Catherine de Medici: the ‘serpent queen’
Catherine was born on 13 April 1519 to Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of Florence, and his wife Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne, and within three weeks she was an orphan. Her mother died from a violent fever, while her father, who was also the Duke of Urbino, sustained injuries defending the region from attack and died of his wounds, amid other disease complications.
Catherine’s next guardian, her paternal grandmother Alfonsina Orsini, died in 1520, leaving the infant Catherine with her aunt Clarice de Medici. By 1527, the ruling
