8. Heart Tombs: Catherine de’ Medici and the Embodiment of Emotion

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-162
Keyword(s):  
Catherine De Medici

A bequest to Christine of Lorraine from Catherine de’ Medici

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerrie-rue Michahelles
Keyword(s):  
Royal Family ◽  
Online Appendix ◽  
Catherine De Medici ◽  
Queen Mother

Abstract The French royal family was living in exile at Blois when the Queen Mother of France, Catherine de’ Medici (b. 1519), dictated her will on the morning of her death, on 5 January 1589. She bequeathed to her granddaughter, Christine of Lorraine (1565–1637), one half of her movable possessions. This paper explores the nature and meanings embedded in the testamentary bequest and the corresponding inventory of the movable goods acquired by Christine through this gift and eventually brought to Florence on the occasion of her marriage in 1589 to Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1549–1609). A translation of the inventory is provided in an online appendix.

scholarly journals Devoted Politics: Jesuits and Elite Catholic Women at the Later Sixteenth-century Valois Court

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-605
Author(s):  
Susan Broomhall
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Catholic Women ◽  
French Court ◽  
Catherine De Medici

This essay analyses how elite women at the sixteenth-century French court interacted with the Jesuits, in the context of the spiritual and political ambitions of all participants. Focusing particularly on the dynamic relationship between Catherine de Medici and the Jesuits, contextualized by the experiences of other elite women and men, it explores the period from the 1560s to the end of the 1580s during which Catherine occupied a powerful role and when individual members of the Society of Jesus rose to prominence at the court. To date, the scholarship of elite Catholic politics in which the Jesuits were involved has prioritized the activities of France’s monarchs, Charles ix and Henri iii, and its leading men in dynasties such as the Gonzaga-Nevers and Guise. Re-reading many of the same sources with an eye to the contribution and activities of women offers the potential for a broader narrative.

A FRENCH ARMADA? THE AZORES CAMPAIGNS, 1580–1583

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALAN JAMES
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
French History ◽  
Wars Of Religion ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
International History ◽  
Catherine De Medici ◽  
Queen Mother

ABSTRACTThe Spanish Armada and the battle of Lepanto loom large in a remarkable period of international history shaped to a considerable extent by the deployment of sea power. Yet between 1581 and 1583, France also conducted a large-scale naval operation at great distance. A series of expeditions to the Azores reached a climax with the defeat in battle of a French fleet of sixty ships off the island of São Miguel in July 1582. Acting under the authority of Catherine de Medici and in the name of her rival legal claim to the Portuguese throne, the commander Philippe Strozzi had not only led the most ambitious oceanic operation in French history up to that date and a bid to extend France's overseas empire but a serious challenge to Philip II's union of the Iberian crowns. Yet this was more than just a puzzling anomaly in France's foreign policy. It was also an act of royal authority and the pursuit of reputation and status by the queen mother that was entirely consistent with the domestic priorities of the crown in the context of the Wars of Religion.

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