Regent of Tuscany
Her son Cosimo II died in 1621, leaving his ten-year old son Ferdinando as grand duke. Christina and her daughter-in-law, Maria Maddalena of Austria, acted as regents until the boy came of age. Their collective regency is known as the Turtici. Christina's temperament was analogous to Maria Maddalena's. Together, they aligned Tuscany with the Papacy; re-doubled the Tuscan clergy; and allowed the trial of Galileo Galilei to occur. Upon the death of the last Duke of Urbino, instead of claiming the duchy for Ferdinando, who was married his granddaughter, and heiress, Vittoria della Rovere, they permitted it to be annexed by Pope Urban VIII.
In 1626, they banned any Tuscan subject from being educated outside the Grand Duchy, a law later resurrected by Christina's great grandson, Cosimo III. Harold Acton ascribes the decline of Tuscany to their regency. The Dowager Grand Duchesses sent Ferdinando on a tour of Europe in 1627. Maria Maddalena died in 1631, one year before her son took over the reins of government. Christina of Lorraine died in Florence at the age of 72.
Read more about this topic: Christina Of Lorraine
Famous quotes containing the word tuscany:
“Neither the Ages of Faith nor the Age of Doubt had touched him; he was Phaethon in Tuscany driving a cab.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)