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Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France

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This book is an interesting failure. It is well worth reading and contains many interesting passages, but Ms. Frieda fails in her stated aim of creating a more sympathetic understanding of Catherine de Medici and the difficulties under which she labored.

Catherine is widely seen as a talented, scheming and ruthless power-behind-the-throne figure, doing almost anything to promote and protect her children which included two Kings of France. Catherine's era overlaps that of a truly great queen, England's Elizabeth I, so her story includes figures such as Mary Queen of Scots and Philip II of Spain and includes the great waves of violence that crashed across Europe following the Reformation. You just can't come up with better historical material.

Ms. Frieda does a creditable job of telling her story, at times rising to gripping narrative as when she describes events around the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, an orgy of killing in which something on the order of ten to twenty thousand Huguenots were slaughtered, many having their throats cut in their beds.

Ms. Frieda's explanation of Catherine's role in the Massacre is that she only wanted to have a small group of leaders killed while conveniently gathered for the wedding of Henri of Navarre, a Protestant of Valois blood, and Catherine's daughter, Margot. Ms. Frieda's thesis is that what was to be a small "surgical operation" got completely out of hand with Paris mobs taking to killing anyone even suspected of being a Protestant, as though killing a group of guests at a royal wedding, had it gone no further, would have been just fine.

Ms. Frieda is not the first to put the thesis forward, but it fails utterly to soften our view of Catherine. There is little proof supporting Frieda's interpretation, but, in ordinary common law, if you commit a crime that generates a still bigger crime, you are not free of guilt. Beyond that, no one knew better than Catherine, after all her terrible experience with French Catholic-Protestant relations, what a seething place Catholic Paris was. To have Admiral Coligny, a much-admired Huguenot, and other high officials assassinated at that time in that place was criminally stupid, apart from all considerations of ethics and proper statecraft.

She wheedled her mentally-unbalanced son, Charles IX, into agreeing to the vicious plan, in part out of her sick jealousy over Coligny's friendship and influence with the King. When Charles, in one of his maniacal rages, finally roared his infamous "Kill them all" order, shouldn't the supposedly careful and subtle Catherine have understood how the words could be misinterpreted?

One can't avoid seeing Catherine as the classic over-protective, hot-house mother, willing to forgive her bloody awful darlings anything, willing to do almost anything for them. Such people always do a great deal of harm in ordinary life and even more when they are in high places. This sick trait of Catherine was compounded by the fact that there was raging madness in her Valois-de Medici brood. Charles IX, Henri III, and her daughter Margot, who married the future king, Henri of Navarre, were simply mad, unfit to rule even in ordinary times, but these were not ordinary times. There was Catherine working feverishly for their interests, effectively against the interests of France as a whole.

Other unsavory aspects of Catherine's character come through even in this book. Her horrible execution, many years later, of the Count de Montgomery, the man who accidentally killed her husband, Henri II, in a jousting entertainment, is just one. Henri, who had insisted on another joust, had publicly forgiven the man as he lay dying. Catherine waited for many years to take her bloody revenge. Frieda says this is one of the only examples of her taking vengeance, but that statement comes after having dismissed many convenient deaths, widely suspected at the time to have been poisonings.

Read this book and others - it contains an excellent bibliography - to decide for yourself how best to interpret Catherine's work. You will, in any event, be exposed to interesting times, and you will be glad you aren't living in them.

When i picked up this book my expectations were not that high but from the moment i started reading i was captivated by the authors way of telling the story.The author does a very good job in describing Catherine and her struggles from an early childhood until she became the Queen of France. The author's style is flawless and goes straight to the point in describing all the plots and treaties that happened in that time and their importance towards Italy,France and Spain.This is a great book that not only highlights Catherine struggles to keep the dinasty afloat but also because she makes us undestand all the main characters and their problems.Excellent work!!

I highly recommend this book to people who want to know more about the Medici family and its illustrious member who became the Queen of France.

Catherine de Medici had 10 children: three became French kings, one became Queen of Spain (as wife of Philip II). Her youngest son was a serious candidate to wed England's Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen Mother was a lavish spender who insisted on mounting extravagant "magnificences" in total disregard for France's precarious financial state. She would even impose taxes on the ever-suffering populace to finance her exercises of excess. She formed her own company of scantily clad dancing girls ("the flying squadron") which proved quite popular.

Catherine was not a hardcore religious type (like Spain's Philip II) but attended Mass regularly. She was not threatened by the rise of Protestantism and sought to meet their demands by peaceful means. She was superstitious: when a seer predicted the death of her husband King Henry II at a tournament, she begged him not to compete (he did anyway and was killed in an accident).

She presided over eight Wars of Religion: civil wars between Protestants fighting for their right to worship freely, and Catholics trying to keep the country from splitting apart. The author discusses Catherine's many diplomatic efforts to resolve the difficulties peacefully. But treacherous behavior among hardcore Huguenots eventually hardened her attitude, culminating in the disastrous Massacre of St Bartholomew of 1572, which killed as many as 30,000 men, women, and children all over France.

