Maria DE'MEDICI

Notes:

Marie de' Medici [1] (April 26, 1573, Florence ? July 3, 1642, Cologne), born in Italy as Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France under the French name Marie de MÈdicis. She was the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the Bourbon branch of the kings of France. Later she was the regent for her son King Louis XIII of France
Born in Florence, Italy, she was the daughter of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Johanna, archduchess of Austria (1548 ? 1578). Her maternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anne of Bohemia. Anne was a daughter of Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix.

Uncommonly pretty in her youth, in October 1600 she married Henri IV of France, following the annulment of his marriage to Marguerite de Valois. She brought as part of her dowry 600,000 crowns. Her eldest son, the future King Louis XIII, was born at Fontainebleau the following year.

Infighting, unhappy marriage
The marriage was not a successful one. The queen feuded with Henri's mistresses, in language that shocked French courtiers. Her largest infighting was with her husband's leading mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, whom he had promised he would marry following the death of his former official mistress, Gabrielle d'EstrÈes. When he failed to do so, and instead married Marie, the result was constant bickering and political intrigues behind the scenes. Although the king could have easily banished his mistress, supporting his queen, he never did so. She, in turn, showed great sympathy and support to her husband's banished ex-wife, Margaret of Valois, prompting Henri to allow her back into the realm.

During her husband's lifetime Marie showed little sign of political taste or ability. Hours after Henri's assassination in 1610 she was confirmed as Regent by the Parlement of Paris. She banished from the court his mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues. However, not very bright, extremely stubborn, and growing obese, she was soon entirely under the influence of her unscrupulous Italian favourite, Concino Concini, who was created Marquis d'Ancre and Marshal of France.

They dismissed Henri IV's able minister the duc de Sully. Through Concini and the Regent, Italian representatives of the Roman Catholic Church hoped to force the suppression of Protestantism in France. Half Habsburg herself, she abandoned the traditional anti-Habsburg French policy. Throwing her support with Spain, she arranged the marriage of both the future king Louis and his sister Elizabeth to members of the Spanish Habsburg royal family.

Politics
Under the regent's lax and capricious rule, the princes of the blood and the great nobles of the kingdom revolted, and the queen, too weak to assert her authority, consented (15 May 1614) to buy off the discontented princes. The opposition was led by Henri de Bourbon-CondÈ, Duc d'Enghien, who pressured Marie into convoking the Estates General (1614-15), the last time they would meet in France until the opening events of the French Revolution.

In 1616 her policy was strengthened by the accession to her councils of Richelieu, who had come to the fore at the meeting of the Estates General. However, in 1617 her son Louis XIII, already several years into his legal majority, asserted his authority. The king effectively overturned the pro-Hapsburg, pro-Spanish policy by ordering the assassination of Concini, exiling the Queen to the Ch‚teau Blois and appointing Richelieu to his bishopric.

After two years of virtual imprisonment "in the wilderness" as she put it, she escaped from Blois in the night of 21/22 February 1619 and became the figurehead of a new aristocratic revolt headed by Gaston d'Orleans, which Louis' forces easily dispersed. Through the mediation of Richelieu the king was reconciled with his mother, who was allowed to hold a small court at Angers. She resumed her place in the royal council in 1621.

Coronation of Marie de' Medici in St. Denis (detail), Paris, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1622-1625The portrait by Rubens (above right) was painted at this time. Marie rebuilt the Luxembourg Palace (Palais du Luxembourg) in Paris, with an extravagantly flattering cycle of paintings by Rubens as part of the luxurious decor (left).

After the death of his favorite, the duke of Luynes, Louis turned increasingly for guidance to Richelieu. Marie de Medici's attempts to displace Richelieu ultimately led to her attempted coup; for a single day, the journÈe des dupes, 12 November 1630, she seemed to have succeeded; but the triumph of Richelieu was followed by her exile to CompiËgne in 1630, from where she escaped to Brussels in 1631 and Amsterdam in 1638.

