The Rival Queens (46 page)

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 “However strong your armies”: Machiavelli,
The Prince,
10.

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 “She is still so troubled”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
169.

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 “Up to this hour”: Ibid., 162.

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 “this being the good pleasure”: Sichel,
Catherine de’ Medici and the French Reformation,
101.

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 “the house of Guise ruleth”: Knecht,
Catherine de’ Medici,
61.

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 Tiger of France: Roelker,
Queen of Navarre,
148.

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 “Raked up from the gold”: Sichel,
Catherine de’ Medici and the French Reformation,
104.

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 “A bold thief hides himself”: Ibid.

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 “The court”: Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
78.

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 “One is continually burning”: Ibid., 75.

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 At this stage, Michele Suriano, ambassador from Venice, reported that there were about four hundred thousand Huguenots in the kingdom out of a total of sixteen million subjects at the time of Francis’s ascension. See Héritier,
Catherine de’ Medici,
104–5.

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 “Now is the time to spend money”: Ibid., 111.

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 “are in such feare”: Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
82.

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 “The Duke himself set out”: Castelnau,
Memoirs of the Reigns of Francis II and Charles IX of France,
37.

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 “I know nothing about disputations”: Sichel,
Catherine de’ Medici and the French Reformation,
110.

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 In what would evolve: According to recent scholarship, Coligny wrote a letter to Catherine after the conspiracy of Amboise advising her that the Crown would be continually under attack if the Guises were not replaced and advocating that she take on the responsibility for the government of France herself. See Shimizu,
Conflict of Loyalties,
38–39.

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 “Till that is arranged”: Sichel,
Catherine de’ Medici and the French Reformation,
111.

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 “would give his life”: Ibid.

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 “If they see that affairs”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
222.

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“If he refuses to obey”: Ibid.

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 “You cannot arrive”: Ibid., 223.

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 “is the most cowardly” Roelker,
Queen of Navarre,
148.

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 “I have [come] back this morning”: Sichel,
Catherine de’ Medici and the French Reformation,
113.

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 “The Queen was blyeth of the death”: Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
90.

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 “She thought of herself”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
236.

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 “No man has ever attacked”: Sichel,
Catherine de’ Medici and the French Reformation,
114.

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 “We are lost”: Carroll,
Martyrs and Murderers,
126.

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 “It must be considered”: Machiavelli,
The Prince,
25.

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 “Our Queen, then Dowager of France”: Fraser,
Mary Queen of Scots,
119.

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 “Adieu France!”: Ibid., 131. The exact quotation is “Adieu France! Adieu France! Adieu donc, ma chère France… Je pense ne vous revoir jamais plus.”

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 “You are not to lose”: Waldman,
Biography of a Family,
51. See also Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:208.

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 “If the winds are favorable”: Ibid., 135.

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 “Since it has pleased God”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
239.

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 “he is not very strong” Héritier,
Catherine de’ Medici,
266.

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 “swollen and deformed”: Frieda,
Catherine de Medici,
177.

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 “one of the ugliest”: Ibid.

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 “so strictly brought up”:
Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois,
42.

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 negated her claim: “Everything done… in the matter of the government should be revoked because done by persons who had no power to act,” was the ruling of the Estates General. This was a deliberate revocation of the powers assumed by the queen mother. See Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:198.

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 “too heavy”: Ibid., 210.

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 “In twenty cities”: Ibid., 203.

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 “I want to tell you plainly”: Ibid., 200–201.

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 “What would you do”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
280.

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 “The whole Court was infected”:
Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois,
31–32.

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 “My brother added threats”: Ibid., 32–33.

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 “I do not believe”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:217.

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 “You will find that I am not as black”: Carroll,
Martyrs and Murderers,
150.

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 “We say that His body”: Ibid., 151.

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 “Blasphemy! Blasphemy!” (in Latin, “Blasphemavit!”): Ibid.

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 “If they ask you what it is”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:224.

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 “I hear that the Queen means”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
296.

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 “I do not think”: Ibid.

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 “You will be carried off at midnight”: Ibid.

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 “My talk is of nothing”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:224.

