The Rival Queens

by Nancy Goldstone

  Here “There is another prediction”: Ibid., 254–55.

  Here According to Nostradamus’s son: For more on his son’s recollections see Hogue, Nostradamus, 282–93.

  Here “Your Majesty should know”: Ibid., 200.

  Here “promises a fine future”: Ibid., 293.

  Here “Tomorrow there leaves secretly”: Ibid., 292.

  Here “The first objection you have urged”: Sichel, The Later Years of Catherine de’ Medici, 8.

  Here “I should be very glad”: Ibid., 8.

  Here “Ere I forget”: Lemesurier, Nostradamus, Bibliomancer, 16.

  Here “thought by the King”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 1:313.

  Here “the King undertakes”: Ibid., 311.

  Here “the Queen Mother… greatly desires”: Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 230.

  Here “the most beautiful words in the world”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 1:315.

  Here even though Margot was already engaged: This alliance had been publicly confirmed four years earlier, while Antoine was still alive, at a dinner in August of 1561. See Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 162.

  Here “here their Majesties”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 35.

  Here “shepherdesses dressed in cloth of gold”: Ibid.

  Here “a large troop of musicians”: Ibid.

  Here “when, lo! Fortune no longer favoring”: Ibid., 36.

  Here “So your husband suspects me?”: Roeder, Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution, 364.

  Here “What makes you suppose, Madame”: Ibid.

  Here “My dear daughter, you have become”: Ibid.

  Here “extremely cold about religion”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 1:323.

  Here “I perceived that they kept him”: Roeder, Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution, 365.

  Here “At St. Jean de Luz the tears”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 1:324.

  Here “If the agreement which the Duke”: Ibid.

  Here to borrow even more from Italian bankers and raise taxes: The prince of Condé publicly championed a lowering of taxes and referred to the greed of the Italian banking community. See Knecht, Catherine de’ Medici, 115. Catherine also defaulted on five hundred thousand écus due England under the terms of an earlier treaty at this time. See Héritier, Catherine de’ Medici, 256.

  Here “I know that many in France”: Bourdeïlle and Saint-Beuve, Illustrious Dames at the Court of the Valois Kings, 72.

  Chapter 6. The Flying Squadron

  Here “Experience shows that there have been”: Machiavelli, The Prince, 80.

  Here “Never did a woman who loved”: Frieda, Catherine de Medici, 83.

  Here “Usually her Court was filled”: Bourdeïlle and Saint-Beuve, Illustrious Dames at the Court of the Valois Kings, 79–80.

  Here “Although I knew it was bad”: Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 373.

  Here “She is beautiful, discreet, and graceful”: Ibid.

  Here seated beside him at an official banquet: At the end of August 1561, when Antoine de Bourbon was still alive, the engagement between Marguerite and Henry, first entered into while Henri II was still alive, was tacitly reconfirmed in this way. See Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 162.

  Here “very much surprised”: Ibid., 242.

  Here “she was all the angrier”: Ibid.

  Here all sixteen thousand of them: See Parker, The Army of Flanders, 28.

  Here “Her majesty knows that no one is better”: Roeder, Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution, 393.

  Here confessed himself a “tyrant”: Carroll, Martyrs and Murderers, 188.

  Here “by love or by force”: Ibid.

  Here “to keep up her Interest” Castelnau, Memoirs, 309.

  Here “the reason why the King’s subjects”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 1:380.

  Here “I freely confess never to have seen”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 184.

  Here “promise a long time ago”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 1:360.

  Here “brought about by the greed”: Ibid., 361.

  Here they were all “vermin!”: Ibid., 375.

  Here “Young as I am, Madame”: Héritier, Catherine de’ Medici, 268.

  Here “Henry’s stereotypical lifestyle”: Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, 331.

  Here “really wanting what she said she didn’t want”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 1:376.

  Here “The stag is in the net”: Ibid., 387.

  Here “For Christ and country!”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 206.

  Here “I leave to your own imagination”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 38.

  Here “It is… impossible for me”: Ibid., 39.

  Here “Dear sister, the nearness of blood”: Ibid., 40.

  Here “You know the high situation in which”: Ibid., 40–41.

  Here “was entirely a new kind of language”: Ibid., 42.

  Here “I shall sacrifice all the pleasures”: Ibid., 43.

  Here “Be the first with her”: Ibid., 41.

  Here “Your brother has been relating”: Ibid., 44.

  Here “I felt a satisfaction and a joy”: Ibid.

  Chapter 7. Fall from Grace

  Here “A prince is… esteemed when”: Machiavelli, The Prince, 95.

  Here “She did me the honor”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 44.

  Here “I spoke of my brother’s affairs”: Ibid.

  Here “Upon our arrival”: Ibid., 46.

  Here “She asked him why he made that observation”: Ibid., 46–47.

  Here “He began by observing”: Ibid., 47.

  Here “I did not omit to say everything”: Ibid., 48.

  Here “ordered me never to speak”: Ibid.

  Here “Sir, after doing what you have done”: Macdowall, Henry of Guise, 25.

  Here “My brother’s words had made”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 48.

  Here “She flew into a passion”: Ibid., 48–49.

  Here “He came and sat at the foot”: Ibid., 49.

  Here “came daily to see me”: Ibid., 50–51.

  Here “There is nothing talked of publicly”: Macdowall, Henry of Guise, 28.

  Here “The ladies at court are real stirrers”: Carroll, Martyrs and Murderers, 189.

  Here “did not dare to reproach him”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 51.

  Here “of use to have children”: Mariéjol, A Daughter of the Medicis, 15.

  Here “I tell you clearly what I think”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:11–12.

  Here “The King of Spain was using”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 51–52.

  Here “To engage in battle with these people”: Wood, The King’s Army, 125.

  Here “eight or ten good leagues”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 227.

  Here “We defeat them again and again”: Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 339.

  Here “I no longer have need”: Carroll, Martyrs and Murderers, 189.

  Here “Not a single person”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 52.

  Here “forward this match”: Ibid., 51.

  Here “Every day some new matter”: Ibid.

  Here “I resolved to write to my sister”: Ibid., 52.

  Here “She readily saw through it”: Ibid.

  Here marry a “negress”: Carroll, Martyrs and Murderers, 190.

  Chapter 8. The Marriage Trap

  Here “One ought never to allow a disorder”: Machiavelli, The Prince, 16.

  Here “will not show himself”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:57.

  Here “To be plain”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 245. The exact quote is: “To be playne, the only thinge that I feare in this matche is the consyderatyon of the delycasye of her majestyes eye and of the harde favor of the gentleman besides his dysfygurying with the smaule pockes: which yf she shoolde see with her eye, I mysdowbt mych yt woolde withdrawe her leekying to proceade.”

  Here “the King, my son”: R
oelker, Queen of Navarre, 346.

  Here “Better to die by a bold stroke”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 237.

  Here “His chief attendant, the Count de Retz”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:61.

  Here “My mother loves him so much”: Frieda, Catherine de Medici, 226.

  Here “is to be found”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 238.

  Here call the admiral mon père: Roeder, Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution, 429.

  Here “We are too old”: Ibid., 431.

  Here “I cannot imagine why”: Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 355.

  Here “is a resolution I have taken”: Ibid., 358.

  Here “Upon the success of the Navarre marriage”: Shimizu, Conflict of Loyalties, 160.

  Here “A marriage was projected”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 53–54.

  Here “he would be damned unless”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:56.

  Here “It is perfectly well understood”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 240.

  Here “the Admiral told him very politely”: Ibid., 239.

  Here “The war would maintain his authority”: Shimizu, Conflict of Loyalties, 174.

