Your Argument is inValois!

For most of the past evening and morning, the wind has been howling like a banshee, shaking my windows and doors, causing me to awaken with a start several times. I am sitting in Starbucks yet again, a rather depressing beacon of hope and a sign of normalcy amidst uncertainty. 

Lately, I have good days and bad days, days where I just want to scream and shout and go home, and days where I just dance and cannot wait to travel. A lot of days though are filled with monotony, which is a rather welcome beast. It gives me much time to dream, ponder and think about where my life is headed. It sounds a lot more philosophical than it really is. But working in this dead-end job has caused me to re-think my life, and wonder about where I need to be to settle into a life with a husband and possible children. I find that people are rather surprised to find out that while I lack in some common sense, that when it comes to intellectual intelligence that I am not exactly a freshman. Though, in this job, intellectual intelligence is not necessary, but a lot of common sense is.  Catherine de Medici is evidence of this factoid.

Catherine de' Medici

(13 April 1519- 5 January 1589)

Catherine de`Medici was born in Florence, to Madeleine de La Tour Auvergne and Lorenzo de Medici, the Duke of Urbino, a member of the very powerful de Medici family on April 13, 1519. She was the only child born of this union. The de Medici family had grown very powerful and wealthy via their banking interests and therefore, bankrolling monarchies. In fact a frequent insult thrown at Catherine in her reign was to call her the fat banker.  However, both of her parents died within a few weeks of her birth and she was raised by her paternal grandmother, Alfonsina Orsini and then her aunt, Clarice Strozzi.

Though, unfortunately for Catherine, the de`Medicis were hated for their massive power and wealth and there were frequent struggles amongst powerful families for Florence and other parts of Italy. One of her cousins became Pope in 1523, Clement VII and one of her greatest champions. The de Medici were overthrown in 1527 in Florence, and Clement VII offered to crown Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor in exchange for the return of the city. During the siege, Catherine`s life was in danger and there were those who called for her death. In 1530, the city finally surrendered and Catherine was called to Rome, to be under the care of her cousin, who made it a goal of his to find Catherine a spectacular match. 

Due to her wealth, Catherine was coveted bride, and one of her suitors included King James V of Scotland, and Francis I of France offered his second son, Henry of Orleans as a groom. Clement accepted the French groom and organized an extravagant wedding in Marseille in 1533, when both the bride and groom were fourteen. As the Queen, she was treated fairly well by courtiers and her husband, though that was changed when her cousin died in 1534, and was replaced by Paul III who broke his alliance with France and had no intention on paying Catherine`s dowry. In 1536, Catherine became the Dauphine of France upon the death of her brother-in-law, and the pressure was on for her to produce heirs to the throne. In her desperation to produce, she used every contemporary cure, such as drinking mule`s urine, and placing cow dung on her vagina. A rather horrifying prospect to this author. Finally, she produced an heir, the future Francis II, in 1544. Then a flurry of children followed. A grand total of nine births, with seven surviving to adulthood. 

During her time of infertility, Henry II openly took mistresses and frequently claimed the illegitimate children as his own. Though, most were passing infatuations except for Diane de Poitiers, a woman who was twenty years older than her lover, but a reputed beauty and a woman of great intellect. Henry pointedly ignored Catherine in favour of Diane, and gave her gifts that Catherine wanted for herself. Diane wielded spectacular amount of power and dispensed favours with aplomb whilst Catherine was limited in her power and often were mere tokens. Diane`s power came to an abrupt end, when Henry II died of his injuries caused by a jousting accident. 

None of the Queen`s children were old enough to rule without a regent, and upon the death of Henry, she was the regent of France for her child, Francis II, who was married to Marie of Guise's daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots. One of her first acts was to force Diane to hand over the crown jewels and give back the Chateau of Chenonceau, which Catherine had wanted for herself. Furthermore, he tried to erase the existence of Diane in the house replacing the monograms of HD with HC. 

The Guises were a powerful family in France, without whose support Catherine would have had a very shaky regency. Though, it wasn`t a marriage made in heaven, but of mere necessity. It was during her regency that the Huguenots and Catholic were fighting and the country was brought to Civil War. Many of her problems were due to the fact that many said that she failed to see religious conviction as something other than a political issue.

Catherine`s regency was extended due to the unfortunate early death of her son, Francis II, and his brother Charles IX was crowned soon after at the age of nine. She wielded immense power over her adolescent son, but not necessarily the nation, where nobles of the locales in different parts tended to rule their respective areas. Even when declared of age, Charles IX did not show much interest in government and preferred to have his mother run most of the government for him. 


Catherine issued the Edict of Saint-Germain in January 1562, which reiterated Roman Catholicism as the primary worship, but gave Protestants rights to PRIVATE worship provided it wasn't in any towns.  But it was to no avail for on March 1, 1562,  Francis the Duke of Guise massacred 72 Huguenots and injured 100 others when he came across them worshiping in a barn. This incident sparked the 30 years of French Wars of Religion. 


Catherine made attempts to appease the revenge seeking (though rightly), which received much disdain from her Catholic League members.

Like most mothers, Catherine sought to further the interests of her children. Her daughter, Elisabeth, married Philip II of Spain. Francis II was married to the future queen, Mary of Scots. Charles IX married Elisabeth of Austria, a daughter of emperor Maximilian I of Holy Roman Empire. Margaret married Henry of Navarre, the future king of France. She sought a match for her son, Francis of Anjou to the Queen Elizabeth I of England, who affectionately referred to him as her "little frog", but that match never materialized.