Christine of France

Christine Marie was born on 10 February 1606, daughter of Henry IV of France and sister to Louis XIII. She married Victor Amadeus I and became Duchess of Savoy on 26 July 1630. When her husband died on 7 October 1637, she assumed the regency rather than cede control. For the next eleven years, until 1648, she governed Savoy in her children's name, navigating the duchy through a period when her blood ties to the French crown and her determination to hold authority defined the state's course. She died on 27 December 1663.