Maria de 'Medici

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Mary of Medici around 1595
Signature Maria de 'Medici.PNG

Maria de 'Medici (apostrophized form of "Maria dei Medici"; French Marie de Médicis , German  Maria von Medici ; * April 26, 1575 in Palazzo Pitti , Florence , † July 3, 1642 in Cologne ) came from the powerful and wealthy Florentines on the paternal side Family of the Medici and was the second wife of the French King Henry IV. From 1600 Queen of France. In 1601 she became the mother of the later Louis XIII. After the assassination of Henry IV in 1610, she took over the reign of the as yet underage king for several years . Against her resistance, her son ruled himself from 1617. Although she promoted the rise of the future Cardinal Richelieu , she later came into opposition to him and in 1630 lost the power struggle against him. Since 1631 she lived in exile. The power-conscious queen widow also emerged as an important patroness of the arts.

Life

childhood

Childhood Portrait of Mary, Italian Painter

Maria de 'Medici was born in April 1575 in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence as the sixth of eight children of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco I de' Medici and his wife, Archduchess Johanna of Austria . Her childhood was very lonely and unhappy. When she was only three years old, her mother died in childbed in April 1578, and her newborn eighth child also died immediately. Three other siblings of Mary had died as a toddler before Johanna. Francesco I de 'Medici married his mistress Bianca Cappello soon after the death of his wife . Maria grew up with her three siblings Eleonora , Anna and Filippo, who were still alive , separated from their father in the Palazzo Pitti. In 1582 she also had to see the death of her brother Filippo and in 1584 that of her sister Anna.

After the only remaining sister Eleonora had been married to the future Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua in 1584 , a foster sister was sought for the 9-year-old Maria. The choice fell on the seven years older Leonora Dori, also known as Leonora Galigaï , who became a close friend of Mary and in whose life she would play an important role. Together with Maria's stepbrother Antonio, an adopted son of Bianca Cappello, the two girls received a good and comprehensive education. Another playmate of Mary was her cousin Virginio Orsini.

Maria's father died on October 19, 1587, and his wife Bianca Cappello also died one day later. Now Maria's uncle Ferdinando I de 'Medici became the new Grand Duke of Tuscany. He became the guardian of his niece and showed her more affection than her own father. A friendly bond developed between Maria and Christine von Lorraine , who had been Ferdinando's wife since 1589.

A youth portrait shows Maria as a pretty girl with regular features, a high forehead, light brown hair, gray eyes and light skin. She got u. a. Classed in science and took a keen interest in gemstones, a very costly pastime. She was also trained in music and painting, with Jacopo Ligozzi as a teacher in the latter discipline . She should keep her love of art for life. On the other hand, she did not learn French and, even after her marriage to Henry IV, did not care much about mastering this language.

marriage

Although Maria was one of the richest heiresses in Europe, various attempts to marry her failed. Her uncle Ferdinando I de 'Medici tried to find the best possible husband for her. Some offers did not meet with their approval; allegedly she only wanted to marry a king because a nun had prophesied such a crown for her. The decisive talks regarding their marriage took place with the French King Henry IV, who had converted to Catholicism. One of the main reasons for this connection was the large debts the king had borrowed from the Medicis. An expected rich dowry from Mary would mean a great debt relief for France. Henry IV was already married to Margaret of Valois , but the marriage had remained childless. Their cancellation because of Margarete's sterility was therefore in the room. The king was apparently seriously considering marrying his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées , in which case his wife refused to consent to the dissolution of their marriage. The negotiations about his marriage to the Medici heiress were conducted for her uncle Ferdinando by Canon Francesco Bonciani , but they dragged on for a long time. The sudden death of Gabrielle d'Estrées (April 10, 1599) and the dissolution of Henry's marriage by Pope Clement VIII after Margaret's consent to this step finally paved the way for the realization of the long-sought marriage project.

