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=Catherine de' Medici= Catherine de' Medici became Queen of France in 1547. She stayed queen until 1559, when her husband King Henry II died. Catherine and Henry got married when they were fourteen years old and while they were married Henry spent all his time on his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. He did not let Catherine participate in state affairs, but after he died she became involved in politics when her sons King Francis II, King Charles IX and King Henry III ruled France.

Birth
Before Catherine was queen she was an Italian noblewoman. She was born in Florence, Italy with the name Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de' Medici, and she was an only child. Catherine's parents were Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, and she was born on the thirteenth of April, 1519. When she was born, her parents were as happy to give birth to Catherine as they would have been to give birth to a boy.

Childhood
Catherine's parents both died less than a month after her birth, so she was given to Lorenzo's mother, Alfonsina Orsini. When Alfonsina died in 1520, Catherine was given to her aunt Clarice Strozzi to raise. In 1523 Catherine was moved again and went to live with the newly elected Pope Clement VII, in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (in Florence).

Catherine was taken and put in convents when the Medici were overthrown in Florence in 1527. She lived happily in these convents until Pope Clement gained control over the city again and brought her back to Rome in 1530 to find her a husband.

Marriage
When Catherine visited Rome, many suitors wanted to marry her, but Pope Clement did not accept any proposals until 1533 when King Francis I of France offered his son Henry, Duke of Orleans. Henry was his second oldest son and was not next in the line for the throne at the time, but was considered a prize for Catherine because he was royalty and she was not. Their wedding was held on the twenty-eighth of October, 1533 in the Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins (a Roman Catholic church in Marseille).

Throughout their marriage, Henry was an unfaithful husband and had many mistresses. He took his mistress, Diane de Poitiers a year after he married Catherine. Diana was 38 years old at the time and Henry loved her for the rest of his life.

Having Children
In 1536, Henry became the dauphin of France when his older brother Francis III died. This made Catherine the dauphine and put pressure on her to have children, who would become heirs to the throne. Although she tried many tricks to get pregnant, she failed to have children for ten years, and during this time the king considered having his son divorce her. Finally, on January nineteenth, 1544 she gave birth to her first son, Francis. She went on to have six more children who grew older than the baby stage of life.

Queen of France
Catherine was Henry's Queen consort, which she became on June tenth 1549, after King Francis I died. But this was just a title, as Catherine had almost no actual power. Instead, it was Diane de Poitiers who had power and gave and accepted favors.

As queen, Catherine almost died while giving birth to twins in 1556, and she also saw her husband sign a treaty that ended the Italian Wars. This treaty made her thirteen year old daughter Elisabeth marry Philip II of Spain.

Catherine lost her title of Queen Consort when her husband died from a jousting injury. He was hurt in the celebration that was held for the wedding of Elisabeth and Philip II, when Gabriel, Comte de Montgomery hit him in the face with his lance. Over the next ten days he lost his sight, speech and reason before he finally died on the tenth of July in 1559.

Reign of Francis II
Catherine became queen mother when her son Francis II became king after his father died. As queen mother, she did not have a specific political role because Francis was old enough to rule, but she still influenced all of his political actions. He started all of his official acts with, "This being the good pleasure of the Queen..." Throughout his reign, Catherine had to deal with the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise (the uncle of Francis' wife Mary) who claimed power the day Henry died and controlled King Francis. When Francis died on the fifth of December, 1560, of an ear infection, Catherine became the governor of France.

Reign of Charles IX
Catherine was regent of France when her nine year old son Charles IX became King. In the first years of his rule, she tried to compromise with the French Protestants, known as the Huguenots. However, after they tried to ambush the King, Civil War happened. The war lasted until 1570 when the army ran out of money.

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
In 1572, Catherine and Charles' reputations were damaged when they decided to kill Huguenot leaders. They did this after a Huguenot admiral named Coligny was attacked because they were afraid other Huguenots would revolt in response and they wanted to act first. This event is known as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

Reign of Henry III
King Charles IX died when he was twenty three years old. After he died, Catherine was regent again for three months until her son Henry III came to be the King of France. It was hard for Catherine to control Henry's actions, and while he was King she had to travel around France encouraging peace and trying to keep the country from war.

In 1585, King Henry III was threatened by the Catholics and the Protestants and he was not able to fight both. Therefore, he signed a treaty to give the Catholic League (the group the Catholics formed) what they wanted.

Death
Catherine lived to 69 years old. She died on the fifth of January in 1589 from problems in her lungs. Even though she should have been buried in Paris, she was buried in Blois because Paris was being controlled by her enemies. Later on, her remains were moved to the Saint-Denis basilica in Paris, and in 1793 they were put into a mass grave by a mob.