Marie de Médicis
Marie de Médicis was born into the affluent Medici family during the Early Renaissance, the daughter of Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici of Tuscany. She became Queen Consort of France after marrying King Henry IV in 1600, bringing a substantial dowry that highlighted her family's wealth. Initially focused on family, Marie later sought political power, eventually being declared regent for her son, Louis XIII, following Henry IV's assassination in 1610. Her reign was marked by significant political struggles, including conflicts with the French nobility and attempts to secure her influence through alliances and policies favoring Catholicism.
Despite her ambitions, Marie's reign faced challenges, particularly due to her controversial advisers and decisions that alienated the populace, including her disregard for the Estates-General. This discontent led to revolts and her temporary exile. Nevertheless, she is renowned for her patronage of the arts, commissioning notable works like the Marie de Médicis cycle by Peter Paul Rubens, which commemorates her life and legacy. Marie's life illustrates the complexities of power and ambition in a tumultuous political landscape, ultimately contributing to a legacy that intertwines both artistic achievement and political strife. She passed away in 1642 and is buried in St. Denis.
On this Page
Marie de Médicis
Queen
- Born: April 26, 1573
- Birthplace: Florence (now in Italy)
- Died: July 3, 1642
- Place of death: Cologne (now in Germany)
Queen dowager and regent of France (r. 1610-1617)
Marie de Médicis ruled France as regent for her young son, the future king Louis XIII, during which time she promoted her own pro-Catholic policies and secured alliances with Spain, actions that alienated her son and the French people. In keeping with her Italian Medici family heritage, Marie spent lavishly on artistic and architectural commissions, many of which serve as hallmarks of the baroque style.
Areas of achievement: Art, patronage of the arts, government and politics
Early Life
Marie de Médicis (mah-ree deh-may-dee-sees) was born at the height of the Early Renaissance. As the daughter of Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici of Tuscany and Archduchess Joanna of Austria, the young Marie was raised in the privilege and splendor of the Medici courts. After her mother died in 1578, her father remarried and sent his children to live in the Pitti Palace, apart from himself and his new wife, Bianca Cappello. The deaths of both her brother and a sister, along with the marriage of another sister, left Marie with few companions, so the family brought Leonora Dori, later known as Leonora Galigai, to court as a companion for Marie. In keeping with her social standing, Marie received a good education, especially in fields relating to the arts and classical history.
As for most girls of aristocratic birth, a good marriage was essential. After failed negotiations with several prospective husbands, it was deemed that Marie should marry King Henry IV of France, even though he was still married to his first wife, Marguerite of Valois. Historians speculate that Henry’s interest in Marie stemmed more from his desire to relieve his financial indebtedness to the Medici family than from his interest in Marie, who, by most contemporary accounts, was not a great beauty. Henry’s marriage to Marguerite was dissolved and Marie was sent to the French court, bringing with her 600,000 crowns as a dowry. Marie and Henry were married in late 1600. Their first child, the future King Louis XIII, was born September 27, 1601, at Fontainebleau. The couple’s other surviving children are known to history as Gaston, duke of Orleans; Elizabeth, queen of Spain; Christine, duchess of Savoy; and Henrietta Maria, queen of England. A sixth child, Nicholas, died when he was four.
Life’s Work
The early years of Marie’s marriage were devoted to her family, and Marie gave little indication of any political aspirations. As time passed, however, she began to press Henry to pronounce her queen of France officially, a title that had been retained by his first wife as part of their marriage dissolution settlement. Henry forestalled the declaration and some historians speculate that his procrastination came from his fear that, once Marie was declared queen, she would plot to usurp power for herself. As a compromise, Henry declared Marie regent in March, 1610, placing her at the head of a small council of fifteen members.
Marie was still not satisfied, so she continued to pressure the king for a coronation. Henry eventually gave in to Marie’s continued insistence and crowned her queen on May 13, 1610. Henry IV was assassinated the following day. Two hours after the king was pronounced dead, Marie’s confidant, Nogaret de La Valette, duc d’Épernon, had parlement declare Marie regent for her eight-year-old son, Louis XIII. Contemporaries and historians alike have accused Marie of having a hand in Henry’s assassination, since Marie’s confidant Nogaret was present but did nothing to intervene when the courtier François Ravaillac, a Catholic acquaintance of the queen, stabbed and killed Henry on a Paris street.
Marie wasted no time exerting her newly bestowed authority. She promptly reversed her late husband’s popular policies of religious toleration, particularly those policies that favored toleration of the Huguenots (French Protestants), choosing instead to promote her own Catholic beliefs through new domestic religious policies and in alliances with Catholic nations. In an effort to ally with Spain, Marie entered into the Treaty of Fontainebleau (August 22, 1612), which betrothed her young son Louis XIII to the infant Anne of Austria (daughter of Philip III of Spain) and betrothed her even younger daughter, Elizabeth (Isabella), to the infant Philip (the future Philip IV of Spain). Favoring her Italian country folk, Marie appointed Concino Concini, the Florentine husband of her friend and lady-in-waiting, Leonora Galigai, to the posts of marquis d’Ancre and marshall of France. Thereafter, Concini served as Marie’s closest adviser.
