The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici

I don't listen to audio books. This one I couldn't get in book form, but I was dying to read it, so I figured "OK, I will play it on my commute to work" I wanted to keep driving just to listen to more of the story! The Dark Queen is all about Catherine De Medici. It begins the tale when she is just a child. Instead of seeing Catherine (or Catarina as she is called early on) as an evil woman who is obsessed with witchcraft and murder, we get to know her as a young girl, then a woman with a passionate nature and a gift for ruling. We get to follow Catherine through her childhood, her marriage and her children. Most interesting of all is her relationship with her alchemist and their dark secrets together. The story is engaging, and the voice of the woman reading is enthralling! I found myself transported from the monotony of my daily commute into a world of intrigue and palace drama and corruption. Though some of it is more fantastical and obviously fictionalized, the basis in reality is strong enough to keep the story grounded. This is not a historical romance. Instead, it is a portrait of a woman referred to as "the Devil's Queen" who managed to rule a country and slaughter thousands of innocents in one bloody night. We get to know Catherine like an intimate friend, which is a rare picture no one has really seen. I loved this audio book, and it has inspired me to buy more. I would listen to this book again and again. Don't bother buying the book format, instead, give the audio book a try. Listen to it at home before bedtime, or listen to it while you drive to work. This book made my daily commute something I looked forward to every day!

As a child Catherine de Medici was brought up thinking she was going to rule Florence, but when rebels take the city and take her prisoner her future is in doubt. But she gets away and Pope Clement VII, her uncle arranges for her to marry Prince Henri, who after his older brother dies, becomes heir to the French Throne. As queen Catherine seeks answers to her dreams, in fact the book opens with her consulting Nostradamas. She doesn't like what the great man has predicted for her sons, so she turns to the black arts to change it. She is determined to she her sons on the throne one day and before Henri dies she promises him that she will see his rightful heir on the throne. She becomes regent and she believes she is fulfilling her promise when she her children become kings, but they are bad ones. Her first son is a weak king and her darling second son betrays her and France and in the end she helps get Henri's illegitimate son on the throne, who becomes the first of the Bourbon kings. In the end Catherine, the Devil's Queen, who was responsible for so much bloodshed, seems to make up for a selfish life and the religious war she could have and should have avoided. That she was betrayed is no excuse. She betrayed her throne, her dead husband (who betrayed her often enough) and herself. I was captured by this story. I believed in the characters, I bought right into the setting. I was carried along with the plot. If it all wasn't true, it should have been.

Catherine de Medici niece of the Pope, born to the infamous Medici family, rulers of Florence, destined to rule Florence herself one day, has her future cut short when rebels take over the city and she is imprisoned. However, she escapes and her uncle the Pope arranges for her to marry Prince Henri, son of the King of France. He eventually becomes king and Catherine queen. With her seer Cosimo Ruggieri, Catherine delves into the black arts to have children and when a bad end is predicted for them, she goes further into the dark side to guarantee that they live, however it costs the life of a deaf prostitute and Catherine is going to pay a heavy price later on when her children don't measure up and finally betray her at the cost of thousands of lives. Normally not a fan of historical fiction I found that I really enjoyed this book. I knew from school and, of course from Shakespeare, that there was beaucoup de intrigue at court and there is that here in spades. The Catherine de Medici here is not as evil as I'd been led to believe. She is trusting when she shouldn't be, she is often misguided, but she is determined to see that Herni's rightful heir sits on the throne and in the end, she accomplishes this, even though that heir is not one of her own children, who both had the chance and did abysmal jobs.

