This was a really fascinating examination of Catherine de Medici, her daughter Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots. These three women were at the forefront of European politics during the latter half of the 16th century and I think the author did a great job of weaving the narrative to show how much their lives intersected at key times. A really thorough and clearly well researched account that I enjoyed a great deal.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Very well researched and it's obvious how much has gone into it on this front. I enjoyed it - a must read for history buffs!

*A big thank-you to Leah Redmond Chang, Bloomsbury Publishing, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
Non-fiction that really kept my interested throughout. Excellent research, with historical details concerning not just the private lives of the three queens but also the political and social events of the period. Well written and in a way accessible to an average reader interested to expand their knowledge.
Not my first read on the lives of Catherine de Medici, Mary Stuart and Elisabeth de Valois, however, I learnt a lot, especially about Catherine's daughter. Highly recommended.

Born into the powerful Medici family of Florence young Catherine experiences upsets but is sent away to marry at a young age. Her husband is the King of France and after some conception issues Catherine presents her country with several children. On his death Catherine assumes the regency for her son and his young bride, Mary. Mary is the Queen of Scotland but has been resident in France since and early age. Catherine's daughter Elizabeth is then married to Philip of Spain. Therefore by the 1560s these three woman are at the head of affairs in three major powers.
I really enjoyed this book as it portrayed three women I have long heard about but only was familiar with the story of Mary in detail. Catherine de Medici lived a long life, outliving most of her children and oversaw a lot of turmoil in France including war and religious conflict. She used her influence via her daughter in Spain to build alliances to protect her country. Elizabeth is a figure of whom little is known beside official records and the letters she shared with her mother, here she is given life. The book is very readable for a scholarly biography and hits a gap by not focusing on the Tudors, but looking at the bigger European picture.

Fascinating portraits of three remarkable young women during the early years of their lives as Queen consorts and their places within the circles of power in France and Spain. Meticulously well researched and full of fascinating details, this terrific book offers us a very compelling look at Catherine of Medici, Elizabeth of Valois and Mary Stuart as they tried to navigate the treacherous waters of 16th century politics and the very demanding rules of court "etiquette" at the beginning of their respective queenship. I particularly enjoyed the magnificent portrait of Elizabeth of Valois. A full fledged biography of Philip of Spain's second wife is unfortunately long overdue... A highly recommended read for anyone interested in the European Renaissance.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for the terrific ARC!

Fascinating story of three queens, of England, France and Scotland and their fight to keep their crowns

I recieved a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of three Queens all linked by their attachment to France: Catherine de Medici, Elizabeth de Valois Queen of Spain and Mary Queen of Scots. I have long been fascinated with the women who helped shape the late sixteenth century but most of my reading had been on the women of the British Isles, including Mary. Catherine was a familiar name but I did not know much about her history, she was obviously a key figure in Anglo-French relations. Of the three Elizabeth was the one I knew least about.

I would not expect a comprehensive biography of the each of the three Queens, but I do not think that is what the author is intending. This instead is a book about the relationship dynamics which shaped the women, their relationships, their decisions, and arguably the direction of European politics. Through their letters, in the case of Catherine a truly voluminous correspondance, we can get a closer sense of the character of each and their motivations.

Having read biographies of Mary previously, I was most suprised by how much more I learnt in this book. Understanding more about those formative years in France, growing up alongside the French royal children, the impact of her Guise relatives and the adoration she recieved as an important political pawn. These events now make her later decisions once she returned to Scotland more explicable, she had been groomed to be a queen consort and to follow the advise of her male relatives; Mary had been taught not to think for herself and to rely on her tightly knit french family. Even by the time she fled to England she was still politically and emotionally a child. I have much more empathy for Mary the woman, she was hopelessly ill prepared to govern.

Catherine de Medici has had many charges laid against her door to the extent that she has become almost a characture, a symptom of which can been seen in Dumas's novel La Reine Margot. In returning to Catherines highly troubled childhood we understand more clearly her drivers both in enduring what must have been a humiliating marriage and her unwavering devotion to her children. This book definately shifted some perceptions, she was much more of an advocate for compromise and conciliation than I had been led to believe. A consumate politician who ended up guiding three kings of France through the tumultuous period of religious upheavel.

Poor Elizabeth, she was not so nearly important as the other Queens. However her story highlights the conflicts which must have beset many young princesses married off the cement dynastic and political alliences. Who does one support? The country and family of one's birth or the country and husband you married? Through her letters with her mother we see how she tries to find a balance. It is all the more impressive since she was married off at 13/14 and by her early twenties was dead.

