Chronic diabetic complications

Queen Maria de’ Medici (1573–1642) died in a miserable, marasmic state. Infections, gangrene, weight loss, fatigue and respiratory problems suggest a progressive decompensation of a previously existing Type 2 diabetes. The lack of biochemical data, however, permits only circumstantial evidence of this hypothesis. The author proposes that the queen developed subclinical diabetes after the age of 45, when she became obese due to excessive eating and lack of exercise. With a clear familial predisposition, she could have become insulin resistant and chronically hyperglycaemic.