‘Catherine de’ Medici’ by Mary Hollingsworth review

Catherine de’ Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen by Mary Hollingsworth ★★★ “Flames leapt up onto the roofs.” Catherine de’ Medici is considered by many modern historians as the ultimate ‘histrionic woman’ of the Renaissance. But is she the only reason why civil society in France fell apart after 1560? Mary Hollingsworth tells a comprehensive story of the Queen Mother of France and all of her ‘moral wickedness’, while placing her in the broader political context of her times.

The narrative begins with the instability of the Catholic confessional regime in western Europe, King Henry II’s ‘revised’ Salic Law, the idea put forward by his allies that Protestantism thrived on trouble, and their deliberate plan to provoke civil unrest as a way to eliminate the Protestant-leaning members of the royal council.

Hollingsworth specifically does not want to undermine the influence of the ‘spiritual powers’ during this time (as Gérard Puiggari suggests in Paris and the Louis Quartet), but rather to show that the toxic conditions prevailing in France between 1559 and 1562 also led to the internal conflict of the 16th century, and ultimately to the enduring clash between national identity and religious affiliation that we have inherited along with our liberal historical approaches to the past.

In Catherine de’ Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen (2014), by Mary Hollingsworth, one of the most influential yet controversial figures in the history of France receives an excellent and richly textured biography. This review assesses Hollingsworth’s portrait of Catherine in the context of placing her within the broader European political and religious turmoil of the day.

Comprehensive Historical Context

Hollingsworth is at her strongest in placing Catherine’s actions in the context of 16th-century Europe, whose most powerful states were divided into two rival religious blocks – Catholic and Protestant. She begins with a dramatic portrayal of Catherine in her later years, negotiating with a Protestant king of Navarre, in a way that captures the pivotal role she played in both the religious and political conflicts of the period. From there, Hollingsworth proceeds to outline Catherine’s long career in French politics, taking us first from her peripheral position as queen consort to that of a domineering dowager queen and regent.

Rich Detail and Insightful Analysis

It is in the detail and its perception that the book excels. Catherine’s early years, coloured by her Medici family past and the anarchy of the Italian Wars, are sketched powerfully as they hardened her already ‘wary and determined streak’. These experiences gave her the tools to deal (and to game) the violent religious politics in France that threatened her family’s survival.

Portrayal of a Queen

Instead of just a ruler, Catherine is seen as a mother and a widow, seeking to shield her children and strengthen royal authority. In his version, Hollingsworth rebuts the ‘Black Legend’ surrounding Catherine by showing that her decisions were often sensible reactions to the demands of governing a divided kingdom. The biography, even as it is favourable towards Catherine, is not apologetic. It shows a woman who authorised the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, but also who was in a difficult position to begin with.

Critical Reception and Legacy

He has also focused attention on the prejudice against Catherine because of anti-Italian feelings abroad and at home, and because of her gender – as the foreign queen in a xenophobic, male-dominated, patriarchal society. Hollingsworth’s Catherine certainly emerges as a complex woman, hated during her lifetime, and often – though not entirely – wrongly maligned by history, and deserving of a reconsideration of her legacy, which the book’s meticulous research finally provides. Hollingsworth concludes that, far from being a rebel herself, Catherine was a realist who helped promote the stable and continued monarchy of France.

Conclusion

Mary Hollingsworth’s Catherine de’ Medici is a vivid, finely textured biography of a queen who was much more than the sum of her times. By weaving vivid historical detail into subtle analysis, Hollingsworth not only recounts the life of a queen, but situates her in the multi-polar historical currents: the Republic of Letters; the anxieties of an empire encompassing the Middle East and Italy; the emergent market royalty of late Renaissance Europe. Catherine de’ Medici is a brilliant addition to the historiography of the French Renaissance. It is must-reading for all serious students of the French 16th century.