Nevertheless, soon after Gabrielle's death, Henry IV threw himself into a new love affair with Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues , who got the king to give her a written promise of marriage. The condition was that she should become pregnant and give birth to a son within six months; however, she suffered a miscarriage. On April 25, 1600, the marriage contract between Maria and Henry IV was finally signed. Ferdinando I. de 'Medici promised his niece a dowry of 600,000 Gold-Écus, half of which was to be used to repay the debt of Henry IV. The marriage took place on October 5, 1600 in Florence Cathedral . However, the king was not personally present at the ceremony, but left by Roger de Saint-Lary, Duke of Bellegarde , represented (marriage per procurationem), a not unusual at that time for Prince marriages process. The event was accompanied by ten days of lavish celebrations.

With 17 galleys, a large entourage of 2000 people, her jewelry and her dowry, Maria sailed from Livorno on October 17th, 1600 and landed in Marseille on November 9th . Antoinette de Pons , Marquise de Guercheville, received the future French queen, whose maid of honor she was to become, with great pomp. Maria traveled on to Lyon , where she had to wait for her bridegroom, who was more than 20 years her senior, as he was still on a victorious campaign against the Duchy of Savoy . The monarch wanted to get to know his wife quickly and arrived in front of the city on December 9th just before midnight, but found the city gates locked. After waiting for an hour, he was admitted and then stepped informally in his traveling clothes into Mary's room, who threw herself at his feet. He kissed her and asked to be allowed to spend the night with her immediately without waiting for the wedding. He also expressed his wish to have an heir to the throne as soon as possible. The couple's personal marriage took place on December 17, 1600 in Lyon.

Maria and Heinrich

Soon after his first acquaintance with his wife, Henry IV rode back to Paris to have fun with Henriette d'Entragues again. On February 9, 1601, Maria made her entry into the capital. At a reception in the presence of the whole court, the king introduced her to Henriette, who was his former mistress. When the favorite, raised to Marquise de Verneuil, bowed to the queen and kissed her skirt, Henry IV pushed her head even lower. Henriette then talked to Maria as if she had been her long-time friend. According to her upbringing, Maria showed herself to be self-controlled at this unpleasant event.

In the following years, the attractive, witty and scheming mistress became Mary's worst adversary. She publicly humiliated the king's wife by imitating her difficult walk and calling her "fat Florentine banker woman" without the king intervening. Unlike Katharina von Medici once , the jealous Maria showed no understanding for the infidelities of her husband and did not come to terms with the unchangeable situation; in addition there was Henriette's provocative behavior towards her. Accordingly, the queen (coronation only on May 13, 1610, see below) was not cautious in her criticism, so that their marriage was not very happy. There were constant disputes between the couple and between Maria and the maîtresse en titre . In spite of this, Henry IV treated his implacable wife attentively and had all honors paid to her.

With regard to the expected offspring from his wife, however, Henry IV had nothing to complain about. As early as September 27, 1601, to the great joy of the king, Maria gave birth to the long-awaited heir to the throne, the later Louis XIII, in Fontainebleau Palace . Five more children were to follow:

But Henriette d'Entragues also gave birth to her son Henri on November 3, 1601, just one month after the birth of the Dauphin by Maria . She also gave birth to her royal lover on January 21, 1603, a daughter she named Gabrielle Angélique. She regarded herself as the legitimate wife of the French monarch and her children as the rightful heirs to the crown, while Mary's children were bastards. The fact that Henry IV had his five illegitimate children raised by Gabrielle d'Estrées and Henriette d'Entragues together with the legitimate children in the residence at Saint-Germain-en-Laye exacerbated the conflict with his wife. The Tuscan ambassador wrote to his Grand Duke that the royal court was more like a brothel than a castle. Even a plot against the life of the king, instigated by Henriette d'Entragues and her family in 1604, did not harm the mistress for long; she soon became Henry IV's lover again. When the ruler's former wife, Margarete von Valois, returned to court in 1605, a good relationship developed between her and Maria.

Maria in coronation regalia, painting by Frans Pourbus the Younger

In contrast to her child-loving husband, Maria behaved as a very distant mother and only developed a warm relationship with her son Gaston. She often had the Dauphin, who was just as obstinate as she behaved, physically punished, against which Ludwig defended himself.

