The riveting true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de'
Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose wildly divergent personalities
and turbulent relationship changed the shape of their tempestuous and
dangerous century.
Set in magnificent Renaissance France, this is the story of two
remarkable women, a mother and daughter driven into opposition by a
terrible betrayal that threatened to destroy the realm. Catherine de'
Medici was a ruthless pragmatist and powerbroker who dominated the
throne for thirty years. Her youngest daughter Marguerite, the glamorous
"Queen Margot," was a passionate free spirit, the only adversary whom
her mother could neither intimidate nor control.
When Catherine forces the Catholic Marguerite to marry her Protestant
cousin Henry of Navarre against her will, and then uses her opulent
Parisian wedding as a means of luring his followers to their deaths, she
creates not only savage conflict within France but also a potent rival
within her own family.
Rich in detail and vivid prose, Goldstone's narrative unfolds as a
thrilling historical epic. Treacherous court politics, poisonings,
international espionage, and adultery form the background to a story
that includes such celebrated figures as Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of
Scots, and Nostradamus. The Rival Queens is a dangerous tale of love,
betrayal, ambition, and the true nature of courage, the echoes of which
still resonate.