YOUNG QUEENS

A celebration of the lives of three significant European queens.

For centuries, dispatches from royal courts around the world have reflected only the male perspective. In this thorough historical excavation, Chang, a former professor of French literature and culture, immediately ensnares readers with her painstakingly rendered, intertwined narrative about three royal women in 16th-century Europe: Catherine de' Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots. Refreshingly, the author doesn’t merely rehearse her subjects’ daily lives. By using intimate, personal accounts gleaned from her extensive research, Chang transports readers directly into their world. She shows how, despite limitations on their power, they used what little they had to help shape events around them. Born into wealth and privilege, all three shared the same fate of being married off at a young age, often traded for land or peace and goodwill treaties. As young brides, their bodies were not their own; rather, they were considered property of their families or the nation at large. “Their bodies, passed across borders, became symbolic capital,” writes the author, “the vector of peace, alliance, wealth or empire.” Fertility was paramount, and primitive women’s health rituals haunted them as they attempted to produce heirs for their husbands. Though Chang highlights their similarities, she also allows their distinct personalities to shine through, demonstrating the evolution of each woman: Catherine emerges as a skilled power seeker; Elisabeth, as a queenly wife and mother beloved by her husband and her nation; and Mary, as an embattled widow who “spent half her life a prisoner.” Chang vividly captures the importance of religion and war, both of which had profound effects on the decision-making of all three women and everyone within the royal orbit. In addition, the author delineates many intriguing details about extravagant weddings, celebrations, and other courtly matters, ably balancing the personal and the universal.

A delightful historical study of women coming to the forefront in a world dominated by men.