You may have been watching the Starz historical drama, The Serpent Queen and you find yourself
wondering what's true and what really happened in the chronicles of history.
There is lots of intrigue in the show, lots of events and, of course, fictionalized versions
of those events; but, don't despair, this video will give you the historically true
and chronological history of Catherine de' Medici's life story.
Let’s begin.
Catherine was born on April 13th, 1519 in Florence Italy to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke
of Urbino and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, a relative of King Francis I of France.
Lorenzo de' Medici was merely as commoner but Madeleine was of noble birth (being the
daughter of a count and duchess).
Their marriage in 1518 was a political agreement between the king and Pope Leo X who was head
of the Catholic Church at the time . Pope Leo just happened to be of the Medici family
and as the head of the Catholic church and ruler of the Papal states, he promised to
support Francis’s claim to the throne in exchange for Francis’s promise to ensure
that the Vatican would have full authority over the Catholic church in France.
Catherine was the only child of Lorenzo and Madeleine, who where said to have been elated
at her birth and looking forward to raising their child; but both of Catherine’s parents
died within a month of her birth; her father from syphilis and her mother from either the
same affliction or (perhaps) from the plague.
Baby Catherine was taken in by her paternal grandmother, Alfonsina Orsini, who herself,
managed to die shortly afterwards; so little Catherine was shuttled off to an aunt to be
cared for, but that didn’t last.
Little Catherine jumped around from family member to family member for the first years
of her life, but by 1523, everything was about to change.
When another of her Medici relatives was elected pope, this time Giulio de' Medici who became
known as Pope Clement VII in 1523, he decided Catherine would be a good political asset
and had the young pre-teen installed in the family palace.
The Medici family was wealthy and prosperous by this time having made their fortune in
banking.
The wealth of the Medici family allowed them access to political power in Florence even
though they were not regarded as equals by the aristocracy (which made them all that
more determined to gain power in any way that they could).
But alas, in 1527, the Medici family’s power came crashing down, they were ousted from
Florence, and 8 year old Catherine spent three years living in convents, with her life threatened
at times, due to her family name, until the Pope called her to Rome in 1530 to arrange
her marriage.
Clement VII saw this as an opportunity for a Medici to rise to aristocracy, when King
Francis I of France offered his son Henry, in 1533,in marriage to Catherine; so, of course,
he accepted.
Fourteen year old Catherine married fourteen year old Henry in October of that same year.
Although Henry played the part of the groom (as was expected of him) at the wedding and
during the wedding night; in truth Henry had absolutely no interest in Catherine and spent
most nights with his mistresses and, eventually (or right from the start, according to some
sources), with is main love interest, Diane de Poitiers.
Diane was everything Catherine was not: she was supremely self-confident, beautiful, an
aristocrat whose parents had encouraged her athletic interests and education in a wide
array of subjects including architecture and the law.
She was also independently wealthy since, after the death of her husband, she had made
use of her legal skills to retain his estate without the requirement of a male consort-supervisor.
Catherine was queen in name only.
She had no political power and no influence over the king or the court.
She was distrusted by the courtiers as a foreigner and shunned as a commoner.
Further complicating her position, she seemed unable to conceive a child.
In 1536, Henry's older brother Francis died of fever, and Henry became heir to the throne.
It was now more important than before that Catherine give Henry a child, and so she took
to folk remedies to increase fertility such as placing cow dung on her “source of life”
and drinking animal urine.
She consulted astrologers and folk healers and, later, the physician and seer Nostradamus,
who she elevated to the position of chief physician for her son Charles IX.
Her association with astrology, (which the Church condemned), as well as with folk remedies,
Nostradamus, and others like hi, is the source of the later claim that she was involved in
occult practices.
At the same time, however, she was also suspected of being a witch because of her inability
to conceive.
The proper function of a woman was understood to be childbearing, and those who could not
conceive were apt to raise suspicions of witchery because witches were understood to be in league
with the devil, who could not generate life, and so were infertile.
Catherine was never charged with witchcraft, but there were suggestions by the nobility
that the king should divorce her.
Henry, meanwhile, was spending his nights with Diane.
Diane had been a lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France, Henry's mother, who died
when he was young, and she seems to have been seen as a mother figure by him at an early
age.
As his lover, she was the most powerful woman in France, but she encouraged his relationship
with Catherine and, especially, that he spend more time in Catherine's bedchamber than her
own to co-create an heir to the throne.
Catherine gave birth to her first son, Francis II, in 1544 and, afterwards, found no difficulty
in conceiving further, eventually giving birth to ten children, seven of whom lived to adulthood
or young adulthood.
Catherine had 15 good years of marriage with Henry and she had truly fallen in love with
her husband (in spite of the fact that he never gave up Diane as his mistress); but
as with so many good times in Catherine’s life, it came to an abrupt end.
In 1559, Henry the second arranged a marriage between his daughter Elisabeth of Valois to
King Philip II of Spain.
The marriage celebration included jousting tournaments, a sport Henry was especially
skilled in and proud of.
When he was unseated by his opponent, the Comte de Montgomery, he called for a rematch
during which Montgomery's lance shattered against Henry’s helmet, sending shards of
wood into his eye and forehead.
The wood penetrated into his brain, and he lived a little over two weeks before succumbing
to the injury.
Throughout this time, Catherine remained by his side, and although he called for Diane
de Poitier, Catherine denied her entrance to the chamber.
Some call Catherine cruel because of this but I totally side with Catherine.
After Henry's death, Catherine chose to dress in black (for the custom was that widows could
wear either white or black;) and she took the broken lance as her own personal symbol
for the next phase of her life.
At this point, Catherine's life changed dramatically and some say, this is when she really began
to flourish.
Up until this point, Catherine had been the dutiful and submissive queen but the minute
she stepped into power, she began to wield it fiercely (as shown with her actions towards
Diane de Poitiers)
Many people don’t realize that Catherine was a skillful chess player both on the board
as a child and now, she would use those skills in her life as a Queen of France.
Catherine de' Medici was a woman of her times and ahead of her time.
She received an education far beyond what was considered respectable for a woman.
She cultivated the arts, poetry and architecture and was truly as accomplished her husband’s
mistress.
And yet, she came to be called, the "Serpent Queen" along with "The Dark Queen", "The Black
Queen"and even , "The Queen of Poisons."
In Part two of the life history of Catherine de' Medici, I’ll cover the many events that
occurred in Catherine’s life after her husband’s death that earned her these disparaging titles
and explore just what is true and what was said to be true about Catherine de' Medici,
Queen of France.
Leave comments below to let me know what you think about Catherine de' Medici, and if you
caught the movie, what you think about The Serpent Queen on Starz.
Thanks for watching!