Title: The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
Author: C.W. Gortner
Published: May 25th 2010
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages:397
ISBN: 0345501861
Synopsis:
So reveals Catherine de Medici in this brilliantly imagined novel about one of history’s most powerful and controversial women. To some she was the ruthless queen who led France into an era of savage violence. To others she was the passionate savior of the French monarchy. Acclaimed author C. W. Gortner brings Catherine to life in her own voice, allowing us to enter into the intimate world of a woman whose determination to protect her family’s throne and realm plunged her into a lethal struggle for power.
The last legitimate descendant of the illustrious Medici line, Catherine suffers the expulsion of her family from her native Florence and narrowly escapes death at the hands of an enraged mob. While still a teenager, she is betrothed to Henri, son of François I of France, and sent from Italy to an unfamiliar realm where she is overshadowed and humiliated by her husband’s lifelong mistress. Ever resilient, Catherine strives to create a role for herself through her patronage of the famous clairvoyant Nostradamus and her own innate gift as a seer. But in her fortieth year, Catherine is widowed, left alone with six young children as regent of a kingdom torn apart by religious discord and the ambitions of a treacherous nobility.
Relying on her tenacity, wit, and uncanny gift for compromise, Catherine seizes power, intent on securing the throne for her sons. She allies herself with the enigmatic Protestant leader Coligny, with whom she shares an intimate secret, and implacably carves a path toward peace, unaware that her own dark fate looms before her—a fate that, if she is to save France, will demand the sacrifice of her ideals, her reputation, and the passion of her embattled heart.
From the fairy-tale châteaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen.
My Review:
''I have been called murderess and opportunist, savior and victim. And along the way, become far more than was ever expected of me, even if loneliness was always present, like a faithful hound at my heels. The truth is, not one of us is innocent. We all have sins to confess."
A wonderful combination of historical fact and fiction. The story is a well written and refreshing look into the life of the woman named the Serpent Queen, the woman who poisoned her enemies, associated with witchcraft, and used her royal children as pawns on her chessboard, setting her country on a path of bloody religious war. C.W. Gortner, however, has never been one to accept historical stereotypes, and this novel proves to be no exception to his quest to reveal the human side of history’s most misunderstood queen
Catherine was the last legitimate heir of the Medicis, she was raised to be a political pawn. Forced by politics to marry for Italy and not for love, Catherine de Medici is sent abroad to marry Henri, the second son of King Francis I of France. She had never presumed that she might one day become the queen; Henri as a younger brother was never destined to rule, but tragedy strikes and Henri found himself stepping into the shoes of a King, therefore making Catherine his Queen. Queen of France was her new title, but Catherine found out she would never be Queen of Henri’s heart. His mistress Diane de Poitiers already occupied that position, she controls most everything in Henri’s life including how much time he spends with his wife and even took over the care and control of Catherine’s children. Catherine learns quickly that the French court is full of danger, her husband’s affections given to another, the judgment of the French people harsh.
Following her husband's death, Catherine was thrust into a fight to secure her sons' inheritance that would consume the remaining thirty years of her life. When she became Queen Mother, France was in a religious turmoil that threw the country into war - "Protestant problem" in which many people were starving and many were killed. Catherine makes critical errors in judgment, underestimating rivals and the resentments of her own children.
What I loved about this novel was how real Catherine de Medici is portrayed, as neither victim nor heroine but as a woman with a capacity for compassion and understanding, a woman who would do anything for France and keeping her sons on the throne. For all she did, she had a good reason and was the unfortunate victim of circumstance.
Summary:
