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One of the greatest rivalries of the 16th century was that of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Catherine de Medici, the queen mother and regent of France. As women who were given immense power, wealth and control in a patriarchal society, it is undoubtedly easy to see why these two influential women were fierce rivals who would go to extreme measures to assert their dominance over the other—even, as we see in the prologue of this novel, if it meant using their subjects’ lives as a pawn in this game of politics.
Blood, Fire and Gold: The story of Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici was written by Dr Estelle Paranque, one of the world's leading experts on Queen Elizabeth I and her connections to the French court. This novel has been highly praised and was named "Best History Books of 2022" in History Today, "10 Best History Books of 2022" Smithsonian Magazine, Amazon's Editor Pick for "Best History Books of the Month" (December), Best Books Summer 2022 (The Times), Book of The Week (18 June 2022, The Times).
And it's easy to see why.
Dr Estelle Paranque's elegant writing style ensured the reader was always amused, always learning something new and that both of these strong women were represented well with no bias on the author's side. What I loved about reading this novel was that when I came across a subject or expression that I was not familiar with, Dr Estelle Paranque made sure to include a simple explanation that didn't interrupt the overall flow of the book and never once was I confused, something that even the best authors of history can suffer from.
One of the things that I found most interesting about these two women is their similarities with one another. Both women had been born into powerful and influential families and both had not had easy starts in lives, enabling them to learn how to survive from an early age. Perhaps this is the reason why the women were so invested in their rivalry; they had both suffered unnecessarily and horribly in life and they needed to be strong and willing to do anything to keep their power out of the hands of the ambitious men of their courts.
I had always heard that Catherine de Medici was so jealous of her husband’s lover, Diane de Pöitiers, that she drilled holes in the ceiling to watch them have sex—but I never knew that Diane and Catherine were allies in the sense that they worked together to get Catherine pregnant to ensure they could both remain in power in their own individual ways.
Also, I never knew just how much Catherine and Elizabeth shared in terms of political agreements, especially in terms of the threat of Mary, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth’s initial desire to ensure peace with Scotland is obviously thrown out of the water when Mary’s bloodline, making her a direct grandchild of King Henry VII like Elizabeth, meant that she could possibly attempt to depose Elizabeth and make herself Queen of both England and Scotland. Whilst Catherine de Medici was heavily concerned when Mary began to propose marriage to the Prince of Spain, throwing Catherine’s desire to marry her offspring into different powerful families in Europe into the fire. Whilst these two women could have arguably gone to war with one another, they chose to ally together in order to bring down arguably the most inferior of the three Queens (as Catherine essentially still was one); Mary Stuart, a Queen whose very existence was detested by both her cousin and her former mother-in-law.
Splitting the reigns of both these Queens into smaller sections through the numerous chapters and then splitting each chapter into even smaller sections to flip between Elizabeth and Catherine was a brilliant writing decision on Estelle's part. This prevents the book from focusing too much on one Queen and allows the reader to see what troubles or accomplishments made by both Queens during the time period being discussed.
Another thing that truly amazed me whilst reading this book was the Queen’s ability to lie and deceive one another regarding political matters, including Elizabeth’s pressure by Catherine de Medici to marry one of her three sons. It is incredible to see the lengths, effort, and time that Catherine de Medici went to in order to get Queen Elizabeth to consider marrying one of her three surviving sons. I had always thought about Elizabeth never truly considered marriage, but after reading that it was possible that a marriage between her and Francis, the Duke of Anjou, might have taken place had it not been for the concern regarding religion by Elizabeth’s council—or more likely jealousy or fear of losing their favor in the Queen’s eyes.
I absolutely could not put this book down and as someone who is always wanting to learn more about these two Queens, I thought it was the perfect book for me and it has allowed me to find areas of their lives that I want to research more. This is the first book that I have read by Dr Estelle Paranque but it most certainly will not be the last as I intend to read her upcoming book Thorns, Lust and Glory: The betrayal of Anne Boleyn which comes out on 2nd May so head over to Amazon or Waterstones to preorder!
And if you haven't already read this book, I suggest you do as you will not regret it!
Until next time!
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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