Catherine’s marriage to Prince Henry.
This painting was made some 17 years after the actual wedding.
Catherine, the most influential Italian
in the history of French cuisine.
Medicis, Catherine de - Catherine de
Medici (1519–1589). Catherine de Medici’s influence on French cuisine
was a side-effect of her marriage, in Paris, at age 14, to Prince Henry, also
age 14. Henry was the son of King
Francis I of France. That marriage changed French cuisine forever, and
Catherine's and her Florentine family were directly responsible.
Catherine came to France accompanied by
an entourage of Florentine chefs, cooks, market gardeners, and vintners. They and more were a wedding gift from her
father Lorenzo de' Medici, the absolute ruler of Florence. At that time, Florence was Europe's undisputed
center of fine cuisine. Catherine's chefs brought much more than pasta; they
brought new soft drinks such as lemonade and orangeade. Then, her market gardeners brought many
different herbs and vegetables, including a love for the herb basil. The vintners also
brought new eau de vies, fruit brandies, and new methods of wine production.
The French eau-de-vie, called Marc is a direct relative of Italian Grappa.
Grappa from Piedmont, Italy,
At the same time, all of Europe was
slowly awakening to many more different herbs, spices, fruits, and vegetables
that the conquistadors had brought back to Spain. Catherine’s Florentine chefs
took what they had brought with them and also began working with the new
arrivals from the New World. To all that
they brought, they added the wines, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables they found
in France. The combination created a culinary revolution in France. Like it or
not Catherine’s arrival from Italy was directly associated with the foundations
of much of modern French cuisine.
Portrait of Catherine de Medici
www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/15291148568/
For the French and Italian kitchens, the two countries borders were always mutually beneficial; recipes, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, and vines have been taken by both countries, improved upon and then returned. Then finally France took some of Italy and kept it. (In1860 Napoleon III claimed parts of the Duchy of Savoie and the City of Nice. Parts of these new France territories would become the French departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie. These additions to France were part of an agreement where France supported the unification of the rest of Italy).
Catherine’s Prince Henry would become King Henry II, and when he died in a jousting accident, Catherine became the power behind the throne of France. Her three sons would become the next three kings of France, more on that later.
The Château de Fontainebleau today.
www.flickr.com/photos/mbschlemmer/6176008041/
Under Catherine de Medici and King Henry
II in the 1550s the royal couple
expanded the royal hunting lodge of Fontainebleau. With King Henry’s death,
Catherine added much more to it using Italian painters and others to make this
then the largest royal French Chateau with 1,500 rooms The Château de Fontainebleau is 55 km (34
miles) from Paris and 75 km (47 miles) from the Chateau de Versailles. (The Chateau of Versailles was another Royal
Hunting Lodge that was added to by King Louis III and then again by Louis XIV
who made the Chateau de Versailles the site of the Government of France in 1682).
Catherine loved
intrigue
Despite Catherine’s contributions to the
dinner table, she is not a popular figure in French history. She was directly
involved in the planning of the 1572 Saint Bartholomew’s day massacre; on that
day thousands of Protestants were murdered.
Saint Bartholomew’s day massacre.
Painting by François Dubois, (1529– 1584)
Painted around. 1572-1584 in oil on wood amd canvas.
Catherine was long-lived; she lived through the reigns of four monarchs, her husband’s and then three of her son’s. While her husband King Henry II lived Catherine was sidelined in favor of his mistress; however, when Henry died Catherine became an absolute dictator. Catherine ruled through her other sons who inherited the throne (and not just from behind the scenes). Catherine also took whatever she wanted from anyone and payment would not be requested! See the paragraph on the Château de Chenonceau below.
Catherine de Medici’s Château de Chenonceau
www.flickr.com/photos/24736216@N07/2782230715/
The Château de Chenonceau, pictured above, was built across the River Cher in the Loire Valley. It belonged to Catherine’s husband King
Henry II who built it for his mistress Diane de Poitiers. After Henry’s death, Catherine took the
Château from her husband’s former mistress and in 1559 and made it one of her
royal residences. Today you may visit it; it is Indre-et-Loire in the region of
the Centre-Val de Loire. The Chateau is 234 km (146 miles) from Paris,(one hour
and fifty minutes by train) 33km (21 miles) from Tours and 115 km 72 miles from
Orleans. Of Frances many Chateaus the Chateau de Chenonceau is the second most
visited Chateau after Versailles.
Catherine de Médicis
died in 1589
Catherine de Médicis was buried alongside
her husband Henry II in the Basilique de Saint-Denis; the traditional burial
place of the Kings of France since the 6th century. The Basilica is just a
ten-minute journey by metro, from the center of Paris to the metro station of
Saint-Denis.
Catherine;s likeness from her tomb in Saint Denis.
She is buried alongside her husband Henri II
www.flickr.com/photos/franciscojgonzalez/9240501099/
Catherine died just eight months before her third son King Henry III was murdered. Henry III had no descendants, and the throne passed to King Henry III of Navarre (1553-1610), who became King Henry IV of France (1589-1610) the first of the Bourbon Kings of France.
Behind the French Menu
----------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010,
2013, 2017, 2019
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