So many of my readers have told me how much they enjoyed C.W. Gortner’s The Last Queen.  I am very happy to report that he has a new novel out, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, one of history’s most controversial and little-known queens.   I was fortunate enough to read this book in galley form and I am sure that fans of The Last Queen will find it as compelling and surprising as I did.  But before reading the new book, which will be published on May 25th, you’ll want to read the following interview.   

Why did you write THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI? 

I’ve always been fascinated by Catherine de Medici. Initially, I was attracted to her because of her legend. I figured, if she has such a bad reputation there must be more to her story. I wanted to know more about who she was, to search beyond the lurid hyperbole for the person she may have been. Of Italian birth, Catherine was the last scion of her legitimate Medici blood; she dominated France in the latter half of the 16^th century, a contemporary of Elizabeth I and mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots. Left a widow with small children and confronted by one of the most savage conflicts of the time, she fought to save France and her bloodline from destruction. As I researched her, I realized that, as with most dark legends, there was far more to her than popular history tells us. I thought how interesting it would be if Catherine herself could tell the story of her life. If she had the chance to explain herself, what would she say? I believe that all stories have two sides and Catherine de Medici’s is no exception.

What are some interesting facts you discovered about Catherine that is not widely known?

I found it amazing to discover how much she loved animals. In a time when bear baiting by dogs was a common entertainment, when hunting was a bloody pastime enjoyed by both genders and people rarely kept pets, Catherine was known for caring deeply about the welfare of her own animals and those at court. For example, she had the lion cages at Amboise completely restored, after she discovered how run-down they were; she also insisted that her bears not be used for any baiting and hired special attendants to look after them. When Catherine traveled about France, her bears were often seen lumbering behind her carriage! She also kept a menagerie of parrots, monkeys, and other exotic creatures; this was a time of plunder in Africa, New Guinea, and the Americas, with explorers capturing breeds which were often traumatized and ill equipped to survive transplant from their native habitats. Catherine tried her best to ensure those animals presented to her were treated well, not abused, exploited or killed for their parts – a very common practice in those days. The little dog she has in the book – Muet – is fictional, but represents this little-known aspect of her personality. In reality, Catherine had several lapdogs, in addition to the animals already mentioned.

I was also surprised to find out how religiously tolerant she was, particularly for an era of such savage intolerance and for someone of her fearsome reputation, who allegedly orchestrated a massacre to wipe out her Protestant subjects. This was a time when Catholics and Protestants were engaged in a very brutal conflict that spanned generations and divided families; popular history tends to bundle it under the titles of ‘Reformation’ and ‘Counter Reformation’ but the truth is, thousands of people lost their lives or fled their homes over the issue of faith. Catherine was the product of an ultra-Catholic upbringing; her family was intricately linked to the Vatican and her relative Clement VIII was a pope. She had every reason to fear and even despise Protestants, much as Mary Tudor did; however, Catherine showed a pragmatism toward doctrinal digressions that was actually very enlightened for her times. I do not believe she was a fanatic; I believe she honestly thought that there was a peaceful solution to the conflict tearing her son’s kingdom apart. It was her misfortune that so few around her shared her belief.

What kind of research did you do? Did you take any special trips?

I spent several years on this book to get it into its current form. I had written the original manuscript many years before that and it went through several re-writes before it was sold. Besides the over 40 biographies I read on Catherine and the important people in her life, as well as many other books on her era, I also read contemporary eye-witness accounts of the events that transpired under her reign, some written by her intimates. I don’t read French well and most of these accounts are not translated, so I had to enlist the help of friends who do speak the language. Catherine’s letters, too, provided invaluable insight into her thoughts; while many of these letters are formal in tone, as befits the time, a careful scrutiny of them does offer startling emotional information, such as the time when she wrote: “It is a great suffering to always be fearful.”

I traveled to France several times to see extant places associated with Catherine and to get a sense of the landscape. Though much has changed between now and then, I strongly believe the physical places where our characters lived offer unmatched glimpses into the past that can spark momentous changes in our work and during my first trip to Chenonceau, the chateau that Catherine embellished and loved, it happened to me. I was having trouble getting into Catherine’s “skin”, so to speak. Over half the book was written and I still felt she eluded me; there was something intrinsic missing. While touring this magnificent palace that sits on the river Cher, with its intricate gardens and honey-comb galleries, I understood what eluded me: I had made the mistake that so many of her detractors did: because she was so firmly entrenched in politics, I’d forgotten she was also a woman with a keen appreciation for beauty, a Medici to her fingertips, with all the passion that family had shown for centuries for the arts. This realization helped me immensely to re-cast her in my book, to find that flesh-and-blood person she might have been.

When combining fact with fiction, how do you balance history with story?

Very delicately! I think that as historical fiction novelists, we often walk a fine line between the facts and the fiction, in that we must adhere to the latter while staying true to the former. I always tell readers in my author’s afterword where I’ve altered or re-shaped events to fit the narrative flow; unfortunately, history can be inconvenient for a novelist, in that certain events do not match our story’s timeline and we finds ourselves confronted with editorial constraints, such as word counts, maintaining a manageable cast of characters, keeping up the pace of the story, etc. My golden rule is to never deliberately alter something if I can avoid it, and if I do alter it, make note of it so readers can know.

