The Rival Queens (44 page)

Antoine de Bourbon, indecisive king of Navarre, father of Henry IV.

Jeanne d’Albret, leader, with Admiral Coligny, of the Huguenot movement and mother of Henry IV.

Catholic Versus Huguenot

The Massacre of Vassy, March 1, 1562, the beginning of the French Wars of Religion.

François, duke of Guise, murdered outside Orléans by a Huguenot spy, February 1563.

Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, target of a botched assassination attempt by Catherine de’ Medici that resulted in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre, August 1572.

Catherine de’ Medici, queen mother of France, in her omnipresent black widow’s weeds.

Catherine de’ Medici’s eldest son, François II, briefly married to Mary Stuart before his premature death at the age of sixteen on December 5, 1560.

Catherine’s second son, Charles IX, king of France at the time of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Charles subsequently died of tuberculosis on May 30, 1574, at the age of twenty-four.

Marguerite de Valois, Catherine de’ Medici’s youngest daughter, as a child.

Catherine’s third and favorite son, Henri III, king of France and Poland.

François, duke of Alençon, Catherine’s youngest son and Marguerite’s political ally, before his face was ravaged by smallpox.

Marguerite de Valois after her marriage, as queen of Navarre.

Marguerite’s husband, Henry of Navarre, later Henry IV, king of France.