Blood, Fire and Gold: The story of Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici

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Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, while Elizabeth had to deal with the Spanish Armada and what to do with Mary Queen of Scots. Not only is the writing style somewhat lacking a proper scholarly tone and thus discounts the work right from the start; but, this early content is easily ignored by those well-versed on the subject as there is nothing new to absorb. Francis II was married to Mary, Queen of Scots, who had a claim on the English throne, and the young couple sported the arms of England. It reads like a novel and although reading nonfiction can really be intricate (I read the bibliography, the index and yes the end notes LOL!

Hachette Book Group is a leading book publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest publisher in the world. Her marriage --- like so many other children --- would be used to build alliances across the continent.

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Estelle Paranque comes here to reveal the intimate details that brings to life the two most powerful female rulers of that century. I'm not someone whose drawn to the Tudors or Elizabeth I as this period often feels repetitive in UK historical discourse. Interesting book about the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Catherine de/Medici of France and the diplomatic relations between the two countries during Elizabeth's reign.This deep empathy in her writing makes her book an exciting read—it's never, ever dry, because you feel like you're in the midst of the action with Elizabeth, Catherine, and their ambassadors. But nothing has been said of their complicated thirty years of friendship, competition and conflict that changed the face of Europe.

However, it was in both their interests to oppose the ambitions of Spain, and they had made the Treaty of Blois in 1572, agreeing to send help to the Netherlands in their revolt against Spain which began that year. On the one hand, Mary, Queen of Scots had threatened the life of Elizabeth and had been implicated in numerous plots against her. For most of her life, Elizabeth would fight to maintain her legitimacy, her right to succession and her religion.Her parents died when Catherine was young, leaving her to be a wealthy heiress and a powerful pawn in the marriage market.

The English public were hoodwinked time and time again, swallowing whole tales of a woman who gave birth to rabbits, a levitating Frenchman in a Chinese Temple and outrageous astrological predictions. Paranque did take written styling from Erik Larson which she indicates in the Author's note at the end of the book. Fake news’ and ‘going viral’ may be modern terms, but as this eye-opening book shows, these concepts have been with us for centuries.Elizabeth was horrified by the St Bartholomew massacre of the Huguenots which took place later that year during the celebrations of the wedding Catherine had arranged between her daughter Margaret and the Huguenot Henry of Navarre; but the French ambassador assured her that Catherine and Charles IX had had nothing to do with the massacre, and she maintained the alliance she had just made with France. Overall though, extremely informative and it’s hard to find good history book authors that actually know how to tell a story. Elizabeth never met her cousin, and Catherine’s daughter in law, Mary, Queen of Scots, but tons have been written about their relationship.