Do you think issues Catherine faced in her era still resonate today?

Absolutely. Religious divisiveness was a brutal part of life in Catherine’s world, with Catholics and Protestants willing to martyr themselves for their cause. This is something that many of us, much like Catherine, may find difficult to comprehend. Yet that very type of extreme righteousness remains very much a part of our modern landscape, as evidenced by acts of terrorism and genocide in several parts of the world. While we are in many ways a more enlightened society, we still carry vestiges of the past with us, and leaders throughout the world grapple with many of the issues that Catherine did, in terms of placating anger and restoring harmony among people whose lives have been devastated by conflict. 

What is one of the secrets that Catherine “confesses” in this novel?

The truth about her relationship with the Protestant leader, Coligny. I find it intriguing that so few of Catherine’s biographers have looked more closely at their enigmatic association. Coligny was at court when Catherine first arrived from Italy as a teenage bride; he was the nephew of the Constable of France, a very important man, and she and Coligny must have met long before they assumed their individual political roles. They were close to each other in age; they probably witnessed to a certain extent each other’s trials and triumphs, before circumstances arose for them to join forces. Coligny and Catherine could not have been more different, both in upbringing and outlook, yet they shared for a time a united response to the upheaval in France and a mutual desire for accord. In my novel, Catherine tells us what brought them together, and what eventually led to the definitive tragedy between them. 

Thank you so much for inviting me to your blog, Sharon, and thanks to all your readers for spending this time with me. To find out more about my work, please visit: www.cwgortner.com

Thank you, C.W., for agreeing to do this interview.  I am sure that anyone who enjoys well-written historical fiction is going to be facinated by “your” Catherine de Medici.  

May 18, 2010

     I would like to start with the good news; this past weekend, I adopted a shepherd from the Burlington County Animal Alliance.  Shadow is a beautiful boy, looks like a white wolf, but he has a very sad history of abuse; he came into the shelter half-starved and terrified.  Susan, his foster “mom,” told me that there were strong indications he’d been kicked as well as beaten, and he wasn’t housebroken even though he is about three years old; that means he was an outside dog, chained up in a yard somewhere, a cruelty in itself for social pack animals like dogs.   Shadow blossomed in his foster home, probably the first time in his young life that he’d been treated with kindness.  I have great admiration for people who work in rescue, for it is demanding and emotionally draining.  And those who volunteer to foster dogs or cats are the unsung heroes, for they take in frightened, damaged animals, transform them into family pets, and then give them up so they can continue to help other creatures in need. 

       I found Shadow by chance when I checked out Petfinder.com on impulse; I didn’t think I was ready yet to bring another dog into my house and heart.  But then I saw Shadow’s photo and felt a connection.  When Susan told me his dreadful history and that he got along very well with her small dogs and cats (an important consideration since I have a poodle who was Cody’s best pal and partner-in-crime), I had to go see him.  Well, it was love at first sight and he is now a full-fledged member of the Penman pack.  I am in awe of his sweet nature and his willingness to trust; had I suffered the abuse he did, it would likely have turned me into a serial killer.   But Susan and her family showed him that all humans are not cruel or evil and he is making remarkable progress.  This dog who was starving takes treats from my hand with a touch as delicate as a feather.  It was only a few weeks ago that he learned the housebreaking “rules,” but he has yet to have an accident inside.   He and Chelsea chase each other around like whirling dervishes.  He likes nothing better than to sit beside me while I’m working on the computer and put his head on my knee so I can rub his ears; Cody loved that, too—must be a shepherd thing J    Every now and then something scares him—a sudden noise, a memory—and he starts to shiver.   But this gentle boy is remarkably resilient and he soon relaxes again, remembering that the bad times are behind him.   We cannot erase his wretched past, but I can make sure that his future will be filled with love.

        It is true what people say about rescue dogs; they do seem so grateful to be given a second chance at life.   I realize adoption is not for everyone.    While pure-bred dogs are available through rescue groups and shelters, it is harder to find the “less popular” breeds, and if you’re set upon a puppy, that can entail a much longer wait.  But if you adopt a dog (or cat) from a shelter, you are quite literally saving a life; when I adopted Cody, I was told by a shelter worker that they have trouble placing the big dogs and I never forgot how easily that wonderful dog could have slipped through the cracks.     And by adopting through a rescue group, you will benefit from their evaluation and know in advance what sort of dog you will be getting, whether he is timid or cocky, whether he wants to be an “only child” or would be happier with other dog roommates, etc.    Rescue groups are very conscientious, too, about placing the right dog or cat with the right family, heading off “mismatches” from the get-go.   And we are fortunate in having such a wonderful resource in Petfinder.com, begun some years ago by a young couple seeking to combine their computer expertise with their love of animals; virtually every shelter and rescue group in the country list their adoptable pets on this site.   Based on my own experience, I would wholeheartedly recommend adoption for those seeking to add a pet to their family.  Adoption gave me my beloved Cody, and now the sweet Shadow, so I feel twice-blessed.

