Medici : Godfathers of the Renaissance. Snapshots. Catherine

For 20 years, Catherine is the pawn of powerful men. Daughter of a playboy who dies of syphilis, she is orphaned at birth and raised by illegitimate cousins and papal uncles. She is threatened during the siege of Florence, and finally handed to her new husband, the future King of France.

Humiliated by her husband's older mistress, Diane, and despised as an Italian “shopkeeper’s daughter“, Catherine spends a decade trying to conceive. In desperation, she ends up having to ask her husband's mistress for help - and finally gives birth to 10 children, including four sons.

When her husband is killed in a hunting accident, Catherine takes control and rules France by proxy through her sickly, deranged and deviant sons. But she can't control the religious tensions sweeping the country, and starts the blackest event of French history - the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572.

Obsessed with the prophecies of Nostradamus, whom she pursues around France, Catherine is told that no heir of her sons will rule France. The idea terrifies her.

A true godfather, Catherine rules her court through the whispers of her “flying squadron“ - ladies who use their bodies to get information. She’s certainly not afraid to get her hands dirty.

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