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The French Succession

November 21, 2006
09:17 AM

I am at the moment reading a biography of Catherine de Medici by Leonie Frieda.
Catherine was –by the rules of the time- a commoner when she married Henry 11 of France, this even though she came from the immensely powerful Medici family of Florence.
To consolidate her position it was imperative that she conceive as soon as possible, unfortunately this was not to be the case.
Even though Henry did his duty royally, and already had fathered several children, Catherine failed to become pregnant.
In desperation she tried everything, drinking foul concoctions of mules urine and even boring a hole in the floor to spy on Henry and Diane de Poitiers- his mistress- to discover what they were doing better than her that made conception possible.
Eventually she called in the help of a sensible doctor called Jean Fernel.
He found that their reproductive organs both carried” slight abnormalities” and suggested a way these might be overcome.
Catherine more or less immediately became pregnant and then went on to bear ten children for Henry.

The mind can only boggle to imagine what these “abnormalities” were and how they were overcome. Frustratingly history doesn’t tell us and we can only speculate

Comments

  1. DEIRDRE

    on November 28, 2006

    dear martin , margaret tiernan, a friend of mine from dunleer, county louth (glebe brethan cheese) suggested that i take a look at your site;i see you are coming to live in france !!! soyez les bienvenus!!!!! i live in the languedoc roussillon region, in a small village , near avignon, called lirac.guillaume and i bought a house four years ago and we converted it into a guest house;this year was our first season and it was quite amazing,we didnt think that we would be so busy.we finally closed last week for a couple of months , lots more to do on the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guillaume is a chef also and he does ” table d,hote” meals in the evening upon request and hopefully will start cuisine courses soon, just wanted to wish you the best of luck with your new adventure and if i can be of any assistance please dont hesitate to call deirdre dore mccabe
    http://www.lapetiteprovence.net

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