Catherine de Medici: A Biography

by Leonie Frieda

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The bestselling revisionist biography of one of the great women of the 16th century

Orphaned in infancy, Catherine de Medici was the sole legitimate heiress to the Medici family fortune. Married at fourteen to the future Henri II of France, she was constantly humiliated by his influential mistress Diane de Poitiers. When her husband died as a result of a duelling accident in Paris, Catherine was made queen regent during the short reign of her eldest son (married to Mary Queen of Scots and like many of her children he died young). When her second son became king she was the power behind the throne.

She nursed dynastic ambitions, but was continually drawn into political and religious intrigues between Catholics and Protestants that plagued France for much of the later part of her life. It had always been said that she was implicated in the notorious Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, together with the king and her third son who succeeded to the throne in 1574, but was murdered. Her political influence waned, but she survived long enough to ensure the succession of her son-in-law who had married her daughter Margaret.

  • ISBN10 0753820390
  • ISBN13 9780753820391
  • Publish Date 27 January 2005 (first published 10 July 2003)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Orion Publishing Co
  • Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
  • Pages 544
  • Language English