Another Valois woman

Frances Yates' Valois Tapestries add another poignant note to the horrible epic of the downfall of the French royal household of the same name. It is the story of Christina of Lorraine, the favorite grand-daughter of Catherine de' Medici. The old queen saw in the girl a similarity both physical and of character; and negotiated for her a good match to a familiar party, the Grand Duke of Toscany, a Medici himself. The Granduca sent negotiators to Paris and the negotiations were intense, not without an air of brinkmanship, while around them the world was caving in; France was gripped by a three-cornered civil war (the king, the Catholics, the protestants -- and God against all). The deal seemed nearly worked out and the ceremony set to proceed when suddenly the king decided to assassinate the Guises, the very men he had himself proposed as proxies in the marriage ceremony. (Cross-border royal weddings were conducted by proxy since the man could not leave his job to attend and the woman would not travel to him until she has been properly married). It is at this point that the young Christina -- 24 year old -- stepped in decisively assuming a leading role in the negotiations, an unheard of thing at the time. One can easily guess: get me out of here, she was thinking to herself, anything, anywhere, but get me out of here. Just when the getting out seemed good, she realized that those to whom her fate was entrusted were irresponsible, unreliable, liable to change course on the dime; and that with them -- her family for Chrissake -- her own safety and happiness counted for nothing; that she was really alone; and that if she wanted her life to take a particular turn, she had to make sure of it herself. And she did by all sorts of daring and unheard of acts, including forcing her grandfather (she was an orphan) to commit to escort her through war ravaged France to the Italian border. When at last she arrived in Florence, it was not just the good weather of the place, and the kindness of her new husband, and the extravagant intermezzi of 1589, but most of all, the peace and safety of her new home that welcomed her. She had made her escape. Look at her: another great Valois woman of steely resolve and brilliant intelligence. Look at the contentedly self-aware power beneath that barely concealed smirk of self-satisfaction. It says: I got away.