The Serpent and the Rose
This is a beautifully written novel about Marguerite de Valois, princess of France during the 16th century wars between Catholics and Huguenots. Her scheming mother, Queen Regent Catherine de Medici, marries her off to the Huguenot King Henri of Navarre in an attempt to make peace between the religions, but instead, the wedding leads to the horrific St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Marguerite saves her husband’s life, but her mother keeps her confined to the palace, unable to join him in Navarre. Meanwhile, the powerful Duke of Guise, Marguerite’s rejected suitor, takes cruel revenge on her. When she finally joins her husband, Marguerite finds she must endure his many infidelities. Eventually she finds true love with her stable master, Jean d’Aubiac, but, given the difference in their stations, their love is destined to end badly. Finding herself a political pawn at the French court, Marguerite realizes that the only way to survive is to outwit her mother and beat her at her own game.
Butterfield’s novel is written in the form of Marguerite’s diary, which works very well. The reader gets inside her head and sympathizes with her. Marguerite is an intelligent, well-educated woman who makes her court at Navarre a center of theater, music, and literature. She is determined to live as a woman in a man’s world, and to survive amid the warring factions. I especially loved the inclusion of the young Shakespeare as a character, basing Love’s Labour’s Lost on the events of the first visit of Marguerite and her ladies to Navarre. The central conflict, between Marguerite and her mother, is powerfully depicted, and, since you see it from Marguerite’s eyes, you are never certain whether Catherine is cruel by nature, or if she thinks she’s doing what’s best for her family. I highly recommend this book.
