THE ITALIAN WOMAN – Jean Plaidy
A Catherine de Medici Novel
A Touchstone Book
(Reissued in Trade Paperback and e-Book)
ISBN: 978-1-4516-8652-4
January 2013
Historical Fiction

France – circa 1547

Married to Henry, the Duke of Orleans, heir to the French throne, Catherine de Medici has learned over the years to be observant and unemotional. The unemotional part is made more difficult by the behavior of her husband who flaunts his love for Diane de Poitiers, his mistress. Nevertheless, Catherine obediently performs her duties as the Duke's wife, and later as his queen, producing ten children over the years. As she does, though, she carefully observes and retains all she sees, including knowing her husband's friends, his enemies, and most of all, his relatives. Her eldest son, Francis, has married the young Queen of Scots, thanks to encouragement of the king's mistress and the powerful Guise family. But it is her third eldest son, Henry, whom Catherine grooms to be king some day. She is cold and, at times, even cruel to her other children.

Jeanne of Navarre, a small kingdom attached both physically and politically to France, had her heart set on marrying Henry, Catherine's husband. When that didn't happen, she sought a man that she could love, and eventually was wed to the handsome, but not very adept at politics Antoine de Bourbon. It was a happy marriage for the most part, although it was clear to one and all that Jeanne was a brilliant woman. They produced one son, Henry, and a daughter. What Jeanne wouldn't know for many years was how Catherine kept track of her and her family; for Catherine had ambitions for her children, and she wasn't about to let Jeanne get too powerful.

Catherine's patience pays off when her eldest, Francis, dies shortly after becoming king. Catherine, who easily can play both sides of any fight, seems ambivalent to religion, at one point trending towards the Huguenot cause, then suddenly vowing her loyalty to Rome. Meanwhile Jeanne has become one of the nominal leaders of the Huguenots, setting herself at odds with France and, ultimately, Catherine.

Jean Plaidy, who also wrote books under the names Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr, was the author who pulled me hook, line, and sinker into the historical fiction genre in the sixties! Her Queen of England, Tudor, and Stuart novels, as well as the Catherine de Medici trilogy (MADAME SERPENT, THE ITALIAN WOMAN, and QUEEN JEZEBEL) are beautifully written with in depth characterizations of well-known people, and they are all meticulously researched. One cannot go wrong reading any of Jean Plaidy's books.

Jani Brooks