Devotion, Influence, and Loyalty: Reevaluating Queen Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont’s Political and Diplomatic Role in Early Modern France

Abstract

Being a queen consort in late sixteenth-century France meant living in the shadow of the powerful and authoritative dowager queen, Catherine deMedici, whom Natalie Zemon Davis considers “the best example” of a woman exercising power in early modern France. Three of Catherine’s sons became king of France following the death of their father, Henry II, in 1559: Francis II (1559–1560), Charles IX (1560–1574), and Henry III (1574–1589). Francis’s wife, Mary, has received significant scholarly attention, albeit primarily because she was queen of Scotland in her own right. By contrast, Elisabeth d’Austria, consort to Charles IX, and Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont, consort to Henry III, remain largely obscure denizens of the French sixteenth-century court. Born on 30 April 1553, Louise was the daughter of Nicholas de Lorraine, Count de Vaudémont and later Duke de Mercoeur, and Marguerite d’Egmont, who died when Louise was just eleven months old. Her paternal grandfather, Antoine de Lorraine, was the brother of Claude de Lorraine, Duke de Guise, who wasMarie