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HENRI IV FRANCE - WIVES
Marguerite Valois (1553-1615) - Daughter of
Henri II of France and Catherine de Medici, she married Henri III of
Navarre on the 18th of August 1572. Their wedding celebrations became
the St. Bartholomew's day massacre. For the first few years of their
marriage, Henri was kept prisoner at court, until he escaped in 1576.
Marguerite joined him in Nerac in 1578. However they hardly lived as
husband and wife. Henri had mistresses and Marguerite lovers. Together
they had no children. Marguerite started playing politics, which went
badly wrong around 1584, causing her to flee first to the chateau of
Carlat and then Usson, fearing that either Henri III her brother, or
Henri III her husband would have her killed. She and Henri were divorced
in 1599. She eventually returned to Paris from Usson in 1605, where she
died in 1615. History remembers her mainly for being promiscuous and for
failing to produce an heir to the throne. |
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Image from rare print, kindly provided by
R.E.Lewis & Daughter |
Marie de Medici - (1573-1642) -
Daughter of the Grand Duke Francis I of Tuscany and Joan of Austria,
she married Henry IV of France on the 5th of October, 1600. She was more
successful than Marguerite in that she bore several children,
Louis, Elisabeth, Chretienne, Nicolas, Gaston
Jean-Baptiste and Henriette-Marie. During her marriage to Henri she
had to put up with his many mistresses, who also produced children
by him. Henri arranged for her to be crowned on the 13th of April 1610. On
the 14th of April 1610, he was murdered and she was proclaimed regent,
since their son Louis was too young to rule. She quickly started to
reverse many of Henri's policies. Of their children Louis was
married off to Anne of Austria, Elizabeth to Philip IV of Spain and Henriette-Marie to Charles I of England. Her son young Louis XIII
had to resort to ordering the murder of her closest confidant,
Concini in 1617, to reclaim his right to rule from her.
Conspiracy was in her blood and this lead to her being exiled from
1631 to her death in 1642. |
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DVD Movie
USA - Code 1
DVD Movie
Europe - Code 2
A story about Marguerite Valois and the St. Bartholomew's day
massacre |