Maria DE'MEDICI

Notes:

Marie de' Medici [1] (April 26, 1573, Florence ? July 3, 1642, Cologne), born in Italy as Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France under the French name Marie de MÈdicis. She was the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the Bourbon branch of the kings of France. Later she was the regent for her son King Louis XIII of France
Born in Florence, Italy, she was the daughter of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Johanna, archduchess of Austria (1548 ? 1578). Her maternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anne of Bohemia. Anne was a daughter of Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix.

Uncommonly pretty in her youth, in October 1600 she married Henri IV of France, following the annulment of his marriage to Marguerite de Valois. She brought as part of her dowry 600,000 crowns. Her eldest son, the future King Louis XIII, was born at Fontainebleau the following year.

Infighting, unhappy marriage
The marriage was not a successful one. The queen feuded with Henri's mistresses, in language that shocked French courtiers. Her largest infighting was with her husband's leading mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, whom he had promised he would marry following the death of his former official mistress, Gabrielle d'EstrÈes. When he failed to do so, and instead married Marie, the result was constant bickering and political intrigues behind the scenes. Although the king could have easily banished his mistress, supporting his queen, he never did so. She, in turn, showed great sympathy and support to her husband's banished ex-wife, Margaret of Valois, prompting Henri to allow her back into the realm.

During her husband's lifetime Marie showed little sign of political taste or ability. Hours after Henri's assassination in 1610 she was confirmed as Regent by the Parlement of Paris. She banished from the court his mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues. However, not very bright, extremely stubborn, and growing obese, she was soon entirely under the influence of her unscrupulous Italian favourite, Concino Concini, who was created Marquis d'Ancre and Marshal of France.

They dismissed Henri IV's able minister the duc de Sully. Through Concini and the Regent, Italian representatives of the Roman Catholic Church hoped to force the suppression of Protestantism in France. Half Habsburg herself, she abandoned the traditional anti-Habsburg French policy. Throwing her support with Spain, she arranged the marriage of both the future king Louis and his sister Elizabeth to members of the Spanish Habsburg royal family.

Politics
Under the regent's lax and capricious rule, the princes of the blood and the great nobles of the kingdom revolted, and the queen, too weak to assert her authority, consented (15 May 1614) to buy off the discontented princes. The opposition was led by Henri de Bourbon-CondÈ, Duc d'Enghien, who pressured Marie into convoking the Estates General (1614-15), the last time they would meet in France until the opening events of the French Revolution.

In 1616 her policy was strengthened by the accession to her councils of Richelieu, who had come to the fore at the meeting of the Estates General. However, in 1617 her son Louis XIII, already several years into his legal majority, asserted his authority. The king effectively overturned the pro-Hapsburg, pro-Spanish policy by ordering the assassination of Concini, exiling the Queen to the Ch‚teau Blois and appointing Richelieu to his bishopric.

After two years of virtual imprisonment "in the wilderness" as she put it, she escaped from Blois in the night of 21/22 February 1619 and became the figurehead of a new aristocratic revolt headed by Gaston d'Orleans, which Louis' forces easily dispersed. Through the mediation of Richelieu the king was reconciled with his mother, who was allowed to hold a small court at Angers. She resumed her place in the royal council in 1621.

Coronation of Marie de' Medici in St. Denis (detail), Paris, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1622-1625The portrait by Rubens (above right) was painted at this time. Marie rebuilt the Luxembourg Palace (Palais du Luxembourg) in Paris, with an extravagantly flattering cycle of paintings by Rubens as part of the luxurious decor (left).

After the death of his favorite, the duke of Luynes, Louis turned increasingly for guidance to Richelieu. Marie de Medici's attempts to displace Richelieu ultimately led to her attempted coup; for a single day, the journÈe des dupes, 12 November 1630, she seemed to have succeeded; but the triumph of Richelieu was followed by her exile to CompiËgne in 1630, from where she escaped to Brussels in 1631 and Amsterdam in 1638.

Her entry into Amsterdam was considered a triumph by the Dutch, as her visit lent official recognition to the newly formed Dutch Republic. Spectacular displays (by Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert) and water pageants took place in the city?s harbor in celebration of her visit. There was a procession led by two mounted trumpeters; a large temporary structure erected on an artificial island in the Amstel River was built especially for the festival. The structure was designed to display a series of dramatic tableaux in tribute to her once she set foot on the floating island and entered its pavilion. Afterwards she was offered an Indonesian rice table by the burgomaster Albert Burgh. He also sold her a famous rosary, captured in Brazil, which she would like to have. The visit prompted Caspar Barlaeus to write his Medicea hospes ("The Medicean Guest") (1638).

Marie subsequently travelled to Cologne, where she died in 1642, scheming against Richelieu to the end.

HonorÈ de Balzac encapsulated the Romantic generation's negative view:

"Marie de' Medici, all of whose actions were prejudicial to France, has escaped the shame which ought to cover her name. Marie de' Medici wasted the wealth amassed by Henri IV; she never purged herself of the charge of having known of the king's assassination; her intimate was d'…pernon, who did not ward off Ravaillac's blow, and who was proved to have known the murderer personally for a long time. Marie's conduct was such that she forced her son to banish her from France, where she was encouraging her other son, Gaston, to rebel; and the victory Richelieu at last won over her (on the Day of the Dupes) was due solely to the discovery the cardinal made, and imparted to Louis XIII, of secret documents relating to the death of Henri IV." ? Essay "Catherine de Medicis".

