![]() While Henry was on his death bed, ironically because of a jousting injury, Catherine refused to let Diane see him, and then she kicked her rival out of court and out of the chateau. Adding insult to indignity, Catherine had to put up with Henry's gifting the house she wanted for herself, the Chateau de Chenonceau, to his mistress. ![]() So Catherine arranged for Margaret to marry her Bourbon relative, the Protestant Henry of Navarre. To ease them, Catherine di Medici sought to bring the Catholic Valois closer to their Bourbon relatives, a Protestant branch of the French royal family. The Huffington Post reports Catherine eventually resorted to having spy holes drilled in the floor of her bedroom so she could observe Henry and Diane in their element. At the time, there were serious religious tensions in France between Catholics and Protestants. According to this look at Henry's relationship with Diane de Poitiers on Naked History, Henry often wore Diane's colors during jousting tournaments while Catherine sat on the sidelines, gritting her teeth and biding her time. She then went on to give Henry a total of 10 children, seven of whom survived into adulthood.Ĭatherine was not overjoyed at the fact that she had to share her husband's scattered attentions with another woman, but she also seemed to have understood the futility of trying to put an end to the affair, which Henry conducted in public without any pretense of shame. Catherine de Medici was one of the most powerful women of the 16th century, ruling over the royal French court for 17 years in varying degrees of influence and strength. It appears that, upon the completion of his examination of the two royals, Fernel gave them some very useful advice, because shortly after Fernel's consultation, Catherine became pregnant with her first child. "The Long Barren Years of Catherine de Medici: A Gynaecologist's View of History" informs us Fernel's exact diagnosis is lost to history, but it is now widely believed that the couple was unable to conceive because Henry suffered from a condition called hypospadias with chordee, a physical malformation that makes it difficult for a man to impregnate a woman. Again thanks to the aspirations of King François I of France to secure more Italian allies for. Caterina was destined to become Catherine de’ Medici and marry Prince Henri de Valois, Duke d’Orléans at the time of their wedding. ![]() Trying to at least solve the first problem, Catherine enlisted the services of a famous physician, Jean Fernel, asking him to give both she and Henry a thorough physical examination. Then Caterina de’ Medici inherited the Counties d’Auvergne and de Boulogne, as well as the barony of La Tour. Royal marriage was all about babies and cash transactions. Sutherlands scholarship on Catherine de Medici during the 1970s did much to revise the menacing light in which Catherine had been depicted, it did little to alter the view on how Catherine had exercised her authority. There was talk of divorce, both because of Catherine's apparent infertility and because her opulent dowry had recently been reduced to nothing. Catherines manipulation of her young sons during their minorities. Henry and others at court blamed Catherine who was desperate to maintain her place as Henry's wife.
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