Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589)

The Massacre of St Bartholomew in Paris 1572. About 25,000 Huguenots were killed at the order of Catherine de' Medici.

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici, by an unknown artist from the School of Clouet (16th century). Catherine was a member of the powerful Italian family that ruled Florence in the 15th to 18th centuries, and became consort to the French king Henry II in 1533.

French queen consort of Henry II, whom she married in 1533; daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino; and mother of Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. At first outshone by Henry's mistress Diane de Poitiers (1490-1566), she became regent for Charles IX (1560-63) and remained in power until his death in 1574.

During the religious wars of 1562-69, she first supported the Protestant Huguenots against the Roman Catholic Guises to ensure her own position as ruler; she later opposed them, and has been traditionally implicated in the Massacre of St Bartholomew of 1572.