Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman who became queen consort and later queen regent of France in the sixteenth century.

She wielded substantial political power during the reigns of her three sons and is associated with both the flowering of French Renaissance culture and the violence of the Wars of Religion, including the St.

Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

Her name evokes Machiavellian statecraft and the dark side of court intrigue.