Marie de' Medici, French queen consort and regent (b. 1573)
Marie de' Medici (French: Marie de Médicis, Italian: Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642), was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingdom of France officially between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII of France. Her mandate as regent legally expired in 1614 when her son reached the age of majority, but she refused to resign and nevertheless continued as regent until she was removed by a coup in 1617.
A member of the powerful House of Medici in the branch of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, thanks to the wealth of her family, Marie was chosen by Henry IV to become his second wife following his divorce from his previous wife, Margaret of Valois. Following the assassination of her husband in 1610, which occurred the day after her coronation, she acted as regent for her son, King Louis XIII of France, until 1614, when he officially attained his legal majority, although as the head of the Conseil du Roi she retained the power.Noted for her ceaseless political intrigues at the French court, her extensive artistic patronage, and favorites (the most famous are Concino Concini and his wife Leonora Dori Galigaï), she ended up being banished from the country by her son, dying in the city of Cologne in the Holy Roman Empire.