Marie de' Medici
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Portrait of Marie de' Medici.
by Peter Paul Rubens. |
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The Coat of Arms of Maria de' Medici Queen consort of France |
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 Médicis. 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.
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'Estrées. 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 husbands 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.
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~Condé, 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
Château 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.
The 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
journée des dupes,
12 November 1630, she seemed to have succeeded; but the triumph of Richelieu was followed by her exile to
Compiègne 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.
Honoré 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'Épernon, 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." â€" Essay "Catherine de Medicis".
*
Rubens cycle of paintings apotheosizing Marie de Medici Definitive statements of
Baroque art.
*
National Maritime Museum*
Drawing by Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert the entrance of Maria de Medici in Amsterdam
*
Festival BooksSee also: Medici family
