Leonie FriedaCritiques

I have to say I found this quite boringly written. But I bet many people think history is dull and tedious,but history is full of interesting things. Its only for the author to get the reader interested in it.

This book failed to do that.

An immensely readable biography of a woman who has an apparently unshakeable bad reputation in French history. Catherine emerges from this biography as a tough, practical political animal with some huge blindspots regarding both her opponents and her own family.½

Henry VIII of England, Charles V of the Empire, Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottomans, and Francis I of France all were young men who came to their thrones at about the same time. Henry VIII and Francis I, in particular, had a lot in common; both had slightly controversial claims to the throne, both were fond of the ladies, and both sought military glory with indifferent success. Author Leonie Frieda describes Francis in her subtitle as “The Maker of Modern France”, but doesn’t present a lot of evidence for that characterization; he was a patron of the arts, persuading Da Vinci to spend his last years in France, but he also kept using a medieval style of warfare, resulting in a narrow victory at Marignano and a disastrous defeat at Pavia. He doesn’t seem to have been particularly interested in governing, preferring hunting, travel, and women; one courtier commented “Alexander the Great attended to women after attending to business; Francis I attends to business after attending to women”. Contemporaries speculated that this did him in, from syphilis; when he died at age 53 the embalmers described him as “rotten inside” but Frieda considers this unlikely.

Frieda has lively, conversational writing style and I found this an easy read. There are maps of France, the Empire, and Italy; genealogical charts for France and the Empire, and a list of principal characters; plates illustrating most of them; endnotes and a copious bibliography.½

...because it was boring, The author made her out to be nearly a saint & excusing her enabling behavior on her son Henri and her part in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre... "What had been intended as a relatively small-scale surgical operation designed to excise the canker in the heart of French politics...." She had the people she invited to her daughter's wedding murdered in cold blood & would have had Henry Navarre murdered as well.....

The author began almost at the beginning of her lineage & that of her husband Henry II.... the details presented were painstaking as well as painfully minute and headache inducing

393 pages of sheer biased drivel & an utter waste of time

A fascinating look at the life of one of France's most infamous queens, Catherine de Medici. Catherine has long been the subject of much debate: was she involved in witchcraft, poison, murder, etc. Leonie Frieda attempts to bring this queen from the shadows and into the light, laying to rest any of your preconceived notions about her. In this work, she separates fact from fiction. To read the life of Catherine is to read the history of France. In this regard, the book can become a bit dry, but the way Catherine wove herself tightly into the reigns of her two sons is nothing less than intriguing. Recommended reading.½

3.75 stars

In the 16th century, Catherine de Medici came to France from Italy to marry the future king of France, Henri II. She loved him, but had to share him with a mistress, the woman he loved, Diane de Poitiers. Over the years, Catherine and Henri had ten children and Catherine outlived all except two of them. Three of her sons became kings of France, and Catherine was always there to help them rule. There were a number of religious wars in France over the years she ruled.

I’ve only read a little bit of fiction about Catherine (this is nonfiction). It was good. Being nonfiction, though, there were dry parts to it, but there were plenty of interesting things going on, as well. It’s funny, from the fiction I read, I remember the rivalry between Catherine and Diane more than anything else, yet she is apparently best remembered for her part in a massacre pitting Protestants against Catholics (which I don’t recall from the fiction at all, though it must have been there!). I did feel particularly bad for her when Henri was alive and she had Diane de Poitiers to contend with, but she did have a ruthless side, particularly when it came to protecting the crown for her sons.

no mother in history has done more to prom ote her children at whatever cost to herself, themselves & their times'
By sally tarbox on 24 Nov. 2011
Format: Paperback
Brilliantly researched yet always readable biography, Frieda takes us from Catherine's inauspicious start as 'orphan of Florence' to a marriage where she always played second fiddle to her husband's mistress, Diane de Poitiers.
The story really takes off after Catherine becomes a widow comparatively early. With the heir still a child, Catherine assumes regency...and from then on her life seems to be composed largely of coping with the endless and complex discord of 16th century Europe. Wars between principalities; the lead up to (and horrible consequences of) the Wars of Religion; efforts to keep the papacy on side; dynastic marriages; political factions and towards the end her sons (an unpromising lot) plotting against each other. Frieda's skill here lies in keeping it all (relatively) comprehensible and readable.
I was left feeling that Catherine was a most pragmatic and unsentimental woman; notably when she sent her daughter Margot to her marital chamber as the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre was beginning ('My mother replied that, God willing, I would come to no harm, but in any case I must go for fear of wakening their suspicions') and yet in her impossible situation could she have done much better?
Very interesting read½

