Catherine de' Medicihas been depicted as The Black Queen in a number of different period dramas, with each take tending to be more extreme in portraying her life and choices. Starz’sThe Serpent Queen, based on the bookCatherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of FrancebyLeonie Frieda, looks at the oft-misrepresented Queen of France from a fresh perspective. Was Catherine de’ Medici really a serpent who would betray her closest friends the moment they stopped serving an obsequious purpose or was she merely a powerless orphan who had to make the best out of her situation in order to survive? The show, with its light and humorous manner,forces people to view the dark, mysterious, seldom-praised queen from a different angle. As the second season of the acclaimed show airs andCatherine is once again going to vast lengthsto maintain her position in court, we wonder about the real history behind this powerful queen.
The Serpent Queen
Series based on Leonie Frieda’s book “Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France.”
Catherine’s Tragic Upbringing Is Accurate in ‘The Serpent Queen’
The Serpent Queenis essentially a dramatization of the much-happening and enigmatic life of Catherine (Liv Hill). Some aspects of the show, however, are not at all exaggerated and adhere as closely to the unanimously agreed-upon facts as possible. The birth and upbringing of the Queen, for example, was indeed very traumatic,with both her parents dying and leaving her orphaned within a month of her birth, asdetailed by Smithsonian Magazine. Born to a French noblewoman and a rich aristocratic family, Catherine, the moment she was orphaned, became susceptible to life-threatening situations. She spent the early years of her childhood with various relatives, possibly never finding the kind of love and emotional attachment a child needs growing up. In 1527, the Medici orphan was taken hostage and forced into a convent when rebels rose against her famed family.
In October 1529, when Florence was besieged by the Medici loyalists, the rebels used the 11-year-old Medici child as their best bait. According to Frieda’s book and Smithsonian Magazine, the rebels considered leaving the child in a military brothel, where she would likely be turned into a prostitute, or killing her in front of the entire city, with not a single piece of cloth on her body. The show takes a rather light spin on this detail. Had the birth and upbringing of Catherine drawn toofaithfully from the original source, the enigma surrounding the mysterious queen would perhaps have been lost. Hence,the show finds the perfect balance between the ruthless events leading up to her freedom, thanks to Pope Clement (Walter Charles Dance), and her unique, cunning, and essentially light narrative.
‘The Serpent’ Queen Portrays Catherine’s Loveless Marriage
It isn’t surprising that Catherine didn’t have a passionate and heart-stopping love story, as marriage was more of a political treaty for that era than a statement of one’s undying love for another. Catherine’s marriage to Henry, Duke of Orleans (Alex Heath), however, was alife-long trauma, and the show depicts it masterfully. After Pope Clement rescued the Medici child from the cornered rebels, he began making plans for her marriage. The Pope desired a match that would grant the Medici family protection from the rebels, and sohe eventually settled on the second son of French king Francis: Henry. The ceremony was arranged without further ado, and the young couple wed in October 1533. Unfortunately for Catherine, her uncle died soon after the marriage. Having evaded the matter of her dowry successfully until his last breath, the Medici child, now a Queen (if only in name), was vulnerable once again, perhaps more so than before. Thanks to her quick wits, however, she manages to prolong what can only be seen as a probation period until she can bless the French court with a child.
The most heartbreaking thing about the political treaty was not that Catherine, already devoid of love, was seen as a means to an end. While undeniably dehumanizing, women, even of her station, were not unused to beingtreated as insignificant beings meant only for rearing children. As such, in the male-dominated court, Catherine enjoyed limited influence for the time being. Another saddening fact aboutCatherine’s marriage to Henry was that he not only had a mistress but was also very much in love with her. This, too, was not unheard of back in those days. Men, especially of the royal family, could take as many bedfellows as they liked. Catherine, however, was young and, having never had a home growing up, expected, not at all unreasonably, her husband to look at her with affection every now and then. Young Henry was too smitten with Diane (Ludivine Sagnier), for whom, at least in the show, he seems to harbor too much of a child-like devotion to pay attention to his bride. Catherine makes the best out of a traumatic situation and chooses to focus more on securing her position at the French court rather than on Henry’s fickle heart – a move that only suits her character in thisperiod dramaso well.
Catherine Consults Magicians When Conceiving an Heir
Like many historical women, Catherine’s existence revolved around her ability to conceive an heir. Unfortunately, witnessing a marriage consummation does not an heir make. Catherine struggled with bearing a child for years, which greatly reduced the strategic value of her union with the future king of France. Catherine, notorious for having an inkling for the Dark Arts, would go on toconsult several doctors, magicians, and divinersand also dabble in folk remedies to be able to conceive an heir.In January 1544, the Queen of France gave birth to her first child, finally securing her position in the French court. She would later go on to birth nine more children over the next 12 years. The first few episodes ofThe Serpent Queenrevolve around Catherine’s struggles with conception. So dire is her need to bear a child that she sleeps with the seductive stable boy despite her feelings for Henry.
How Did Catherine Come Into Power?
After Henry’s death during a friendly jousting competition, Catherine’s eldest son, Francis, was too sickly to comfortably claim the throne, and instead ceded his authority to his wife’s, Mary’s, uncles, the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise,as per Long Reads. Catherine kept up appearances of harmony between her and the Guises, even though they were considered a manipulative enemy of the royal court, just as she did with Diane. Speaking of Diane, as the Queen Mother, Catherine could now oust her from the court, not beholden to her deceased husband anymore. TheGuise’s influence over France created a “bloodless coup,“as the already rising civil and religious unrest reached new heights, coupled with their rivalry with the Bourbon family. We can already see threads of this inThe Serpent QueenSeason 2, as Catherine leaves the court and the Guises cunningly scheme and causes even more mishaps in the country. It is when Francis passes away, and Catherine’s second-born rises to the throne that she can claim her power. She secures the regency position and continues to rule through her children, attending royal meetings and carrying immense influence in the French court.
The Serpent Queenalso portrays Mary as a threat to Catherine’s claim to regency and the throne, particularly after Francis' death. Mary, Queen of Scots, was indeed Catherine’s daughter-in-law, and the conflict between them has been highlighted in a number of shows, includingReign. InThe Serpent Queen, Mary (Antonia Sophia E. Clarke) tells Rahima (Sennia Nanua)herside of the story, hoping the servant would team up with her instead of Catherine. In the end, when Rahima chooses Catherine over her, Mary is tricked into leaving France and returning to Scotland. WhileRahima is an entirely fictional character, her role in the series is two-fold: she represents the underbelly of the French court, while also dramatizing the conflict between Mary and Catherine. While it has been thought thatCatherine resented Mary’s status as Queenof Scotland,there isn’t evidence of a large scheme that ousted Mary from France. Instead, Mary knew that Catherine didn’t want her around andchose to return to Scotlandas a widower in hopes of a better life.
The Serpent Queenis different from other period dramas depicting Catherine in that it neither portrays her as a dark, malignant, and rancorous woman who would do anything in her power, even if that involved hurting her loved ones, to get what she wanted, nor as a powerless victim of her tragic circumstances.The show chooses to emphasize more of the manytales surrounding the historical figureand to present them with a new, humorous angle, rather than adopting any of the two possible and very cliché extremes.
The Serpent Queenis available to stream on Starz in the U.S.
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