The Ladies of the Luxembourg Garden

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but the central path of the Luxembourg gardens, just a 5 minute walk or so from my apartment, is lined with statues of various women who were significant in French history.  The majority of them are queens or duchesses who wielded power in unusual ways.  They range from early medieval times to the 17th century.

I've always been fond of these statues, but I'm not sure why they're there.  All I really know about the statues is that they were commission in the mid 19th century by Louis Philippe, the king during the brief post-Napoleon restoration of the monarchy.  I suspect they are some kind of tribute or reference to Marie de Medici (who is one of the statue women), as she was the queen who commissioned and helped to design the Luxembourg palace and gardens.  She was a forceful and powerful queen and perhaps Louis Philippe wanted the statues to acknowledge her kindred women throughout French history. 

So I'm going to do some little posts on these women (some of the most interesting ones, maybe not so little!) because they include some of my very favorite historical figures.  It was unusual for women to even be noted in the historical record at all during the lives of some of them, so it's an achievement just to be remembered. 

I didn't recognize some of them so this will also be me doing a bit of my own research on these ladies.  Of course, since these statues were made centuries after most of their deaths they aren't actual representations of how they looked - just to note that from the start.

I want to do it chronologically, but I'll start with one out of order, because I've already discussed her: here is Saint Genevieve, the patroness of Paris, lived 423-512.