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Leonie Frieda (born 1956) a former model, translator, and writer, working and living in the United Kingdom.
She is the daughter of Swedish aristocrats. [1]
Educated in the UK, France and Germany, Frieda speaks five languages. Her first book was a biography of Catherine de' Medici. Published in 2003, it became a bestseller. Frieda has also made documentaries for TV.
She lives in London with her two children by her former husband, music producer Nigel Frieda.[ citation needed ]
Catherine de' Medici was a Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King Henry II and the mother of French kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" since she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France.
Diane de Poitiers was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and family's status. She was a major patron of French Renaissance architecture.
The Treaty of Cambrai is also known as the Paz de las Damas or Paix des Dames. On August 3, 1529, this agreement ended the French involvement in the War of the League of Cognac between the French king Francis I and the Spanish Habsburg emperor Charles V. The treaty temporarily confirmed Spanish (Habsburg) hegemony in the Duchy of Milan and in Southern Italy.
Girolamo Riario was Lord of Imola and Forlì. He served as Captain General of the Church under his uncle Pope Sixtus IV. He was one of the organisers of the failed 1478 Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici family, the rulers of Florence, and was assassinated 10 years later by members of the Forlivese Orsi family.
Charles II of Orléans was the third son of Francis I and Claude of France.
The Valois Tapestries are a series of eight large tapestries depicting festivities or "magnificences" held by Catherine de' Medici's Royal Courts in the second half of the 16th century. The tapestries were primarily modeled on drawings by Antoine Caron, but to Caron's distant views of large panoramas crowded with figures much larger portraits of leading persons at the French court have been added in the foreground, usually to the side, as well as elaborate borders.
Catherine de' Medici's building projects included the Valois chapel at Saint-Denis, the Tuileries Palace, and the Hôtel de la Reine in Paris, and extensions to the château of Chenonceau, near Blois. Born in 1519 in Florence to an Italian father and a French mother, Catherine de' Medici was a daughter of both the Italian and the French Renaissance. She grew up in Florence and Rome under the wing of the Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII. In 1533, at the age of fourteen, she left Italy and married Henry, the second son of Francis I and Queen Claude of France. On doing so, she entered the greatest Renaissance court in northern Europe.
Catherine de' Medici's court festivals were a series of lavish and spectacular entertainments, sometimes called magnificences, laid on by Catherine de' Medici, the queen consort of France from 1547 to 1559 and queen mother from 1559 until her death in 1589. As queen consort of Henry II of France, Catherine showed interest in the arts and theatre, but it was not until she attained real political and financial power as queen mother that she began the series of tournaments and entertainments that dazzled her contemporaries and continue to fascinate scholars. Biographer Leonie Frieda suggests that "Catherine, more than anyone, inaugurated the fantastic entertainments for which later French monarchs also became renowned".
Catherine de' Medici's patronage of the arts made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance. Catherine was inspired by the example of her father-in-law, King Francis I of France, who had hosted the leading artists of Europe at his court. As a young woman, she witnessed at first hand the artistic flowering stimulated by his patronage. As governor and regent of France, Catherine set out to imitate Francis's politics of magnificence. In an age of civil war and declining respect for the monarchy, she sought to bolster royal prestige through lavish cultural display.
Julie Enfield is a Canadian portrait photographer and author of the book Kiss and Tell: An Intimate History of Kissing. Enfield lived in Italy from 1983 to 1996, where she worked in the fashion industry alongside Giorgio Armani, Franco Moschino, and Gianni Versace. In 1983, she married Italian architect Alberto Giulio Gioia.
Charlotte de Beaune Semblançay, Viscountess of Tours, Baroness de Sauve, Marquise de Noirmoutier was a French noblewoman and a mistress of King Henry of Navarre, who later ruled as King Henry IV of France. She was a member of queen mother Catherine de' Medici's notorious "Flying Squadron", a group of beautiful female spies and informants recruited to seduce important men at Court, and thereby extract information to pass on to the Queen Mother.
Françoise Madeleine d'Orléans was born a Princess of France and was the Duchess of Savoy as the first wife of Charles Emmanuel II. She was a first cousin of Louis XIV as well of her husband. She was the shortest-serving Savoyard consort, dying at the age of fifteen, childless.
Marie Anne d'Orléans, petite-fille de France was a French Princess and youngest daughter of Gaston d'Orléans. She held the rank of Grand daughter of France. She was a member of the House of Orléans.
Count Sebastiano de Montecuccoli, also spelt Montecucoli or Montecuculli was an Italian nobleman in the service of Francis I of France, executed for allegedly having poisoned the King's eldest son.
Filippa Duci or Filippa Ducci, dame de Couy, was a French courtesan. She was the mother of Diane de France.
The Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici is a 1532-33 portrait of Ippolito de' Medici by Titian, now in the Palazzo Pitti. He is "in the dress of an Hungarian horseman."
Louis of France, also known as Louis, Duke of Orléans was the second son and fourth child of Henry II, King of France and his wife, Catherine de' Medici, daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and his wife Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne. He died aged 1 year and 8 months.
The Hôtel de Soissons was a hôtel particulier built in Paris, France, between 1574 and 1584 for Catherine de' Medici (1519–89) by the architect Jean Bullant (1515–78). It replaced a series of earlier buildings on the same site. After Catherine's death the hotel was enlarged and embellished. The last owner, Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano, installed the Paris Bourse in the gardens, He was forced to sell it in 1740 to pay his debts. It was demolished in 1748 and the materials sold. A corn exchange was built on the site, later replaced by the present Bourse de commerce. A column, thought to have been used for astrological observations, is all that remains.
Marie Catherine Gondi, née de Pierrevive, dame du Perron and dame d'Armentières, was a French court official, a trusted favorite and confidant of the queen regent of France, Catherine de Medici. She served as Dame d'atour to queen Catherine (1544-1552), Governess to the Children of France (1550–1559) and Dame to Mary Stuart (1559–1560).
The Serpent Queen is an American period drama television series about the life of Catherine de' Medici, the 16th century Queen of France, as portrayed by actress Samantha Morton. The series was created by Justin Haythe and is based on the 2004 nonfiction book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda. The Serpent Queen premiered on Starz network on September 11, 2022. Starz renewed the series for a second season on October 27, 2022.
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