Caterina is the Italian form of Catherine — from the Greek katharos (pure). **Caterina de' Medici (1519-1589)** — **Queen of France as wife of Henry II, regent during the reign of her sons Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III** — among the most powerful women in 16th-century Europe; **she initiated the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Huguenots in 1572**. **Caterina Sforza (1463-1509)** — **the warrior Countess of Forlì who defended her castle from Cesare Borgia, swearing that her enemies could kill her children but she would make more**; among the most fearsome Italian Renaissance noblewomen.
Subject of countless biographies and Mantel's *Wolf Hall* (2009).
Caterina reduces to four — the number of Renaissance queens.