Catherine loved architecture, ate heartily (she was fat), and was an enthusiastic horseback rider. She adored her husband Henry II even though he preferred to spend his time with a mistress. She worshipped her son King Henri III, a transvestite who frequently ignored his royal duties to spend time with his young male companions ("mignons").

Catherine was not what contemporary thinkers would call a "good mother." While she worshipped Henri, she ignored her other children. At the outset of the Massacre of 1572, she put her daughter Margot in mortal danger by allowing her to stay at the Louvre, even though the building was about to be overrun by assassins. Years later, Catherine even proposed "eliminating" Margot in order to allow her husband Henri of Navarre to marry a woman who was more capable of bearing children.

I would not call this a "sympathetic" biography. While the author emphasizes Catherine's diplomatic efforts, the Queen Mother clearly lived up to the Medicis' darker reputation by approving numerous political assassinations.

This book is full of interesting information, and also contains several full-color illustrations.

A very sympathetic treatment of Catherine de Medici who has historically been regarded with some disdain. The author makes her subject much more three dimensional than just the royal assassin we have been accustomed to. I found it helpful to watch "Queen Margot" before reading this book; while the movie is not entirely faithful to Dumas' book, and Dumas' book is not always wholly accurate, having a visual image to reflect on helps keep the characters straight, especially when so many of them have the same name!

Catherine de Medici has been called many things over the centuries: Madame La Serpente, The Black Queen, The Maggot from Italy's Tomb, but one thing she hasn't been called is boring. Leonie Frieda has crafted an engrossing biography of a much maligned Queen. Catherine de Medici came to France at the age of fourteen to marry Henri, Duke of Orleans, later known as King Henri II. She was not a princess, in fact she not of royal blood at all. Instead, Catherine was the daughter of wealthy Italian merchants. Her father was Lorenzo II de Medici and her mother was named Madeleine de la Tour d' Auvergne. Shortly after her birth, Catherine lost both her parents and became a pawn (and prisoner) of her powerful Medici relatives.

Frieda's biography is intended to provide a sympathetic and diverse view of a woman that history has branded a poisoner and murderer. Far from straying from Catherine flaws, the author openly discusses the events that helped cast the Italian-French Queen as a villain. To better understand Catherine's later disasterous actions, one has to follow Catherine's history from her tragic childhood to her fortunate but unfulfilling (to Henri anyway) marriage to Henri II. The author does a superb job at identifying the key events that helped form this courageous and powerhouse Queen.

The gist of the author's argument is that Catherine's greatest fault was loving her children to the extreme. She writes "No mother has done more to promote her children at whatever cost to herself, themselves, and their times." Even before conceiving a child, Catherine was going to the extreme for her unborn children. Barren for a decade, Catherine subjected herself to dangerous and bizarre treatments to increase fertility. Perhaps the most extreme action Catherine took to increase her chances of conceiving was watching her husband and his mistress, Diane de Poitier make love. It is said Catherine ordered holes drilled in her floor where she might watch her husband and his mistress. Since Diane had bore her husband a child, Catherine figured she might pick up clues why her and her husband's lovemaking was not resulting in a pregnancy.

Catherine did conceive, in fact, she conceived ten children. Tragically, Catherine survived all but two, Margot and Henri III. Freida argues that the actions Catherine took to defend her children and their legacy resulted in the image of Catherine de Medici that survives today. After the death of her husband and the reign of her first born, Francis II, France became embroiled in a bitter religious war between Catholics and Protestants. Catherine's reluctance to put a forceful end to the Protestant movement, vilified her in the eyes of Catholics. Yet, Catherine's involvement in the Bartholomew's Massacre turned Catholics and Protestants against her.

I disagree with the reviewers who claim Frieda's biography fails to provide a sympathetic view of Catherine. If you are judging by 21st century standards, the no, this book is in no way sympathetic to Catherine de Medici. After all, what 21st century mother who plots, murders, and even sacrifices her own children would be considered anything but evil? Catherine did all these things. She ordered assassinations of individuals who put her sons legacy in jeopardy. She clearly ordered the murder of Lignerolles, a gentleman who Catherine believed was steering her son Henri towards religious fanaticism and possible homosexuality. She also beat her daughter Margot for daring to engage in romantic liasons with Henri of Guise. Additionally, immediately after the death of her daughter Elisabeth, who was married to Philip II of Spain, Catherine was busy proposing a second marriage to Philip, this time to her other daughter, Margot. Worst of all, Catherine offered to "eliminate" her own daughter in order for her husband, Henri of Navarre to marry Christina of Lorraine. The marriage between the latter would have quelled the religious strife that was tearing the nation apart.

