Catherine, still a child, was taken captive and placed in a series of convents until Pope Clement could free her with the help of Charles V's troops. Her chief guardian, Pope Clement VII (himself a Medici and cousin of Catherine's father) kept Catherine in Florence until 1527, when the Medicis were overthrown in Florence by a faction opposed to the regime of Clement's representative, Cardinal Silvio Passerini. She was unfortunately orphaned within a month after her birth, leaving her in care of various guardians. She was born in Florence in 1519, daughter of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino and ruler of Florence, and his wife, French noblewoman Madeleine, Countess of Boulogne. Mary, Queen of Scots was her daughter-in-law, as the bride of her son Francis II, but sadly both her son and the marriage did not last. Despite not ruling in her own name, she was pretty much the poster girl for Regent for Life, as she served as regent for two of her sons, Francis II and Charles IX, and strongly influenced the reign of her fourth son, Henry III. Henry IV, Catherine's son-in-law and first Bourbon kingĬatherine de Medici (13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was a member of the powerful Italian Medici family who became Queen Consort of France through her marriage to King Henry II.
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