Marie de' Medici


Marie de' Medici was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as regent legally expired in 1614, when her son reached the age of majority, but she refused to resign and continued as regent until she was removed by a coup in 1617.
Marie was a member of the powerful House of Medici in the branch of the grand dukes of Tuscany. Her family's wealth inspired Henry IV to choose Marie as his second wife after his divorce from his previous wife, Margaret of Valois. The assassination of her husband in 1610, which occurred the day after her coronation, caused her to act as regent for her son, Louis XIII, until 1614, when he officially attained his legal majority, but as the head of the Conseil du Roi, she retained the power.
Noted for her ceaseless political intrigues at the French court, her extensive artistic patronage and her favourites, she ended up being banished from the country by her son and dying in the city of Cologne, in the Holy Roman Empire.

Life

Early years

Born at the Palazzo Pitti of Florence, Italy on 26 April 1575, Maria was the sixth daughter of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Archduchess Joanna of Austria. She was a descendant of Lorenzo the Elder –a branch of the Medici family sometimes referred to as the 'cadet' branch– and was also a Habsburg through her mother, who was a direct descendant of Joanna of Castile and Philip I of Castile.
Of her five elder sisters, only the eldest, Eleonora and the third, Anna survived infancy. Their only brother Philip de' Medici, was born on 20 May 1577. One year later Grand Duchess Joanna –heavily pregnant with her eighth child– fell from the stairs in the Grand Ducal Palace in Florence, dying the next day after giving birth to a premature stillborn son. A few months later, Grand Duke Francesco I married his longtime mistress Bianca Cappello; the marriage was officially revealed one year later, on 12 June 1579. In a few years, Maria also lost two of her siblings, Philip and Anna.
Maria and her only surviving sister, Eleonora spent their childhood at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, placed under the care of a governess along with their paternal first-cousin Virginio Orsini.
After her sister's marriage in 1584 with Vincenzo Gonzaga, heir of the Duchy of Mantua, and her departure to her husband's homeland, Maria's only playmate was her first cousin Virginio Orsini, to whom she deferred all her affection. In addition, her stepmother brought a female companion to the Palazzo Pitti for Maria, a young girl named Dianora Dori, who would be renamed Leonora. This young girl, a few years older than Maria, soon gained great influence over the princess, to the point that Maria would not make decisions without talking to Leonora first.
On the 19th and 20 October, in 1587, at the Villa Medici in Poggio a Caiano, Grand Duke Francesco I and Bianca Cappello died. They may have been poisoned, but some historians believe they were killed by malarial fever. Now orphaned, Maria was considered the richest heiress in Europe.
Maria's uncle Ferdinando I de' Medici became the new Grand Duke of Tuscany and married Christina of Lorraine in 1589. Notwithstanding his desire to give an heir to his dynasty, the new Grand Duke gave his orphaned nephew and niece a good education. Maria was interested in science; she enjoyed learning about mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, as well as the arts. She was also passionate about jewelry and precious stones. Very devout, she was known to keep an open mind, and to depend on those around her for support.
Close to the artists of her native Florence, Maria was trained in drawing by Jacopo Ligozzi, and she was reportedly very talented; she also played music and enjoyed theater, dance, and comedy.
The wealth of the Medici family attracted many suitors, in particular the younger brother of her aunt Grand Duchess Christina, François, Count of Vaudémont and heir of the Duchy of Lorraine. But soon, a more prestigious suitor presented himself: King Henry IV of France.

Queen of France

The marriage of Henry IV with Maria de' Medici represented above all, for France, a solution to dynastic and financial concerns: it was said that the French king "owed the bride's father, Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had helped support his war effort, a whopping 1,174,000 écus and this was the only means Henry could find to pay back the debt..." In addition, the Medici familybanking creditors of the Kings of Francepromised a dowry of 600,000 écus d'or, which earned the future Queen the nickname "the big banker" from her jealous rival, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, Henry IV's current maîtresse-en-titre. Moreover, Maria de' Medici was the granddaughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, thereby ensuring and reinforcing a legitimate royal descent for prospective future members of the House of Bourbon.
After having obtained the annulment of his union to Margaret of Valois in December 1599, Henry IV officially started negotiations for his new marriage with Maria de' Medici. The marriage contract was signed in Paris in March 1600 and official ceremonies took place in Tuscany and France from October to December of the same year: the marriage by proxy took place at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore on 5 October 1600 with Henry IV's favorite the Duc de Bellegarde representing the French sovereign. The celebrations were attended by 4,000 guests with lavish entertainment, including examples of the newly invented musical genre of opera, such as Jacopo Peri's Euridice.Maria left Florence for Livorno on 23 October, accompanied by 2,000 people who made up her suite, and set off for Marseille, which she reached on 3 November. Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de Guercheville and Première dame d'honneur of the new Queen, was responsible for welcoming her to Marseille. After her disembarkation, Marie continued her trip, arriving at Lyon on 3 December. She and Henry IV finally met on 9 December and spent their wedding night together. On 17 December, the Papal legate finally arrived, and gave his blessing to the religious wedding ceremony at the Cathedral of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon.
Marie gave birth to her first child, a son, on 27 September 1601 at the Palace of Fontainebleau. The boy, named Louis, and automatically upon birth heir to the throne and Dauphin of France, was born to the great satisfaction of the King and France, which had been waiting for the birth of a Dauphin for more than forty years. Marie gave birth to five more children between 1602 and 1609; however, during 1603–1606 she was effectively separated from her husband.
Although the marriage succeeded in producing children, it was not a happy one. Marie was of a very jealous temperament, and she refused to accept her husband's numerous infidelities; indeed, he forced his wife to rub shoulders with his mistresses. She mostly quarreled with the maîtresse-en-titre Catherine de Balzac d'Entragues in a language that shocked French courtiers; also, it was said in court that Henry IV took Marie only for breeding purposes exactly as Henry II had treated Catherine de' Medici. Although the King could have easily banished his mistress, supporting his wife, he never did so. Marie, in turn, showed great sympathy and support to her husband's banished ex-wife Marguerite de Valois, prompting Henry IV to allow her back to Paris.
Another bone of contention concerned the proper maintenance of Marie's household as Queen of France: despite the enormous dowry she brought to the marriage, her husband often refused her the money necessary to pay all the expenses that she intended to carry out to show everyone her royal rank. Household scenes took place, followed by periods of relative peace. Marie was also very keen to be officially crowned Queen of France, but Henry IV postponed the ceremony for political reasons.
Marie had to wait until 13 May 1610 to be finally crowned Queen of France. At this time Henry IV was about to depart to fight in the War of Succession over the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg; the coronation aimed to confer greater legitimacy on the Queen from the perspective of a possible regency which she would be called upon to provide in the absence of the King. The very next day, Henry IV was assassinated by François Ravaillac - which immediately raised suspicions of a conspiracy.

