bride would become a Lutheran is said to have thrown her into a
convulsion of rage which hastened her death. On the 9th of November
1796, she was seized by a fit of apoplexy, and died on the evening of
the 10th.

All other accounts of Catherine II. have been superseded by
Waliszewski's two volumes, _Le Roman d'une imperatrice_ (Paris, 1893)
and _Autour d'un Trone: Catherine II., ses collaborateurs, ses amis,
ses favoris_ (Paris, 1894). The original sources for the history of
her policy and her character are to be found in the publications of
the Imperial Russian Historical Society, vols. i.-cix. (St
Petersburg), begun in 1867; her private and official correspondence
will be found in vols. i., ii., iv., v., vi., vii., viii., ix., x.,
xiii., xiv., xv., xvii., xx., xxiii., xxxii., xxxiii., xxxvi., xlii.,
xliii., xlvii., xlviii., li., lvii., lxvii., lxviii., lxxxvii.,
xcvii., xcviii., cvii., cxv., cxviii.

CATHERINE DE' MEDICI (1519-1589), queen of France, the wife of one
French king and the mother of three, was born at Florence in 1519. She
was a daughter of Lorenzo II. de' Medici and a French princess,
Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne. Having lost both her parents at an
early age, Catherine was sent to a convent to be educated; and she was
only fourteen when she was married (1533) at Marseilles to the duke of
Orleans, afterwards Henry II. It was her uncle, Pope Clement VII., who
arranged the marriage with Francis I. Francis, still engaged in his
lifelong task of making head against Charles V., was only too glad of
the opportunity to strengthen his influence in the Italian peninsula,
while Clement, ever needful of help against his too powerful protector,
was equally ready to hold out a bait. During the reign of Francis,
Catherine exercised no influence in France. She was young, a foreigner,
a member of a state that had almost no weight in the great world of
politics, had not given any proof of great ability, and was thrown into
the shade by more important persons. For ten years after her marriage
she had no children. In consequence, a divorce began to be talked of at
court; and it seemed not impossible that Francis, alarmed at the
possible extinction of the royal house, might listen to such a proposal.
But Catherine had the happiness of bringing him grandchildren ere he
died. During the reign of her husband, too (1547-1559), Catherine lived
a quiet and passive, but observant life. Henry being co