It's hard to like this woman. Admire, her, yes, fear her, definitely, but she is not necessarily in the likeable" category. The author does an incredible job, though, into historical research: Catherine's early life was full of pomp and glory, and when she was found marriageable to the Dauphin, later Henri II, she is very well portrayed as a scared, uncertain young woman. Her marital relations are not helped by the fact that she cannot conceive (shades of Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV), nor that Henri II still has active relations with his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. She is in the court of Francois I, and his various adventures, including turning two of his sons over as hostages to live as prisoners in several regions of Spain, are very well detailed.

Leonie Frieda does an excellent job of bringing the times and main influences in Catherine's life to the printed page. There are endnotes as well as asterisks that detail some immediate knowledge. Ms. Frieda discusses some of the rumors of the time (did Catherine really create a peephole in the floor of her bedroom to find out what her husband and his mistress were doing? Was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre really as bloody as thought, and how much did Catherine have to do with it?) and where their truths really lie. Catherine de Medici was a very, very powerful woman brought up to be her husband's Queen. When that plan falls, she creates a Plan B that includes a mistress, 10 pregnancies, and later her husband's gruesome death. Her ability to rule through her sons, since being able to rule in her own right was denied her, was remarkable for its time.

The conclusion of this book states that one cannot judge her by the morals and standards of the 21st century, and discusses her faults and her blinders. Which is all fair and good judgment; it is simply hard to fathom the mind-set that allows the planned assassination of one's religious rivals, now in modern Western civilization. But in wartime, which encompassed much of "her" reign, many niceties go out the window such as the respect for human life. And in so many ways, our culture of dangerous "war zones" in US cities is a bit of a reflection on the Renaissance; how she managed to live past her husband's death and arrange for the next kings of France is a tribute. Would I have liked her? Probably not. Would I have shared a glass of wine and some delicious dessert with her, to discuss art and spectacles and the needs of a ruler? You bet your sweet bippie I would.½

she certainly had bad luck with her husband and her sons but as a result prior to Elizabeth the First of England she was the most impressive woman ruler of the middle ages.

2.5/5
You know what? I was really looking forward to this book because a) I love Renaissance b) I enjoy reading book about powerful women in history, but unfortunately The Deadly Sisterhood failed to deliver coherent and strong stories despite the massive research the author so obviously undertook.

I've read a lot of biographies at some point in my life, and this one still comes to mind, because it absolutely blew me away.



Andre Maurois brought George Sand to life. She was a living, breathing woman to me, I fell in love with her and after that read everything I could find written by her. She was an astounding, powerful woman.

The Deadly Sisterhood reads like a dry recollection of many events with few interesting sparks in between. It's main failure is that it's disjointed - each woman's life is not a separate part of the book, - instead you just catch glimpses of them here and there among a huge mass of details, names and events dumped on us in between.

The second offense that made me struggle even more to engage in this book is that the recollection of events is not linear. The Deadly Sisterhood is separated into few time frames of Renaissance, that's true, but we are still jumping from past to present and back, and I think this could have been simply avoided by telling us about each woman separately. I think the effort to do so was there, but the author got buried under sheer amount of what happened, the interactions between the heroines of the book, their relatives and their husbands.

Regrettably I would not recommend this book, because I struggled to get through it. The only positive thing about my reading The Deadly Sisterhood was that it made me want to find out more about its formidable heroines.

A strong French ruler.

I have graded this book according to my enjoyment of it, but I do feel that under different circumstances I might have been giving it a higher rating. There were two problems; firstly my complete lack of knowledge of French history, which meant that all the names were new to me and I had nothing to relate the events to, other than English history of the time. Secondly, I was listening to the abridged audiobook which, I would assume, includes all the dry facts, without the background detail that makes history so fascinating. In addition, I notice other reviewers referring to the fabulous colour photographs and, of course, these would have been absent.

