Catherine of Cleves

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Catherine

Catherine of Cleves (or of Nevers),

Duchess of Guise from 1570 to 1588, and Dowager Duchess of Guise thereafter. She was also Countess of Eu in her own right
from 1564.

Biography

Catherine was the second daughter of

queen consort of Poland
.

At the age of twelve, Catherine married the 19-year-old

Henri III et sa cour
(1829).

Henry of Guise was the leader of the fervently Catholic faction in the

War of the Three Henrys
. In 1588, Henry of Guise was assassinated on the orders of King Henry III.

Catherine never forgave

War of the Three Henrys
, she was mindful of the interests of her large family and supported her son Charles as a candidate for the French throne.

Catherine's reconciliation with her cousin, Henry IV of France, was not effected until his conversion to Catholicism. She immediately moved to Paris and obtained a very honorable position in the retinue of his wife, Marie de' Medici. In 1613, Catherine interceded for her son, François Alexandre, who had killed the Baron of Luz in a duel, asking for his banishment instead of execution for murder.[3]

The Guises continued to support the queen throughout the regency, and Catherine followed Marie into exile in Blois after Louis XIII assumed the reins of government in 1619. After returning to the Louvre, the Dowager Duchess - anxious to promote the interests of the House of Guise - resumed plotting against Cardinal Richelieu.

The death of her youngest daughter, the princesse de Conti (who had been implicated in the Day of the Dupes conspiracy), proved a blow to her spirits. She retired to her château d'Eu, where she died aged 85. She was buried at the château next to her husband's ornate tomb.

Issue

On October 4, 1560, at the age of twelve, Catherine married the Prince of Porcien, Antoine de Croy, who died in 1567. They had four children, all of whom died in early childhood:

  1. Louise Marie (November 8, 1561 – December 1562).
  2. Jean (born and died in January 1564).
  3. Catherine (5 December 1564 – December 1566).
  4. Jeanne (May 1566 – August 1566).

Catherine remarried on October 4, 1570 in Paris to Henry I, Duke of Guise, by whom she had fourteen children, half of whom died in childhood:

  1. Charles, Duke of Guise (1571–1640)
  2. Henri (June 30, 1572, Paris – August 13, 1574), died in childhood
  3. Catherine (November 3, 1573), died at birth
  4. Archbishop of Reims[4]
  5. Charles (January 1, 1576, Paris), died at birth
  6. Marie (June 1, 1577 – 1582), died in childhood
  7. Hercule de Rohan, duc de Montbazon
  8. Catherine (b. May 29, 1579), died in childhood
  9. Christine (January 21, 1580), died at birth
  10. François (May 14, 1581 – September 29, 1582), died in childhood
  11. Renée (1585 – June 13, 1626, Reims), Abbess of St. Pierre
  12. Jeanne (July 31, 1586 – October 8, 1638, Jouarre), Abbess of Jouarre
  13. François, Prince of Conti
  14. François Alexandre (February 7, 1589 – June 1, 1614,
    Order of Malta

Ancestry

Notes

  1. ^ After Catherine's marriage to Henry of Guise, the dispute over Beaufort and Coulommiers would be between the Croy and Guise families.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Boltanski 2006, p. 501.
  2. ^ a b Soen 2016, p. 101.
  3. ^ a b McIlvenna 2016, p. 180.
  4. ^ Bergin 1996, p. 661-662.

Sources

  • Bergin, Joseph (1996). The Making of the French Episcopate, 1589-1661. Yale University Press. .
  • Boltanski, Ariane (2006). Les ducs de Nevers et l'État royal: genèse d'un compromis (ca 1550 - ca 1600) (in French). Librairie Droz.
  • McIlvenna, Una (2016). Scandal and Reputation at the Court of Catherine de Medici. Routledge.
  • Soen, Violet (2016). "The Chièvres Legacy, the Croÿ Family and Litigation in Paris. Dynastic Identities between the Low Countries and France (1519-1559)". In Geevers, Liesbeth; Marini, Mirella (eds.). Dynastic Identity in Early Modern Europe: Rulers, Aristocrats and the Formation of Identities. Routledge.101