The queen, who led a luxurious life and who valued expensive clothes and precious stones, sought to exert an influence on politics in so far as she endeavored to contribute to the recatholization of France, as Pope Clement VIII had instructed her. She succeeded in getting the Jesuits allowed to return to the country in 1604. In addition, the queen, who was descended from the Habsburgs on her mother's side , endeavored to achieve rapprochement between France and Catholic Spain. Heinrich IV, however, was opposed to several of these religious and political projects by his wife. In addition, Maria wanted - in line with the cultural policy of her Medici relatives - to promote stronger relationships between the House of Bourbon and important artists and to create greater Florentine influence on the culture of France.

Maria apparently allowed herself to be dominated by her power-hungry childhood friend and now lady-in-waiting Leonora Galigaï and her ambitious husband, an Italian adventurer named Concino Concini , who had both come to Paris with her entourage. The king found the couple's presence very distressing. In 1609 the aging monarch fell in love with the 15-year-old noblewoman Charlotte-Marguerite de Montmorency , whose husband, Henri II. De Bourbon, prince de Condé , however, to the anger of the monarch, withdrew her access by taking her to Brussels under Spanish Brought protection.

After much pressure, Maria managed to get her husband to give up his reservations about her coronation as Queen of France when he personally wanted to go to a new war and march into the Spanish Netherlands . The coronation by Cardinal François de Joyeuse , which gave Mary much joy, took place in great splendor on May 13, 1610 in the Cathedral of Saint-Denis . In the event of Heinrich's absence or death, she could now take over the reign for the underage Dauphin Ludwig. On the following day, Henry IV was stabbed to death by the Catholic fanatic François Ravaillac in the 18th attempt on him .

Regency

Maria de Medici with Leonora Galigaï and Concino Concini

Maria did not seem to have been particularly affected by the sudden death of her husband, but she bore severe mourning for two years. Immediately after the murder of Henry IV, she secured the function of regent for her underage eldest son through a parliamentary resolution, with significant help from the Duke of Épernon, Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette . The previous ministers were able to remain in their offices, but other advisors to Mary such as Concini soon gained more and more influence. On October 17, 1610, the coronation of Louis XIII. held in Reims .

The regent was at the head of a country torn by various power interests, and the resulting differences, which had hitherto been bridged by the monarch's authority, broke out after his death. Not only was there tension between the denominations, but there was also the threat of aristocratic rebellions and external dangers. Maria tried to win rebellious nobles like the Prince de Condé, who had returned to France, with generous financial gifts. The Minister Sully , a trusted advisor and financial administrator of Henry IV for many years, did not consider this decision to be the right one and abdicated on January 26, 1611. Maria met the Huguenots by not compromising the freedoms guaranteed by the Edict of Nantes issued by Henry IV in 1598 .

In terms of foreign policy, Maria initially retained the line of her husband insofar as she continued to support the Protestant allies in the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute and helped their German, Dutch and English troops in August 1610 with the conquest of Jülich . Otherwise, she ended the anti-Habsburg line pursued by her husband and instead sought rapprochement with Spain. On April 30, 1611 a double wedding between members of the royal families of the two states was decided in the Treaty of Fontainebleau : King Louis XIII. was to be married to the Spanish Infanta Anna and Maria's daughter Élisabeth with the Spanish heir to the throne, later Philip IV . This alliance worried the French Protestants and also meant an abstinence from foreign policy for about ten years, which allowed the German Kaiser to increase his power undisturbed.

The fact that Maria was so strongly influenced by Leonora Galigaï and especially her husband Concino Concini caused great resentment in France. Only two months after the death of Henry IV, Concini became a member of the Council of State ( conseil de l'État ) and was raised to Marquis d'Ancre. He soon gained a position of power that made him the actual head of government. He sought to strengthen the central authority and also made massive gains. After the financial generosity of the crown waned, there was a military revolt of nobles from 1613, in which the Prince de Condé took a leading part. The discontented barons felt that the regent and Concini had overtaken them, with xenophobia also playing a role. You wanted u. a. prevent the Spanish weddings and achieve the convening of the Estates General before Louis XIII. came of age. Although Maria was very accommodating to them in the Treaty of Sainte-Menehould (May 15, 1614) negotiated by her with Condé and promised them large sums of money and other advantages, with Condé receiving around 150,000 Écus, the rebellious greats continued their warlike activities. Thereupon the queen widow ordered in July 1614 a campaign undertaken by several thousand soldiers against her noble opponents and dispersed them.