In spite of the issues with the abridged audiobook, I did come away with a distinct image of Catherine de Medici and that era of French History. It has also made me aware of the problems caused by disease, namely syphilis and tuberculosis, which killed and disabled several important members of the French ruling family. Catherine de Medici was a ruthless queen, who only attained power due to the death of her husband, Henry. She was determined to hand the reigns on to her sons, but they were too young and/or sickly to take full control and so she retained power, by default, for many years.

This was a quite sympathetic picture of a lady who has been dubbed ruthless by historians over the years. I'd now be interested to read a slightly harsher version of her life, or possibly an historical fiction version.

An unwieldy cast of characters drifts in and out of this book's chapters making it hard to keep track of them all, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the book once I adopted a more relaxed attitude. It's packed with 100 years of turbulent history told through up close and personal accounts of several prominent families, making the book as entertaining as a well written gossip magazine. I didn't know much about the Italian Renaissance before so the book was an eye opener for me. Italy at this time was a collection of independent kingdoms each with its own distinct culture and set of wealthy nobles who schemed among themselves for power.

Women are the focus of the book and though they didn't officially have a lot of political clout they managed to influence events anyway. One of the most dramatic examples came near the beginning of the book when Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forli, tricked her husband's assassins into allowing her to take refuge in a strategically placed fortress, giving her the means to run them off. When the mob threatened to kill her son if she didn't surrender Caterina stood on a high balcony and lifted her skirts to show them in the most graphic way that murdering her older children would be futile because she already had another on the way. The mob that hoped to overthrow her family fled. While all the women profiled had fascinating lives, that story stuck in my mind and every time Caterina came back into the narrative I sat up and paid special attention.

On the surface, The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women, Power, and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance, 1427-1527 has all the hallmarks of a stellar non-fiction novel – infamous subjects, fascinating time period, biographer with experience. Unfortunately, the execution of the book leaves much to be desired, and it is difficult to figure out where the fault lies. The women’s stories are fascinating, but it takes too long for Ms. Frieda to get to them. What’s worse, the promise of a biography about these eight women is not 100 percent correct, as most of the tales are spent weeding through the machinations of the men in their lives rather than specifically about the women. This is the biggest disappointment, as there are other biographies written about one or another of the women mentioned that do concentrate solely on the women and their actions. In these more engaging biographies, the men in their lives are relegated to supporting roles or the stepladders used by the women to reach their powerful goals.

The writing itself fails to grab a reader’s attention. Again, while politics during the Italian Renaissance are extremely convoluted and do require some element of explanation, too many words are devoted to these explanations and not enough to the women’s lives. The details are methodical and frankly quite boring, while the constant intermarriages between families and almost nonstop warring, switching of allegiance, and failed partnerships muddy further complicate them. Ms. Frieda is never fully able to clearly explain politics in Renaissance Italy, and as a result is forever referencing or clarifying certain situations. This creates an unsteady pace, one in which the narrative falters and stops every time Ms. Frieda must back up the action and explain a situation in greater detail. In other words, just when the stories get good, the reader is forced to plod through yet another mind-numbing explanation of various family politics, feuds, and/or power grabs.

The problem lies not in the fact that detailed explanations are required in order for a reader to understand the mindset and power struggles of these women. Rather, the fault lies in the scope of the book’s subject. Including the stories of all eight women requires even more details and descriptions than would be necessary if only one or two were discussed and seriously detracts from the amount of words devoted to the subjects themselves. Had Ms. Frieda only focused on one or two of the women, the entire narrative would have been vastly improved because the focus would not be so large. Simply put, Ms. Frieda was too ambitious in choosing to write about eight amazing women, and she does each of them a disservice because she does not spend enough time focused on any particular one.

In general, The Deadly Sisterhood fails to live up to its promise. It is not so much a story about these eight fascinating and powerful women of Italy but rather a story about Renaissance Italy in which these eight women have a minor part. To add insult to injury, Ms. Frieda’s research appears rather questionable, as she uses as legitimate sources legends and urban myths of the kind that people love to share but have little to no basis in fact. In actuality, some of the rumors and myths she touts as fact are negated as falsehoods in other, similar biographies. In the end, it feels that Ms. Frieda wrote The Deadly Sisterhood to confirm such rumors and to titillate rather than to break new ground in biographical research. As such, the entire novel is a severe disappointment. Readers would be better off checking out some of the many other biographies about the Medici, Orsini, d’Este, Sforza, and Borgia ladies.

