Catherine de Medici

Few women in history have inspired such contradictory reactions as Catherine de Medici. To her admirers, she was a brilliant stateswoman and a steadying force in an era of great religious conflict. To her enemies, she was something far darker: a scheming foreigner, an Italian serpent coiled at the heart of the French court. What almost everyone agreed on was that she was extraordinary.

Born into the most powerful banking dynasty in Europe, Catherine was orphaned within weeks, stripped of her title as a child, and held hostage by the very city that had once adored her. By the time she arrived in France as a teenage bride, she had already survived more than most people endure in a lifetime. Yet her greatest trials still lay ahead. When her husband's sudden death thrust her into the role of queen mother, Catherine found herself the real power behind a succession of young, fragile kings. It was up to her to navigate religious civil war, assassination plots, and the slow unraveling of the dynasty she had devoted her life to preserving. This is the full story of one of the most remarkable women of the sixteenth century, Catherine de Medici.