On the occasion of her eldest son's declaration of majority (October 2, 1614), Maria arranged for splendid celebrations. On October 27, 1614, she convened the Estates General, which met until February 23, 1615. It was the penultimate time in French history that the Estates General met (last time in 1789, before the outbreak of the French Revolution ). The opposing ideas of the nobility, clergy and third class came to light, but it remained purely verbal arguments. The deliberations on key issues such as the abolition of the ability to buy office came to nothing, but the Estates General strengthened Mary's position vis-à-vis the nobility and also approved the regent's planned double wedding for her children.

Although Louis XIII. Now of legal age and crowned and thus capable of governing, Maria did not want to give up her previous position of power. Her reign was over, but she managed to retain de facto all powers. Ludwig, however, had been given an awareness of the role of a Crown Prince by his loving father and introduced him to his future duties. His domineering mother, on the other hand, was cool to her difficult and rebellious son, treated him severely, paid him little credit and continued to keep him away from government affairs. The boy's emotional balance suffered from this treatment.

Because Condé was preparing for new resistance against the monarchical government and Maria feared further armed conflicts with the high lords of the empire, she, advised by the dukes of Épernon and Guise, led her trip to Bordeaux with her two children who were to be married under the protection of one small army through. Here, on October 18, 1615, the long-distance marriage ceremony of Elisabeth with the Spanish heir to the throne, later Philip IV, and on November 21, 1615, the wedding of Louis XIII. across the stage with Infanta Anna. Maria forced her son to consummate the marriage immediately, for which he was not yet prepared. Rather, raised by the Jesuits, he had developed ascetic inclinations and a religiously based fear of sexuality. He wasn't to share his wife's bed again until four years later. Maria also wanted to give her daughter-in-law, who was in rank above her in rank, as little influence as possible over her son in order to be able to keep him under better control, and to this end she tried successfully to prevent the young married couple from understanding each other.

Although a new revolt by oppositional nobles spread to the provinces and the Duke of Rohan incited the Huguenots, there were only minor skirmishes. During the negotiations with her opponents in Loudun , Maria largely responded to their demands. In the Treaty of Loudun (May 3, 1616) they were generously granted offices and cash benefits. The Dowager Queen also said goodbye to the Duke of Épernon and made the Prince de Condé chairman of the Privy Council, but she had Condé arrested on September 1, 1616 and imprisoned in the Bastille . Thereupon the armed conflicts flared up again.

One of Maria's most important political actions was the promotion of the young Bishop of Luçon Armand Jean du Plessis , later known as Cardinal Richelieu, to whom she became aware during the General Assembly. On November 25, 1616 he was appointed Secretary of State for War and Foreign Policy.

The young king suffered more and more from the fact that even his mother's most influential favorite, Concini, treated him ruthlessly and denied him any exercise of governmental power. In April 1617, at the age of 15, Louis XIII freed himself. finally with the support of his favorite Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes from the tutelage of his mother and her unpopular advisor Concini. He was shot and his wife Leonora Galigaï was executed in July 1617 for alleged witchcraft . Maria was initially treated like a prisoner in her rooms. Despite her repeated requests, her son refused to see her. Before she was exiled to Blois Castle in May 1617 , the young king was only ready to say a cool farewell. Richelieu followed Maria into exile.