In order to truly appreciate the portrait Freida is trying to portray of Catherine, you must not judge by 21st century standards. Catherine's main preoccupation was retaining her children's legacy and achieving peace in a country that was torn between Protestants and Catholics. As the mother of weak, sickly, and foolish Kings, Catherine was determined to plot, murder, and sacrifice to ensure the future of the Valois dynasty, not a commendable 21st century trait, but the workings of a powerful and admirable sixteenth-century Queen.

The book is a slow read at the beginning, where the author does not seem to have found much information about the young Catherine. Once her husband dies and - I assume - more was know about her, the book picks up. I got quite captivated and read the whole book. While interesting, it left me with a lot of questions about Catherine. I am searching for a book that is entertaining and goes deeper into the topic; the information gained from this book is a bit shallow and left me wanting.

This is a biography of Catherine de Medici (1519 -1589). Her husband became King Henri II of France, and three of their sons in their turn became Kings of France after Henri's death in 1559. As Queen Mother, Catherine was both important and powerful in France for thirty years.

Catherine was orphaned as an infant and imprisoned as a child. As heiress to an ancient name and a vast fortune, Catherine was brought up in the Florentine court and married off by her self-styled uncle (Pope Clement VII) to Henri, Duke of Orleans son of King Francis I of France. The history itself, full of dynastic and political intrigues, is fascinating, and it is a credit to Ms Frieda's style that she is able to accurately render the history without confusing it.

At various times it has been fashionable to paint Catherine de Medici in the darkest of hues as a murderer, and as a self serving intriguer who presided over the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August 1572 when thousands of French Protestants were slaughtered. Such a picture of Catherine is incomplete. She was a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I of England and while she may have lacked some of Elizabeth's ability and skill, she equalled her in courage and determination.

This is a very readable biography which puts some much needed context around the life and times of Catherine de Medici. The Valois dynasty ended some months after Catherine's death with the death of Henri III. The French crown then passed to Henri IV (Henri of Navarre): a fascinating monarch in his own right.

I recommend this book both as an example of a wonderfully written biography but also as a study of a multi-dimensional woman who was fascinating in her own right.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Caterina Maria Romola di Lorenzo de' Medici was born in Italy in 1519, and in 1533 was married to King Henry II of France. When Henry died in 1552, Catherine moved from the shadows to become the all-powerful Queen-Mother, the ruler of France in all but name only. However, in an era of schemes and machinations, Catherine gained a reputation as the ultimate schemer, a woman without scruples or bounds. This is the story of Catherine de Medici from birth to death.

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book. The author wanted to humanize Catherine, and to show her as an able power-politics player in an age when it was played by the best. In a way, she succeeded ably. Catherine is shown not to have been "the Maggot from Italy's Tomb" (as Jules Michelet termed her), but rather a mother seeking to help and protect her children in a very dangerous world. But, she only had so much to work with.

In fact, the author shows that Catherine was unable to give affection to her children, something they had to go to their father for, and while she might have been forced into the role of schemer, she embraced the role without scruple. Was she "La Nouvelle Jezebel?" Reading this book, I think so.

Yes, this is a very interesting book, one that goes a long way towards bringing Catherine to life, and making her understandable to the modern reader. I enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it!

This book will disappoint romantics and misogynists alike. For the rest of us, this well-written biography offers a look at Catherine de Medici as she might be judged in the 21st century rather than the 17th century.

Catherine acquires human and political dimensions from the author's decision to view her from a much wider variety of sources than many previous histories. Such details pay off: while many biographies of Catherine describe her as spying on her husband as he made love to Diane de Poitiers, not many can document the filthy, stinking poultices prescribed by her physicians to improve her chances of getting pregnant--which would have discouraged any man. This puts a whole new twist on the equally widely-reported command by Diane to Henry that he should sleep more with his wife.

When I know why a thing happened, my interpretation of motive changes.

By steering clear of hostile judgments from her contemporaries and competitors, the author flirts with being a Catherine apologist at times, but the consistent presentation of Catherine as a woman with political problems related to her French marriage
helped make the events leading to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre more understandable, and Catherine's responsibility for them much more fairly, yet still critically, assessed.

After I had read the book, I was struck by some curious parallels between Catherine de Medici and Elizabeth of England. Catherine followed the more traditional methods of the day to build, retain, and keep her power; Elizabeth, choosing to flout tradition, was forced into some of the same machinations Catherine used, even though she never married.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in getting behind and beyond Catherine's standard presentation as "Madame le Serpent."

this book brings a powerful and enigmatic woman back to life.
However, I have read 2 other Catherine de Medicis Biographies and this one doesn't bring anything new to what it is already known. It is somewhat superficial and shallow like another reader mentioned before. I recomend Professor Knecht's book better, since it gives an analysis of catherine's personality based on her letters and on XVI century mentality. However, I hope the 600 page book by Ivan Cloulas gets published in English sometime soon, since it is the best Catherine de Medicis bio up to date.