The Rival Queens

Back to France for the double biographies of Catherine de' Medici and her daughter, Marguerite de Valois in Nancy Goldstones' eminently readable The Rival Queens (#515).  If you love reading about dysfunctional families, the Valois dynasty has it all: murder, betrayal, flagrant affairs - and just to throw some additional spice into the mix -  religious wars.  Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Catherine de' Medici always shows up as the ultimate villainess in historical fiction with her control of the government, St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and gifts of poisoned gloves.  The poisoned gloves are probably just rumor laid at her feet, but the rest is only too real, but after reading about her early life as a poor relative of the powerful de' Medici family, you'll certainly have a better idea of why she became to the person she did.  And her upbringing was so much easier than her husband's, Henri II of France! 

Their daughter Marguerite, one of the great beauties of her age, had no fond memories of her mother, unlike her affection for her father.  It would be hard to forgive someone who forces you into a marriage that almost no once else in the kingdom of France favors, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre, when you are staunchly Catholic (and to have your wedding marked by a massacre!) only to be told a few months later that you should now divorce said husband to further the political ambitions of your mother and brother.  And that was only the beginning of openly hostile family relations.  Marguerite was loyal and shrewd enough to survive many attempts on her life until her star once again ascended after the rest of her family had died.  She was reconciled to the new sovereign of France at that time, and revered at the end of her life for her generosity to others.

When the two queens died, one was refused burial in the ancient and traditional royal site of St. Denis, the other greatly and publicly mourned by the French people.  I'll leave you to guess which was which.   A fascinating glimpse into the past and highly recommended.