Interesting and well re-searched book of strong and complex woman who would do anything for her sons to be kings of France.

Leonie Frieda has taken on the task of portraying women of power from the Italian Renaissance. It’s a huge job, and, while she has meticulously researched the project, it falls a bit short.

Renaissance Italy was very different from the Italy of today. It was a loose collection of states ruled by dukes and counts who formed and broke alliances as it best suited them. The immensely powerful Catholic Church was corrupt. Intrigue, greed and war were the order of the day. With the men frequently away on military missions, the ruling of the states fell to their wives. Sometimes the men stayed home and sent their wives on diplomatic missions. Women may have been political pawns back then, but some of them managed to wrest power of their own. Isabella d’Aragona, Isabella and Beatrice d’Este, Catarina Sforza, Clarice Orsini, Lucrezia di Francesco Tornabuoni, and Frieda’s apparent favorite, Lucrezia Borgia, were women who did this.

To appreciate what these women did, one has to know the historical setting: the states, the families that ruled them, and how these families were all connected by intermarriage. A lot of the book is necessarily devoted to this. The women weave through story, born into this family, married into another, and, in some cases, into another and another. Thankfully, there are family genealogies in the front of the book so one can attempt to keep it all straight! The author doesn’t always refer to the people by the same name every time, adding to the confusion.

The most interesting thing to me was the author’s rehabilitation of Lucrezia Borgia’s reputation. Rather than the evil mistress of poison and pawn of her father, Rodrigo Borgia aka Pope Alexander, she is portrayed as an innocent, loving, woman of intellect and kindness. In fact, the whole Borgia family is described in a good light, something I never expected. Well, perhaps ‘good’ is pushing it; it’s more that they are all just products of their time.

Sadly, the women never really come to life. They remain flat, performing actions without us ever really knowing their feelings. It’s a pretty good history book, but not great on the biography part.

After reading The Dark Queen, a historical fiction novel in which Catherine de Medici is portrayed as the titular dark queen and an evil witch, I was left wanting to know more about the historical basis for the story. In The Dark Queen Catherine is accused of everything from poisoning her rivals to employing beautiful seductresses to control her courtiers to engineering a massacre. This non-fiction account is largely intended to dispel such rumors and show what an impressive woman Catherine de Medici really was. And after reading the book, I’m convinced. She was a little ruthless protecting the throne for her sons, but she was also a very courageous, capable, and mostly well-intentioned woman. Interestingly, many of the horrible things Catherine did in The Dark Queen are based on rumors the existed in Catherine’s time, although most are false or only very loosely based on actual events.

Read more here...

Read my review on MyShelves, my book blog.

Long, long ago in a youth far, far away, I read a biography of Catherine de Medici; so I was already familiar with her story. I have to admit, the details were hazy: I remembered something about poison, religious wars and that she was Mary, Queen of Scots’ mother-in-law. Then a couple of years ago, my husband and I took a biking vacation in the Loire valley and visited numerous castles and gardens along way, several associated with Catherine and her rival Diane de Poitiers; so I was reacquainted with the general outlines of her story. Which brings me to: Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda.

Catherine de Medici led a fascinating life. She was one of the most powerful people (man or woman) of her times; and those times were fraught with religious divisions, territorial wars and internecine politics. She was an enormously complex woman: well educated, sophisticated, erudite, and tremendously superstitious; politically astute, a fanatically hard worker and a glutton; ruthless with enemies, generous with friends and blind with her family. In a time when women legally couldn’t rule because of the Salic law, Catherine did rule as regent during her sons’ minorities and as their agent and representative during their majorities. She prosecuted war, negotiated peace, arranged treaties and marriages, raised money, placed ministers and oversaw intelligence gathering. Her descendants continued to rule through-out Europe down through the centuries.

