The Medici Queen aka The Devil’s Queen

Reading Group Questions

1. What did you know about Catherine de’ Medici-either from your own studies, or as portrayed in popular film/television adaptations-before reading The Devil’s Queen? How, if at all, did this book teach you about, or change your impression of, this important chapter in French history?

2. What do you see as Catherine’s most and least admirable qualities?

3. To what extent do you think Jeanne Kalogridis took artistic liberties with this work? What does it take for a novelist to bring a “real” period to life?

4. Discuss the nature of fact versus fiction in The Devil’s Queen. You may wish to take this opportunity to compare it with other historical novels you’ve read (as a group or on your own).

5. Catherine was orphaned at an early age, raised by an unaffectionate aunt, imprisoned for years, and misused by her cousin, Ippolito. What possible impact could such traumatic events have had on a child’s character? How do you think they affected Catherine?

6. What made Catherine capable of the ritual murder of an innocent? Was she evil at heart, or was her act understandable, if not justifiable?

7. Wicked, bloodthirsty, scheming…many adjectives have been used by historians to describe Catherine de’ Medici’s character. What words would you use to describe her?

8. Take a moment to talk about Catherine’s roles-as a prisoner, a marriage pawn, a princess, a queen, and later a regent-in Renaissance society. How was Catherine different from other women of her era? Do you think she was a “woman ahead of her time”?

9. As an astrologer and practitioner of magic, Catherine believed in fate. Do you believe that she could have taken a different course of action to avoid the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, or was it inevitable? If not, what steps could she have taken to stop it?

10. Why do modern readers enjoy novels about the past? How and when can a powerful piece of fiction be a history lesson in itself?

11. We are taught, as young readers, that every story has a moral. Is there a moral to The Devil’s Queen? What can we learn about our world-and ourselves-from Catherine’s story?