Catherine de' Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen

(Hardback)

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The life and times of Catherine de' Medici, by renowned scholar of the Italian Renaissance Mary Hollingsworth. Catherine de' Medici lived her life at the storm centre of European and French politics in an age of religious conflict. Born to Lorenzo II, the Medici ruler of Florence, and married to a French prince by papal connivance at the age of fourteen, Catherine was successively queen consort of France and mother to three French kings (Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III) who reigned in an era of almost continuous civil and religious strife. A spendthrift promoter of the arts, Catherine patronised poets, painters and sculptors, lavished ruinous sums on the building and embellishment of monuments and palaces, and masterminded spectacular entertainments and tournaments that prefigure the splendour and ritual of the court of Versailles. Posterity has anathematised her as the epitome of the scheming royal matriarch, her reputation tainted forever by her role in instigating the St Bartholomews Day massacre of Protestants. Legend has it that Catherine maintained eighty ladies-in-waiting at court, whom she used as bait to seduce courtiers for political ends; while her admiration for the reputed seer Nostradamus fuelled claims of an interest in the occult and the dark arts. The Serpent Queen is Mary Hollingsworth's well-balanced account of the life of Catherine de' Medici perhaps the most powerful woman in sixteenth-century Europe, and certainly the most extraordinary and influential.

Reviews

At last an authoritative English biography of this most powerful and fascinating of queens of France. Mary Hollingsworth uses her unique knowledge of the Medici and Italian sources to illuminate this queen torn between rival dynasties and religions, tolerance and fanaticism, ballets and massacres. To be devoured. * Philip Mansel, author of King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV *
Thoroughly engaging, a tour de force of scholarship that tells the story of Catherine de' Medici as it should be told. * Josephine Wilkinson, author of Louis XIV *
Mary Hollingsworth exhibits her trademark blend of meticulous scholarship and narrative verve this time incorporating some fascinating new material to reinforce her skilful re-reading of Catherine's character. Highly recommended, and highly readable. * Paul Strathern, author of The Medici *
A nuanced and sympathetic portrait that does much to unpick the black legend woven by Catherines detractors and reveals how she used all her tenacity, resourcefulness and guile to try and bring peace to a nation torn apart by sectarian hatred and vicious rivalries. * Anne Somerset, author of The Affair of the Poisons *
Thoroughly researched ... Hollingsworth [makes] a compelling case that Catherine was not just a leading light of the French Renaissance but an unfairly maligned figure, whose foreignness and femininity made her an easy scapegoat -- Katherine Harvey * Sunday Times *
Hollingsworth's knowledge of Catherine's life, as well as her mastery of Italian history, enables her to portray Catherine as the true European Renaissance queen she was ... This expert biography reveals Catherine as a woman of virtue, loyalty and, ultimately, power ... Hollingsworth's eloquent prose and fine research sheds light on a Renaissance queen who truly deserves to be remembered as such. -- Estelle Peranque * BBC History Magazine *
This book is a treat for fans of well-told history * Washington Post *
Praise for The Medici: This forensic study of the Renaissance banking dynasty conjures up a world of art, literature, philosophy and brutality - Telegraph, Book of the Year Likely to become the standard work of reference on the members of the family that dominated Florence - TLS A lucid and beautifully illustrated family history - The Times, Book of the Week A vital acquisition for anyone who studies the Renaissance and seeks the true role of the Medici in the history of Florence * Kirkus *

Author Bio

Mary Hollingsworth is a scholar of the Italian Renaissance and the author of The Medici, which was widely praised on its publication by Head of Zeus in 2017, Princes of the Renaissance, published in 2021 and Conclave 1559: The Story of a Papal Election (2021). Her other books include The Cardinal's Hat, The Borgias: History's Most Notorious Dynasty and Patronage in Renaissance Italy: From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century.