Vulgar History - Catherine de'Medici, Part Two

00:00:00.000 Chew on this bold question from Dentine Gum.

00:00:03.560 Is it ever okay to compliment a millennial on their skinny jeans in 2026?

00:00:12.840 Dentine, chew bold.

00:00:18.120 Hi, Kits Out Brigade. It's me, Anne.

00:00:20.400 I wanted to let you know about a fundraiser that I'm doing all this month, the month of April 2023.

00:00:25.480 trans rights are under attack seemingly everywhere particularly in the united states that's been in

00:00:31.760 the news lately but it's an issue all over the place and i as a person and this podcast as an

00:00:36.980 entity we stand with all trans people everywhere and so to raise some money i'm running this

00:00:43.980 fundraiser all month called tits out for trans rights so you can get all the details if you go

00:00:48.300 to vulgarhistory.com slash donate that's vulgarhistory.com slash donate it's two-pronged

00:00:55.400 the fundraiser so first of all i'm raising money for the trevor project which is an american

00:00:59.720 organization that supports lgbtq plus people and then also i've got a new item in the merch store

00:01:06.200 which is an item featuring trans icon the chevalier day on who i talked about in an episode

00:01:12.320 last season with guest host Maya Dean and all the proceeds from sales of the Chevalier Day On.

00:01:19.300 Merchandise this month is going to be donated to Point of Pride, which is another American

00:01:23.440 organization that helps support trans people. If there's another organization that you're

00:01:28.080 planning to support this month anyway, somewhere close to home, something that is meaningful to

00:01:32.340 you that supports trans people, there's a form also on my website where you can just list what

00:01:37.120 the donation was and who you gave the money to. So at the end of the month, I can give a grand

00:01:42.440 total of how much the Tits Out Brigade was able to raise as part of this fundraiser. Also for

00:01:47.780 everybody who wants to, I will give you a shout out to all the people who donate in a later episode

00:01:53.240 of Vulgar History. So again, you can get all the details of this fundraiser at vulgarhistory.com

00:01:58.540 slash donate. Tits out for trans rights. 0.97

00:02:07.120 Hello, and welcome to Vulgar History, a feminist women's history comedy podcast.

00:02:18.080 My name is Anne Foster, and this is an episode in the season,

00:02:22.660 There's Something About Mary, Queen of Scots.

00:02:24.980 This is part two of Catherine de Medici, who was Mary, Queen of Scots, one-time mother-in-law,

00:02:31.840 and that's like number 25 on the list of most interesting things about Catherine de Medici.

00:02:36.020 But I do want to say if you're, if this is the first time I've ever listened to this podcast, like you should probably listen to part one first. This is very much the second part of what is going to be a three part conversation. And also the way that the season is going, just I explained this earlier, but I'm going to keep explaining it because, you know, it's, we're in it and it's worth re-explaining.

00:02:56.720 so I'm going to talk about somebody from Mary Queen of Scots's story and her life and then

00:03:02.560 and that's going to be you know maybe one episode maybe two maybe three and then the Wednesday and

00:03:07.700 those are all on Wednesdays then the Wednesday after that I'm going to do a super special while

00:03:11.320 I take a break and just prepare for the next one then we're going to dive into the next Mary Queen

00:03:15.240 of Scots adjacent related person so you can always tell if it's going to be an episode in this

00:03:20.200 Mary Queen of Scots saga because the episodes are gonna they're just going to be a person's name

00:03:25.180 The super special episodes, I always say super special beforehand.

00:03:28.340 So if you really want to just follow the Mary Queen of Scots story, you can just listen to these ones.

00:03:32.200 And when it's a super special, you can save those for another time for yourself.

00:03:35.520 But this is just a way.

00:03:36.920 There's so many books that are coming out, so many authors I want to talk to and about.

00:03:40.420 And some of the themes in them really overlap with just everything we always talk about in this podcast.

00:03:46.180 Anyway, so if you're feeling like, whoa, this is like a scattered and random assortment of episodes,

00:03:50.540 especially now that we're having these like Friday bonus episodes, which are also super special.

00:03:55.180 author chats. It's like, it's a lot. Why am I doing this? Because I have so much to say.

00:04:01.200 But if you really want to just like really vibe with American Scots of it all, you know,

00:04:04.980 listen to the Wednesday episodes, look for the ones that don't say super special on them.

