So I will continue talking about Catherine de Medici.
After the death of the Duc of Guise, Catherine issued the Edict of Amboise which gave some freedoms to Huguenots, though not as much as the Edict of Saint Germain. Nobles could have Protestant services in their private residences, and in certain places in certain cities.
Philip II, her daughter's husband, urged Catherine to rescind the Edict and punish and seek out heretics.
There were plans to place all Huguenots and German Lutherans in the Ottoman controlled Moldavia, which was to no avail.
Unfortunately, the Huguenot forces made plans to ambush the King, the Surprise of Meaux, and Catherine's tolerance of the Huguenots ended. They retreated to La Rochelle on the coast, where they were joined by Jeanne, Queen of Navarre and her son, Henry of Bourbon (future Henry IV of France).
Though, Catherine sought a marriage between Henry and her daughter, Margaret. It was agreed so long as Henry may remain a Huguenot. When Jeanne arrived in Paris, she fell ill and died at the age of forty four, many accusations of poisoning were flung about. However, unexpected noble deaths were frequently received with the same suspicions of poisoning. The wedding finally took place on August 18, 1572.
Three days after the wedding, a highly ranked Huguenot leader, Gaspard Coligny, was shot and needed a finger amputated. The queen visited him, and promised to punish the attacker.
Predictably, the King and Queen knew there was going to be a massive retaliation from the Huguenots against the Catholics. They struck against the Huguenot leaders first, as many were still in Paris for the wedding (including Coligny). It is estimated that about 5,000- 30,000 people were killed as a result of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The new groom converted to Catholicism to avoid being killed. This incident had tainted the reputation of Catherine de Medici.
Two years later, Charles IX died at the age of twenty three and was succeeded by his brother Henry III. His marriage choice, Louise of Lorraine, thwarted Catherine's desire to marry him to another foreign princess.
Unfortunately this was just the beginning of Catherine's problems with controlling the behaviour of her children. Margaret returned to the French court without her husband, and frequently took lovers. Her last son, Francis of Alencon, was seen to ally with Protestant princes against the crown. He forced the hand of his brother to issue the Edict of Beaulieu, which gave Huguenots the right to public worship. He died in 1584, which left Margaret's husband, Henry the heir to the throne. She also had less influence with her son Henry III, than her other sons. He wanted to rule the country and she was left as a diplomat. She traveled around France to get support for her son, and frequently gave him advice.
Catherine de Medici, mother of three kings, died on January 5, 1589 of pleurisy. Eight months after her death, her son was killed by a friar and Henry IV was proclaimed King of France. One of the more kindly things said about her, after her death was by her son in law Henry IV.
`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 crown—our own [the Bourbons] and the Guises? Was she not compelled to play strange parts to deceive first one and then the other, 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.`
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