          So now you know who Shadow is, but what of Keiko and Fauvel?   Keiko is, of course, the famous killer whale and star of the Free Willy films who was rescued from a miserable captivity and eventually returned to the wild after his story attracted world-wide sympathy.  His time as a free whale was sadly much too short, but I have no doubts that this highly intelligent animal would rather have had a year of freedom than another decade of the miserable existence he’d endured prior to the Free Willy film.   And Fauvel?   He was a magnificent bay stallion, first owned by a Cypriot despot and then by an English king, better known as Lionheart.   Fauvel not only caught Richard’s eye, he bedazzled the two chroniclers who’d accompanied the king on the Third Crusade; they described him as “fleet as a deer” and “the best horse from here to Ypres.” 

             But what is the connection between a killer whale and a stallion who lived eight centuries ago?   I think they epitomize the change in attitudes toward animals over the years.  Like us, people in the MA were capable of caring deeply for their horses, dogs, hawks.  Occasionally one is mentioned in the chronicles, like the famous Fauvel.  We know that King John fed chicken to his favorite falcon.  The names of cherished horses echo throughout the chansons de geste.   Giraldus Cambrensus, a.k.a. Gerald the Welshman, related a touching story of a greyhound’s loyalty to his slain master.  While cats were not usually regarded as pets, they seem to have found good homes in many convents, as nuns were often scolded for their devotion to cats and small dogs.    But the medievals would not have been able to understand our concern for Keiko, much less the global attention paid to three  grey whales trapped under arctic ice about twenty years ago; two were eventually saved by a joint American-Russian effort with a Russian icebreaker flying the flags of both countries (surely a first!)    

          In the Middle Ages, people believed that man had dominion over the earth and all upon it.  The concept of “animal rights” would have been even more alien to them than the idea of “women’s rights.”    Obviously there are places on the planet today where the medieval attitude toward animals still prevails; understandably, people struggling to survive have different priorities than citizens of more affluent nations.  But in many countries there has been a remarkable, almost revolutionary shift in public opinion, as evidenced by laws to combat animal abuse, no-kill shelters, the rescue movement itself, and compassion toward wildlife as well as family pets, etc.  

           Of course many of our most cherished beliefs would not have taken root in medieval soil.  Religious tolerance was not viewed as a virtue since Christians and Muslims and Jews alike were sure that theirs was the only true faith.   Equality of the sexes?   Not likely in a world in which the Church itself taught that women were daughters of Eve, and “A woman who is not under the headship of the husband violates the condition of nature, the mandate of the Apostle, and the law of Scripture:  ‘The head of the woman is the man.’  She is created from him and she is subject to his power.’” (Letter from Routrou, Archbishop of Rouen, to Eleanor of Aquitaine, urging her to return to her husband, “whom you have promised to obey.”)    As an aside, marriage vows routinely required a wife to promise to obey her husband until relatively recently; when my parents were wed in 1942, they deleted this provision, but then they were rebels before their time!   Nor would medieval people have agreed with the American Declaration of Independence and its bold statement that all men are created equal.  Even in the eighteenth century, that was far from a “self-evident” truth; in the MA, it would have been incomprehensible.  

       It is not surprising, then, that medievals were much more unsentimental than we are in their interactions with animals.  I have tried to reflect that in my novels.  In my first medieval mystery, Justin de Quincy rescues a dog that was pitched off a bridge with a bag of rocks tied to his neck. Most of the bystanders are indifferent to the dog’s plight, aside from Justin and a five year old boy, and even Justin is somewhat embarrassed that he is going to so much trouble for a dog that is not his.   In Prince of Darkness, there is a scene involving an angry carter, a wagon mired in mud, and the scrawny horse who is the object of his owner’s wrath.  A man beating a horse (or dog) in public today would stir outrage; there was far less indignation in medieval Shrewsbury.

          So as much as I love writing about the MA, I would not have wanted to live in those turbulent times.   Now time-travel would be an irresistible temptation—provided that I had a return ticket.   Query to readers—have any of you imagined living in a bygone age?  If so, when?  More to the point, why?

         Lastly, Coeur de Lion’s army is still bogged down by the River Rochetaille, six miles from his objective, the coastal town of Arsuf.   I divided the chapter into two parts, a common occurrence for my chapters seem to self-replicate like amoeba.  So the two armies have been camped on opposite sides of the river for days now,   But a friend, apparently channeling Richard, informed me that he said I should “stop mucking around with that damned dog and let him get back to slaying Saracens.”   And so I shall.  

May 5, 2010   

PS  Here are some rescue websites.

www.petfinder.com

Burlington County animal Alliance (BCAA)  at www.bcaaofnj.org   (handles all breeds of dogs and cats)  Read their story about Buddy, an eight month old retriever in desperate need of surgery; his owners brought him to the shelter to have him euthanized because they could not afford the medical costs.  But he was so young and exuberant that the rescue is trying to give him a chance at a normal life.