II.

Political Role

In her determination to preserve royal power at any cost, Catherine devoted her energies to maintaining a balance between the Protestant group known as the Huguenots, led by the French military leader Count Châtillon, and the Roman Catholics, led by the powerful house of Guise. During the religious civil wars that began in 1562, Catherine, a Roman Catholic, usually supported the Catholics; sometimes, however, political expediency led her to switch her support to the Huguenots. Her political manipulations also affected the personal affairs of her family. In 1560 she arranged for her daughter, Elizabeth of Valois, to become the third wife of the powerful Roman Catholic king of Spain, Philip II. In 1572 Catherine found it propitious to marry another daughter, Margaret of Valois, to the Protestant King Henry III of Navarre, who later became Henry IV, king of France. Later in 1572 she found the growing Huguenot influence over her son Charles, the French king, frightening; accordingly, she instigated the plot to assassinate the Protestant leader Count Châtillon that led to his death and the deaths of thousands of other Huguenots in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day. After the death of Charles in 1574 and the accession to the throne of her third son as Henry III, Catherine’s power declined. She died in Blois, France, on January 5, 1589.