Secret of a Medici Mistress
Secret of a Medici Mistress

Author: Donna Gillotte

Publisher: Tate Publishing & Enterprises

Published: 2012-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781618626363

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As Maddalena di Pagni embarks on a quest to become a great sculptor like her father, she finds herself tangled in the web of wealth and power woven by the illustrious Medici family. While still a teenager, she meets and falls helplessly in love with the charismatic Lorenzo de Medici, giving her body, mind, and soul to him. Her father, Giovanni, attempts to protect his daughter from a life of shame, but ultimately, his efforts cost him his life. Duty, honor and responsibility eventually wrench the lovers apart. Disheartened and overcome by sadness more painful than the fires of Dante's hell, Maddalena and Lorenzo continue on in a parallel existence, intersecting briefly at pivotal moments in history over the next decade and a half. Knowing he and Maddalena can never be wed because of their class differences, he eventually marries Clarice, a woman his mother chose for him and one for whom he has no romantic feelings. Upon her death, Lorenzo casts aside politics and opinions of others and confesses to Maddalena that he has never stopped loving her. Maddalena soon finds herself swept into the artistic and intellectual orbit of the Medici's inner circle, where she remains until Lorenzo's death in 1492. Before Lorenzo takes his final breath Maddalena shares with him a secret that will change the course of history then vows to take the Secret of a Medici Mistress to her grave.

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

Author: C. W. Gortner

Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 0345501861

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Leaving her native Florence to marry Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici embarks on an unanticipated destiny of religious warfare, thwarted leadership and psychologically charged royal machinations. By the author of The Last Queen.

The Tudor Secret
The Tudor Secret

Author: C. W. Gortner

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: 2011-02-01

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1429993189

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The era of the Tudors was one of danger, intrigue, conspiracy, and, above all, spies. Summer 1553: A time of danger and deceit. Brendan Prescott, an orphan, is reared in the household of the powerful Dudley family. Brought to court, Prescott finds himself sent on an illicit mission to the king's brilliant but enigmatic sister, Princess Elizabeth. But Brendan is soon compelled to work as a double agent by Elizabeth's protector, William Cecil, who promises in exchange to help him unravel the secret of his own mysterious past. A dark plot swirls around Elizabeth's quest to unravel the truth about the ominous disappearance of her seriously ill brother, King Edward VI. With only a bold stable boy and an audacious lady-in-waiting at his side, Brendan plunges into a ruthless gambit of half-truths, lies, and murder. Filled with the intrigue and pageantry of Tudor England, C. W. Gortner's The Tudor Secret is the first book in The Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles.

The Rival Queens
The Rival Queens

Author: Nancy Goldstone

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2015-06-23

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 0316409677

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The riveting true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de' Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose wildly divergent personalities and turbulent relationship changed the shape of their tempestuous and dangerous century. Set in magnificent Renaissance France, this is the story of two remarkable women, a mother and daughter driven into opposition by a terrible betrayal that threatened to destroy the realm. Catherine de' Medici was a ruthless pragmatist and powerbroker who dominated the throne for thirty years. Her youngest daughter Marguerite, the glamorous "Queen Margot," was a passionate free spirit, the only adversary whom her mother could neither intimidate nor control. When Catherine forces the Catholic Marguerite to marry her Protestant cousin Henry of Navarre against her will, and then uses her opulent Parisian wedding as a means of luring his followers to their deaths, she creates not only savage conflict within France but also a potent rival within her own family. Rich in detail and vivid prose, Goldstone's narrative unfolds as a thrilling historical epic. Treacherous court politics, poisonings, international espionage, and adultery form the background to a story that includes such celebrated figures as Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Nostradamus. The Rival Queens is a dangerous tale of love, betrayal, ambition, and the true nature of courage, the echoes of which still resonate.

The Secret Wife of Louis XIV
The Secret Wife of Louis XIV

Author: Veronica Buckley

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2009-09

Total Pages: 557

ISBN-13: 0374158304

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Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon and secret wife of the Sun King, Louis XIV, was born in a bleak French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden’s seduced daughter. A timely pardon and a hopeful Caribbean colonial venture failed to mend the family’s fortunes, and Françoise was reduced to begging in the streets. Yet, armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment, she was to make her way to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and ambitious court in all Europe. At fifteen, she was married off to the forty-two-year-old satirical poet Paul Scarron, a former roué now grievously deformed by rheumatism—“a sort of human Z,” as he described himself. Despite his ailments, Scarron presided over the liveliest and most scandalous literary salon in Paris, and Françoise quickly became its most prized ornament. After Scarron’s death, she enjoyed a merry widowhood in the fashionable Marais district, in the company of the courtesan Ninon de Lenclos and the King’s splendid mistress, Athénaïs de Montespan, who made the young widow governess to her brood of illegitimate children. The appointment transformed Françoise’s life, but was fatal to the temperamental Athénaïs herself, with the King soon turning his attentions to the graceful governess. Françoise was raised to the nobility as Madame de Maintenon—and, unofficially, “Madame de Maintenant,” the lady of the moment. The acclaimed biographer Veronica Buckley traces the extraordinary story of Françoise’s progress from pauper child to salonnière to the compromised position of Louis’s secret wife and uncrowned Queen. An absolute ruler, Louis turned away his many other mistresses to live with Françoise only, trusting her as his closest confidante and remaining in love with her for forty years. Sparkling with the irresistible wit of contemporary chroniclers such as Madame de Sévigné, this exactingly researched biography is a pinnacle of the form. In vibrant colors, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV paints a portrait of Europe in an age of violent change, and the Sun King’s France in the process of becoming its modern self.

