Marie de' Medici was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as regent legally expired in 1614, when her son reached the age of majority, but she refused to resign and continued as regent until she was removed by a coup in 1617.
Portrait by Frans Pourbus the Younger
Maria de' Medici as a child. Currently at the Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
Maria de' Medici as a young woman, by Santi di Tito, ca. 1590.
Marie de Médicis, by Pietro Facchetti, c. 1595, Palazzo De Torres-Lancellotti, Rome
Henry IV, also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in 1610 by a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.
Portrait by Frans Pourbus, 1610
Henry III of France on his deathbed designating Henry IV of Navarre as his successor (1589)
Portrait of Henry III of Navarre (future Henry IV of France), c. 1575
King Henry IV in his coronation robes, by Frans Pourbus the Younger
