Italian Greens from Italian Queens: Difference between revisions

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Catherine (Caterina de’ Medici) was born in Florence one year after Bona had become Queen of Poland. Just as the Sforzas ruled Milan, so the Medici – originally a family of modest merchants – had already held sway over Florence for more than three hundred years. She was barely a month old when she was orphaned, so her upbringing fell to her uncles. First, she came under the protective wing of Giovanni de’ Medici, better known as Pope Leo X. Following his death, custody of Catherine passed to Giulio de’ Medici, or Pope Clement VII.

By that time, the Habsburgs had seized control of Naples and Spain (along with its colonial empire). France found itself surrounded by Habsburg holdings from all sides, which escalated the Italian Wars into an open confrontation between the Habsburgs and the Valois. Among those who sided with the latter were the Papal States. In order to cement this Papal–French alliance, Clement VII arranged for the fourteen-year-old Catherine to wed the French dauphin Henry. Fourteen years later, in 1547, Henry inherited the French crown upon his brother’s death – becoming the second king of his name – with Catherine as his queen consort.

By that time, the Habsburgs had seized control of Naples and Spain (along with its colonial empire). France found itself surrounded by Habsburg holdings from all sides, which escalated the Italian Wars into an open confrontation between the Habsburgs and the Valois. Among those who sided with the latter were the Papal States. In order to cement this Papal–French alliance, Clement VII arranged for the fourteen-year-old Catherine to wed the French ''dauphin'' Henry. Fourteen years later, in 1547, Henry inherited the French crown upon his brother’s death – becoming the second king of his name – with Catherine as his queen consort.

Possessive, shrewd and merciless, the Medici queen – active during France’s bloody Wars of Religion – earned a reputation even darker than Bona’s. Some of it may have been warranted, yet many of her true faults were exaggerated by contemporary pamphleteers and by later novelists – most notably by Alexandre Dumas, who in ''La Reine Margot'' cast Catherine as the mastermind behind the Saint Bartholomew's Eve massacre of the Huguenots and – naturally – branded her a diabolical poisoner.

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 Catherine (Caterina de’ Medici) was born in Florence one year after Bona had become Queen of Poland. Just as the Sforzas ruled Milan, so the Medici – originally a family of modest merchants – had already held sway over Florence for more than three hundred years. She was barely a month old when she was orphaned, so her upbringing fell to her uncles. First, she came under the protective wing of Giovanni de’ Medici, better known as Pope Leo X. Following his death, custody of Catherine passed to Giulio de’ Medici, or Pope Clement VII.
-By that time, the Habsburgs had seized control of Naples and Spain (along with its colonial empire). France found itself surrounded by Habsburg holdings from all sides, which escalated the Italian Wars into an open confrontation between the Habsburgs and the Valois. Among those who sided with the latter were the Papal States. In order to cement this Papal–French alliance, Clement VII arranged for the fourteen-year-old Catherine to wed the French dauphin Henry. Fourteen years later, in 1547, Henry inherited the French crown upon his brother’s death – becoming the second king of his name – with Catherine as his queen consort.
+By that time, the Habsburgs had seized control of Naples and Spain (along with its colonial empire). France found itself surrounded by Habsburg holdings from all sides, which escalated the Italian Wars into an open confrontation between the Habsburgs and the Valois. Among those who sided with the latter were the Papal States. In order to cement this Papal–French alliance, Clement VII arranged for the fourteen-year-old Catherine to wed the French ''dauphin'' Henry. Fourteen years later, in 1547, Henry inherited the French crown upon his brother’s death – becoming the second king of his name – with Catherine as his queen consort.
 Possessive, shrewd and merciless, the Medici queen – active during France’s bloody Wars of Religion – earned a reputation even darker than Bona’s. Some of it may have been warranted, yet many of her true faults were exaggerated by contemporary pamphleteers and by later novelists – most notably by Alexandre Dumas, who in ''La Reine Margot'' cast Catherine as the mastermind behind the Saint Bartholomew's Eve massacre of the Huguenots and – naturally – branded her a diabolical poisoner.