ments for the church, in which her remains were to be deposited. The king religiously performed her injunctions, excepting that which respected the disposal of her body, resenting probably the opposition which the convent had given to his divorce. The corpse was interred in the abbey church at Peterburgh, with the honours due to the birth of Catherine, between two pillars, on the north-side the choir, near the great altar. Her hearse was covered with a pall of black velvet, crossed with cloth of silver, which was afterwards exchanged for one of black say. It is recorded by lord Herbert, in his " History of Henry VIII." that, from respect to the memory of Catherine, Henry not only spared the abbey church at the general dissolution of religious houses, but advanced it to be a cathedral. Hume's History of England-Ballard's Memoirs of CATHERINE OF MEDICIS. CATHERINE OF MEDICIS, celebrated by the French historians for her talents and her crimes, daughter of Lorenzo de Medicis, duke of Urbin, and of Madeline de la Tour, countess of Bou logne (in whom ended the house of Auvergne), was born at Florence, April 15th, 1519. She is thus described by Varillas : "Her form was admirable; her aspect expressed majesty blended with softness. In the delicacy of her complexion, and the vivacity of her eyes, she surpassed every other lady of the court. She adapted her habit to her person with such exquisite taste, that, though she frequently changed its form, every dress appeared to her equally advantageous. She introduced the fashion of wearing silk stockings, drawn tight, to display the fine turn of her ancle; for the same reason, she first adopted the mode of placing one leg over the pommel of the saddle in riding on horseback. She invented, at different times, a variety of new fashions, not less becoming than superb. Her suite, in which she took a pleasure in collecting beautiful women, was particularly brilliant. It seemed as if nature had combined in her all the virtues and the vices of her family. Attached, like her ancestor, the count de Vieux, to riches, she managed them not better than Peter I. son of the count, her great great grandfather. She was magnificent beyond every age that had preceded her, like Laurent, her great grandfather; nor was she less refined in her policy: but she possessed not his rectitude of intention, nor his liberality to men of letters. In ambition she yielded not to Peter II. her grandfather; nor, in pursuit of her end, was she scrupulous respecting the means. After the example of her father, she loved amusements but in proportion only to the expence with which they were accompanied." She was exposed during her childhood to great danger, through the animosity of the Florentines to the house of Medici, which a faction had expelled from the city. Not content with depriving her of the possessions of her family, her enemies confined her in a monastery. At the siege of Florence, in 1530, Baptista Cei, a violent opponent of the Medicis, proposed that Catherine (then eleven years of age) should be placed on a wall, between two battlements, exposed to the fire of the imperial artillery. Bernaud Castiglioné, yet more brutal, advised in the council that she should be given up to the lust of the soldiery. These propositions, so horrible and atrocious, were received with the indignation they merited. Philibert, prince of Orange, commander of the imperial army before Florence, aspired to the hand of Catherine: but his death, previous to the surrender of the city, dissolved the negociation, and left her free to fulfil a higher destiny. At fourteen years of age, she was given in marriage, by pope Clement VII. her great uncle, to Henry, duke of Orleans, second son of Francis I. The nuptials were celebrated at Marseilles, Осtober 28th, 1533, in the presence of the pope and the king of France. But her beauty and insinuating manners failed to captivate the heart of her husband, who had devoted himself to the maturer charms of Diana de Poitiers. The character of Catherine, repressed by the circumstances of the times, had not yet discovered itself. She possessed no political influence, nor any seat in the cabinet: her sterility also contributed to lessen her consequence: it was even proposed that the marriage should be dissolved. In this situation her address and command of temper were admirable: to the king, her father-inlaw, whose health began to decline, she assiduously paid her court: she accompanied him to the chace, and made one in the celebrated party known by the name of Le petite bande de dames de la cour. She attended him, likewise, on his private excursions to the palaces of Chambord, Fontainbleau, and St. Germain, where he unbent in the company of a select number of favourites. These assiduities rendered her infinitely dear to Francis. To her husband she was no less submissive, while she suffered the ascendancy of her rival with mildness. By the humility and flexibility of her conduct, in circumstances the most delicate and critical, she rendered herself acceptable to all parties. Her talents were reserved for a more favourable occasion; for the present she was content to remain in obscurity. Ten years after her marriage, when she had begun to despair of having issue, she was delivered of a son, on whom the name of his grandfather was conferred. On the decease of Francis I. she was crowned with her husband at St. Denis, June 12th, 1540. But she possessed only the title of queen. Diana de Poitiers engrossed, with the favour of the king, the most unbounded political influence, while Catherine submitted to her destiny with a grace that commanded the esteem of her husband, who daily passed with her two hours after he had dined. Previous to his departure for the Milanese, so long and so unfortunately contended for by the French, Henry vested the regency in the queen, with whom he associated Bertrandi, keeper of the seals, and devoted to his mistress the duchess of Valentinois. Catherine, during this short administration, was guilty of no public act injurious to the state: her character had not yet developed |