Her entry into Amsterdam was considered a triumph by the Dutch, as her visit lent official recognition to the newly formed Dutch Republic. Spectacular displays (by Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert) and water pageants took place in the city?s harbor in celebration of her visit. There was a procession led by two mounted trumpeters; a large temporary structure erected on an artificial island in the Amstel River was built especially for the festival. The structure was designed to display a series of dramatic tableaux in tribute to her once she set foot on the floating island and entered its pavilion. Afterwards she was offered an Indonesian rice table by the burgomaster Albert Burgh. He also sold her a famous rosary, captured in Brazil, which she would like to have. The visit prompted Caspar Barlaeus to write his Medicea hospes ("The Medicean Guest") (1638).

Marie subsequently travelled to Cologne, where she died in 1642, scheming against Richelieu to the end.

HonorÈ de Balzac encapsulated the Romantic generation's negative view:

"Marie de' Medici, all of whose actions were prejudicial to France, has escaped the shame which ought to cover her name. Marie de' Medici wasted the wealth amassed by Henri IV; she never purged herself of the charge of having known of the king's assassination; her intimate was d'…pernon, who did not ward off Ravaillac's blow, and who was proved to have known the murderer personally for a long time. Marie's conduct was such that she forced her son to banish her from France, where she was encouraging her other son, Gaston, to rebel; and the victory Richelieu at last won over her (on the Day of the Dupes) was due solely to the discovery the cardinal made, and imparted to Louis XIII, of secret documents relating to the death of Henri IV." ? Essay "Catherine de Medicis".

Maria married Henry IV King Of FRANCE in Oct 1600. Henry (son of Antoine Of NAVARRE and Jeanne III Of NAVARRE) was born on 13 Dec 1553; died on 14 May 1610. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Louis XIII King Of FRANCE was born on 27 Sep 1601; died on 14 May 1643.
2. Henrietta Maria Queen Of ENGLAND was born on 25 Nov 1609; died on 10 Sep 1669.
3. Christine Marie Duchess Of SAVOY was born on 12 Feb 1606; died on 27 Dec 1663.
4. Gaston Duke Of ORLEANS was born on 25 Apr 1608; died on 02 Feb 1660.
5. Elizabeth Queen Of SPAIN was born on 22 Nov 1602; died on 06 Oct 1644.
6. Nicholas Henry Duke Of ORLEANS was born on 16 Apr 1607; died on 17 Nov 1611.

Notes:

Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (25 March 1541 ? 19 October 1587) was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 to 1587.

Biography
He was the son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo, and served as regent for his father starting in 1564.

On December 18, 1565, he married Johanna of Austria, youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.

By all reports, it was not a happy marriage. Joanna was homesick for her native Austria, and Francesco was neither charming nor faithful. After her death at age thirty (1578), there were rumors that Francesco and his Venetian mistress, Bianca Cappello, had conspired to poison Joanna. The Medici marriages of his day were not exemplar. Pietro, the younger brother of Francesco, had his wife's paramour killed; subsequently, by report, when his wife became distraught at learning the news, he personally strangled her. Soon after the Grand Duchess Joanna had died, Francesco himself went on to marry Bianca, after aptly disposing of her husband, a Florentine bureaucrat. By report, he built and decorated Villa Pratolino for her. She was, however, not always popular among Florentines. They had no children, but Francesco adopted her daughter by first marriage Pellegrina (1564- ?) and her son Antonio (August 29, 1576 - May 2, 1621), who was first adopted as newborn child by Bianca Cappello with the intention to present him to Francesco as "own child" by means of changeling.

Francesco I of Tuscany as a young boy, painting by Bronzino.Like his father, Francesco was often despotic, but while Cosimo had known how to maintain Florentine independence, Francesco acted more like a vassal of his father-in-law, the emperor, and subsequent Holy Roman Emperors. He continued the heavy taxation of his subjects in order to pay large sums to the empire.

