Murder at Fontainebleau (21 page)

I hope you've enjoyed following Kate to France as much as I have! Fontainebleau is one of the most beautiful palaces in Europe, with a fascinating history, and I enjoyed the chance to spend a little more time there (even if only in my imagination!) at one of its most turbulent times in history.

The 1560s were an incredible period for amazing women, and I had a lot of fun incorporating two of them, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Catherine de Medici (one of my favorite historical figures), into Kate's adventures. Mary Stewart (1542–1587) has, of course, been a figure of much fascination for centuries, the subject of endless stories/movies/plays, and it's easy to see why. She was renowned for her beauty and charm, she was an adventurer at heart (even though those adventures ended in mayhem more often than not), and she died most tragically. She is a counterpoint to her cousin Elizabeth I's great success.

The only surviving child of King James V of Scotland (who died mere days after her birth) and the
indomitable Marie de Guise, daughter of one of the most powerful and ruthless families in France, Mary's early childhood was one of much turbulence. Henry VIII's so-called rough wooing, trying via raids and battles to win Mary's hand for his son Prince Edward, drove Queen Marie to arrange a marriage with the three-year-old son of King Henri II of France. In August 1548, Mary was sent to France to be raised as a true French princess, setting sail with a large retinue that included her playmates, the Maries, who would stay with her for many years.

She was a great favorite at the French court, considered to be stylish and charming. She loved hunting and hawking, embroidery, music, and dancing, and mastered several languages (though she was no scholar like Elizabeth). She was very tall (almost six feet) and pretty, with auburn hair, brown-gold eyes, and a famously pale complexion. She married the Dauphin Francis in a lavish ceremony at Notre Dame in 1558.

As the granddaughter of Princess Margaret Tudor, she had a strong claim to the English throne, and her father-in-law did not hesitate to press that claim, ordering that Francis and Mary's arms be quartered with those of England—an action that haunted relations with Elizabeth forever. She became Queen of France much sooner than expected, when King Henri died in a terrible jousting accident on July 10, 1559, leaving his sickly fifteen-year-old son as king. Mary's Guise uncles practically ran the country under King
Francis and Queen Mary, but the reign did not last long. Francis died of an ear infection in December 1560, and Mary's life changed forever.

With her ten-year-old brother-in-law, Charles IX, now king and firmly under the control of his mother, Catherine de Medici, there was no place for Mary to go in France, though she could have chosen to live there in comfortable retirement. Various proposed marriages did not work out, and her adventurous heart led her back to Scotland.

The other powerful woman in France at the time, Catherine de Medici (1519–1589), did not seem at the time of her arrival as a teenage bride to be one who would seize power. A fascinating, complex woman, she was the daughter of Lorenzo de Medici and the French noblewoman Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, and was orphaned as an infant and raised by her uncle the pope, who arranged a stunning marriage with Henri, the second son of the King of France, when she was fourteen. She fell deeply in love with her husband, who was already in love with the beautiful Diane de Poitiers and had no time for his new bride. For ten years, Catherine had no children, was ignored by her husband, and was shunned by the elegant and snobbish French court. There was often talk of sending her back to Florence, but she kept quiet and bided her time. After the death of her husband and of her eldest son, she came into her own power as regent. She sent away the Guise, presided over the royal council, and decided
the policy in France for many years. She was a great patron of the arts, such as painting, music, theater, and architecture, as well as food in the Italian style. She was also deeply interested in the occult, bringing in astrologers and alchemists to help her decide policy. (Ruggieri was a real figure.)

Unfortunately, even though she herself did not seem to have strong religious feelings and tried to run the middle line between the Catholics and Protestants of France, she failed to realize the high passions and hatreds that had been simmering for years, and soon France was launched into the thirty years of the Wars of Religion.

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (1515/16–1571) was also a real historical figure. He was a staunch Protestant, imprisoned for a time under Queen Mary Tudor for possible involvement in Wyatt's Rebellion. Under Queen Elizabeth, and with the support of his friend William Cecil, he rose quickly at court. From May 1559 to April 1564, he was ambassador to France, where he got to know Queen Mary quite well. He grudgingly admired her for her charm and her seeming helpless femininity, even as he was exasperated by her evasions in the matter of the Treaty of Edinburgh (which she never ratified). In 1565 he was sent as ambassador to Scotland, where he tried and failed to stop the disastrous Darnley marriage. (Interesting historical tidbits: His daughter Elizabeth, “Bess,” went on to marry Sir Walter Raleigh, and his widow, Anne Carew, married
Adrian Stokes, who had also been the second husband of Frances Brandon Grey, Duchess of Suffolk.)

One real-life aspect of sixteenth-century Fontainebleau I loved using in the story was Queen Catherine's dairy. I've visited the Petit Trianon at Versailles and loved seeing the still-working gardens (growing pumpkins last time I was there) and the items like Sèvres china milk buckets, but I didn't know that Marie Antoinette was far from the first queen to build her own rustic retreat. Last year I read Meredith Martin's fascinating book
Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de' Medici to Marie-Antoinette
, and learned more about this facet of royal life in France. Mi Voie (“midway”), Catherine's dairy, has long been demolished and its location is hard to find in the grounds at Fontainebleau, but the queen put a great deal of work and interest into it during her life. It was designed and decorated by many of the same artists who worked on the château. On February 13, 1564, she hosted an elaborate banquet there before embarking on a long royal tour with young King Charles, and I stole a few of the aspects of this party for my own story (just a few years early!).

I also came to feel like Fontainebleau itself was a character in Kate's story. It's an amazingly beautiful place, and the corridors, richly decorated chambers, and exquisite gardens seem to be full of ghosts! The king's gallery, where Kate meets Queen Catherine for the first time, the pond with its stone summerhouse,
and the towers and staircases are all still there, just waiting for new stories. . . . These are just a few of the sources I used for the historical background of
Murder at Fontainebleau
. Please visit my Web site, amandacarmack.com, for more information and Tudor sources.

For Mary, Queen of Scots:

Jane Dunn,
Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens
(2003).

Antonia Fraser,
Mary Queen of Scots
(1969).

Roderick Graham,
The Life of Mary: Queen of Scots: An Accidental Tragedy
(2009).

John Guy,
Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stewart
(2004).

James Mackay,
In My End Is My Beginning: A Life of Mary Queen of Scots
(1999).

Alison Plowden,
Two Queens in One Isle
(1984).

Susan Watkins,
Mary Queen of Scots
(2001).

For Catherine de Medici:

Leonie Frieda,
Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France
(2003).

Robert J. Knecht,
Catherine de' Medici
(1998).

Princess Michael of Kent,
The Serpent and the Moon
(2004).

For sixteenth-century France:

Frederic J. Baumgartner,
France in the Sixteenth Century
(1995).

Vincent Droguet,
Fontainebleau: The House of Kings
(2002).

Robert J. Knecht,
The French Renaissance Court
(2008).

Henry D. Sedgwick,
The House of Guise
(1938).

A
BOUT
THE
A
UTHOR

Amanda Carmack is a pseudonym for a multipublished author. Her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the
Romantic Times
Reviewers' Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. Her Elizabethan mysteries include
Murder at Whitehall
and
Murder in the Queen's Garden
, as well as the e-novella
Murder at the Queen's Masquerade.
She lives in Oklahoma.

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