  Here “In Paris there are a growing number”: Carroll, Martyrs and Murderers, 200.

  Here “if the king ordered”: Ibid., 201.

  Here “Madame has paid me great honor”: Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 368.

  Here “I am being obliged to negotiate”: Ibid., 372.

  Here “My son, since writing this letter”: Ibid., 374.

  Here “the Queen of Navarre wishes”: Ibid., 363.

  Here “Two days ago Navarra… Madame has pretended to be indisposed”: Ibid., 377–78.

  Here “Every enticement will be offered”: Ibid., 381.

  Here “The Queen of Navarre lies”: Ibid., 388.

  Here “Whilst the Queen of Navarre”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 54–55.

  Here “You must decide whether to obey me”: Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 79–80.

  Here “After all the pains”: Sichel, The Later Years of Catherine de’ Medici, 139.

  Here “His Majesty refuses to adventure”: Ibid., 148.

  Chapter 9. Queen Margot

  Here “It cannot be called a virtue”: Machiavelli, The Prince, 37.

  Here “The Comte de Retz and I”: Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 355.

  Here “had the graces of a courtier”: Ibid., 402.

  Here “crude beyond the pale”: Ibid., 385.

  Here “Henry needed much affection”: Ibid., 407.

  Here “be able to get the king”: Sutherland, The Massacre of St Bartholomew and the European Conflict, 275.

  Here “to make her the most”: Mariéjol, A Daughter of the Medicis, 206.

  Here “So great was the magnificence”: Hotman, A true and plaine report of the furious outrages of Fraunce, 36.

  Here “a garden, filled with greens”: Mariéjol, A Daughter of the Medicis, 35.

  Here “So great is the familiarity”: Hotman, A true and plaine report of the furious outrages of Fraunce, 37.

  Here “If he had simply walked”: Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 88.

  Here “The shot came from the window”: Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, 259.

  Here “ ’Sdeath! Shall I never have”: White, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 391.

  Here “His face turned pale”: Ibid., 391. The Venetian ambassador’s name is Giovanni Michiel, and his exact words were: “Si facesse pallido e restasse smarrito oltro modo e senza dir parola si retirasse.”

  Here “Everyone supposed it had been done”: Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 88.

  Here “You bear the wound”: White, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 395.

  Here “went to the King in his closet”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 58–59.

  Here “the Admiral must be ever”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 59.

  Here “concluded with observing”: Ibid., 59–60; the italics are mine.

  Here “As for the harquebus shot”: Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 92.

  Here “she had vowed to avenge”: Ibid., 59.

  Here “which rendered him deserving”: Ibid., 58.

  Here “The King had so great a regard”: Ibid., 57.

  Here “Kill them! Kill them all!”: Héritier, Catherine de Medici, 323.

  Here “I was perfectly ignorant”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 62.

  Here “The Huguenots were suspicious of me”: Ibid.

  Here “They called in the duke of Guise”: Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 94.

  Here “I placed myself on a coffer”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 62.

  Here “more dead than alive”: Ibid., 63.

  Here “As soon as I reached my own closet”: Ibid.

  Here “For my part I was unable”: Ibid.

  Here “as soon as day broke”: Ibid., 64.

  Here “Are you not the Admiral?” White, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 418.

  Here “Well done, my men”: Ibid., 419.

  Here “Kill, kill!”: Ibid., 427.

  Here “cruelly butchering those they encountered”: Goulart, Mémoires de l’estat de France sous Charles IX, 295.

  Here “Carts filled with the dead bodies”: Ibid.

  Here “But then… the king gave the order”: Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 95.

  Here “As soon as I beheld it was broad day”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 64–66.

  Here “God knows if I will ever see you”: Pitts, Henri IV of France, 63.

  Here “in birth and rank”: Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 90.

  Here The queen mother made a point of rising: See Knecht, Catherine de’ Medici, 163, and Van Dyke, Catherine de Médici, 2:119.