He had an amateur's interest in manufacturing and sciences. He founded porcelain and stoneware manufacture, but these did not thrive until after his death. He continued his father's patronage of the arts, supporting artists and building the Medici Theater as well as founding the Accademia della Crusca. He was also passionately interested in chemistry and alchemy and spent many hours in his private laboratory/curio collection, the Studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio, which held his collections of natural item and stones and allowed him to dabble in amateur chemistry and alchemical schemes.

Francesco and Bianca died on the same day, possibly poisoned or, more likely, from malarial fever. Because of her infamy and low social rank, she was refused burial in the family tomb. Francesco was succeeded by his younger brother Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

There is a famous portrait of Francesco as a child by Agnolo Bronzino, which hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Francesco married Johanna Of AUSTRIA on 18 Dec 1565. Johanna (daughter of Ferdinand I Holy Roman EMPEROR and Anna Of Bohemia And HUNGARY) was born on 24 Jan 1547; died on 10 Apr 1578. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Cosimo married Eleonora DE TOLEDO in 1539. Eleonora (daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez DE TOLEDO and Maria Osorio PIMENTEL) was born in 1519; died in 1562. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Ferdinand I (10 March 1503 ? 25 July 1564), Holy Roman Emperor (1556?1564), was born in Madrid, the son of Juana the Mad, Queen of Castile (1479?1555), and Philip I the Handsome, King of Castile (1478?1506), who was heir to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg.

Ferdinand was the younger brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who entrusted him with the government of the Habsburg hereditary lands (roughly modern-day Austria and Slovenia). In 1531 Ferdinand was elected King of the Romans, making him Charles's designated heir as emperor. He deputised as ruler during his brother's many absences from imperial lands.

After Charles's abdication as emperor in 1556, Ferdinand assumed the title of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles having agreed to exclude his own son Philip from the German succession, which instead passed to Ferdinand's eldest son Maximilian (1527?1576
Hungary and the Ottomans
After Suleiman the Magnificent defeated Ferdinand's brother-in-law Louis II, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, at the battle of Moh·cs on 29 August 1526, Ferdinand was elected King of Bohemia in his place. The throne of Hungary became the subject of a dynastic dispute between Ferdinand and John Z·polya, voivode of Transylvania. Each was supported by different factions of the nobility in the Hungarian kingdom; Ferdinand also had the support of Charles V, and Z·polya, after defeat by Ferdinand at the Battle of Tokaj in 1527, the support of Suleiman. Ferdinand was able to win control only of western Hungary because Z·polya clung to the east and the Ottomans to the conquered south. In 1554 Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was sent to Istanbul by Ferdinand to discuss a border treaty over disputed land with the Sultan, Suleiman.

The most dangerous moment of Ferdinand's career came in 1529 when he took refuge in Bohemia from a massive but ultimately unsuccessful assault on his capital by Suleiman and the Ottoman armies at the Siege of Vienna. A further Ottoman attack on Vienna was repelled in 1533. In that year Ferdinand signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire, splitting the Kingdom of Hungary into a Habsburg sector in the west and John Z·polya's domain in the east, the latter effectively now a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1538, by the Treaty of Nagyv·rad, Ferdinand became Z·polya's successor, but he was unable to enforce this agreement during his lifetime because in 1540 John II Sigismund Z·polya, infant son of John Z·polya and Isabella Jagiello, was elected the new king of Hungary. He was initially supported by King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and Lithuania, his mother's brother, but in 1549 a treaty was signed between the Habsburgs and the Polish ruler as a result of which Poland became neutral in the conflict, Sigismund Augustus marrying Elisabeth von Habsburg, Ferdinand's daughter.

