The Devil’s Queen

The Devil’s Queen
Jeanne Kalogridis

A compelling tale of love, lust and murder which traces the evolution of Catherine de Medici – the great-granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent – from an unloved, timid orphan to France's most cunning monarchA cold, ruthless murderess and occultist, or a loyal wife and mother, and the most competent monarch France ever knew?In The Devil’s Queen, Jeanne Kalogridis examines Catherine de'Medici’s attraction to astrology and the dark arts, as well as the political, religious and personal forces that converged during her life.Catherine de'Medici was one of France's most notorious and blood thirsty monarchs, feared by some as an occultist, seen to be consorting with the likes of Nostradamus and thought to have been responsible for the brutal St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.For many she was loved as a monarch devoted to bringing about peace during the Wars of Religion. Others saw her as an unfortunate victim of circumstances, struggling to come to terms with the death of her own husband whom she loved dearly, as well as the tragic death of her own parents at an early age.In Kalogridis' most passionate and thought-provoking novel, we follow in the footsteps of France's orphan queen and her rise to power in the tumultuous climate of sixteenth century France.

The Devil’s Queen

JEANNE KALOGRIDIS

Copyright (#ulink_9e8b982b-fe19-5745-9d1e-c236f0f89a97)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper CollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

First published in Great Britain by HarperColinsPublishers 2010

Copyright © Jeanne Kalogridis 2010

The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Harper Collins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007266838

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007283460

Version: 2016-09-26

For Russell Galen

Contents

Cover (#u83060e8f-0a2c-5c55-a43c-8c92ebee733a)

Title Page (#u1bdf8831-99a9-5c57-9613-7e7a3763156d)

Copyright (#u0d2aa552-4056-5bcd-a5d9-fff9c4620a03)

Dedication (#u7c5e3df6-cf2b-5ff7-be6d-c9a6151ad954)

PART I: Blois, France August 1556 (#u130dfadb-f84d-5a80-8efc-054f03d1b957)

Prologue (#u913aba82-43f2-5536-952f-e6367aa6508b)

PART II: Florence, Italy May 1527 (#u1bb51f4c-c355-57c2-b9e3-c3adc400d5d6)

One (#u45081815-bcc2-5383-a6da-759c5b876aa6)

Two (#u7a701ffb-1b97-5030-a848-5a3640b37c6f)

Three (#u64221ac1-1280-5b8b-b76b-e4215858917a)

Four (#u386466fb-8cc0-5737-bcba-25932fcf8eef)

Five (#u1cf66991-42dc-5d7d-be01-075c879796f6)

PART III: Imprisonment May 1527–August 1530 (#ucccc2d0b-8f1d-5baa-9119-299fa18c83c1)

Six (#u178dc4b7-3bbb-5fc4-83ee-579fb672886b)

Seven (#u5f126eff-3500-51dd-90f6-43b8e9db187a)

Eight (#u90872eda-d171-5493-a60a-aff88c3d63a1)

Nine (#ub85e1491-1a4a-5de6-b26e-a6e22e7ad98b)

Ten (#u9fe4af19-7dc2-557c-9daf-84fb3ffe1f23)

Eleven (#u9e1a8010-852d-5662-93fe-be3b98a97ad1)

PART IV: Rome September 1530–October 1533 (#u2b020387-b4df-5930-8f7a-cb04fd527ade)

Twelve (#u3756a23d-b042-5bf4-a2a3-8640d3fc94c6)

Thirteen (#uaaaadc3d-de50-5645-ad2b-19a9af61b45e)

Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

PART V: Princess October 1533–March 1547 (#litres_trial_promo)

Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-one (#litres_trial_promo)