[6] Sir Lambewell in Bishop Percy's Folio MS. (ed. Hales and
Furnivall, vol. ii., 1867), is another version of _Lanval_, and
differs from Chestre's. For the relations between _Lanval_ and the
_Lai de Graelent_, wrongly ascribed to Marie by Roquefort, see W. H.
Schofield, "The Lays of Graelent and Lanval, and the story of
Wayland," in the _Publications_ of the Mod. Lang. Assoc. of America,
vol. xv. (Baltimore, 1900).
MARIE DE' MEDICI (1573-1642), queen consort and queen regent of France,
daughter of Francis de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, and Joanna, an
Austrian archduchess, was born in Florence on the 26th of April 1573.
After Joanna's death in 1578 duke Francis married the notorious Bianca
Capello, and the grand-ducal children were brought up away from their
father at the Pitti Palace in Florence, where after the death of her
brother and sister and the marriage of her elder sister Eleonora,
duchess of Mantua, a companion was chosen for Marie, this being Leonora
Dori, afterwards known as Leonora Galigaï. She received a good education
in company with her half-brother Antonio. After many projects of
marriage for Marie had failed Henry IV. of France, who was under great
monetary obligations to the house of Medici, offered himself as a suitor
although his marriage with Marguerite de Valois was not yet dissolved;
but the marriage was not celebrated until October 1600. Her eldest son,
the future Louis XIII., was born at Fontainebleau in September of the
next year; the other children who survived were Gaston duke of Orleans;
Elizabeth queen of Spain; Christine duchess of Savoy; and Henrietta
Maria queen of England. During her husband's lifetime Marie de' Medici
showed little sign of political taste or ability; but after his murder
in 1610 when she became regent, she devoted herself to affairs with
unfailing regularity and developed an inherited passion for power. She
gave her confidence chiefly to Concini, the husband of Leonora Galigaï,
who squandered the public money and secured a series of important
charges with the title of Maréchal d'Ancre. Under the regent's lax and
capricious rule the princes of the blood and the great nobles of the
kingdom revolted; and the queen, too weak to assert her authority,
consented at Sainte Menehould (May 15, 1614) to buy off the discontented
princes. In 1616 her policy was strengthened by the accession to her
councils of Richelieu, who had come to the front at the meeting of the
states general in 1614; but Louis XIII., who was now sixteen years old,
was determined to throw off the tutelage of his mother and Concini. By
his orders Concini was murdered, Leonora Galigaï was tried for sorcery
and beheaded, Richelieu was banished to his bishopric, and the queen was
exiled to Blois. After two years of virtual imprisonment she escaped in
1619 and became the centre of a new revolt. Louis XIII. easily dispersed
the rebels, but through the mediation of Richelieu was reconciled with
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