Overview

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 Bartholomew’s 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.

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9781800244764

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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 Catherine’s 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 * 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 *

PRAISE FOR MARY HOLLINGSWORTH: 'A head-scrambling epoch that Mary Hollingsworth, the author of books on the Medici and the Borgias, has done wonders to make comprehensible' The Times. 'Mary Hollingsworth is an entertaining guide... Brings to life not only the political dimension, but the fascinating material detail' BBC History Magazine. 'This forensic study of the Renaissance banking dynasty conjures up a world of art, literature, philosophy - and brutality' Telegraph. 'Full of treasures to be uncovered... A glittering, at times rather gory, world that is different and yet dreamily familiar to our own' BBC History Revealed. '[A] rich, full history of the politicking and personalities of the conclave' * New Statesman *

Author Information

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.

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