How Much of The Serpent Queen Is Based on Real History?
Catherine de’ Medici has been depicted as The Black Queen in a number of different period dramas, with each take tending to be more extreme on her life and choices than the other. Starz's The Serpent Queen, based on the book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda, looks at the oft-misrepresented Queen of France from a fresh perspective.
Was Catherine de’ Medici really a serpent who would betray her closest friends the moment they stopped serving an obsequious purpose or was she merely a powerless orphan who had to make the best out of her situation in order to survive? The show, with its light and humorous manner, forces people to view the dark, mysterious, seldom-praised queen from a different angle.
Catherine's Birth and Upbringing
The Serpent Queen is essentially a dramatization of the much-happening and enigmatic life of Catherine de’ Medici (Liv Hill). Some aspects of the show, however, are not at all exaggerated and adhere as closely to the unanimously agreed-upon facts as possible. The birth and upbringing of the Queen, for example, was indeed very traumatic with both her parents dying and leaving her orphaned within a month of her birth. Born to a French noblewoman and a rich aristocratic family, Catherine, the moment she was orphaned, became susceptible to life-threatening situations. She spent the early years of her childhood with various relatives, possibly never finding the kind of love and emotional attachment a child needs growing up. In 1527, the Medici orphan was taken hostage and forced into a convent when rebels rose against her famed family.
In October 1529, when Florence was besieged by the Medici loyalists, the rebels used the 11-year-old Medici child as their best bait. According to Frieda's book, the rebels considered leaving the child in a military brothel, where she would likely be turned into a prostitute, or killing her in front of the entire city, with not a single piece of cloth on her body. The show takes a rather light spin on this detail. Had the birth and upbringing of Catherine de’ Medici drawn too faithfully from the original source, the enigma surrounding the mysterious queen would perhaps have been lost. Hence, the show finds the perfect balance between the ruthless events leading up to her freedom, thanks to Pope Clement (Walter Charles Dance), and her unique, cunning, and essentially light narrative.
The Serpent Queen is different from other period dramas depicting Catherine de’ Medici in that it neither portrays her as a dark, malignant, and rancorous woman who would do anything in her power, even if that involved hurting her loved ones, to get what she wanted, nor as a powerless victim of her tragic circumstances. The show chooses to emphasize more of the many tales surrounding the historical figure and to present them with a new, humorous angle, rather than adopting any of the two possible and very clichéd extremes.
Marriage to Henry, Duke of Orléans
It isn’t surprising that Catherine de’ Medici didn’t have a passionate and heart-stopping love story as marriage was more of a political treaty for people of that time and era than a statement of one’s undying love for another. Catherine’s marriage to Henry, Duke of Orleans (Alex Heath), however, was a life-long trauma, not an undesirable situation to make peace with, and the show depicts it masterfully. After Pope Clement rescued the Medici child from the cornered rebels, he began making plans for her marriage. The Pope desired a match that would grant the Medici family protection from the rebels, and so he eventually settled on the second son of French king Francis. The ceremony was arranged without further ado and the young couple wed in October 1533. Unfortunately for Catherine, her uncle died soon after the marriage, and having evaded the matter of her dowry successfully till his last breath, the Medici child, now a Queen (if only in name), was vulnerable once again, perhaps more so than before. Thanks to her quick wits, however, she manages to prolong what can only be seen as a probation period until she can bless the French court with a child.
The most heartbreaking thing about the political treaty was not that Catherine, already devoid of love, was seen as a means to an end. While undeniably dehumanizing, women, even of her station, were not unused to being treated as insignificant beings meant only for rearing children. The most heartbreaking thing about Catherine’s marriage to Henry was the fact that he not only had a mistress in court but was also very much in love with her. This, too, was not unheard of back in those days. Men, especially of the royal family, could take as many bedfellows as they liked. Catherine, however, was young, and having never had a home growing up, expected, not at all unreasonably, her husband to look at her with affection every now and then. Young Henry was too smitten with Diane (Ludivine Sagnier), for whom, at least in the show, he seems to harbor a child-like devotion to pay attention to his bride. Catherine de’ Medici makes the best out of a traumatic situation and chooses to focus more on securing her position at the French court than in Henry’s fickle heart – a move that only suits her character so well.
Catherine's Problems Conceiving an Heir
Like many historical women, Catherine’s existence revolved around her ability to conceive an heir. Unfortunately, witnessing a marriage consummation does not an heir make. Catherine struggled with bearing a child for years, which greatly reduced the strategic value of her union with the future king of France.
Catherine, notorious for having an inkling for the Dark Arts, would go on to consult several doctors, magicians, and diviners to be able to conceive an heir. In January 1544, the Queen of France gave birth to her first child, at last securing her position in court. The first few episodes of The Serpent Queen revolve around Catherine’s struggles with conception. So dire is her need to bear a child that she sleeps with the seductive stable boy despite her feelings for Henry.
Catherine's Conflict with Mary, Queen of Scots
The rightful queen of not one but three nations, namely France, Scotland, and England, is arguably the more famous of the two queens, and the conflict between the daughter and the mother-in-law has been highlighted in a number of shows, including Reign. In The Serpent Queen, Mary (Antonia Sophia E. Clarke) tells Rahima (Sennia Nanua)her side of the story, hoping the servant would team up with her instead of Catherine. In the end, when Rahima chooses Catherine over Mary, the conflict between the two queens feels more pronounced than ever. While Rahima is most definitely a plot technique, she helps the showrunners to borrow the events of the story from actual history.
Will the next season of The Serpent Queen deviate from history in any way? Perhaps. After all, facts are seldom as riveting as fiction. Given how closely the show adheres to Frieda's non-fiction book, it’s safe to assume that The Serpent Queen will not digress too significantly from history — but it'll be interesting to see how the battle between Catherine and the enemies she's made now that she's been declared regent heats up heading into Season 2.
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