Catherine de Medici was orphaned at only a week old, and her childhood didn’t improve much from there. Sent to live under house arrest at a convent, she was then married off to the second son of the French King. It was an unhappy marriage, since she was routinely ignored by her husband who preferred his much older mistress. However Catherine was never one to give up, and these early unhappy years would forge a character of steel.
Frieda, Leonie: Catherine De Medici, The Renaissance Queen of France
Goldstone, Nancy: The Rival Queens
Hollingsworth, Mary: Catherine de Medici - The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen
History Extra: Catherine De Medici The ‘Serpent Queen” Who Became One of France’s Most Powerful 16th Century Rulers
Tulchin, Allan Massacres During the French Wars of Religion https://www.academia.edu/219979Massacres_During_the_French_Wars_of_Religion
Wikipedia: Catherine de Medici https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_de%27_Medici
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