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 Go do something about it!: For an in-depth examination of the duke of Guise’s mother’s influence and her role in precipitating the massacre at Vassy, see Carroll,
Martyrs and Murderers,
5–12.

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 “Kill! Kill! By God’s death”: Ibid., 18.

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 “A prince should therefore have”: Machiavelli,
The Prince,
63.

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 “All the Chief Citizens went out”: Castelnau,
Memoirs,
138.

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 “save the children”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:242–43.

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 “Burn this instantly!”: Ibid.

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 “could no more fight Guise”: Ibid., 245–46.

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 “I have been anxious”: Ibid., 251–52.

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 “It would be impossible”: Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
117.

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 shipped back to Italy: For more on the Catholic plan to force Catherine out of France, see Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
118, and Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:265.

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 “one of the triumvirate”: Bourdeïlle and Saint-Beuve,
Illustrious Dames at the Court of the Valois Kings,
61.

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 “In that case we shall have to”: Carroll,
Martyrs and Murderers,
165.

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 “Now, friends, the day is ours!”: Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
143.

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 “Courage, my friends”: Ibid.

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 “this death is the greatest good”: Carroll,
Martyrs and Murderers,
170.

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 “He had spoken lightly”: Macdowall,
Henry of Guise and Other Portraits,
19.

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 She had a long memory. The queen mother told Condé of her relief at the duke of Guise’s death: “by the forces he had about the King and her, she was no less a prisoner than Condé had been,” see Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:278. “To this hour, she [Catherine] is persuaded that M. de Guise wanted to take possession of the kingdom,” letter from Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador, in Macdowall,
Henry of Guise and Other Portraits,
18. To a diplomat from Savoy she was overheard to say, “Such are the works of God; those who sought to destroy me are dead.” Héritier,
Catherine de Medici,
223.

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 pile of human excrement: Translated from the memoirs of Brantôme, the cardinal found “a great stinking shit on the seat of his ceremonial chair.” See Carroll,
Martyrs and Murderers,
173.

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 “I have often heard your grandfather”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:292.

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 “One who wishes to obtain”: Machiavelli,
The Prince,
68.

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 eight thousand horses: See Héritier,
Catherine de Medici,
238.

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 a hair-raising fifty million
écus:
Ibid., 231.

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 “they perceived a large Inchanted Tower”: Castelnau,
Memoirs,
272.

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 “dispel the Magick”: Ibid.

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 “You’ll see… she’ll convert you all”: Roelker,
Queen of Navarre,
161.

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 “It is not an unalloyed”: Ibid., 343.

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 “He shows himself very firm”: Ibid., 399.

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 “Write me to relieve my anxiety”: Ibid., 203.

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 “more princes than Salon”: Hogue,
Nostradamus,
282.

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 “I have only come”: Ibid., 284.

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 “Get out fast”: Lemesurier,
Nostradamus, Bibliomancer,
12.

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 “Near Geneva terror will be great”: Nostradamus,
Almanach pour l’an 1565,
at http://www.crystalinks.com/nostradamusalmanacs.html.

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 “[I composed] in dark and cryptic sentences”: Hogue,
Nostradamus,
167.

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 “As a fine reward”: Ibid., 192.

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 Moreover, Diane de Poitiers: Nostradamus himself contradicts the idea that he was sent on to Blois. In a letter to Jean Morel he very clearly states that just before he left Paris he was visited by “a very becoming great lady” who wanted to have his methods examined by officials from the Justice department. A government investigation being the last thing he wanted, Nostradamus told her not to bother—he was leaving for Provence in the morning! Nostradamus scholar Ian Wilson believes this “great lady” was Diane de Poitiers, and I agree with him. See Wilson,
Nostradamus: The Man Behind the Prophesies,
95–96.

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 “There is another prediction”: Ibid., 254–55.

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 According to Nostradamus’s son: For more on his son’s recollections see Hogue,
Nostradamus,
282–93.

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 “Your Majesty should know”: Ibid., 200.

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 “promises a fine future”: Ibid., 293.

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 “Tomorrow there leaves secretly”: Ibid., 292.

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 “The first objection you have urged”: Sichel,
The Later Years of Catherine de’ Medici,
8.

