atherine de Medici (1519-89), queen of France, was born in Florence. She was married to Henry, Duc d’Orléans, afterward Henry II of France, but played no great part in French politics till 1559, when the first of her three sons, who ruled over France, ascended the throne as Francis II. Opposed to her she found two parties, the Guises and the ultra-Catholics on one hand, and the Protestants, on the other. She entered into an alliance with the Protestants against the Guises, until the Treaty of Amboise (1563) showed that they had become too strong. She then entered into an alliance with Spain and the Guise party for the extirpation of heretics, which resulted in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. During the reign of her second son, Charles IX (1560), and still more during the reign of her third son, Henry III (1574), she was virtual ruler of France. Consult Sichel’s Catherine de’ Medici. [World Wide Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1935]

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