I also like it that Catherine of Medici was a brilliant and educated woman who held her own in a world where the balance was definitely in favor of being a man, and women were greatly at a disadvantage. She makes choices I would never make, and yet the author convinced me that given her circumstances, she does the best she can with the resources at hand. People who are royal have different ideas than the rest of us, and are entitled in ways we can never imagine. What I like the most about this book is that I feel like I was there with her.
Oh aargh! Catherine is on a steep learning curve, mastering French culture, diplomacy, the art of war, court politics and fighting the threat of repudiation the only way she can – with utter humility. She marries Henri, who is also 14, scared, and not in love with her, and they are expected to consummate their marriage under the eye of the King. Lack of thinness is the least of her problems. She also notes that all the French women are painfully thin, thin to the point of gauntness, and are whispering behind their hands at her more normal size. One of the paragraphs made me laugh out loud – as Catherine enters France, she is aware that her very fashionable Italian clothing is very unfashionable in France. She studies French as quickly as possible, but then again – this is a very bright young woman, who has been trained – by life and by education – to survive. Thirteen years old, and off to live in a strange country as the bride of a man she has never met. By the time Pope Clement betrothes Catherine to Henri of France, we are totally hooked. Kalogridis is no Phillipa Gregory, but she has done her research, and draws us in. Surviving an attack on her family compound, held prisoner – alone – in nunneries until she is 12 years old – this girl’s life makes mine look peaceable! Catherine de Medici learns early in life that she has no control over the forces of history and society swirling around her, over who she will love and who she will marry, even over whether she lives or dies. She starves, she suffers cold and fleas and is tossed by fate like a little cork on the water – all before she is 12 years old. The plague strikes, and people are dying, but she survives. All around her people are starving, and she hasn’t a clue. I don’t know much about the late 1500’s in Europe, do you? At first, reading about this rich, spoiled little girl growing up in Florence, I felt a little impatient with her. I found just the book, The Devil’s Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis. So many things going on in my life that are out of my control, I just don’t want to deal with it any more, and I just want to run away and hide.
“I need an ESCAPE!” I shouted to AdventureMan, at the end of my rope.
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