Catherine de Medici – v2

Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) was granddaughter of Lorenzo de Medici. She married the second son of Francis I, later King Henry II of France, in 1533. She allied herself with the Catholic party during the Wars of Religion and was accused of taking part in planning the massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day in 1572 in which thousands of Protestant Huguenots were murdered. Her efforts to maintain the peace were constantly thwarted by fighting between Catholic and Protestant factions. Her dominant role in French politics came to naught in the end, when her Valois dynasty was replaced by the Bourbons.

A Florentine Medici and orphan, she married into the French royal family at 14. Her husband, Henry of Orleans, became Henry II, and she bore him seven children. Upon Henry’s death she became regent and ruled through the reigns of her three sons.

Restorers' Comment: Clothing reworked from the inside out, veil shortened, cap remodeled.