Catherine de' Medici : the life and times of the serpent queen
Hollingsworth, Mary2024
Books, Manuscripts
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.
Main title:
Catherine de' Medici : the life and times of the serpent queen / Mary Hollingsworth.
Author:
Hollingsworth, Mary, author
Imprint:
London : Head of Zeus, 2024.
Collation:
xxxii, 448 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Notes:
"An Apollo book."Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781800244764 (hbk)
Dewey class:
944.028092B-CAT
LC class:
DC119.8
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
3825299