Queen Margot or Marguerite de Valois

by Alexander Dumas

I came across this book the other day and couldn’t be more excited!  I read Evergreen Gallant by Jean Plaidy earlier this year and enjoyed learning about late 16th century France.  This is the time of Catherine de Medici, Henri of Navarre and of course, his eccentric queen, Margot (daughter of Catherine de Medici).  This is a classic, but doesn’t read like one — the wording seems more modern.  Perhaps it’s the translation.

Here is the book description from the back cover (this is not a review):

“The last years of King Charles IX’s reign in France were dominated by religious wars between Catholics and Protestants.  Queen Margot begins in 1572 with the marriage of Marguerite de Valois to Henry ode Navarre.  Marguerite is King Charles’s sister and the daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis, all firm Catholics.  Henri de Navarre is a Protestant who later will become the beloved King Henri IV.

Several important political events have led up to this marriage including the mysterious murder of Henri de Navarre’s mother, cleverly plotted by Catherine de Medicis.  The wedding brings noblemen from all over the world to Paris resulting in the notorious Saint Bartholomew Massacre, where thousands of Protestants are killed.

In this inventive and compelling novel, Dumas brings an extraordinary period of history vividly to life with much excitement and romance.  The lively prose and wonderfully constructed plot tell of court intrigues and forbidden love, of beautiful queens, duchesses, and noblemen, suspense, conspiracies, betrayals, assassinations, susperstitions, poisonings, and sumptuous feasts.

With well-known historical figures as main characters in a dangerous and breathtaking game for power, Queen Margot tells of conspiracies, clandestine trysts, and daring escapes.  There is the infamous Catherine de Medicis, deliciously evil, constantly plotting the poisoning;  Le Mole, a dashing and irresistible young Protestant who becomes Marguerite’s lover;  the noble Coconnos who provides a great source of comic relief;  and at the center of all this intrigue are the good-hearted Marguerite and Henri who are perfect political allies with complicated and fascinating love lives.”

Evergreen Gallant

by Jean Plaidy

read my review

book description:

“From the time he was fifteen, women found Henry of Navarre irresistible. But he was never faithful for long. marked for death by a Catholic count who saw in him the rallying point of Huguenot fortunes, Henry took his pleasures where he found them.

A father at fifteen, he was sent to become a soldier under the great Coligny but still found time for love affairs. Yet when his mother died mysteriously, he began to change, and the man who rode to Paris to play the part of bridegroom in the “Blood-Red Wedding” was alert for treachery. Facing death nonchalantly, accepting the Mass in exchange for his life, amusing himself with the mistress who he knew had been sent to spy on him, he deluded even Catherine de’ Medici.

Life with the tempestuous Margot was like a succession of farcical incidents from Decameron. Reputed to have more mistresses than any King of France, he passed lightly from one to another. There were the spies of Catherine de’ Medici, promiscuous Charlotte de Sauves, and gentle Dayelle; Fosseuse, who came into conflict with Margot; Corisande, whom he loved as a wife; Gabrielle, who had been sold to a King and others by her rapacious mother; Henriette, with the acid tongue; these and others occupied him until the day of his death when he was pursuing the youthful Charlotte de Montmorency.

In addition to his mistresses, there were two wives to plague him: Flamboyant Margot, whose adventures rivaled his own, and Marie de’Medici, who came to torment his later years.

This was the man who, affectionately known as the Evergreen Gallant because all through his life he was in love with some woman, brought prosperity back to a war-scarred country, declared Paris to be worthy a Mass, and was recognized as the greatest King the French had ever known.”