Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power

by Leah Redmond Chang

Overview

Finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography)
One of the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023
One of BookRiot's Best Biographies of 2023
Longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize in Nonfiction

The boldly original, dramatic intertwined story of Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots—three queens exercising power in a world dominated by men.

Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de’ Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law.

Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe, a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt, as concepts of nationhood began to emerge and ideas of sovereignty inched closer to absolutism. They would learn that to rule as a queen was to wage a constant war against the deeply entrenched misogyny of their time.

Following the intertwined stories of the three women from girlhood through young adulthood, Leah Redmond Chang's Young Queens paints a picture of a world in which a woman could wield power at the highest level yet remain at the mercy of the state, her body serving as the currency of empire and dynasty, sacrificed to the will of husband, family, kingdom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374294489
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	08/15/2023
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	118,004
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Leah Redmond Chang is a former associate professor of French literature and culture at the George Washington University. Her writing draws on her extensive experience as a researcher in the archives and in rare book libraries. Previous books include Into Print: The Invention of Female Authorship in Early Modern France, which focused on women and book culture in the sixteenth century, and (with Katherine Kong) Portraits of the Queen Mother, about the many public faces of Catherine de Medici. With her husband and three children, she lives in Washington, DC, and London, UK.

Editorial Reviews

06/05/2023

Historian Chang (Portraits of the Queen Mother) highlights complicated mother-daughter relationships in this sympathetic study of the 16th-century French queen Catherine de’ Medici; her daughter, Elisabeth de Valois; and her daughter-in-law, Mary, Queen of Scots. Following Mary’s betrothal at the age of five to Elisabeth’s brother, Francis II, the three women bonded while living in the same household for 13 years. Elisabeth married Spain’s king, Philip II, in 1559; two years later, Mary, recently widowed, returned to Scotland to rule in her own right, having inherited the throne when she was six days old. Meanwhile, Catherine strove to influence both young women to benefit France. Relations between the queens devolved when Catherine blocked Mary’s remarriage to Philip II’s heir, his son by an earlier marriage. Still, the Scottish queen begged both Catherine and Elisabeth for help after she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I of England in 1568. Chang wisely adds context by also delving into the motivations of Elizabeth I and Philip II, but ignores previous examples of powerful medieval queen mothers whose experiences may have emboldened Catherine’s far-ranging ambitions. Nevertheless, this sheds valuable light on interpersonal feelings and familial relations often missed in more traditional accounts of political power. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Alluring, gripping, real: an astonishing insight into the lives of three queens, stepping out from the shadows of the patriarchy—we meet them on their own terms." —Alice Roberts, author of Ancestors and Buried

"This exceptionally brilliant book, deft of phrase and vividly realized, conveys the vitality of the past as few books do. It’s an enviable tour de force and marks the arrival of a wonderful new voice in narrative history." —Suzannah Lipscomb, author of A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England and host of the hit podcast Not Just the Tudors

"This exceptionally researched narrative successfully weaves together the stories of three of the most intriguing queens in sixteenth-century Europe, revealing them to be integral parts both of one another's lives and the complex worlds in which they lived. Leah Redmond Chang expertly navigates the tumultuous waters of the French, Spanish and Scottish courts, and in so doing brings these fascinating queens to brilliant and vivid life." —Nicola Tallis, author of Elizabeth’s Rival and Uncrowned Queen

"Amidst the turbulence of the 16th century, the lives of a Queen Mother, a Queen Consort and a Queen Regnant became irrevocably entangled as they restitched the tapestry of Europe with the thread of five great houses. Both an evocative re-imagination of political history and a meditation on the nature of queenship, Young Queens is a tour de force of storytelling." —Nadine Akkerman, author of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts and Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain

From the Publisher

★ 2023-05-24
A celebration of the lives of three significant European queens.

For centuries, dispatches from royal courts around the world have reflected only the male perspective. In this thorough historical excavation, Chang, a former professor of French literature and culture, immediately ensnares readers with her painstakingly rendered, intertwined narrative about three royal women in 16th-century Europe: Catherine de' Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots. Refreshingly, the author doesn’t merely rehearse her subjects’ daily lives. By using intimate, personal accounts gleaned from her extensive research, Chang transports readers directly into their world. She shows how, despite limitations on their power, they used what little they had to help shape events around them. Born into wealth and privilege, all three shared the same fate of being married off at a young age, often traded for land or peace and goodwill treaties. As young brides, their bodies were not their own; rather, they were considered property of their families or the nation at large. “Their bodies, passed across borders, became symbolic capital,” writes the author, “the vector of peace, alliance, wealth or empire.” Fertility was paramount, and primitive women’s health rituals haunted them as they attempted to produce heirs for their husbands. Though Chang highlights their similarities, she also allows their distinct personalities to shine through, demonstrating the evolution of each woman: Catherine emerges as a skilled power seeker; Elisabeth, as a queenly wife and mother beloved by her husband and her nation; and Mary, as an embattled widow who “spent half her life a prisoner.” Chang vividly captures the importance of religion and war, both of which had profound effects on the decision-making of all three women and everyone within the royal orbit. In addition, the author delineates many intriguing details about extravagant weddings, celebrations, and other courtly matters, ably balancing the personal and the universal.

A delightful historical study of women coming to the forefront in a world dominated by men.

Kirkus Reviews

Olivia Dowd is so good at delivering this history that it’s like listening to a historical novel set in the sixteenth century. Dowd gives each woman a unique voice in this true account…The production provides twenty-four hours of captivating listening….Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award.”

AudioFile

Alluring, gripping, real: an astonishing insight into the lives of three queens, stepping out from the shadows of the patriarchy.”

author of Ancestors and Buried Alice Roberts

Olivia Dowd is so good at delivering this history that it's like listening to a historical novel set in the sixteenth century. Dowd gives each woman a unique voice in this true account of the lives of Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France; her daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain; and Catherine's daughter-in-law, Mary, Queen of Scots. The production provides 24 hours of captivating listening. Dowd's tone and intelligence make clear how these three women were able to influence history in a misogynistic world. With Elizabeth I on the English throne, the other three queens engage in intrigues and deadly plots to gain power. History buffs will welcome this well-researched, well-written, superbly performed behind-the-scenes glimpse of four royal courts in constant turmoil. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2023 - AudioFile