00:04:08.940 And that way you can just kind of get at that story sequentially. But yeah, so again, I'm joined

00:04:15.160 by Lena Wood Johnson to talk about Catherine Dometici. This is the part two. What's the middle

00:04:22.020 Star Wars movie. Is it the Empire Strikes Back? This is like the part two. Part three is where

00:04:29.100 things are going to like really hit the fan. Although I guess Catherine de' Medici's life is

00:04:33.080 like perpetually just in the fan. But this is the middle part of what's going to be three

00:04:38.400 Catherine de' Medici episodes. And so, I mean, without further ado, here's me Atlanta from the

00:04:43.300 past. Hooray. Like, you know, divorce no longer in the cards. Like Catherine's place cemented.

00:04:51.220 She not just had a child, it was a son.

00:04:53.360 And she had lots of sons.

00:04:55.920 She did.

00:04:56.560 That survived their infancy and childhood.

00:04:59.680 And you know what?

00:05:00.600 She did her job.

00:05:01.540 It's part of the problem.

00:05:02.460 They didn't do their job.

00:05:03.420 She did her job. 1.00

00:05:04.720 They were like trademark vulgar history, useless sons. 0.93

00:05:09.280 So somebody asked when I was asking about the Marie DeGay's episode, 0.98

00:05:12.980 because it is a common thing on this podcast to have like a woman who's a queen

00:05:16.960 and fights Tuesday night and does amazing to like get her son a good position. 0.96

00:05:20.660 and the son is terrible and useless somebody was like do marie de guise's younger brothers count 0.66

00:05:26.500 as useless sons and i was like it is a similar vibe it's a similar vibe like someone no but it's 0.96

00:05:34.100 not the same youngest brothers the youngest brothers sorry yes the youngest brothers i mean 0.54

00:05:39.540 they were spares they're sitting around doing nothing literally the guys who didn't help her

00:05:44.020 when she was in trouble no the uncles they're totally gonna get there yes the uncles sorry

00:05:48.960 context yes the uncles the uncles the capital u uncles the dickies uncles like they were here for 0.92

00:05:57.080 it the marie de guise's youngest brother is useless so um the king of friends died henry

00:06:04.480 becomes king which is like surprise like your one brother died in a pillow fight your other brother

00:06:08.800 died in a tennis related accident i guess it's you i don't know if the tennis brother was in line

00:06:14.000 but yes that's i'm pretty sure that's how he died on rain which i know you haven't watched there's

00:06:18.080 a part where um before the henry character dies he's haunted by a man carrying a tennis racket

00:06:23.640 and i was like who is this tennis racket ghost anyway um and it so i just always remember that

00:06:30.080 brother died in a tennis accident because his ghost haunted him carrying a tennis racket

00:06:34.000 so catherine is now queen of france but diane has been the mistress for so long and she's also been

00:06:41.120 like diane she's been the mistress for so long and she's also been in french court for even longer

00:06:46.040 because she was 38 when she became the mistress.

00:06:47.680 So she has so many connections and stuff. 0.99

00:06:49.720 She had more political influence.

00:06:51.380 Often like when there's an official procession,

00:06:54.640 it was like Henry and Catherine and Diane

00:06:55.880 was right behind looking better and more glamorous. 0.99

00:06:58.460 She would also, she sort of acted as queen 1.00

00:07:01.540 like at official engagements and stuff.

00:07:03.480 And she was given notably the Chateau de Chenonceau,

00:07:07.980 which is a beautiful residence

00:07:10.160 Catherine had wanted for herself.

00:07:11.840 And this becomes a big,

00:07:12.860 and then I think it was decorated

00:07:14.920 with the intertwining initials of Henry and Deanne.

00:07:19.540 Actually, I was wrong, and I want to clarify this.

00:07:23.120 Younger brother had the pillow fight.

00:07:25.440 Younger brother, okay.

00:07:27.140 Older brother probably died of tuberculosis.

00:07:31.180 After playing tennis.

00:07:31.880 But he died so fast that they think, after the tennis.

