charles IX of France
- Henry III of France
- Margaret of Valois
Catherine is buried in the Saint Denis Basilica.
Images for kids
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Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, Pope Clement VII, by Sebastiano del Piombo, c.1531. Clement called Catherine's betrothal to Henry of Orléans "the greatest match in the world".
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Catherine and Henry's marriage, painted seventeen years after the event
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Catherine de' Medici, as Queen consort of France, 1550s. Portrait at the Uffizi Gallery. "Her mouth is too large and her eyes too prominent and colourless for beauty", wrote a Venetian envoy as Catherine approached forty, "but a very distinguished-looking woman, with a shapely figure, a beautiful skin and exquisitely shaped hands".
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Silver jeton on Catherine de'Médici
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Francis II of France, by François Clouet, 1560. Francis found the crown so heavy at his coronation that four nobles had to hold it in place as he walked up the steps to his throne.
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Charles IX of France, after François Clouet, c. 1565. The Venetian ambassador Giovanni Michiel described Charles as "an admirable child, with fine eyes, gracious movements, though he is not robust. He favours physical exercise that is too violent for his health, for he suffers from shortness of breath".
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Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, by François Clouet, 1570. She wrote to her son, Henry, in 1572: "All she [Catherine] does is mock me, and afterwards tells others exactly the opposite of what I have said ... she denies everything, laughing in my face ... she treats me so shamefully that the patience I manage to maintain surpasses that of Griselda".
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Henry, Duke of Anjou, by Jean de Court, c. 1573. As Henry III, he often showed more interest in pious devotions than in government.
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Catherine's youngest son, Francis, Duke of Alençon, by Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1577. Elizabeth of England called him "her frog" but found him "not so deformed" as she had been led to expect.
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Henry, Duke of Guise, by Pierre Dumoûtier. Disarmed by Catherine's sweetness on meeting her for negotiations at Épernay in 1585, Guise tearfully insisted that his motives had been misunderstood. Catherine told him it would be better if he took off his boots and ate something, after which they could talk at length.
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Effigies of Catherine de' Medici and Henry II by Germain Pilon (1583), Basilica of St Denis
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The Ballet Comique de la Reine, from a 1582 engraving by Jacques Patin
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The talisman Nostradamus allegedly made for Catherine de' Medici
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Henry and Catherine Family Portrait
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Louis, Victoire and Jeanne, the three children who died in infancy, depicted in Catherine's Book of hours
See also
In Spanish: Catalina de Médici para niños
