duchessina a novel of catherine de medici carolyn meyer

It is with dismay that she learns that she is to be married to the second son of the current king of France. In fact, once she gets there Caterina comes to realize that she is in Rome so that the pope can show her off and thus get find an advantageous marriage for her. She is to live under the 'loving guidance' of the pope, her uncle.

When the siege finally ends Caterina is summoned to Rome. Even during a siege of the city things are better at Le Murate than they were in Santa Lucia. Caterina hopes that she will be left alone to stay in Le Murate where she is happy. Then help arrives from an unexpected quarter and Caterina is moved to another convent, Le Murate, where she is treated with kindess, where she makes friends, and where is educated. The nuns in the Santa Lucia convent hate the de' Medici with a passion and though they are not obviously cruel to Caterina, they still manage to make her life a misery.

When Clement flees Rome leaving it to the mercy of Charles' soldiers, the people of Florence are furious and decide to take their anger out on Clement's relatives, the de'Medici.Ĭaterina's aunt Clarissa does her best to get eight year old Caterina to safety outside the city but they are caught and Caterina is brought back to Florence and forced to go into a convent. Charles the V, the Holy Roman Emperor, decides that Clement VII needs to be put in his place and Charles sends his soldiers to Rome to teach the Holy Father and his people a lesson. It is bad enough when Caterina's uncle lives in the palace but when he becomes the new pope, Clement VII, things get a lot worse. It is not easy being a Medici because many of the people in Florence hate the family and want to get rid of them. Both of Caterina's parents died when she was just an infant and now she is under the care of the Cardinal. The one person who does come to visit her is her aunt Clarissa, Caterina's dead father's sister.

Her life is a lonely one for very few people come to visit her in the Medici Palace. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000 ISBN: 978-0152055882Ĭaterina de' Medici, or Duchessina as her family and friends call her, lives with her 'uncle,' Cardinal Giulio.

Duchessina a novel of catherine de medici carolyn meyer