Maria, Ludwig and Richelieu

Mary of Medici, painting by Peter Paul Rubens 1621/1625

Due to the permission of Louis XIII. Maria could continue to receive her income and so maintain her house and her faithful. But she thought about fleeing her house arrest and won the likewise disempowered Richelieu as an important ally. When the king did not let his mother attend the wedding of their daughter Christine to the future Duke Viktor Amadeus I of Savoy on February 10, 1619 , Maria, with the support of the Duke of Épernon, undertook on the night of 21 to 22. February 1619 a successful escape attempt from Blois. With the help of two men, the corpulent queen widow, who only took her gemstone box with her, let herself down the wall with great effort on a rope ladder attached to her bedroom window. In a waiting carriage and accompanied by several gentlemen sent by the Duke of Épernon, she fled to the castle of Angoulême .

Now Mary stirred up a revolt against her royal son. The conflict was settled through the mediation of Richelieu in the Treaty of Angoulême (April 30, 1619). Louis XIII granted his mother, whom he met for a formal reconciliation in Couzières the following September 5 , complete freedom of movement, her appointment as governor of the Anjou , a guard of honor, all her income and £ 600,000 to pay her debts. Maria resided in Angers , but at the beginning of July 1620 instigated a new rebellion of dissatisfied high nobles under the leadership of the Duke of Épernon against her son. The king encountered little resistance on his month-long campaign and on August 7, 1620, after a light battle, captured a suburb of Angers, Les Ponts-de-Cé . That sealed Maria’s defeat. Nevertheless, mother and son reconciled on August 10, 1620 in the Angers Agreement and Maria was allowed to return to the Paris court.

Charles d'Albert died on December 15, 1621. After that, Maria managed to regain greater political weight. Richelieu persuaded her to be indulgent and gave her wise political advice, which impressed the king so much that she was reinstated in the royal advisory board in 1622, despite the hustle and bustle of the now released Prince de Condé. Thanks to her intercession, Richelieu was promoted to cardinal on September 5, 1622 and rose to the king's chief minister in 1624 . In 1625 Maria settled in the Palais du Luxembourg , whose east gallery she had embellished with a series of paintings created by Peter Paul Rubens that illustrated important episodes of her life according to her own interpretation, the so-called Medici cycle .

In the period that followed, the relationship between Maria and Richelieu deteriorated. The queen widow found that her former companion now felt less indebted to her, but worked on the further expansion of his own power and sought to make himself indispensable to the king. So the cardinal reduced her influence on her son and pursued political goals that differed from her ideas. As a staunch supporter of the Roman Catholic Church and blood relatives of the Habsburgs, Maria rejected a foreign policy confrontation between France and Spain and Austria and was close to the so-called "Party of Devotees" led by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle and Chancellor Michel de Marillac . For Richelieu, however, the national interests of France were in the foreground, which he saw endangered by the supremacy of the Habsburgs. He therefore advocated a more offensive fight against them, and was also prepared to enter into alliances with Protestant princes if they served to weaken the Habsburg influence.

During the absence of Louis XIII. in the Mantuan War of Succession Maria acted again as regent in 1629. From 1629 the latent tensions between Maria and Richelieu also became more evident. When the king was in Lyon in September 1630, seriously ill, she asked him to dismiss his first minister. After the recovery of Louis XIII. the arguments continued. Soon there was a direct confrontation when the Queen Mother Richelieu, after a council meeting held on November 10, 1630 in her Palais du Luxembourg, dismissed all offices he held at her court. She then asked her son to dismiss Richelieu as a minister. The monarch postponed the decision for a day and, as agreed, visited his mother the next morning in her palace to discuss how to proceed. During this conversation Richelieu, who had also appeared but had not been let in, was able to secretly enter Maria's private chapel via a side staircase and from there into her bedroom. Maria insulted the cardinal, who had wanted to justify himself, now asked for forgiveness and left again on the king's orders. Now Maria gave her son more or less a choice between her and his minister. Louis XIII went to Versailles . The “party of the devotees” and their supporters seemed to have won, but the king met Richelieu on the evening of November 11, 1630, the so-called Journée des dupes (“Day of the Deceived”), and assured him of his confidence. Rather, Marillac was arrested and Richelieu was publicly confirmed in his offices on November 12th. With that Maria had lost the power struggle against the cardinal.