Marie’s pro-Catholic and pro-Spanish policies inflamed both the French aristocrats and the French Protestants. In 1614, in an effort to assuage their mounting anger, Marie convoked the Estates-General, an assembly representing three orders (classes) of French citizens. Without regard to the ongoing proceedings of the Estates-General, Louis XIII was married to Anna on November 28, 1615, with Marie’s blessings. The people’s discontent turned to hatred and revolts broke out, causing Marie to summon Cardinal de Richelieu to serve as her minister of war in 1616. By her willful disregard of the Estates-General, Marie had lost the opportunity to win the favor of the French people and to secure her regency. This futile meeting of the Estates-General would be the last convening of the popular assembly until the French Revolution and the overthrow of the French monarchy.
In April of 1617, three years into his legal majority, Louis XIII finally asserted his displeasure regarding his mother’s destructive policies. Louis ordered the assassination of his mother’s Italian adviser, Concini, and the beheading of his mother’s dearest friend, Leonora Galigai. On May 2, 1617, in an effort to keep Marie away from the spheres of influence at court, Louis sent his mother into exile at the Château Blois, where she remained for two years. Marie’s ambition was not so easily contained however. On the night of February 21, 1619, Marie escaped from Blois and, along with her younger son, Gaston d’Orléans, launched an aristocratic revolt against her eldest son Louis XIII. Marie’s attempted coup was promptly put down by the king’s superior forces at Les Ponts-de-Cé in August, 1620.
Despite her actions, and with the somewhat surprising intervention of Richelieu, Marie and Louis were reconciled. Marie was permitted to sit on the Royal Council and to exercise her interest in lavish artistic patronage. During this period, Marie directed the extensive rebuilding of the Luxembourg Palace. To decorate the new palace, in January of 1622, Marie commissioned the famed Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens to execute two cycles of monumental paintings, one cycle in commemoration of her own life and the other cycle in commemoration of the life of her late husband Henry (the latter cycle was never completed). The project in its entirety is known as The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de Médicis (May 14, 1610) and is dated 1622 to 1625. It is best known as the Marie de Médicis cycle.
Marie’s jealousy over her son’s increasing attachment to Richelieu led her to attempt a second coup, again with the help of her son Gaston d’Orléans, on November 10, 1630. This ill-conceived and ill-executed effort is known to history as the Day of the Dupes for its brief duration—a single day. For this intrigue, Marie was exiled to Compiègne in February, 1631. Marie escaped to Brussels that same year, however, where she remained until 1638, when she sought refuge with King Charles I of England, who was her son-in-law and the husband of her daughter Henrietta Maria. Finding the religious climate in England hostile to Catholics, Marie moved back to the Continent, to Cologne, in 1641, and resided there until her death on July 3, 1642. Marie de Médicis is buried in St. Denis.
Significance
Marie de Médicis’ life is a story of missed opportunities. Placed at the summit of French power, she used her position to squander the wealth of France and to alienate the French people. Marie’s flagrant disregard for the Estates-General, which she herself had convened, cemented the foundation of popular resentment of the French monarchy, which eventually led to the French Revolution. Marie de Médicis’ positive legacy can be found in her numerous art commissions, the greatest of which is the Marie de Médicis series by Rubens, originally commissioned for her Luxembourg Palace and now on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Bibliography
Cohen, Sarah R. “Rubens’s France: Gender and Personification in the Marie de Médicis Cycle.” Art Bulletin 85, no. 3 (September, 2003): 490-522. Cohen discusses the symbols of royal power represented in Rubens’s female allegorical figures in his famed Marie de Médicis panels, now in the Louvre. Includes color and black-and-white photographs.
Crawford, Katherine. Perilous Performances: Gender and Regency in Early Modern Europe. Boston: Harvard Historical Studies, 2004. A study of the relationships between female regents and their child kings and the effects of female regency on the public’s perception of the loci of royal power. Includes an analysis of Marie de Médicis’ regency. Illustrated.
Marvick, Elizabeth Wirth. Louis XIII: The Making of a King. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987. A scholarly recounting of the childhood of Louis XIII and the effect that his mother, Marie de Médicis, had on his future development and personality.
Millen, Ronald F., and Robert E. Wolf. Heroic Deeds and Mystic Figures: A New Reading of Rubens’ Life of Maria de Medici. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989. Using original sources contemporary to the cycle itself, the authors argue that Marie de Médicis both commissioned the cycle and instructed the artist to include specific symbols as veiled references to the ingratitude and ineptitude of her son Louis XIII.
Tapie, Victor L. France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu. Translated by D. M. Lockie. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. An excellent history of the period during which France transitioned from a weak kingdom into a great monarchy.
Thuillier, Jacques. Rubens’ Life of Marie de Médicis. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1967. A lavishly illustrated art book depicting the Marie de Médicis cycle.
Related Articles in Great Events from History: The Seventeenth Century
c. 1601: Emergence of Baroque Music; c. 1601-1620: Emergence of Baroque Art; February 24, 1607: First Performance of Monteverdi’s La favola d’Orfeo; 1610-1643: Reign of Louis XIII; 1625-October 28, 1628: Revolt of the Huguenots; November 10, 1630: The Day of Dupes; July 13, 1664: Trappist Order Is Founded; 1685: Louis XIV Revokes the Edict of Nantes.