| Marie de' Medici | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Frans Pourbus the Younger | |
| Queen consort of France and Navarre | |
| Tenure | 17 December 1600 – 14 May 1610 |
| Coronation | 13 May 1610 |
| Born | 26 April 1575 Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Tuscany |
| Died | 3 July 1642 (aged 67) Sternengasse 10, Cologne |
| Burial | 8 March 1643 Basilica of St Denis, Paris, France |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | |
| House | Medici |
| Father | Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany |
| Mother | Joanna of Austria |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Signature |  |
Marie de' Medici (French: Marie de Médicis; Italian: Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as regent legally expired in 1614, when her son reached the age of majority, but she refused to resign and continued as regent until she was removed by a coup in 1617.
Marie was a member of the powerful House of Medici in the branch of the grand dukes of Tuscany. Her family's wealth inspired Henry IV to choose Marie as his second wife after his divorce from his previous wife, Margaret of Valois. The assassination of her husband in 1610, which occurred the day after her coronation, caused her to act as regent for her son, Louis XIII, until 1614, when he officially attained his legal majority, but as the head of the Conseil du Roi, she retained the power.[1]
Noted for her ceaseless political intrigues at the French court, her extensive artistic patronage[1] and her favourites (the most famous being Concino Concini and Leonora Dori), she ended up being banished from the country by her son and dying in the city of Cologne, in the Holy Roman Empire.
- ^ a b Lawrence, Cynthia Miller (1997). Women and Art in Early Modern Europe: Patrons, Collectors, and Connoisseurs. Pennsylvania State Univ Pr. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-271-01568-2.