The very name Catherine de Medici, even now almost four hundred years after her death, is synonymous with cruelty, ruthlessness and treachery. Feared and hated in her own time, she has come down to us as one of history’s dark figures. In telling the story of this brilliant, tortured woman, Marguerite Vance, whose biographies of Elizabeth of England, Lady Jane Grey, and Carlota and Maximilian of Mexico, among others, have brought these historical figures to vivid life for young readers recreates the society and the period in which Catherine lived. Here is an honest portrait of the woman whose degree of responsibility for the horrors of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre is still debated by scholars.

A professional in the field of historical books, Marguerite Vance devotes her attention to the complicated era of Catherine de Medici, a time when the royal houses of Europe bargained and battled for power largely through the contracted marriages between its members. Friendly first toward the Huguenots and then, in league with Philip of Spain, toward the Catholics, Catherine's deepest concern lay in her own power. From her marriage to Henry II in 1533 to her effect on both Elizabeth and Mary, through four reigns to Henry III, the wheelings and dealings of the royal houses of Europe, the issues which split 16th century France into warring camps are offered in straightforward factual terms, with emphasis on individual royal alliances.