Marie-Catherine Gondi

Marie Catherine Gondi, née de Pierrevive, dame du Perron and dame d'Armentières (circa 1500 – 1570), was a French court official and a trusted favorite and confidant of the Queen Regent of France, Catherine de Medici.

In 1521, her spouse acquired the noble estate or seigneurie du Perron, and during the 1520s- and 1530s, Marie Catherine Gondi became the central figure in a circle of humanists and intellectuals such as Étienne Dolet, Bonaventure Des Périers, Papire Masson and Maurice Scève.

[1] Gondi was given the responsibility for Catherine's personal finances general administrator for her projects and building works and in effect became her treasurer.

[1] Gondi's favored position as a trusted confidante of Catherine made her the subject of sensational rumors.

One such rumor, recounted by Tallemant des Reaux, was that Gondi, by means of a recipe, cured the supposed infertility of Catherine and enabled her to start conceive in 1543, after ten years of marriage without children.