Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, Marquise de Verneuil (1579–1633) was the favourite
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a female lover of a married man
** Royal mistress
* Maîtresse-en-titre, official mistress of a ...
of
Henry IV of France
Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...
after
Gabrielle d'Estrées
Gabrielle d'Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux (; 157310 April 1599) was a mistress, confidante and adviser of Henry IV of France. She is noted for her role in ending the religious civil wars that plagued France ...
died: her sister
Marie-Charlotte de Balzac d’Entragues was also a mistress of the king. She was the daughter of Charles Balzac d'Entragues and his wife
Marie Touchet
Marie Touchet (; 1549 – 28 March 1638), Dame de Belleville, was the only mistress of Charles IX of France.
Life
Although born to a bourgeois family at Orléans, the daughter of Marie Mathy and a Huguenot lieutenant Jean Touchet, she "hel ...
, who was formerly the sole
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a female lover of a married man
** Royal mistress
* Maîtresse-en-titre, official mistress of a ...
of
Charles IX of France
Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) was List of French monarchs, King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II of France, Francis II in 1560, an ...
.
Royal mistress
Catherine Henriette de Balzac was raised at a time when women often sought to become a
royal mistress
A royal mistress is the historical position and sometimes unofficial title of the extramarital lover of a monarch or an heir apparent, who was expected to provide certain services, such as sexual or romantic intimacy, companionship, and advice ...
to
royalty
Royalty may refer to:
* the mystique/prestige bestowed upon monarchs
** one or more monarchs, such as kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses, etc.
*** royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen-regnant, and sometimes h ...
, and her mother Marie had previously been a mistress to
Charles IX before her birth.
Ambitious, pretty and intriguing, by her late teens she had succeeded in becoming a mistress to Henry IV. While Henry was still deeply grieving over the death of
Gabrielle d'Estrées
Gabrielle d'Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux (; 157310 April 1599) was a mistress, confidante and adviser of Henry IV of France. She is noted for her role in ending the religious civil wars that plagued France ...
,
[Singleton, Esther (1904) "Famous women as described by famous writers" p. 208] she induced him into a written promise to marry her. This led to bitter scenes of jealousy and arguing at the court when shortly afterwards Henry married
Marie de' Medici
Marie de' Medici (; ; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) 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 rege ...
instead.
Terribly infuriated and feeling betrayed, she carried her spite so far as to be deeply compromised in a conspiracy against the king in 1608, but escaped with only a slight punishment after the plot was foiled,
[Roberts, William j (2004) "France: a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present (European Nations)" p. 272] and in 1608 Henry took her back into favour again as one of his mistresses.
She was later involved in the
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
intrigues which preceded the death of the King in 1610. Upon the King's death, his wife, Marie de' Medici, was named
Regent
In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
by
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, and immediately exiled Catherine from the royal court. She lived 23 years after Henri's death, dying in 1633 at the age of 54.
Children
She had two children with the king:
See also
*
Henry IV of France's wives and mistresses
Henry IV of France's wives and mistresses played a significant role in the politics of his reign. Both Henry IV of France, Henry (1553–1610) and his first wife Margaret of Valois, whom he married in 1572, were repeatedly unfaithful to each othe ...
*
List of French royal mistresses
This article contains a listing of notable French royal mistresses.
Chlothar I
* Waldrada, Princess of the Lombards
* Arnegundis
Charibert I
* Merofleda
* Clothilde
* Marcovefa
* Theogilda
Chilperic I
* Fredegund, Fredgunde d'Ardennes (d ...
References
Further reading
*Herman, Eleanor. (2005). ''Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge.''
Harpercollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
.
*Williamson, David. (1991). ''Debrett's kings and queens of Europe.'' Salem House Pub.
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balzac d'Entragues
1579 births
1633 deaths
Mistresses of Henry IV of France
French marchionesses