Synthèse
"If Catherine de Médicis presented as a princess embodying the fertility of French blood and claimed thus to possess a benevolent, feminine side, her situation during the reign of Henri II seems to have been marked by ambiguity. Adopting a posture of withdrawal in relation to the manage-ment of affairs, her feminine identity was staged in the exercise of the virtue of prudence. But this policy of distance should not obscure the fact that she acceded several times to a position of authority. With prudence came the virtue of fortitude, without, however, renouncing her female identity. We must review the current historiography: the Catherine of before 1559 anticipates the Catherine during her widowhood, in her alli-ance of moderation and authority."