00:07:37.820 He played around a tennis, asked for a cup of water,

00:07:41.400 which was brought to him, and then after drinking it,

00:07:43.360 he collapsed and died several days later. Yeah. So people are like, did he overexert himself in

00:07:48.020 tennis? But there's also, that's where the first poisoning rumor comes in. Did Catherine de

00:07:53.000 Medici poison him? You're right. You're right. Because when the tennis brother died, then

00:07:57.660 suddenly Henry is heir to the throne. And so it's like, okay, Catherine, it's like, we know she's

00:08:01.040 using herbal remedies for like pregnancy reasons, which like a lot of women were, but it's also

00:08:06.560 she's from and she was interested in poisons and had a poison buddy yeah if you've um read the

00:08:13.660 Flavia De Luce mysteries it's about a little girl who's interested in poisons Catherine de

00:08:18.200 Medici has that vibe she's just like really interested in poisons in like a scientific way

00:08:22.260 she also really liked I'm not sure if this is at the point in which Nostradamus is on the scene

00:08:27.520 but like she had like soothsayers and prognosticators like she had she really liked talking to sort of

00:08:33.160 like spiritual advisors. Yeah. Which didn't help with the whole witchcraft poisoning rumors.

00:08:41.520 Correct. And so while she, can we talk about the flying squadron? Oh, are we there yet? Okay. I'm

00:08:49.060 not, I'm not sure if they're there yet, but I think they must've been. I thought they were later.

00:08:53.720 I'm not sure when they show up. Let me figure that out. Well, because I'm just thinking,

00:08:58.320 cause the next thing I have in my notes is Henry dies, but I know that Catherine was like doing

00:09:02.580 stuff before that right i i like i know for sure that the flying squadron existed during the whole 1.00

00:09:10.280 margot situation okay so at some point catherine develops she has a group of sexy lady spies who

00:09:19.380 work for her and they're called the flying squadron and the reason they're called the

00:09:22.900 flying squadron is because catherine is the one who introduced ballet to france which when we get

00:09:28.380 to significant scoring like ballet is such a major thing in france and she was the one who

00:09:32.820 brought it there and so they're called the flying squadron named after the kind of ballet dancing

00:09:37.580 you know when you're doing a lift and stuff so that's why and they were just kind of like sexy 0.99

00:09:41.680 lady spies who so her ladies in waiting were also spies and they would like sleep with people to get

00:09:48.440 information and stuff so like well dn has this built-in sort of influence circle of like other 1.00

00:09:56.160 aristocrats and people she knows katherine is just like getting the goods and everybody through her 1.00

00:09:59.920 lady spies let me find i found a good description of it i mean she grew up she grew up in in the

00:10:06.380 vatican and information is one of the most valuable tools when you're vatican politics is like just

00:10:13.140 who knows what who knows what dirt about who and so she learned the value of that pretty early on

00:10:19.240 yeah and she's been here for whatever by now 15 years or something like i'm sure if it's not

00:10:24.560 officially the flying squadron known as a flying squadron she has eyes and ears she has spies 0.83

00:10:29.100 well and diane was acting like basically the the queen the proper queen who did all of the 0.98

00:10:35.740 appearances and stuff so she had not a lot to do yeah so she was just slowly amassing very slowly

00:10:41.900 very quietly amassing power and influence and knowledge exactly exactly so at this point i think

00:10:49.420 perhaps Catherine like she's doing all this stuff but stealthily in the de medici way while people

00:10:55.300 just like oh poor Catherine she's just like having babies and like being overshadowed by Deanne but 0.56

00:11:00.380 meanwhile Catherine is secretly so smart and just like developing well and and she's using that same

00:11:07.100 de medici like getting good with the artists because people say stuff around artists that

00:11:12.360 they like they don't treat them like people and so that's one of the other parts of the flying

00:11:16.600 squadron was like that they were ballerinas that they were artists that they were very talented

00:11:21.520 women that people wanted to sleep with that they didn't think of as nobles but they but like they 0.99

00:11:29.000 were special and pretty and good and so she knew how to get in good with artists being a de medici

00:11:34.420 exactly so this is kind of like i don't know how many episodes this is going to be again but i feel

00:11:39.780 like henry dying could be end part one tune in next time

00:11:44.440 but um so katherine's just like stealthily in the shadows developing power and then henry died

00:11:53.000 in 1559 of what i describe as a joust related eye slash brain injury he got a giant splinter

00:12:01.580 lodged in his eye and it went straight through his skull he was jousting he was jousting and

00:12:07.160 the lance it's called a lance hello went like punctured his skull which is so in the estelle

00:12:15.240 perenck book she was describing this and so catherine had been seeing i forget if it's

00:12:19.620 nostradamus or another one of her like little helper guys but she had gotten a fortune told

