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In two separate interviews (video and text) C.W. Gortner talks about his novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, in which he explores the real person behind the lurid accusations and hyperbole that have painted her as the evil queen who poisoned her enemies and orchestrated a massacre.
In two separate interviews (video and text) C.W. Gortner talks about his novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, in which he explores the real person behind the lurid accusations and hyperbole that have painted her as the evil queen who poisoned her enemies and orchestrated a massacre.
A video interview with C.W. Gortner about his 2010 historical novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
A conversation with C. W. Gortner about his novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
Anyone with an interest in famous women of history will have heard
of Catherine de Medici: She's the evil queen who allegedly poisoned
her enemies and orchestrated a massacre. Or so the legend says. Of
Italian birth, Catherine was the last scion of her legitimate Medici
blood; she dominated France in the latter half of the sixteenth century,
a contemporary of Elizabeth I of England and mother-in-law to Mary,
Queen of Scots. Left a widow with small children and confronted by
one of the most savage conflicts of her time, she fought to save France
and her bloodline from destruction.
Why did you decide to write about her?
Initially, I was attracted to Catherine because of her legend. I figured
that when someone has garnered such a reputation there has to be
more to the story. I wanted to know who Catherine de Medici truly
was, to search beyond the lurid accusations and hyperbole for the
person she may have been. When I researched her, I found that my
instincts were correct: As with most dark legends, there was far more
to her than popular history tells us. I thought, how interesting it would
be if Catherine herself could tell the story of her life. If she had the
chance to explain herself, what would she say?
How long did it take you to write this book and what special research
was involved?
It took about two years to write this book in its present form. The research itself began several years before that; I actually first began
researching Catherine de Medici while in college, as she was part of my
master's thesis on women of power. For the novel, I took several trips to
France, including one during which I visited the beautiful Loire Valley
châteaux where Catherine resided and I re-created the two-year progress
she undertook to visit her eldest daughter on the border with Spain
(though I did my trip by rail and car!). A friend of mine in Paris also
guided me on marvelous evening walks through the city, showing me
specific sites associated with Catherine, including a lone tower she built
as an observatory. I also read her volumes of letters, contemporary
accounts of her and her court, and memoirs written by several of her
associates and intimates, including the fanciful memoirs of her daughter,
Marguerite, better known to history as la reine Margot.
What did Catherine's letters reveal?
Catherine's surviving letters constitute one of those rare treasure
troves for a novelist. Letters offer an invaluable glimpse into a person's
thoughts and personality, and I found some of Catherine's letters to
be particularly poignant. Her unassailable love for her children, her
despair over the chaos wrought by war, her pragmatism and her
discomfort with overt fanaticism, as well as her compassion for
animals—unusual for her time—all point to a woman who was very
different from the archetypal Medici queen with her arsenal of
poisons. Her letters helped me to envision the flesh-and-blood woman
behind the legend and understand the challenges she faced as a person
and a ruler.
What is one of the greatest misconceptions about Catherine de Medici?
Without doubt, it has to be the accusation that she nurtured a "passion
for power." Catherine was not raised to be a queen, true, and she did
in fact rule as regent for her sons until they came of age; but it is unfair
to accuse her of a ruthless drive to retain power at any cost. She faced
a unique set of circumstances that would have challenged even the
most skilled ruler: underage children to protect and a kingdom being
torn apart, literally, by the nobility. The clash between Protestants and
Catholics during the Reformation became especially intense in France;
it was Catherine's great misfortune to be caught up in it. Her alleged
passion for power was in truth an attempt to retain control over the
destiny of her adopted realm and safeguard the throne—both of
which may have suffered far more had she not been there. I find it
quite sad that to this day Catherine remains tainted by actions that in
essence she did not take of her own volition. She made serious errors
in judgment, without a doubt, but she was motivated most often by the
urgent need to salvage a crisis rather than by some cold-blooded urge
to eliminate those who stood in her way.
How do you strike a balance between depicting the reality of the times
and modern-day sensibilities?
The balance is always a fine one. It can become even more tenuous
when you are confronting issues of religion, race, sexuality and
gender. That said, I always consider the needs of my reader to be
engaged by the story. While historical accuracy remains a primary
obligation—in that the writer should not deliberately alter or distort
known facts or have characters behave in an overtly modernized
way—I do sanitize certain aspects of the reality of life in the sixteenth
century. We tend to romanticize the past; we forget about the lack of
adequate hygiene, antibiotics, etc. While I strive to retain the flavor of
the past in my work and avoid the tendency to convert a brutal,
quixotic era into a costume drama, my books are novels; their principal
function is to entertain.
Do you think issues Catherine faced in her era still resonate today?
Many of the freedoms we take for granted today were unknown to
people in the sixteenth century. Religious divisiveness in particular
was a brutal part of daily life during Catherine's time; Catholics and
Protestants were willing to martyr themselves for their cause, destroying countless others in the process. This is something that many
of us, much like Catherine, may find difficult to comprehend. Yet that
type of extreme righteousness remains very much a part of our
modern landscape, as evidenced by acts of terrorism and genocide in
several parts of the world. While we are in many ways a more enlightened society, we still carry vestiges of the past with us, and leaders
throughout the world grapple with some of the same issues that
Catherine did, in terms of placating anger and restoring harmony
among people whose lives have been affected by war.
What is one of the secrets that Catherine "confesses" in this novel?
For one, the truth behind her relationship with the Protestant leader
Admiral Coligny. I have always found it intriguing that so few of
Catherine's biographers have examined more closely this most enigmatic of friendships. Coligny was at court when Catherine arrived
from Italy as a teenage bride; he was the nephew of the Constable of
France, a powerful and important man, and therefore she and Coligny
must have met long before they assumed their respective political
roles. They were close to each other in age; they shared a history, as
Coligny later served her husband, King Henri II; they probably witnessed
to a certain extent each other's trials and triumphs, before circumstances
arose for them to join forces during the Wars of Religion.
Coligny and Catherine could not have been more different, in both
upbringing and outlook, yet for a time they shared a united response to
the conflict threatening France and a mutual desire for accord. In her
confessions, Catherine tells us what brought them together, and what
led to the definitive tragedy between them.
What do you hope readers take away from your work?
I seek to reveal secret histories and in some small way restore humanity
to people whose legends have overshadowed them. I also hope
readers will come away from my work with the experience that
they've been on an emotional journey. I want them to feel the way
these people lived, their hardships and joys, and differences from and
similarities to us. Though a Renaissance queen faced issues we don't,
love, hatred, power, intolerance, passion, and the quest for personal
liberty remain universal themes.
What is your latest project?
I'm currently writing a historical novel about Isabella of Castile, tracing
her life from her dramatic youth to her accession as queen of Castile and
the early years of her controversial reign. I covered the latter years of
Isabella's life in my previous novel The Last Queen, which is about her
daughter Juana; while researching that book, however, I realized I had a
solid grounding in the facts of Isabella's life but had not truly considered
how she evolved as a monarch and a woman. She's been lauded as a saint
by some and labeled a fanatic by others; she set in motion the horrors of
the Inquisition yet also financed Columbus's voyages and united Spain
after centuries of internal strife. Isabella is truly the first queen of the
Renaissance, a ruler who was more powerful than her husband; yet few
people know the incredible story of her tumultuous rise to the throne,
her forbidden love with Fernando of Aragón, or the events that led to
that most climactic of years—1492. Isabella was fallible and, like so
many controversial figures in history, often misunderstood. I hope to
bring to life for readers her incredible will, vision, and strength, as well
as shed light on some of her less comprehensible actions.
Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
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