Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • Magazines

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Biographies
  3. Royalty

Read and listen for free for 7 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
4.0(1)

Catherine de Medici : Renaissance Queen of France

The inspiration for the STARZ original series, The Serpent Queen—second season premiering July 12th!

“A beautifully written portrait of a ruthless, subtle and fearless woman fighting for survival and power in a world of gangsterish brutality, routine assassination and religious mania. . . . Frieda has brought a largely forgotten heroine-villainess and a whole sumptuously vicious era back to life. . . . This is The Godfather meets Elizabeth.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

Poisoner, besotted mother, despot, necromancer, engineer of a massacre: the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen of France to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds.

Based on comprehensive research including thousands of Catherine’s own letters, Frieda unfurls Catherine’s story from her troubled childhood in Florence to her tumultuous marriage to Henry II of France; her transformation of French culture to her reign as a queen who would use brutality to ensure her children’s royal birthright. Brilliantly executed, this enthralling biography goes beyond myth to paint a very human portrait of this remarkable figure.


Author:

  • Leonie Frieda

Narrator:

  • Sarah Le Fevre

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 21 h 37 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Biographies
  • Royalty
  • History
  • Europe
  • Society and Social Sciences
  • Society
  • Society and Social Sciences
  • Gender and LGBT

More by Leonie Frieda

Skip the list
  1. Francis I : The Maker of Modern France

    Leonie Frieda

    audiobook

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. Todo lo que aprendí de mis hijos y no me enseñaron en la escuela de negocios

    Helena Guardans Cambó

    book
  2. Late Victorian Holocausts

    Mike Davis

    audiobook
  3. 10 to 25 : A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation—And Making Your Own Life Easier

    David Yeager

    audiobook
  4. I Heard What You Said : A Black Teacher, A White System

    Jeffrey Boakye

    audiobook
  5. How to Kill an Earworm : And 500+ Other Psychology Facts You Need to Know

    Jana Louise Smit

    audiobookbook
  6. Future Tense : Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad)

    Tracy Dennis-Tiwary

    audiobook
  7. The Flag and the Cross

    Samuel L. Perry, Philip S. Gorski

    audiobook
  8. Confucius in 60 Minutes : Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  9. The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller's Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece

    Laura Cumming

    audiobook
  10. 12 Weeks to a Sharper You : A Guided Program

    Sanjay Gupta

    audiobook
  11. How to Be Perfect : The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

    Michael Schur

    audiobookbook
  12. Wonderstruck

    Helen Cruz

    audiobook

  • 2 books

    Leonie Frieda

    Leonie Frieda is the author of a bestselling biography of Catherine de Medici and The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women, Power and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance. She lives in London.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5