Marie de’ Medici’s hope of staying in power by keeping her son in line indefinitely falls apart thanks to a love affair, and her friends pay a heavy price. Still, the Medici aren’t known for accepting even the most devastating of defeats, and Marie is no exception.
A contemporary portrait by Daniel Dumonster of Charles d’Albert, the Duke of Luynes (c. 1620), the likely lover of King Louis XIII. Source: Private collection. Louis XIII as a teenager (c. 1616) by Frans Pourbus the Younger. Source: The Staatliche Kunsthalle of Karsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.