Networks of Affection and Alliance: Catherine de Medici and Female Political Practice during the Minority of Charles IX

Upon the death of Francis II in late 1560, Queen Mother Catherine de Medici sought to gain control of the French government on behalf of her ten-year-old son, Charles IX. Through a series of negotiations amid the Estates General meetings of 1560 and 1561, Catherine established a minority government with herself at its center. Catherine employed gendered political strategies to achieve her aims, citing precedents of French women in power to justify her own authority and relying on trusted noblewomen of her household as political advisors and mediators to gain the cooperation of her political rivals. Jacqueline de Longwy, Duchess of Montpensier and Louise de Clermont, Duchess d’Uzés were central to her success, as they provided Catherine access to their contacts in the Huguenot party through female-dominated spaces of negotiation. Jacqueline de Longwy and Louise de Clermont’s support facilitated Catherine’s development of a strategy of female political engagement that she maintained throughout her long career at French court.