Jeanne Kalogridis is a bestselling author of historical fiction, science fiction and horror. Her published works include numerous novels and movie novelizations, a prequel trilogy to Bram Stoker's DRACULA, and many of the Star Trek stories and movies that people have come to know and love. In her newest historical fiction release, THE DEVIL'S QUEEN, Kalogridis once again proves herself to be an accomplished writer who knows how to keep readers enthralled. THE DEVIL'S QUEEN is the story of Catherine de Medici: daughter to the ruler of the Florentine Republic, heiress at birth to the Medici fortune, Queen of France for over a decade, and mother to the last three Valois kings. An intellectual and a schemer, Catherine was naturally suited to rule and became a highly adept governor. Yet her tendency was always to protect her family and their power, and Catherine was not afraid to act against any potential threats. Queen Catherine has been named one of the most brutal rulers in French history and an instigator of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, in which tens of thousands were slaughtered in a single day. Catherine's life was not an easy one. It was said that her stars were marred before she was born, as she would spend many long years tormented. After being imprisoned for three years by rebel insurgents, Catherine was wed at the tender age of 14 to Henry, Duke of Orleans, later King Henry II. Theirs was an arranged marriage, designed to unify Italy and France. Henry greatly resented the marriage and had already given his heart to the stunning and devious Diane de Poitiers. Even while Catherine was overlooked and spurned by Henry, her love for him was unwavering and blinding. She lived in torment from his betrayals, yet would welcome any advances he gave. With the death of Henry's brother, Francois, Catherine found her marriage at risk of annulment, unable to produce the heirs who would secure her status. She began to despair and was determined to stop at nothing to get Henry's love and produce his heirs. So it was that she enlisted the help of a strange astrologer, Cosimo Ruggieri, and made a terrible decision that would later haunt her: to change their fates using the occult. The two of them committed unspeakable acts, "all for love." Catherine then bore Henry many children, but his illicit relationships didn't stop. Their destinies had been altered, but only for a time, and fate proved inescapable in the end. Henry was murdered, suffering terribly, and tragedy would strike again and again. The Valois reign was a troubled time. It was the age of the French Wars of Religion, when French Protestants (Huguenots) were gaining greater power and prestige but the atmosphere was still intolerant of them, and violently so. The dominant Roman Catholics condemned them, and war threatened to engulf France. Catherine was no stranger to war, having survived capture and imprisonment by rebel insurgents as a child, but the conflict brewing across Fran

History can be dry and uninspiring, but Kalogridis infuses Catherine de Medici's life from 1527-1572 with the unique characteristics of a Medici and the unfolding events of history, the melding of politics and superstition. Although it is impossible to include all the nuances of these turbulent years, the author focuses on Catherine's life from her imprisonment in Florence to her regency in France and the gruesome St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572. At eight, Catherine witnesses her dreams demolished, her future in Florence traded in an expert move by her uncle, Pope Clement VII, that delivers her to the French court of Francis I and marriage to Henri, the Duke d' Orleans. Having cut her teeth on political intrigue during her years of incarceration, Catherine is an astute observer of the changing tide of history and the machinations of the powerful. Yielding her future to Clement's designs is the first of many painful betrayals Catherine will face. Catherine is not of a religious temperament, attracted rather to the study of astrology and the casting of spells. Through a long association with Cosimo Ruggieri, Catherine calls upon the dark arts to control the bloody fate that fills her dreams, hoping to snare the forces of evil in her favor. Arriving at the French court, Catherine is welcomed by her father-in-law, Francis I, and eventually the affections of her own husband, Henri (Henry II). A childless marriage does little to calm her fears, but Kalogridis interprets Catherine as a resourceful character, a Medici whose life is in mortal danger in her own country, the tenuous nature of her claim as Henri's barren wife and her increasing dependence on magic to quell her nightmares. Determined, Catherine seduces Henri from the arms of his mistress, bearing him sons after ten years. Her real nightmare begins with the reigns of her sons, Francis II, Charles IX, deeply flawed men. And as life delivers each new blow, she counters, taking whatever action will secure her safety, even the death of innocents. Religious wars plague France, Catholics vs. Huguenots, violence escalating throughout the country, Catherine at the center, cajoling, plotting, humiliating herself when necessary, calling upon the dark arts. The hubris of those who would war in the name of God is matched only by the misdirected hubris of a regent queen who would harness evil in the pursuit of protection of the throne. The author's beleaguered protagonist is riddled with nightmares and false interpretations of what she has dreamed, a prisoner of the terrors she seeks to avert. Facing overwhelming odds, Catherine's dependence on the stars cannot save her from the most painful betrayal yet to be endured. The Devil's Queen is a rich tapestry, pitting the passions of zealots against an astute regent queen beset by betrayals and disappointments, the ultimate clash in Paris and the charnel of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572,Catherine only victim, never ruler of her fate. Lu