Parthenay, Catherine de (1554–1631)
Parthenay, Catherine de (1554–1631)
French poet, translator and playwright. Name variations: Catherine de Rohan; duchesse de Rohan. Born Catherine de Parthenay, 1554, into a family of Huguenots named Parthenay-Levêque; died 1631; dau. of the seigneur of Soubise; niece of Anne de Parthenay; m. Charles de Quelennec, baron of Pont-l'Abbe (killed 1572); m. René de Rohan, viscount of Rohan and Prince of Léon, 1575 (killed 1586); children: 5, including Henri de Rohan (1579–1638, famed general).
First husband was killed in the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572); wrote elegies about Calvinist cause, death of Protestants in religious conflicts, and a poem in honor of Henry IV after his assassination (1610); was imprisoned after siege of La Rochelle by the forces of Cardinal Richelieu (1628) and died in captivity in Poitou; her tragedy, Judith et Holopherne, was performed in 1573; a satire, Apologie de Henri IV, was also attributed to her.