Quickly now, as though the sands of life were running through a tilted glass, Henry, the last of the Valois kings, held a reunion with Henry, King of Navarre, the brother-in-law he never could quite trust, but who was, in the final analysis, of his own blood. For a period Paris seethed with hatred for the King, and then, as though thoroughly sick at last of feuds, the whole country was swept by a miraculous wave of emotion. One issue alone stood out: Henry of Valois was the anointed King; Henry of Navarre his rightful heir; and together they stood for a united France, particularly as Navarre did at last abjure Protestantism and lightly embraced the Catholic faith.
But Henry of Valois was not to enjoy his sudden popularity for long. A mendicant monk assassinated him a few months later in the belief that he was ridding France of a tyrant and its most wicked citizen. Henry of Valois, Henry III of France, died on a September morning in 1589 while receiving the last rites of the Church. So passed the last of the Valois kings, a weakling with a faint strain of Medici strength in his nature which only he and his mother suspected. He survived that doting mother by only a few months.
Of all Catherine s children Marguerite was the most disappointing because the most aloof. Her husband, enraged by her misconducts which had become notorious, sent her from the kingdom of Navarre to her brother s Court. Here her behavior was so shameless that Henry returned her to Navarre and there her marriage finally was annulled. She was the last Valois. She grew old and fat, a little surprised
to find she had teen Queen of France, and died at last in Paris in 1615, the center of a bizarre group of writers, a writer of some talent herself.
For Catherine the years since that long-ago morning when she sat dreaming beside an upper window in Blois had passed in an uninterrupted pageant of dynastic turmoil. Just how much she added to that turmoil by her boundless ambitions is problematic. Certainly she was a product of the times, the blood-stained Renaissance. Coldly calculating she was, but perhaps she learned she had to be to survive.
The children for whom she had such high hopes disappointed her, each one, even beautiful Elizabeth who died without bearing a son. None but Marguerite lived beyond the age of thirty-six and all but Marguerite were sickly. Nevertheless, singly and together, they helped shape the course of the Renaissance in France and through them the ancient House of Valois came to an end to make way for the Bourbons.
On January 5, 1589, Catherine de Medici died at Blois, perhaps in the very room where she first had dreamed of an empire in which she and her children would rule.
Marguerite Vance
MARGUERITE VANCE lias combined the careers of writing and editing books for young people.
Mrs. Vance was born in Chicago and attended private schools there and in Europe. For some years she and her husband, William Little Vance, lived in Cleveland, Ohio. After her husband's death in 1931, Mrs. Vance directed the children's book department in Dutton's Book Store in New York City. In 1939, she joined the staff of E. P. Button & Company as editor of children's books. Since 1955 she has devoted her time to writing.
Among her many books are The World for Jason, A Star jar Hansi, and Jeptha and the New People. Her Willie Joe and His Small Change won the Thomas Alva Edison Award for "special excellence in contributing to the character development of children/* Mrs. Vance has also written a number of biographies of historical figures, including Flight of the Wildling: Elisabeth of Austria, Ashes of Empire: Carlota and Maximilian of Mexico, and The Lamp Lighters: Women in the Hall of Fame.
Mrs. Vance now lives in New York City.
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Queen of France and mother of three kings of France, Catherine de Medici was driven by a consuming ambition for power. Unscrupulous and seemingly heartless, she vacillated from friend to enemy depending on what best suited her needs at the time. She manipulated and in the end destroyed almost everyone around her, including her own children.
Marguerite Vance has written an accurate, and at the same time, understanding account of this extraordinary woman, her children and their times.
E.P.DUTTON KWI & COMPANY
300 PARK AVE. SOUTHQfiyDNEW YORK 10, N. Y.