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 “I should be very glad”: Ibid., 8.

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 “Ere I forget”: Lemesurier,
Nostradamus, Bibliomancer,
16.

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 “thought by the King”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:313.

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 “the King undertakes”: Ibid., 311.

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 “the Queen Mother… greatly desires”: Roelker,
Queen of Navarre,
230.

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 “the most beautiful words in the world”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:315.

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even though Margot was already engaged: This alliance had been publicly confirmed four years earlier, while Antoine was still alive, at a dinner in August of 1561. See Roelker,
Queen of Navarre,
162.

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 “here their Majesties”:
Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois,
35.

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 “shepherdesses dressed in cloth of gold”: Ibid.

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 “a large troop of musicians”: Ibid.

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 “when, lo! Fortune no longer favoring”: Ibid., 36.

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 “So your husband suspects me?”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
364.

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 “What makes you suppose, Madame”: Ibid.

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 “My dear daughter, you have become”: Ibid.

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 “extremely cold about religion”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:323.

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 “I perceived that they kept him”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
365.

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 “At St. Jean de Luz the tears”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:324.

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 “If the agreement which the Duke”: Ibid.

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 to borrow even more from Italian bankers and raise taxes: The prince of Condé publicly championed a lowering of taxes and referred to the greed of the Italian banking community. See Knecht,
Catherine de’ Medici,
115. Catherine also defaulted on five hundred thousand
écus
due England under the terms of an earlier treaty at this time. See Héritier,
Catherine de’ Medici,
256.

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 “I know that many in France”: Bourdeïlle and Saint-Beuve,
Illustrious Dames at the Court of the Valois Kings,
72.

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 “Experience shows that there have been”: Machiavelli,
The Prince,
80.

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 “Never did a woman who loved”: Frieda,
Catherine de Medici,
83.

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 “Usually her Court was filled”: Bourdeïlle and Saint-Beuve,
Illustrious Dames at the Court of the Valois Kings,
79–80.

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 “Although I knew it was bad”: Roelker,
Queen of Navarre,
373.

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 “She is beautiful, discreet, and graceful”: Ibid.

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 seated beside him at an official banquet: At the end of August 1561, when Antoine de Bourbon was still alive, the engagement between Marguerite and Henry, first entered into while Henri II was still alive, was tacitly reconfirmed in this way. See Roelker,
Queen of Navarre,
162.

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 “very much surprised”: Ibid., 242.

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 “she was all the angrier”: Ibid.

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 all sixteen thousand of them: See Parker,
The Army of Flanders,
28.

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 “Her majesty knows that no one is better”: Roeder,
Catherine de’ Medici and the Lost Revolution,
393.

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 confessed himself a “tyrant”: Carroll,
Martyrs and Murderers,
188.

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 “by love or by force”: Ibid.

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“to keep up her Interest” Castelnau,
Memoirs,
309.

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 “the reason why the King’s subjects”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:380.

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 “I freely confess never to have seen”: Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
184.

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 “promise a long time ago”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:360.

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 “brought about by the greed”: Ibid., 361.

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 they were all “vermin!”: Ibid., 375.

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 “Young as I am, Madame”: Héritier,
Catherine de’ Medici,
268.

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 “Henry’s stereotypical lifestyle”: Crompton,
Homosexuality and Civilization,
331.

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 “really wanting what she said she didn’t want”: Van Dyke,
Catherine de Médicis,
1:376.

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 “The stag is in the net”: Ibid., 387.

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 “For Christ and country!”: Whitehead,
Gaspard de Coligny,
206.

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 “I leave to your own imagination”:
Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois,
38.

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 “It is… impossible for me”: Ibid., 39.

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 “Dear sister, the nearness of blood”: Ibid., 40.

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 “You know the high situation in which”: Ibid., 40–41.

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 “was entirely a new kind of language”: Ibid., 42.

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 “I shall sacrifice all the pleasures”: Ibid., 43.

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 “Be the first with her”: Ibid., 41.

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 “Your brother has been relating”: Ibid., 44.

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 “I felt a satisfaction and a joy”: Ibid.