I had expected this story to end at her marriage to Henri, Duc d’ Orleans, because I have read a very long, detailed novel of Diane de Poitiers (Courtesan by Diane Haeger) and didn’t think there was any way to include all of the history into the last 60 pages of Duchessina. The friendships and betrayals she encounters in her early life serve to make the woman the world has known as ‘Madame Serpent’. While one is miserable, she finds solace and friendship in another, only to be shuffled back to the first one when her name causes consternation among the populace. Catherine soon learns that she must find means of charming people, as she does not possess the physical attributes that define a beautiful woman.ĭuring the sack of Rome and subsequent uprisings against the family of Medici, Catherine is ensconced in a series of convents for her safety. Catherine, orphaned at just a month of age, was raised in the Palazzo Medici with two distant cousins: the kind Ippolito and his polar opposite, Alessandro. Duchessina: A Novel of Catherine de’ Mediciĭuchessina is a young adult novel based on the early life of Catherine de’ Medici, niece of two Popes and later Queen of France.
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