Christine of France

Christine of France (10 February 1606 – 27 December 1663) was the sister of Louis XIII and Duchess of Savoy by marriage. Upon the death of her husband Victor Amadeus I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648. Daughter of France Born in the Palais du Louvre in Paris, Christine was the third child and second daughter of King Henry IV of France and his second wife Marie de' Medici. As a daughter of the king, she was a Daughter of France. She was a younger sister of Louis XIII of France and Elisabeth of France and an older sister of Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orléans, Gaston, Duke of Orléans and Henrietta Maria of France. Christine was a sister-in-law of Philip IV of Spain through Elisabeth and of Charles I of England through Henrietta Maria. As a child, she was raised under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat. After the marriage of her older sister Elisabeth in 1615 to the future Philip IV of Spain, Christine took on the honorary title of Madame Royale, which indicated her status as the eldest and most senior unmarried daughter at the court of her father. After her marriage, the style went to her younger sister Henrietta Maria.