Frail woman with delicate features individuals several hours standing at the window, looking intently at what was happening behind him. She did not open it, because there on the Parisian street, blazing flames and heard the hoarse roar of a thousand throats, interspersed with saber-rattling.
This sultry August night in 1572, during which time tens of thousands of Huguenots were killed, will go down in the history of France under the name Bartholomew. But the order to this madness has given it was she - the queen mother Catherine de Medici.
Catherine Maria Romola di Lorenzo de 'Medici was born on April 13, 1519 in Florence in the banker's family and representatives of one of the most ancient French noble families - the Countess de la Madeleine Auvergne Tour. Due to the origin of the mother and her family relations, at age 14, Catherine became the bride of the French prince Henry de Valois, and in 1547 it was crowned as the wife of the French king Henry II.
However, the queen, she will be much later, after the death of a spouse, as a regent for their young sons - Francis, Charles and Henry. In the meantime, King is still alive, Catherine is forced to stay in the shade, because the crowned heart, and along almost full political influence gracefully holds in its tenacious handles the mistress of Henry II - the famous Diane de Poitiers.
Women's fate Catherine there was not the best way. For a long time, unable to conceive, she teetered on the edge of the opals. Numerous wizards and healers, which Catherine gathered around him, forced to drink urine unfortunate mule and wearing attached to the lower abdomen antlers and bags of cow dung.
It is not known to have worked on it real or just a close friend of the Queen's famous astrologer and alchemist Michel Nostradamus successfully "negotiate" with the stars, but the January 20, 1544 Catherine finally bore son. The boy was named after his grandfather Francis and after him, literally in the next few years, the queen gave birth to two sons.
Fourth pregnancy nearly cost the life of Catherine. In 1556 queen saved from death, surgery, break off the legs of one of the twins girls, which lay in the womb of a dead mother's six o'clock. The second girl had lived a few weeks after birth, and the Queen of the court doctors have a final and irreversible diagnosis - infertility.
Catherine's reign as regent had for a period of civil and religious wars - revolt Protestants (Huguenots), who demanded a fully redraw all the traditions and customs that time. Initially, Catherine has made concessions to the rebels, but soon radically changed its attitude. The result was St. Bartholomew.
Some historians believe Catherine brutal and bloody ruler, calling the "black queen". In fact, she never hesitated to choose - to agree with the opponent, or to poison him. One of the victims was a royal intrigue her own son Charles IX, who will call the death of Catherine "accident." According to some sources, the king was killed, looked through the book with the poisoned pages that targeted the enemy of the crown.
Other historians claim that without such measures was impossible to keep the dynasty of Valois to the throne at a time when the prestige of the monarchy in France was in deep decline. Anyway, Catherine de 'Medici entered the European history as the most powerful woman of the XVI century. And the most important "French bitch."
