Catherine de' Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen

The life and times of Catherine de’ Medici—the most powerful woman in sixteenth-century Europe—as seen through her often controversial role in religion and the arts.

During an age of heightened religious conflict, Catherine de' Medici lived her life at the center of sixteenth-century European and French politics. Daughter of Lorenzo II, the Medici ruler of Florence—and then wedded to a French prince by papal decree at the age of fourteen—Catherine first became queen consort of France and the...