In summary, I enjoyed this book. The language is accessible to the lay reader and not at all “scholarly.” The story progresses with rich detail. As with any biography covering a long-lived person in a huge political theater, the cast of characters can become overwhelming. It helped to have the genealogies in the front and the pictures of several of the main actors. I have to admit, over the generations, characters blurred into “the Guises” and “the Huguenots,” among others, but that’s my problem, not the author’s. Catherine de Medici is an entertaining biography of a woman who deserves to be as well-known as her contemporaries: Elizabeth I of England and Phillip II of Spain.

This is an abbreviated version of a much longer review available on my blog (http://faithljustice.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/book-review-catherine-de-medici/)

Entirely based on secondary sources. Disappointing.

I admit I am fascinated by this woman ever since I read Jean Plaidy's series of historical fiction books about her life when I was in high school. Seems to be historically accurate from what I know, but I am by no means an expert. I still want to know more about her childhood, which did not seem to be covered in much detail here though. The book focuses on her life after leaving Italy.

I have been drawn to Catherine de Medici's story for some time. After reading Susan Carroll's fictional account of her in her Cheney Sisters books, I became even more interested in her. Catherine was a fascinating sixteenth century woman. She was the Italian-born Queen of France, wife of Henri II.

Catherine Maria Romola di Lorenzo de Medici was born in Italy in 1519. She endured a lonely childhood, isolated in convents most of the time, exiled from her rightful place in her own country. Like many women of her time, she became a tool in the diplomacy of her two powerful uncles, who basically sold her off to marry the future king of France.

Catherine de Medici was married to Henri II when she was just 14 years old. She endured the dominance of Henri's mistress, Dian de Poitiers, with patience and grace, for 16 years. She adored her husband, even though he obviously preferred the company of his much older mistress. She was able to maneuver her way through shifting family alliances, and learned self-possession, deception, and strategy. The twists and turns of life at the French court led her to form brilliant political skills which held her in stead for the rest of her life.

Catherine de Medici had 10 children: three became French kings, one became Queen of Spain (as wife of Philip II). Her youngest son was a serious candidate to wed England's Queen Elizabeth.

The sudden death of Henri in 1552 at a jousting event, launched Catherine into three decades as regent and chief advisor to three sons who ruled France in succession. Her sons were weak kings, and she became the power behind the throne for many years. She was the all powerful Queen-Mother, the ruler of France in all but name. During this time, Catherine gained a reputation as the ultimate schemer, a woman without scruples or bounds.

She presided over eight Wars of Religion: civil wars between Protestants fighting for their right to worship freely, and Catholics trying to keep the country from splitting apart. The author discusses Catherine's many diplomatic efforts to resolve the difficulties peacefully. But treacherous behavior among hardcore Huguenots eventually hardened her attitude, culminating in the disastrous Massacre of St Bartholomew of 1572, which killed as many as 30,000 men, women, and children all over France.

Although her hands will be forever stained by the religious wars that sent France into frenzies during her watch, the author contends that Catherine attempted to reach compromise in the religious strife of her adopted country whenever possible.

Poisoner, despot, necromancer -- the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. Catherine is widely seen as a talented, scheming and ruthless power-behind-the-throne figure, doing almost anything to promote and protect her children which included two Kings of France. In this biography, the author reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds -- from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henri, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. This biography is a persuasive rehabilitation of Catherine, not as a nice woman, but as a shrewd leader who did what she had to.

This was an important book in my understanding of French history. Or rather, it filled in a missing gap.

A great read that demonstrates that real history can have the kind of characters and bizarre situations that, were a novelist to have created them, would be deemed too far-fetched. This is a well researched and readable biography, though it perhaps goes too far in trying to exculpate Catherine for masterminding the notorious St Bartholomew Eve's massacre for which she is most (in)famous today. The chapters were rather overlong as well.½

Fascinating account of the life of Catherine de Medici of France who goes down in history as The Dark Queen. This balanced biography looks at her life and her motives - to save a nation being torn apart by religious wars and thus the inheritance of her weakly sons.Catherine de Medici tried to reconcile the two religious sides in the beginning, but to no avail. She did indeed order poisonings and assassinations including the ones of highborn French protestants resulting in the terrible St Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572) of innocent men, women and children. Not until the French revolution, would such a heinous wholesale slaughter be equalled. Catherine de Medici earned her reputation as the Dark Queen.