The identities of Catherine de' Medici

Heir : the Medici legacy -- Partner : the king's representative -- Mother : raising son-kings -- Friend and ally : nurturing daughter-queens -- Chief mourner of the Valois : the exclusivity of intimacy -- Carer : production and investment as protection of France -- Murderer : histories of violent emotions -- Spiritual sister : the community of Le murate.

"In The Identities of Catherine de' Medici Susan Broomhall provides an innovative analysis of the representational strategies that constructed Catherine de' Medici, and sought to explain her behaviour and motivations. Through her detailed exploration of the identities that the queen, her allies, supporters, and clients sought to project, and how contemporaries responded to them, Broomhall establishes a new vision of this important sixteenth-century protagonist, a clearer understanding of the dialogic and dynamic nature of identity construction and reception, and its consequences for Catherine de' Medici's legacy, memory and historiography"--