Louis XIII did not want a complete break with his mother, who was adamant, continued to intrigue against Richelieu and encouraged her favorite son Gaston to revolt. In February 1631, Maria was placed under house arrest in Compiègne Castle .

Exile and death

On July 19, 1631 Maria fled to the Spanish Netherlands under the protection of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia , a granddaughter of Catherine de Medici. She was received with full honors in Avesnes and, after a stopover in Mons, went to Brussels. But the king had made her escape easier by having the people posted to guard her in Compiègne called back. Now he could accuse his mother of treason in August 1631, since she had sought refuge with the Spanish enemies of France . After the verdict was pronounced guilty, she was ostracized and her property confiscated so that she had no means of subsistence of her own. As a result, no prince wanted to accept them permanently in his country.

Some time after Maria escaped to the Spanish Netherlands, her son Gaston also met her. The exiled Queen Mother turned down an offer from Grand Duke Ferdinando II of Tuscany to move to Florence. When Richelieu wrote her a friendly letter in June 1633 because she was suffering from an illness in Ghent , she replied curtly. But in the next year she longed for France so much that she wrote to the cardinal asking for a reconciliation; But the latter only advised her to take the previously refused trip to Tuscany. When her son Gaston accepted an offer from Richelieu to return to Paris in October 1634, she swore to Louis XIII. in many letters to allow her to return home as well, however, received only delaying replies.

In August 1638 Maria secretly left her previous country of exile and went to the United Netherlands . Since her visit to this new republic gave the appearance of official recognition and was therefore regarded as a diplomatic success, she was allowed to make a solemn entry into Amsterdam , accompanied by magnificent games . However, the Dutch did not want to fall out with France over their stay and pay for their costs. So after a few months Mary went to England. King Charles I , who was married to their daughter Henriette, granted his mother-in-law a pension of 100 pounds sterling a day, but gave her to understand that she was an uncomfortable guest. In renewed letters, Maria Richelieu humbly asked for forgiveness and support for her wishes to return to France, but ultimately failed again.

The English king increasingly had to fight against hostilities, some of which were directed against Maria. On August 22nd, 1641 Maria left London, but was refused by Philip IV to settle back in the Spanish Netherlands. The States General did not want to accept them either. Sick of facial rose , she finally found a modest place to stay in Cologne in October 1641 in a house that had previously belonged to the Rubens family .

Although she was the mother of the King of France and the queens of Spain and England, Maria de Medici died lonely and impoverished in Cologne on July 3, 1642 at the age of 67 in Rubens' house at 10 Sternengasse . Her embalmed entrails became one Brick shaft buried under the axis chapel of Cologne Cathedral , while her bones were ordered by Ludwig XIII. transferred to Paris and buried on March 4, 1643 in the tomb of the French kings, the cathedral of Saint-Denis.

When the royal tombs of Saint-Denis were sacked during the French Revolution , Mary's tomb was opened and looted on October 15, 1793. Her remains were buried in a mass grave outside the church. In the course of the Bourbon restoration after 1815, the mass graves were opened and the bones contained therein, which could no longer be assigned to an individual, were buried in a communal ossuary in the restored burial place of the House of Bourbon in the crypt of the cathedral of Saint-Denis .

Mary and art

The Coronation of Mary by Peter Paul Rubens

Like her Florentine ancestors, Maria de 'Medici used art to celebrate “grandeur” and create a legend about her life and person. Their way of using art as a means to the display of power contributed significantly to the spread of Italian culture in France. This aspect of Mary's life is the subject of recent historical research.

She supported the arts like no other French queen before her. Authors like François de Malherbe and Guillaume du Vair or the painter Nicolas Poussin owed their careers to Mary's patronage .

The sculptor Giovanni Bologna and his pupil Pierre Franqueville created an equestrian statue of her husband Henry IV on the Pont Neuf (completed in 1614) as a gift from their cousin Cosimo II in 1604 , which was destroyed during the French Revolution in 1792 and in 1818 by François-Frédéric Lemot from the bronze of a statue of General Disaix commissioned by Napoleon .