The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr
The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr

Author: Susan Holloway Scott

Publisher: Kensington Books

Published: 2019-09-24

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1496719190

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Inspired by a woman and events forgotten by history, bestselling author Susan Holloway Scott weaves together carefully researched fact and fiction to tell the story of Mary Emmons, and the place she held in the life—and the heart—of the notorious Aaron Burr. He was a hero of the Revolution, a brilliant politician, lawyer, and very nearly president; a skillful survivor in a raw new country filled with constantly shifting loyalties. Today Aaron Burr is remembered more for the fatal duel that killed rival Alexander Hamilton. But long before that single shot destroyed Burr’s political career, there were other dark whispers about him: that he was untrustworthy, a libertine, a man unafraid of claiming whatever he believed should be his. Sold into slavery as a child in India, Mary Emmons was brought to an America torn by war. Toughened by the experiences of her young life, Mary is intelligent, resourceful, and strong. She quickly gains the trust of her new mistress, Theodosia Prevost, and becomes indispensable in a complicated household filled with intrigue—especially when the now-widowed Theodosia marries Colonel Aaron Burr. As Theodosia sickens with the fatal disease that will finally kill her, Mary and Burr are drawn together into a private world of power and passion, and a secret, tangled union that would have shocked the nation . . . Praise for I, Eliza Hamilton “Scott’s devotion to research is evident . . . a rewarding take on a fascinating historical couple.” —Library Journal “Readers will be captivated.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Packed with political and historical as well as domestic details.” —Booklist

The Birth of Venus
The Birth of Venus

Author: Sarah Dunant

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2004-11-30

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 1588364429

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Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities. But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra’s parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola’s reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra’s married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art. The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain’s most innovative writers of literary suspense. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion, and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a heroine with the same vibrancy of spirit as her beloved city.

The Red Lily Crown
The Red Lily Crown

Author: Elizabeth Loupas

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2015-05-07

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 1409052559

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A compelling story of intrigue, passion, and murder in the Medici Court, from the author of The Flower Reader and The Second Duchess. Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Sarah Dunant. Florence, 1574 Fighting for survival in the teeming city of Florence, Chiara Nerini sets out to sell her dead father’s rare alchemical equipment. Instead she is imprisoned and forcibly initiated as a virgin acolyte by the alchemy-obsessed Prince Francesco, heir to the red lily crown of the Medici. Francesco believes her purity to be an essential element in his quest for eternal life. He will keep her in luxury, but his price is her freedom and a vow of celibacy that can be broken only by death. Chiara must seek a safe path through the labyrinth of Francesco’s deadly court. But to do so means to cast her lot with the mysterious English alchemist who calls himself Ruanno. Can Chiara trust him with her secrets... even her love... or will he prove to be her most treacherous enemy of all?

The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence
The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence

Author: Alyssa Palombo

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: 2017-04-25

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1466882646

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"In the tradition of Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, Palombo has married fine art with romantic historical fiction in this lush and sensual interpretation of Medici Florence, artist Sandro Botticelli, and the muse that inspired them all." - Booklist A girl as beautiful as Simonetta Cattaneo never wants for marriage proposals in 15th Century Italy, but she jumps at the chance to marry Marco Vespucci. Marco is young, handsome and well-educated. Not to mention he is one of the powerful Medici family’s favored circle. Even before her marriage with Marco is set, Simonetta is swept up into Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici’s glittering circle of politicians, poets, artists, and philosophers. The men of Florence—most notably the rakish Giuliano de’ Medici—become enthralled with her beauty. That she is educated and an ardent reader of poetry makes her more desirable and fashionable still. But it is her acquaintance with a young painter, Sandro Botticelli, which strikes her heart most. Botticelli immediately invites Simonetta, newly proclaimed the most beautiful woman in Florence, to pose for him. As Simonetta learns to navigate her marriage, her place in Florentine society, and the politics of beauty and desire, she and Botticelli develop a passionate intimacy, one that leads to her immortalization in his masterpiece, The Birth of Venus. Alyssa Palombo’s The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence vividly captures the dangerous allure of the artist and muse bond with candor and unforgettable passion.

The Devil's Queen
The Devil's Queen

Author: Jeanne Kalogridis

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2009-07-21

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 1429984317

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From Jeanne Kalogridis, the bestselling author of I, Mona Lisa and The Borgia Bride, comes a new novel that tells the passionate story of a queen who loved not wisely . . . but all too well. Confidante of Nostradamus, scheming mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, and architect of the bloody St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Catherine de Medici is one of the most maligned monarchs in history. In her latest historical fiction, Jeanne Kalogridis tells Catherine's story—that of a tender young girl, destined to be a pawn in Machiavellian games. Born into one of Florence's most powerful families, Catherine was soon left a fabulously rich heiress by the early deaths of her parents. Violent conflict rent the city state and she found herself imprisoned and threatened by her family's enemies before finally being released and married off to the handsome Prince Henry of France. Overshadowed by her husband's mistress, the gorgeous, conniving Diane de Poitiers, and unable to bear children, Catherine resorted to the dark arts of sorcery to win Henry's love and enhance her fertility—for which she would pay a price. Against the lavish and decadent backdrop of the French court, and Catherine's blood-soaked visions of the future, Kalogridis reveals the great love and desire Catherine bore for her husband, Henry, and her stark determination to keep her sons on the throne.