Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues
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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 term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
of
Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch ...
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 persuaded Henry to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. La ...
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 "held ...
, 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 term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
of
Charles IX of France Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the ...
.


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 advic ...
to royalty, 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 persuaded Henry to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. La ...
,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 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 Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
intrigues which preceded the death of the King in 1610. Upon the King's death, his wife, Marie de' Medici, was named
Regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
by
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, and immediately exiled Catherine from the royal court. She lived 23 years after Henri's death, until she died 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 (1553–1610) and his first wife Margaret of Valois, whom he married in 1572, were repeatedly unfaithful to each other, and the collapse o ...
*
List of French royal mistresses A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...


References


Further reading

*Herman, Eleanor. (2005). ''Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge.''
Harpercollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
. *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