I very much enjoyed this book and it should be read by anyone interested in the role of women in early modern politics.

I have not given it five stars because the copy I recieved was very poorly formatted for kindle, hopefully something they have subsequently resolved.

These women were queens and each of them had to fight for her life or for power. Caterina De Medici is a myth that can be negative or positive according to the side you're on, Elizabeth of Valois is the less known even if there's an opera that telll her story (Don Carlos by Verdy), Mary Stewart is the one who lose everything including her life.
I liked the storytelling, the style of writing and learned something more about these women.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

‘Young Queens’ is a fascinating look at the queenships of three different women and the challenges they faced. Catherine de Medici was Queen Consort of France and then Queen Mother during the 3 reigns of her sons, Mary Queen of Scots was Queen Consort of France and Queen Regnant of Scotland and Elizabeth de Valois became Queen Consort of Spain.

These women also shared personal relationships as mother and mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and sister-in-law and daughter and sister-in-law. Mary had been welcomed into the French royal household at the age of five as the future wife of the Dauphin, where she grew up alongside Catherine’s daughter, Elizabeth.

It was the death of Catherine’s husband. Henri II, at a jousting tournament to celebrate the marriage of Elizabeth to Phillip II of Spain that bound the three women together in tragedy but also changed everything. Catherine became Queen Mother, Mary became Queen Consort of France and Elizabeth soon left for Spain. Mary’s reign as Consort only lasted 17 months and she eventually returned to Scotland as Queen Regnant.

From then onwards their relationship was tested by circumstance and politics. Once separated, the book focuses on their interactions as queens and in doing so, the author brings a new perspective (for me at any rate), to the lives of Catherine and Mary. Catherine faced the rise of religious wars in France while trying to maintain the balance of power in Europe. Mary found her role as Queen Regnant and Scotland very different from her life in France and Elizabeth had to learn to deal with the demands of her mother with those of her new role.

Redmond skilfully combines rich detail (including the letters sent between the three women) with a superb narrative, as she gives the three Queens a voice and in doing so brings them vividly to life.

Although I was drawn to the subject matter of Young Queens, my excitement waned as I delved into its pages. Despite my curiosity about the three Queens featured in the book, I found myself struggling to maintain my interest. It failed to captivate me, leaving me feeling uninspired and disengaged. Unfortunately this book was not a suitable match for my tastes.

3.5 stars rounded up

I enjoyed this book, it was an interesting and very informative read. I loved learning more about the three queens, especially Elisabeth de Valois, as I was not very familiar with her life. I appreciated the details and the amount of research that went into this book, and I loved seeing how the three queens’ stories intertwine. However, I found that for some chapters, a lot of information was presented in the span of a few paragraphs, which made it difficult to navigate the text and understand everything that was going on. I also expected to read about the life of these three queens from a closer, more personal perspective—some chapters almost let us glimpse inside the minds of these queens and felt very intimate, while others were just heavily informative.
Overall, Young Queens is an enjoyable book that I would recommend to anyone interested in royal history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review

Young Queens is informative and meticulously well researched. I found it a little hard to follow the chronology at times as three life stories are being told simultaneously, including a timeline may have been useful. I would also have loved to see family trees and images of the portraits mentioned. However the book is very well written and the author really brings the three women to life. I especially enjoyed the story of Catherine graffitiing her unfinished portrait! It was also interesting to see a different side to Philip II as I’d only really known of him as the (mostly absent) husband of Mary I.
Thank you to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for this ARC.

I like the idea of treating three Renaissance queens together but I think this book will work best for readers who are unfamiliar with them - so much has been already written about Mary Queen of Scots and Catherine de Medici that it's questionable how another book can freshen their stories. The chapters on Catherine's young life were interesting but then we, inevitably, have to go back to the lives of Francis I and Henry II as context for her own life as queen, and those of her sons to contextualise her role as 'Queen Mother'.

There are some odd choices in the retelling of Mary's life: I expected a more sympathetic and detailed focus on her capture/kidnap by Bothwell, for example, but it's over in a flash despite there being a lot of material here.

Elizabeth de Valois has a less prominent role so it's good to see her here. I really, though, wanted more unification and analysis of these royal women's lives as women: for example, imagining Catherine's feelings on her marriage night to an effective stranger is the sort of stuff I wanted this book to open up but there's far less of it than I expected.

In the end this is another version of early sixteenth century royal history in Europe - there is a slight change of angle that veers towards the women but overall this is less radical or new or illuminating that I'd have liked, and treats a lot of old ground in a snappy way. Good, then, as an introduction to these women who were related and linked via the French court.