  Here “As I write, they are killing them all”: Roeder, Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution, 463.

  Here “She has grown ten years younger!”: Sichel, Catherine de’ Medici and the French Reformation, 6.

  Here “Five or six days afterwards”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 66.

  Here “ ‘Madame, since you have put the question’ ”: Ibid.

  Chapter 10. Queen of Paris

  Here “Whoever thinks that in high personages”: Machiavelli, The Prince, 34.

  Here “On All Hallows’ Eve”: Williams, Queen Margot, 113.

  Here “many a time I have heard”: Mariéjol, A Daughter of the Medicis, 48.

  Here the Muses or the Nymphs: Viennot, Marguerite de Valois, 78.

  Here “unique pearl and everlasting flower”: Ibid., 80. The exact quote is: “Perle unique du monde et sa fleur immortelle.”

  Here “The king spends much”: Roelker, Queen of Navarre, 375.

  Here There seems to have been: As recounted in Petitot, Collection Complète des Mémoires relatifs a L’Histoire de France 45:82.

  Here “I salute you as the mother”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:135.

  Here “For my part, the most becoming”: Bourdeïlle and Saint-Beuve, Illustrious Dames at the Court of the Valois Kings, 159.

  Here “She seemed to them so beautiful”: Ibid., 154.

  Here “a second Minerva, goddess of eloquence”: Ibid., 164.

  Here “that divine woman”: Freer, Henry III, 1:236.

  Here “For some months before he quitted”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 67.

  Here “Go! Go! You will not stay long”: Sichel, The Later Years of Catherine de’ Medici, 215.

  Here “The Huguenots, on the death of the Admiral”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 67.

  Here “M. de Miossans, a Catholic gentleman”: Ibid., 68.

  Here “I went immediately to the King”: Ibid.

  Here “I begged they might be excused”: Ibid., 68–69.

  Here “All this while my brother Alençon”: Ibid., 69.

  Here “Madame, you are
the cause of all!”: Freer, Henry III, King of France and Poland, 1:244. The exact phrase is “Madame, vous êtes cause de tout!”

  Here “The excitement was very great”: Mariéjol, A Daughter of the Medicis, 59.

  Here “We set off”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 70.

  Here “daily growing worse”: Ibid., 69.

  Here “They could at least have waited”: Roeder, Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution, 511.

  Here “I was suffered to pass”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 71.

  Here “God! May I die”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:159–60.

  Here “My husband, having no counselor”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 70.

  Here In fact, the image: Petitot, Collection Complète des Mémoires, 45:84.

  Here “to them both, a very humble”: Mariéjol, A Daughter of the Medicis, 62.

  Here “With God’s help I accomplished”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 70.

  Here “You see, my lords”: Mariéjol, A Daughter of the Medicis, 62.

  Here “May God and the Blessed Virgin”: Petitot, Collection Complète des Mémoires, 45:84. In French: “Dieu ait merci de mo name, et la benoiste Vierge! Recommandez-moi bien aux bonnes graces de la reine de Navarre et des dames!”

  Here But the memoirs of the duke of Nevers: Les Memoires de Monsieur Le Duc de Nevers, 1:75.

  Here “begged that I should take”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:165.

  Here “my mother”: Ibid.

  Here “the only stay and support”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 71.

  Here “He begged me that I should send”: Van Dyke, Catherine de Médicis, 2:165.

  Here “You know how much I love you”: Ibid.

  Chapter 11. Of Mignons and Mistresses

  Here “[A prince] is rendered despicable by being thought changeable”: Machiavelli, The Prince, 79.

  Here “He has been imbued by him”: Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, 331.

  Here “Amidst the embraces and compliments”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 75.

  Here “I have forbidden any subject of my lord”: Freer, Henry III, King of France and Poland, 1:369.

  Here “Mademoiselle de Montigny”: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, 76–78.

  Here “Upon this occasion”: Ibid., 78.