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- French queen consort of Henry II, whom she
- married 1533; daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici,
- duke of Urbino; and mother of Francis II,
- Charles IX, and Henry III. At first outshone
- by Henry's mistress Diane de Poitiers
- (1490-1566), she became regent 1560-63 for
- Charles IX and remained in power until his
- death 1574. During the religious wars of
- 1562-69, she first supported the Protestant
- Huguenots against the Roman Catholic Guises
- to ensure her own position as ruler, she
- later opposed them, and has been
- traditionally implicated in the Massacre of
- St Bartholomew 1572.
-