Catherine de Medici and the French Religious Wars

Catherine de Médici (born April 13, 1519, Florence—died Jan. 5, 1589, Blois, France), Queen consort of Henry II (1547–59) of France, mother of Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III, and regent of France (1560–74). A member of the Medici family, she married Henry in 1533 and bore him 10 children. She became queen when Henry inherited the crown in 1547, and she greatly mourned his accidental death in 1559. After their son Francis became king, she began a long struggle with members of the Guise family, extremists who sought to dominate the crown. After Francis’s premature death in 1560, she became regent for Charles IX until 1563 and dominated the rest of his reign until 1574. She attempted to settle the Wars of Religion between Catholics and French Huguenots.

Few historical reputations have fluctuated as wildly as that of Catherine de Medici. No historian would question the importance of her role in the civil wars, generally known as the Wars of Religion, which tore France apart in the second half of the sixteenth century There is, however, a sharp difference of opinion as to her policies: did she consistently strive to bring peace to the kingdom by healing its religious divisions or did she inflame the situation by playing one side against the other and using violent means to get rid of political opponents?