Welcome to My Life!

Hello my fellow readers! Catherine de' Medici here. Here is a chance to get to know a little of whom I am and what I do. I was born on April 13, 1519 in Florence, Italy with the name Caterina Maria Romula de Lorenzo de' Medici. Both my parents died right after I was born so I never really got the chance to meet them. As a child, I had a great education. Also as a child I was trained and disciplined by nuns in Florence and Rome. At the age of fourteen on October 29, 1533 I was arranged by Pope Clement to marry Henry, the second son of King Francis I. When I was married to Henry, at first I could not bear children until one day I gave birth to two twin girls. I could have died if it hadn’t been for the surgeon. The surgeon sadly had to break the legs of one of the babies in my stomach that had already died. My surviving daughter died seven weeks later and I had no more children until four years later. Out of all the children I had given birth to, only seven survived out of ten. Those ten included Francis II, Elizabeth, Claude, Louis, Charles IX, Henry III, Margaret de Valois, Hercule Francois, Victoire, and Jeanne.

When my husband’s older brother passed away, my husband and I were next to the throne of France. Throughout the reign of my husband, I had little say about anything. This was until my husband was seriously injured from a jousting competition and later died from it. A little later my oldest son, Francis II,  took the crown of king. While he was king, we had to face the Guise family. When my son passed away, I became governor of France and my other son Charles XI took the throne. This time is when I started to have control over the country because I was announced regent to my son since he was young and too feeble to be king. As the queen, my goal was to settle the religious conflict between the Catholics and the Huguenots. Both parties were both unwilling to make peace to one another. While both parties were in disagreements, I decided not to take any sides between them two. Their struggle with each other eventually led to the French Wars of Religion. The French Wars of Religion presented a major crisis for France, as it stopped having France develop as a centralized state. One thing that happened during the French Wars of Religion was the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. It was a day of bloodshed.

At the age of twenty three, my son Charles XI died. I still remember the words he said to me the day he died. “Oh, my mother….” That day was a truly sad day. After his death, someone else had to inherit the throne and it was none other than my favorite son Henry. I was unable to control him as I had to Francis and Charles. During his reign I did many other things to help resolve the problems of France but you will just have to read and find out later.