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Imagine being 25 years old and 5,000 miles from home when you get a call delivering the worst possible news – your parent has died. For Elizabeth Windsor, this call had a far greater impact. She was now taking on the greatest of responsibilities, shouldering the burden of the sovereign’s role.
This exceptionally brilliant book, deft of phrase and vividly realized, conveys the vitality of the past as few books do. It’s an enviable tour de force and marks the arrival of a wonderful new voice in narrative history." — Suzannah Lipscomb, author of A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England and host of the hit podcast Not Just the Tudors In a way, Catherine de’ Medici’s story begins not at her birth but rather on those waters, under those Mediterranean skies, the sails of her ship whipping against a late summer breeze. This was the moment of her crossing from Italy to France, from maiden to bride, from the Medici family to a royal French one, from girlhood to young womanhood. Already, she had assumed a new importance as those who observed the pendulum of Renaissance politics now took note of her, measuring her looks, her bearing, her potential to give birth; from this moment forward, the traces of Catherine will appear more prominently in the archives. At fourteen, she was barely in her teens, ignorant of what the coming years would bring. And yet, to the sixteenth-century world, this part of her story was nothing new. A wealthy girl leaves her homeland to marry a prince, neither for love nor looks but for the dowry and value she brings? This had been the path charted for Catherine’s mother, for countless girls of Catherine’s time and place. A path that, to a girl like Catherine, must have seemed as ancient and predictable as the rising sun. Tall and square-shouldered, John Stewart, Duke of Albany, was a Scotsman who was also a Frenchman. Born in France to a French duchess and a royal Scottish prince, Albany was a grandson of King James II of Scotland. He was also a cousin to Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne and her older sister Anne. Albany had been raised with them, spending a happy childhood hunting and hawking in the wooded hills of Auvergne. Although his birth placed him in line to the Scottish throne, Albany spent much of his adulthood in the service of King Francis, to whom he demonstrated an irreproachable fidelity. If Albany’s title belonged to Scotland, his heart belonged to France. French was his first language, and for his entire life, he always preferred to sign his name the French way: Jehan Stuart instead of John Stewart.The Queen’s reign has not been without tragedy, most recently the death of her husband of 73 years Prince Philip in 2021. However, one of the most tragic losses the Queen, the royal family and the country had to endure was the death of Princess Diana in 1997. Elisabeth de Valois’ story begins in France, where she is born the beloved daughter of a king. It ends tragically in Spain as a cherished queen consort and mother – one who must make the ultimate sacrifice for her kingdom. Baptized Caterina Maria Romula in the Medici parish church of San Lorenzo, she was the great-granddaughter of Il Magnifico. Every important event in her childhood turned on this single fact. From her earliest years, Caterina was subject to the whims of princes and the ebb and flow of Italian and European politics. Even her conception had been political, her flesh and blood plotted by ambitious relatives who anticipated her birth with both delight and greed. Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe, a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt, as concepts of nationhood began to emerge and ideas of sovereignty inched closer to absolutism. They would learn that to rule as a queen was to wage a constant war against the deeply entrenched misogyny of their time. Sixteenth-century Europe: Renaissance masters paint the ceilings of Florentine churches, kings battle for control of the Continent, and the Reformation forever changes the religious organisation of society. Amidst it all, three young women come of age and into power in an era of empires and revolutions.
Read More The Princess of Wales is looking for a new Private Secretary after the frontrunner for the job pulls out By the early fifteenth century, the Medici served as the titular heads of the Florentine republic. By midcentury, they were underwriting kings and princes across Europe. Lorenzo I de’ Medici, Il Magnifico, oversaw Florence’s golden age. “Peace reigned in Florence,” waxed the historian Guicciardini, a fervent Medici supporter. “The people revelled daily in spectacles, festivals, and new marvels.” No one went hungry; art and learning flourished. “The city breathed health … elite and cultivated minds lived in prosperity.”3 Mary, Queen of Scots’ story begins in Scotland and ends in England. A queen turned traitor, from the confines of her English prison she longs for the idyll of her childhood in France. Elisabeth de Valois' story begins in France, where she is born the beloved daughter of a king. It ends tragically in Spain as a cherished queen consort and mother – one who must make the ultimate sacrifice for her kingdom. Mary, Queen of Scots' story begins in Scotland and ends in England. A queen turned traitor, from the confines of her English prison she longs for the idyll of her childhood in France.February 6, 1952 was the day that changed Queen Elizabeth’s life forever: her father, King George VI, suddenly died at their Norfolk home of Sandringham. With his passing came a transfer of power to his daughter. She was only 25 years old. Elena Woodacre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners Queen Elizabeth II, Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the royal family wave after the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Credit: PA
A brutal and inventive fantasy that is as addictive as it is horrifying.' Marissa Meyer, NYT bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles on Three Dark Crowns The world has lost the Queen - Britain’s longest-serving monarch - who led a truly extraordinary life, from a young unassuming princess to a symbol of endurance and loyalty. Sir Edward Young attends the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II at St George's Chapel Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images From the time the infant Caterina disappeared into the Strozzi villa in Rome until her appearance at the gates of the Le Murate convent in 1527 when she was eight, there is hardly a trace of her in the archives. Clarice Strozzi was a kind and attentive foster mother, but she left no letter describing her young niece, no portrait of the girl, or at least none survives. We are left to imagine and wonder. These were formative years for Caterina, who, growing up among her cousins, developed lifelong attachments to her Strozzi kin. It was in Clarice’s home that the tiny orphan enjoyed something of a family, and there that she learned what it meant to be a Medici. Young Queens is informative and meticulously well researched. I found it a little hard to follow the chronology at times as three life stories are being told simultaneously, including a timeline may have been useful. I would also have loved to see family trees and images of the portraits mentioned. However the book is very well written and the author really brings the three women to life. I especially enjoyed the story of Catherine graffitiing her unfinished portrait! It was also interesting to see a different side to Philip II as I’d only really known of him as the (mostly absent) husband of Mary I.The Queen and Prince Philip with their children, left to right, baby Prince Edward, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Charles. Credit: PA Albany had married his cousin, Anne de La Tour d’Auvergne, and taken the younger Madeleine in as a ward after the death of her parents. Close to both cousins, Albany had loved Anne deeply, an unusual attachment in this age of arranged marriages. They had no surviving children, all three of their babies having died in early childhood. When Anne died in 1524, five years after Madeleine, she bequeathed her landholdings to her niece Caterina, making her the sole heir of the Auvergne fortune.14 Albany hadn’t met Caterina before he appeared at the Strozzi villa in 1525. Did he detect any traces of his beloved wife or her sister in the young girl’s face?*
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