Young Queens

Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power

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Pub Date 15 Aug 2023 | Archive Date 31 Aug 2023

Description

Finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography)
One of the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023
One of BookRiot's Best Biographies of 2023
Longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize in Nonfiction

The boldly original, dramatic intertwined story of Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots—three queens exercising power in a world dominated by men.

Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de’ Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law.

Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe, a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt, as concepts of nationhood began to emerge and ideas of sovereignty inched closer to absolutism. They would learn that to rule as a queen was to wage a constant war against the deeply entrenched misogyny of their time.

Following the intertwined stories of the three women from girlhood through young adulthood, Leah Redmond Chang's Young Queens paints a picture of a world in which a woman could wield power at the highest level yet remain at the mercy of the state, her body serving as the currency of empire and dynasty, sacrificed to the will of husband, family, kingdom.

Finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography)
One of the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023
One of BookRiot's Best Biographies of 2023
Longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize in Nonfiction

The...


A Note From the Publisher

Leah Redmond Chang is a former associate professor of French literature and culture at the George Washington University. Her writing draws on her extensive experience as a researcher in the archives and in rare book libraries. Her previous books include Into Print: The Invention of Female Authorship in Early Modern France, which focused on women and book culture in the sixteenth century, and (with Katherine Kong) Portraits of the Queen Mother, about the many public faces of Catherine de Medici. With her husband and three children, she lives in Washington, DC, and London, UK.

Leah Redmond Chang is a former associate professor of French literature and culture at the George Washington University. Her writing draws on her extensive experience as a researcher in the archives...


Advance Praise

"Alluring, gripping, real: an astonishing insight into the lives of three queens, stepping out from the shadows of the patriarchy—we meet them on their own terms." —Alice Roberts, author of Ancestors and Buried

"This exceptionally brilliant book, deft of phrase and vividly realized, conveys the vitality of the past as few books do. It’s an enviable tour de force and marks the arrival of a wonderful new voice in narrative history." —Suzannah Lipscomb, author of A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England and host of the hit podcast Not Just the Tudors

"This exceptionally researched narrative successfully weaves together the stories of three of the most intriguing queens in sixteenth-century Europe, revealing them to be integral parts both of one another's lives and the complex worlds in which they lived. Leah Redmond Chang expertly navigates the tumultuous waters of the French, Spanish and Scottish courts, and in so doing brings these fascinating queens to brilliant and vivid life." —Nicola Tallis, author of Elizabeth’s Rival and Uncrowned Queen

"Amidst the turbulence of the 16th century, the lives of a Queen Mother, a Queen Consort and a Queen Regnant became irrevocably entangled as they restitched the tapestry of Europe with the thread of five great houses. Both an evocative re-imagination of political history and a meditation on the nature of queenship, Young Queens is a tour de force of storytelling." —Nadine Akkerman, author of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts and Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain

Young Queens takes us into the hearts and minds of three extraordinary women. Leah Redmond Chang’s meticulous research and engaging prose gives each of them their due, providing a rich and nuanced perspective on the challenges they faced and the remarkable legacies they left behind.” —Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

“To be a queen in Renaissance Europe was a tricky thing: to have the power to shape the world, but also to be at the mercy of many forces—and to have to fight, even to survive. Young Queens is an ambitious book about three fascinating women, meticulously researched and vividly told.” —Louisa Thomas, author of Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams

"Alluring, gripping, real: an astonishing insight into the lives of three queens, stepping out from the shadows of the patriarchy—we meet them on their own terms." —Alice Roberts, author of Ancestors...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780374294489
PRICE $35.00 (USD)
PAGES 512

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Featured Reviews

Fascinating portraits of three remarkable young women during the early years of their lives as Queen consorts and their places within the circles of power in France and Spain. Meticulously well researched and full of fascinating details, this terrific book offers us a very compelling look at Catherine of Medici, Elizabeth of Valois and Mary Stuart as they tried to navigate the treacherous waters of 16th century politics and the very demanding rules of court "etiquette" at the beginning of their respective queenship. I particularly enjoyed the magnificent portrait of Elizabeth of Valois. A full fledged biography of Philip of Spain's second wife is unfortunately long overdue... A highly recommended read for anyone interested in the European Renaissance.

Many thanks to FSG & Netgalley for this terrific ARC.

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'Young Queens' focuses on the lives of three of Europe's most pivotal queens of the sixteenth century: Catherine de Medici, her daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, and Catherine's daughter-in-law, Mary, Queen of Scots. Amazingly, all three women inhabited the same court at one time, and the lessons they learned would shape the two younger women on their (tragic) journeys.
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I really enjoyed the interwining of theses three lives as told by @leahredmondchang . I knew very little of Elisabeth de Valois and her life as Spain's Queen - we see her deployed to Spain as a young teenager as a mechanism for alliance building with France and symptathise with her each time she opens a letter from her mother. We watch Mary's life unravel with alarming speed. But through it all, Catherine holds steady. A beautiful portrait of three lives that shows the very human side of queenship.

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A great history book is one that avoids the easy tropes and cliches of its character. When you start Leah Redmond Chang's Young Queens, the prologue seems to set up a book about 3 women who would do marvelous things in an imperfect world. I must admit, I was initially worried the narrative would paper over the shortcomings of its subjects and not dive too deeply into their flaws and what made the humans with immense power. I now apologize for jumping to my wildly inaccurate prediction.

Chang tells the story of Catherine de' Medici, her daughter Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary Queen of Scots who was also related because of course they were all related back then. It should be noted that Chang spends the vast majority of the book on the three queens on their younger years. Mary's long imprisonment is barely touched upon and Catherine's actions around the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre are almost footnotes. However, I found this to be one of the strength's of the book. Chang is able to spend more time on what most books skip over in the lives of these queens. Along the way, Chang does not shy from praising and criticizing each woman. Catherine alone could easily be a pure sociopath or master politician depending on how you want to slant her. Chang also touches upon how being women affected their lives and their choices, but I also felt Chang just as clearly showed that their religion and other choices could have just as strong an effect on them. More than anything, Chang shows that they were people with power and they had to wield it in a way to keep that power, otherwise it didn't matter who they were.

It is a great book and anyone with a love of history should have it on their "must read" list.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

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