In the years 1615 to 1620 Maria had the Palais du Luxembourg built by the architect Salomon de Brosse as a representative widow's residence with the attached Jardin du Luxembourg park and from 1622 to 1625 by Rubens with a series of paintings, the so-called Medici cycle. The 24 pictures show stages in her life from her birth to her reconciliation with her son Ludwig XIII. and can be seen today in the Louvre .

literature

  • Philippe Delorme: Marie de Médicis. Histoire des Reines de France . Pygmalion, 1999, ISBN 2-85704-553-0 .
  • Françoise Graziani, Francesco Solinas (eds.): Le 'siècle' de Marie de Médicis. Actes du Séminaire de la Chaire Rhétorique et Société en Europe (XVIe-XVIIe siècles) du Collège de France sous la direction de Marc Fumaroli de l'Académie française . Edizioni dell'Orso, Turin 2003, ISSN  1121-7189 ( Franco-Italia . Special issue No. 21-22).
  • François Pierre Guillaume Guizot : A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times . Vol. 5, Estes & Lauriat, Boston about 1880.
  • Helga Huebner, Eva Regtmeier: Maria de 'Medici. A stranger. Florence - Paris - Brussels - London - Cologne . Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-60118-1 ( Dialoghi / Dialogues. Literature and Culture of Italy and France . Volume 14).
  • Anka Muhlstein: Temporary queens. Catherine of Medici, Maria of Medici, Anna of Austria . Insel Verlag, Frankfurt 2003, ISBN 3-458-17177-0 .
  • Paola Pacht-Bassani, Thierry Crépin-Leblond, Nicolas Sainte Fare Garnot, Francesco Solinas: Marie de Médicis, un gouvernement par les arts . Exhibition catalog Château de Blois 2004, Somogy éditions d'art, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-85056-710-8 .
  • Gerd Bäumen, The French queens , Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1530-5 , pp. 271-278.

Web links

Commons : Maria de 'Medici  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So far, Maria de 'Medici's date of birth was usually assumed to be April 26, 1573, but according to more recent research this is only to be set to April 26, 1575 two years later ( Medici archive ). The French Wikipedia gives April 27, 1575 as the date of birth.
  2. ↑ Gerd Hit, The French Queens , p. 271; Claire Hsu Accomando: Medici, Maria de , in: Anne Commire (Ed.): Women in World History , Vol. 10 (2001), p. 844.
  3. ^ Benedetta Craveri: Königinnen und Mätressen , Milan 2005, German Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-446-23013-2 , pp. 107-120; Claire Hsu Accomando, Women in World History , Vol. 10, pp. 844ff.
  4. ↑ James Cleugh: The Medici , German paperback edition 1997, ISBN 3-492-22321-4 , p. 385.
  5. ↑ Benedetta Craveri, Königinnen und Mätressen , pp. 118–128; Gerd Hit, The French Queens , p. 272ff.
  6. ↑ Gerd Treffen , The French Queens , pp. 274f .; Albert Cremer: Ludwig XIII. In: Peter Claus Hartmann (Ed.): French Kings and Emperors of the Modern Age , Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38506-0 , p. 172ff.
  7. ↑ Benedetta Craveri, Königinnen und Mätressen , pp. 131-134 and 147ff.
  8. ↑ Gerd Brille, The French queens , pp. 275f .; Albert Cremer, French Kings and Emperors of Modern Times , pp. 174f.
  9. ↑ Benedetta Craveri, Königinnen und Mätressen , pp. 136–142; Gerd Hit, The French Queens , pp. 276f.
  10. ↑ James Cleugh, The Medici , pp. 395ff .; Gerd Hit, The French Queens , p. 278.
  11. ↑ G. Hauser: The hearts of Maria von Medici . In: Kölner Domblatt . 2009, p. 127 ff.
predecessor Office successor
Margaret of Valois Queen of France and Navarre
1600–1610 		Anna of Austria
personal data
SURNAME Medici, Maria de '
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Medici, Maria von; Medicis, Marie de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of the French king Henry IV and regent for Louis XIII.
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1575
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH July 3, 1642
Place of death Cologne