In her long adult life, Catherine sat at the apex of French power: as queen consort, as regent, as the mother of the last three Valois kings. But her place in history is secured most firmly by her ...

Catherine de Medici ... Charles IX died in 1574 and Catherine's favourite son Henry succeeded as Henry III of France.

Born Giulio de' Medici, Catherine's uncle took the name Clement VII upon becoming pope in 1523. ... Catherine, who’d found her influence waning in the later years of Henry III’s reign, ...

Catherine de’ Medici was indeed a real person who lived in the 16th century. ... Charles IX, and Henry III — and hold significant sway over French politics through her children’s reigns.

Miss Sichel treats of the youth of Catherine de Medici, the Court of Henry II., the reign of François 11., Jeanne de Navarre, the Council of Poissy, the Huguenots, Ronsard, ...

What Catherine didn’t realize was that the teenaged Henry was already in the thrall of the 35-year-old Diane De Poitiers. Catherine de’ Medici would grow into a shrewd, dangerous, and powerful ...

In Kathleen Wellman’s book “Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France,” Henry and Diane de Poitiers became romantically involved the year after he married Catherine de Medici; Henry was 15 ...

Catherine de’ Medici was born a piece on a political chessboard in ... princess and a Florentine dynast was betrothed at age 14 by papal decree to the young French prince who would become Henry II.