“Let us drink to men with a taste for women. Men we can enjoy and use to our own ends.”
History was unkind to Marguerite de Valois, daughter of France’s queen Catherine de Medicis. It condemned her along with her violent family for the Saint Bartholomew Massacre. That event, which took place five days after Marguerite’s wedding to King Henri of Navarre, in August 1572, precipitated France’s Wars of Religion during which Catholics slaughtered thousands of Huguenots—Calvinist Protestants.
Marguerite de Valois is one of history’s shadowy figures who deserves to be brought into the light and given a voice of her own. In Sophie Perinot’s new historical novel, we discover a youthful woman with a determination as strong as her fierce mother’s, and a capability to matter in a way women often couldn’t during the 1500s.
Starting from her late childhood, we are introduced to Marguerite as she watches her mother, Catherine de Medicis, and her older brother, Charles, rule Catholic France with a steely hand. Marguerite dreams of the day she will be able to join the Court and fulfill her destiny to marry well, and when she is twelve, she is finally given the opportunity. Quickly making lifelong friends with two young women, and savoring in the adoration of both her brother the king, and her brother, the Duc de Anjou, Margot is the center of attention for everyone except her mother. Her eye falls on the young Duc de Lorraine and the two scheme ways to be together until everything comes crashing down and Margot finds herself back on the verges of her family, forced to do their bidding and marry where they say.
Not only is this 16th-century princess brought to life for us, but Perinot depicts the tragedy of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and provides an interesting story of how it came to pass. I was brought to tears by the poignancy of Margot’s romantic dreams being sacrificed for state reasons, and I found her subsequent pragmatic behavior understandable if less than inspiring--and yet Perinot is showing how Margot can remain true to her heart despite the realities of her surroundings, which is inspiring in its own right.
Perinot has done her research, and it shows in her grasp of characters and events. Marguerite is no shy, retiring flower, despite her lack of acknowledgment by other authors; she continually is shown to know her mind and manipulate events as best she can in a time when most women weren’t thought capable of such. Among the flamboyant figures of the day, Margot was able to carry on a love affair and save her husband’s life, despite her mother’s machinations. Not that everything she did was perfect or even heroic; Perinot captures the desperation of a young girl’s determination during a tumultuous period of her life and also in France’s history.
I was very impressed with Médicis Daughter. It has all the elements of fantastic historical fiction—court intrigue, family politics, love, and betrayals. I’ve read a bit about Catherine de Medicis, but never about Marguerite and her story fascinated me. Despite being brought up to always follow orders and being used as a pawn, she still had a conscious which drove her to do what she thought best. While I felt sorry for her throughout much of the novel, I ultimately admired her for her strength of character.
