Throughout the years, many women have tried to make a lasting impression on the world, but few have succeeded. However, there are some able to make an impact and break the tradition of the “women’s role” in society. These women form an immense impact on their time period and overall history. One of these women is Catherine de’ Medici, an Italian women who became the Queen of France. If this woman were to be elected the President of the United States in 2004, displeasing reactions would occur because of her past actions.

To start off, Catherine had a nasty habit of intermingling her political and social lives. In 1560, she arranged for her daughter, Elizabeth of Valois, to marry Phillip II, the powerful Roman Catholic king of Spain. She also found it necessary to persuade her daughter, Margaret of Valois, to the Protestant king Henry of Navarre in 1572. Later that year, she found her son, Charles the King of France, greatly influenced by the Huguenots. Knowing this, she set up a plot to assassinate the Protestant leader Coligny, which lead to his death and the deaths of about 50,000 other Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572. Alth

ough Catherine tired to maintain a balance and lost it, she was looking out for her own good, and not the good of the people. She wanted to preserve the Valois dynasty and uphold the monarchy, which she did for many years. In today’s society, Catherine’s actions such as strategically marrying her daughters to leaders and causing a massacre would not exactly make the people of the United States happy. In the United States today, religious freedom is practiced, and plotting to assassinate someone is bound to be unlawful if discovered. The people, assuming they are aware of Catherine’s actions and see the big picture, would be greatly angered by these actions. However, Catherine probably would not be able to cause as much damage today as she did in the 1500s because we have a separation of powers, and a system of checks and balances, which would make it greatly difficult to obtain a power large enough to succeed. However, these actions would indefinitely get her impeached and shunned by her people. Catherine’s mischievousness and manipulative intentions would not be a quality that the people of the United States value in their President today.

Although some say Catherine was politically inept, she was a patron to the arts and very aware and a part of pop culture. She demonstrated her interest of architecture when she built a new wing of the Louvre Museum, constructed the Tuileries gardens and built the chateau of Monceau. Her personal library was also extravagant, as it contained many rare manuscripts from the Renaissance. She even had a perfume formulated for her called the Eau de Cologne of Santa Maria Novella. Catherine believed in power of dance, and made it a necessity to have dancers at her banq

Some topics in this essay:
Catherine Medici, Day Massacre, Catholics United, President Bush, Royal Court, Role Throughout, Louvre Museum, President United, Novella Catherine, President Catherine, patron arts, 50000 huguenots, deaths 50000, running country, today’s society, catherine’s actions, deaths 50000 huguenots, catherine medici, people united,