December 17, 1600 Henri IV marries Marie de Médicis in Lyon
My dear Louise,
Do you know that, for a long time, our kings of France did not get married in Paris or Versailles, but in cities closer to the borders of the kingdom? Louis XIV married Marie-Thérèse of Austria, Spanish princess, in 1660, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz; Philippe-Auguste and Ingeburge of Denmark, Scandinavian princess, were married in Amiens in 1193, and Henri IV married Marie de Médicis in Lyon.
The future queen indeed came from Italy, and was a Florentine princess. Once the talks between the court of France and Ferdinando de’ Medici, uncle of Marie, were concluded, the marriage contract was signed in March 1600. The wedding ceremony took place in Florence, in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, on October 5, between Marie de Médicis and Roger de Bellegarde, representing the King of France.
You’re right, my dear Louise, I said earlier that the wedding took place in Lyons, and I’m talking to you now about Florence… It’s actually a marriage by proxy. This practice was common for princely weddings, when the law of the brides’ native country required that the princesses not leave the country. Once married, the situation was different, they depended on the law of their host country that they could join.
But the future husband, head of state or heir to the throne of his country, if he was not prevented from leaving the national territory, had to marry there. This is why these marriages by proxy appeared, between the future queen and a representative of the king. That’s what happened here. After this first marriage ceremony, Marie de Médicis left her native town and left for Livorno, from where she embarked on a galley for Marseilles with all her retinue. She landed in the Phocaean city on November 3, and then began to go up the Rhone valley. She arrived in Lyon on December 3. The king, who was on a military campaign in the Dombes, this marshy region northeast of Lyon, did not arrive there until the 9th.
A few days later, on December 17, the official wedding ceremony took place at the primatial Saint-Jean, on the banks of the Saône. After the Lyon wedding, and the festivities that followed it during the following days, the king and queen left Lyon to return to their capital, Paris. They welcomed their first child, the future Louis XIII, in September 1601. Here is my dear Louise, I let you dream of this royal wedding, while waiting to meet you soon for Christmas.
I kiss you
Aunt Cecile
Actuailes n°154 of December 14, 2022