It's All About The Children

Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France

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While not the end, I can see it from here! This is my last Book Review as a part of “Why Living Today Rocks”. It coincides with our last book of 2023 and ready to acquire and read our 2024 books! What a great book to finish with. For those paying attention to the countdown I took last week off so next Monday or so will be my last post.

While the sample size is small, it seems people who are the product of excessive intermarriage tend to be short. Catherine was 5’ tall at best.

I used to have the historic order of books available for my History Book Club on this Substack. I removed the index recently from this Substack as it will not be a relevant link and I may even close this Substack altogether. Here are the books we plan to read next year. Twelve more willing tweaks to what I believe rather than just repeating nonsense. Hooray. Here is a link for next year for those interested. I will establish the link in my subsequent Bookclub-only Substack. What a fantastic smattering of books for the year ahead! When I look back on the books I’ve read in this club over the years I am consistently amazed by how much I enjoyed the books I did not expect and would have never chosen on my own.

The Book of the Month

My guess is if you asked 100 American adults what they think about Catherine de Medici, the most popular answer would be I never heard of her. The only exception might be people who watched “The Serpent Queen”. I suppose it is a tribute to my fellow book club members’ willingness to select this book as one of our reads this year. I was unfamiliar with the author so I did look her up before reading. Leonie Frieda is the daughter of Swedish aristocrats, a fashion model, a jet-setter, and settled into an impressive career as a history author! I was immediately intrigued as a different sort of voice can lead to a different sort of story. The book did not disappoint.

Who Is Catherine de Medici?

The first thing I learned reading this book is due to a petty obsession of mine. It seemed silly to read a long book about a pivotal woman who shaped history in the 1500s without at least knowing how to pronounce her name. I found out the correct pronunciation is day-mah-dee-chee. I’ve been mispronouncing it all my life and I think so did my history teachers.

Another Nice Gathering

I try hard to make time for my book club. December 12th was our last meeting of the year and I was glad to be there. There were 15 people in attendance. When there are a significant number of people who attend but don’t manage to finish the book, it is a bad omen. Of the 15 in attendance, 4 did not even finish the book and hence did not vote. The remaining 11 rated the book 7.1 out of 10. It has been strange as the ratings of the books seem to be trending downward. I believe in most cases because we filter through 30+ possible nominators and then further filter through voting we typically read great books so our scoring is consistently high. This month’s rating I think was due to something else though.

My Take

This is the story of one of the many legs of the Medici family. Catherine has been written about extensively. It seems to me world history, at least for the walking apes has gone through some important transitions:

• Life was a slog and it required clans and small groups of us to work together. We were mostly mystified by the world.

• Larger groups developed more sophisticated views of the world and their understanding, combined with revealed truths organized us to a better understanding of our place in the world. Revealed truth was revered and valued and came to dominate large societies. When these revealed truths came into conflict the misery between the contentious was profound (think Crusades).

• Powerful men and women saw that usurping these truths, crowning themselves as divine allowed great concentration of power and conquering misery (think Kings and Queens as divine).

• The rise of economics and the importance of access to raw materials and finished goods created powerful family Empires like the Medicis. In the same way that religious though was uneasy to pass off power to divine Monarchs, both the religions and Monarchs came to depend on the family dynasties for goods, services and even loans/largesse.

• Eventually through inter-marriage and magical thinking, families like the Medici’s could rise to the highest levels of society. I liken this stage to the reference to old money versus new money. I believe we are now at the age where the money is the ultimate scorecard, for better or for worse.

In the 1500s, literacy rates were about 11% and would rise closer to 60% by 1750. Like almost everything, all progress is relatively recent. Our book focused on the 1500s. It was an Age where a bit of intermarriage and sophistry was all that was necessary to turn an Italian into the Queen of France. This is the story of Catherine de Medici. Three of her sons would become the Kings of France. Our book focused on the imprint Catherine had at this pivotal point in history. In some ways the book had similarities to Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kristin Downey which we read previously. It is fascinating to me that it seems likely that history trashes women in powerful positions in the past and viewed through a different lens has a significant impact on our opinions.

This book seemed well-researched and heavily referenced the well-thought of books about Catherine written previously. Nevertheless it provided a different interpretation and avoids the well-trodden “serpent Queen”. I learned a lot in reading this book and for that reason, I rated it an 8.

My Fellow Members

Many of the other readers (who finished the book) were decidedly mixed on the book. This is a disturbing period in France (and in most of Europe). I believe this is simply because society is pivoting toward financial considerations governing life. It is still necessary for the Isabellas and Catherines (and Holy Roman Emperors) to capitalize on religious rubrics to sustain ruthless power. The book illuminates the horrific St. Bartholomew massacre in France. It is the age of religious war between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots in France). It is hard to imagine more opportunistic and ruthless treatment of our neighbors. It is not surprising to me that the other Monotheistic religions have managed to focus on their small differences rather than their common ground. It seems to be a feature of our upright walking ape. I can only hope that perhaps with the guidance of AI and better tuning of conclusions, we can transcend and become better.

What’s Next

I’ve reached the end of this Substack journey. This was time well spent for me and I am thankful to each of you who took time to read. I think I have the writing bug and will redirect my efforts in a new creative way. Thanks for reading.

The Poll & Music