[edit] Government
The western rump of Hungary over which Ferdinand retained dominion became known as Royal Hungary. As the ruler of Austria, Bohemia and Royal Hungary, Ferdinand adopted a policy of centralization and, in common with other monarchs of the time, the construction of an absolute monarchy. In 1527 he published a constitution for his hereditary domains (Hofstaatsordnung) and established Austrian-style institutions in Pressburg for Hungary, in Prague for Bohemia, and in Wroclaw (Breslau) for Silesia. Opposition from the nobles in those realms forced him in 1559 to concede the independence of these institutions from supervision by the Austrian government in Vienna.

In 1547 the Bohemian Estates rebelled against Ferdinand when he ordered the Bohemian army against the German Protestants. After suppressing Prague with the help of his brother's Spanish forces, he retaliated by limiting the privileges of Bohemian cities and inserting a new bureaucracy of royal officials to control urban authorities. Ferdinand was a supporter of the Counter-Reformation and helped lead the Catholic fight-back against what he saw as the heretical tide of Protestantism. For example, in 1551 he invited the Jesuits to Vienna and in 1556 to Prague; and in 1561 he revived the archbishopric of Prague.

Ferdinand died in Vienna and is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Names in other languages: German, Czech, Slovak, Croatian: Ferdinand I.; Hungarian: I. Ferdin·nd

Ferdinand married Anna Of Bohemia And HUNGARY in 1521. Anna (daughter of Vladislaus II Of Bohemia And HUNGARY and Anne DE FOIX) was born on 23 Jul 1503; died on 27 Jan 1547. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Anna, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, also sometimes known as Anna Jagellonica (July 23, 1503 - January 27, 1547) was Queen-consort of the Romans and heiress of the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia.

She was the elder child and only daughter of king Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (1456-1516) and his fourth wife Anna of Foix-Candale. She was an older sister of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia, and his eventual heiress.

Her paternal grandparents were King Casimir IV of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, of the Jagiellon dynasty, and Elisabeth of Austria, one of the heiresses of Bohemia, duchy of Luxembourg and duchy of Kujavia. Her maternal grandparents were Gaston de Foix, Count of Candale and Catherine de Foix, Infanta of the Kingdom of Navarre.

Life account
She was born in Prague and for the first three years of her life was the heiress presumptive to the thrones of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary. The birth of her younger brother Louis on July 1, 1506, demoted her to second-in-line. Her mother died on July 26 of the same year.

The death of Vladislaus II on March 13, 1516 left both siblings in the care of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. It was arranged that Anna marry his grandson Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, second son of Queen regnant Joanna of Castile and her late husband and co-ruler Philip I of Castile.

Anna married Ferdinand on May 25, 1521 in Linz, Austria. At the time Ferdinand was governing the Habsburg hereditary lands on behalf of his older brother Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Her brother Louis was killed in the Battle of Moh·cs against Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire on August 29, 1526. This left the thrones of both Bohemia and Hungary vacant, and Anna being the closest living relative of Louis, Ferdinand claimed both kingdoms in her right and was elected King of Bohemia on October 24 of the same year.

Hungary was a more difficult case. Suleiman had annexed much of its lands. Ferdinand was proclaimed King of Hungary by a group of nobles, but another faction of Hungarian nobles refused to allow a foreign ruler to hold that title and elected John Z·polya as an alternative king. The resulting conflict between the two rivals and their successors lasted until 1571.

In 1531 Ferdinand's older brother Charles V recognised Ferdinand as his successor as Holy Roman Emperor, and Ferdinand was elevated to the title King of the Romans.

Anna and Ferdinand had fifteen children, which was a boon to Bohemia and Hungary, both of which kingdoms had suffered for centuries from premature deaths among heirs and from a shortage of succession prospects.

Meanwhile Anna served as queen consort of Bohemia and as one of two rival queen consorts of Hungary until her death. She died in her native Prague.

In 1556 Charles V abdicated and Ferdinand succeeded as emperor, nine years after Anna's death.