Maria married Henry IV King Of FRANCE in Oct 1600. Henry (son of Antoine Of NAVARRE and Jeanne III Of NAVARRE) was born on 13 Dec 1553; died on 14 May 1610. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Louis XIII (September 27, 1601 ? May 14, 1643), called the Just (French: le Juste), was King of France from 1610 to 1643.

Early life
Born at the Ch‚teau de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France (1589?1610) and Marie de' Medici. His father was the first Bourbon King of France, having succeeded his ninth cousin, Henry III of France (1574?89), in application of the Salic law. Louis XIII's paternal grandparents were Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome and Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre; his maternal grandparents were Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Johanna, archduchess of Austria.

Louis XIII ascended to the throne of France in 1610, at the age of eight and a half, upon the assassination of his father. His mother acted as Regent until Louis XIII came of age at thirteen, but she clung to power unofficially until in frustration he took the reins of government into his own hands at the age of fifteen. The assassination of Concino Concini (April 24, 1617), who had greatly influenced Marie's policymaking, effectively removed the Queen Mother's favorites from positions of power. Louis then came into his own as ruler of France. He immediately instated his own advisors to the crown, Jean-Louck Tromblin and Christoph Charleaux, in order to maintain his power. He filled his court with loyal friends and executed those who remained loyal to his mother. Under Louis XIII's rule, the Bourbon Dynasty sustained itself effectively on the throne that Henry IV had recently secured; but the question of freedom of religion continued to haunt the country.

The brilliant and energetic Cardinal Richelieu played a major role in Louis XIII's administration from 1624, decisively shaping the destiny of France for the next 18 years and dying only months before the King himself. As a result of Richelieu's work, Louis XIII became one of the first exemplars of an absolute monarch. Under Louis XIII the Habsburgs were humiliated, the French nobility was firmly kept in line behind their King, and the special privileges granted to the Huguenots by his father were retracted. Furthermore, Louis XIII had the port of Le Havre modernized and built up a powerful navy.

The King also did everything to reverse the trend for the promising artists of France to work and study in Italy. Louis XIII commissioned the great artists Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne to decorate the Luxembourg Palace. In foreign matters, Louis XIII organized the development and administration of New France, expanding the settlement of Quebec westward along the Saint Lawrence River from Quebec City to Montreal.

On November 9, 1615, aged only 14, Louis XIII was married to a Habsburg Princess, Anne of Austria (1601?66), daughter of King Philip III of Spain (1598?1621). Their marriage was not consummated until 1619 (when he was 18) and his most intense emotional ties were with a series of handsome men. The marriage, like many Bourbon-Habsburg relationships, was only briefly a happy one, and the King's duties often kept them apart. After 23 years of marriage and four miscarriages, Anne finally gave birth to a son in 1638.

Though Richelieu was firmly in charge of French policies, the King's favorites left their mark on the reign. The first was the duc de Luynes, 23 years his senior, who was the boy's closest adult friend and adviser at the outset of his reign. The last of the King's favorites (1639?42) was the much younger marquis de Cinq-Mars, who was executed for conspiring with the Spanish enemy in time of war.

After Louis XIII's death in 1643, his wife Anne acted as regent for their four-year-old son, Louis XIV of France (1643?1715).

Louis married Anne Of AUSTRIA on 24 Nov 1615. Anne (daughter of Philip III Of SPAIN and Margarita Of AUSTRIA) was born on 22 Sep 1601; died on 20 Jan 1666. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henrietta married Charles I King Of ENGLAND on 13 Jun 1625. Charles (son of James I (Stuart) King of SCOTLAND and Anne Of DENMARK) was born on 19 Nov 1600 in Dunfermline Palace, Fife; died on 30 Jan 1649 in Banqueting House, Palace of Whitehall, London. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Christine married Victor Amadeus I Duke Of SAVOY in 1619. Victor (son of Charles Emmanuel I Of SAVOY and Catherine Michelle Of SPAIN) was born on 08 May 1587; died on 07 Oct 1637. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Gaston Jean-Baptiste, duc d'OrlÈans (April 25, 1608, Fontainebleau ? February 2, 1660, Blois), was the third son of the French king Henry IV and of his wife Marie de' Medici.

Known at first as the duc d'Anjou, he became duc d'OrlÈans, comte de Blois and comte de Chartres in 1626, and had nominal command of the army which besieged La Rochelle in 1628, having already entered upon that course of political intrigue which would occupy the remainder of his life. On two occasions he had to leave France for conspiring against the government of his mother and of Cardinal Richelieu; and after waging an unsuccessful war in Languedoc, he took refuge in Flanders. Reconciled with his brother Louis XIII, he plotted against Richelieu in 1635, fled from the country, and then submitted to the king and the cardinal.

Soon afterwards the same process repeated itself. Orleans stirred up Cinq-Mars to attempt Richelieu's murder, and then deserted his unfortunate accomplice (1642). In 1643, on the death of Louis XIII, Gaston became lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and fought against Spain on the northern frontiers of France; he was created duc d'AlenÁon in 1646. However, during the wars of the Fronde (1648?1653), he passed with great facility from one party to the other. Then exiled by Mazarin to Blois in 1652, he remained there until his death.

Gaston married Marie Of BOURBON on 06 Aug 1626 in Nantes. Marie was born in 1605; died in 1627. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gaston married Margaret Of LORRAINE on 31 Jan 1632 in Nancy. Margaret was born in 1615; died in 1672. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Philip IV King Of SPAIN in 1615. Philip (son of Philip III Of SPAIN and Margarita Of AUSTRIA) was born on 08 Apr 1605; died on 17 Sep 1665. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]