Catherine de Medici

Catherine de Medici was Queen Mother of France during the reign of her son, King Charles IX. (TV: The Massacre) She set up a marriage between her daughter Margaret to the Protestant prince Henry of Navarre. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) She was the leader of the conspiracy to assassinate Admiral Gaspard de Coligny on 22 August 1572.

When the plan failed, she influenced her son to authorise the St Bartholomew's Day massacre (TV: The Massacre) on 23 August 1572. The massacre of Huguenots lasted until October of that year. (PROSE: A History of Humankind)

In a replication of 1560 Florence on a Poldagon research planet, a merchant called Bernardo was selling silks and feathers which he claimed to be identical to those worn by Catherine de Medici. (AUDIO: The Doomsday Quatrain)