This Week In Cigar History April 7-13

Anointed Queen Consort, then Regent, the tobacco loving power behind the French throne that belonged to three (!) sons, Catherine de’ Medici was born this week on April 13th, 1519.

During the reign of her first son, Francis II, Catherine de’ Medici’s political prowess included appointing the King’s private secretary, the 29 year old Nîmes-born, Jean Nicot de Villeman to the position of French ambassador to Portugal (1559). Nicot’s main mission was to negotiate the marriage of Catherine’s youngest daughter, six-year-old Marguerite de Vallois to five-year-old King Sebastian of Portugal. More importantly for tobacco lovers however, was his friendship with the Lisbon botanist Damião de Goes that led him to sample the medicinal properties of tobacco plants that had been brought over from the New World. Convinced of the plants’ healing powers, Nicot grew tobacco cuttings in the French Embassy’s garden and sent seeds and samples back to the French Court.

Extolling the virtues of tobacco as a topical healing balm and when inhaled, as a cure for headaches, Nicot persuaded Catherine de’ Medici to give the plant a try by snorting snuff to cure her migraine headaches. Reportedly Catherine was thrilled with the results and decreed that henceforth, the plant was to be known as Herba Regina (queen’s herb).

Jean Nicot was honored with the use of Nicotiana tabacum as the botanical name for tobacco plants as well as the active ingredient, nicotine.

news@doubledownmedia.com

4/7/08

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