Orphaned at just 21 days old, Catherine de Medici’s early life was every bit the storybook damsel tale. As the pawn of a wealthy Italian merchant family, she set off from Italy to marry her young husband, the future King Henry II of France. This strictly political match was intended to tie the Papacy in Rome and the wealth of the Medici family to the noble blood of France. But, thanks to a series of unfortunate events, Catherine suddenly found herself penniless and friendless in a foreign court. The origin story of France’s most cunning Renaissance Queen has it all: tragic childhoods, obnoxious French names, outrageous pageantry, uncomfortable mistress drama and a duck measuring contest of epic proportions.
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