Regency

Within hours after Henry IV's assassination, Marie was confirmed as Regent by the Parliament of Paris on behalf of her son and new King, eight-year-old Louis XIII. She immediately banished her late husband's mistress, Catherine de Balzac d'Entragues, from the court. At first, she kept the closest advisers of Henry IV in the key court positions and took for herself the title of Governess of the Bastille, although she entrusted the physical custody of this important Parisian fortress to Joachim de Chateauvieux, her knight of honor, who took direct command as a lieutenant of the Queen-Regent.
From the beginning, Marie was under suspicion at court because she was perceived as a foreigner and never truly mastered French; moreover, she was heavily influenced by her Italian friends and confidants, including her foster sister Leonora "Galigai" Dori and Concino Concini, who was created Marquis d'Ancre and a Marshal of France, even though he had never fought a single battle. The Concinis had Henry IV's able minister, the Duke of Sully, dismissed, and Italian representatives of the Roman Catholic Church hoped to force the suppression of Protestantism in France by means of their influence. However, Marie maintained her late husband's policy of religious tolerance. As one of her first acts, Marie reconfirmed Henri IV's Edict of Nantes, which ordered religious tolerance for Protestants in France while asserting the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church.
To further consolidate her authority as Regent of the Kingdom of France, Marie decided to impose the strict protocol from the court of Spain. An avid ballet performer and art collector, she deployed artistic patronage that helped develop the arts in France. Daughter of a Habsburg archduchess, the Queen-Regent abandoned the traditional anti-Habsburg French foreign policy, and formed an alliance with Habsburg Spain which culminated in 1615 with the double marriage of her daughter Elisabeth and her son Louis XIII with the two children of King Philip III of Spain, Philip, Prince of Asturias and Anne of Austria, respectively.
Nevertheless, the Queen-Regent's policy caused discontent. On the one hand, Protestants were worried about the rapprochement of Marie with Spain; on the other hand, Marie's attempts to strengthen her power by relying on the Concinis deeply displeased part of the French nobility. Stirring up xenophobic passion, the nobility designated the Italian immigrants favored by Marie as responsible for all the wrongs of the kingdom. They are getting richer, they said, at our expense. Taking advantage of the clear weakness of the Regency, the princes of the blood under the leadership of Henri II, Prince of Condé, rebelled against Marie.
File:Frans Pourbus - Marie de Médicis, Queen of France.JPG|thumbnail|Portrait by Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1610. Louvre Museum, Paris.|left
In application of the Treaty of Sainte-Menehould, the Queen-Regent convened the Estates General in Paris. The Prince of Condé failed to structure his opposition to royal power. However, Marie undertook to cement the alliance with Spain and to ensure respect for the theses of the Council of Trent. The reforms of the paulette and the taille remained a dead letter. The clergy played the role of arbiter between the Third Estate and the nobility who did not manage to get along: Civil lieutenant Henri de Mesmes declared that "all the Estates were brothers and children of a common mother, France", while one of the representatives of the nobility replied that he refused to be the brother of a child of a shoemaker or cobbler. This antagonism benefited the court, which soon pronounced the closure of the Estates General. The Regency was officially ended following the Lit de justice of 2 October 1614, which declared that Louis XIII had attained his legal majority of age, but Marie then became head of the Conseil du Roi and retained all her control over the government.
One year after the end of the Estates General, a new rebellion of the Prince of Condé allowed his entry into the Conseil du Roi by the Treaty of Loudun, which also granted him the sum of 1,500,000 livres and the government of Guyenne. During this time, the Protestants obtained a reprieve of six years to the return of their places of safety to the royal power.
In 1616, the requirements of the Prince of Condé became so important that Marie had him arrested on 1 September and imprisoned him in the Bastille. The Duke of Nevers then took the leadership of the nobility in revolt against the Queen. Nevertheless, Marie's rule was strengthened by the appointment of Armand Jean du Plessis —who had come to prominence at the meetings of the Estates General—as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on 5 November 1616.
Despite being legally an adult for more than two years, Louis XIII had little power in the government; finally, he asserted his authority the next year. Feeling humiliated by the conduct of his mother, who monopolized power, the King organized a coup d'état on 24 April 1617: Concino Concini was assassinated by the Marquis de Vitry, and Marie exiled to the Château de Blois.