Last Valois

The classic tale of royal conspiracy and forbidden romance during the sixteenth-century French Wars of Religion by the author of The Three Musketeers. Paris, 1572. For a decade, French Catholics and Protestant Huguenots have been locked in a violent struggle for control of France. Though King Charles IX reigns, it is his mother, Catherine de Medici, who holds sway. In a gesture of peace, Catherine arranges for her daughter Margot to marry the Huguenot king of Navarre, Henri de Bourbon-while secretly arranging the slaughter of thousands of Protestants gathering in Paris to celebrate the wedding. Caught in the merciless machinery of court intrigue and married to a man she does not love, Margot begins an illicit affair with a Protestant soldier.

Queen Marguerite of Valois, sister of Charles IX and wife of Henry of Navarre, is surrounded by political and amorous intrigue during the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The author, according to his custom, introduces a vast array of characters, for the most part historical, all spiritedly drawn and well sustained. M. Dumas may, in various respects, be held up as an example to our history spoilers, self-styled writers of historical romance, on this side the channel. One does not find him profaning public edifices by causing all sorts of absurdities to pass, and of twaddle to be spoken, within their precincts; neither does he make his kings and beggars, high-born dames and private soldiers, use the very same language, all equally tame, colorless, and devoid of character. The spirited and varied dialogue in which his romances abound, illustrates and brings out the qualities and characteristics of his actors, and is not used for the sole purpose of making a chapter out of what would be better told in a page. In many instances, indeed, it would be difficult for him to tell his story, by the barest narrative, in fewer words than he does by pithy and pointed dialogue.

Amidst the conspiracy of the Holy League to make the Duke of Anjou king, Bussy d'Amboise falls in love with a lady of the court of Henry III -- a lady with a very jealous husband!

"The Forty Five Guardsmen" by Alexandre Dumas. Historical fiction from the time of the bitter conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in France after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and before the reign of Henri of Navarre. According to Wikipedia Alexandre Dumas père French for father akin to Senior in English born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie 1802 - 1870 was a French writer best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Many of his novels including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne were serialized. He also wrote plays and magazine articles and was a prolific correspondent.