00:12:24.940 that said that henry's gonna die when he was 40 and it was gonna be basically i related or something

00:12:31.220 like that so she was just kind of like she's a very superstitious person and she henry like is

00:12:36.560 40 and then she's like well it's cool though because like he doesn't joust he's the king

00:12:40.880 and then henry's like guess what i'm gonna have a joust and she's like what and so he had he would

00:12:47.000 dion thinks it's a good idea dion was literally cheering him on so he was just against one guy

00:12:52.340 and he was knocked off and everyone's like catherine's like maybe you should stop like

00:12:55.960 maybe you should not do this and dion's like no keep going and henry's like yeah i'll keep going

00:13:00.040 and then he just against the same guy and that's where the lance went it was described as just like

00:13:04.960 blood pouring out of his head, blood pouring out of his eye socket. Like the lance pierced his

00:13:10.380 skull and some pieces of the lance were like lodged in his eyeball. So then they brought in

00:13:14.220 a doctor, but it's like, what's he going to do? You know, he didn't wash his hands.

00:13:18.780 It's making it worse. Just going straight to sepsis.

00:13:21.420 They were doing something with like egg whites. Anyway, he died.

00:13:26.160 Because egg whites are so clean.

00:13:27.320 I don't know. They were just kind of figuring it out. So suddenly Henry dies. Like this was

00:13:32.460 not in anybody's plan. And so the new king is 15 year old Francis. Who is married to

00:13:39.980 Mary Queen of Scots. Okay. So this is where Catherine's steps in as the power behind the

00:13:47.920 crown. And so we're going to backtrack a bit. So Mary Queen of Scots grew up alongside Catherine's

00:13:54.880 like six children. Mary Queen of Scots, as we talked about in the Marie de Guise episode,

00:13:59.520 she was married to francis like where they're betrothed to each other and so mary karen scott

00:14:06.560 grew up in this court around catherine pre-henry dying right for years not just like showed up the 0.99

00:14:13.140 day before like she she was in that family for all intents and purposes yeah so she grew up she

00:14:20.180 and mary and francis were like apparently they got along really well that like in terms of like

00:14:25.800 a marriage it's like two people who enjoy each other like she grew up alongside the princess and

00:14:29.340 princesses but also she grew up seeing the example of catherine de medici charles had a crush on her

00:14:35.420 so mary is on the scene and also on the scene are mary's uncles the dickies because they're never

00:14:44.020 not no so they're like this is great the king is dead or like francis is the king mary queen of

00:14:50.900 scots is now queen of scotland and france and this is where i think she and francis started wearing

00:14:58.560 like outfits to declare like basically she's the queen of england too don't worry about it

00:15:02.920 which was very controversial yeah that was very much a degeese thing no so here's the thing so

00:15:09.520 mary queen of scots is in france she's growing up in the court of catherine de medici so she's

00:15:13.540 seeing and potentially learning how to be sneaky and how to be schemey but also the degeese uncles

00:15:20.760 are there like you know figuring things out for her like cutting deals for her and stuff and

00:15:28.280 And as Francis becomes king, Mary is not just like, oh, she's, it's not like he's a king and she's just kind of the wife. It's like, no, she's the wife. And also her uncles are the diggies' uncles. And they start getting, like, they get every important job. Like, they kick out the previous people. And suddenly it's like diggies everywhere you can look. Like, every important role is like a diggies is in that job.

00:15:49.960 As I've said many, many, many times before, I don't know how the narrative of, oh, poor, sweet Mary, Queen of Scots, what a victim, how sad her life was, can exist when she's raised by the de Guises and Catherine de' Medici. 1.00

00:16:09.220 yeah like like all of her all of her influences in life are just the sneakiest shadiest people

00:16:19.980 that are all working every single angle of every single problem to their advantage

00:16:25.740 exactly and it's crucial i think this is an understanding i now understand better and you've

00:16:31.280 told me about this before but now since i read the estelle prank book i understand it better

00:16:34.580 how involved the diggieses became when francis and mary became queen and king of scotland

00:16:40.840 because technically the diggieses are the are the regents like catherine's not even regent yet she's

00:16:46.200 she's trying it but she's not there yet no because the diggies are so influential and so powerful

00:16:51.960 and they're men right and they're not from florence but catherine did the smart thing and

00:16:56.820 actually raised her own kids yeah and so her kids are all very dependent upon her in a way that most

00:17:02.980 most royal kids are not again with the whole if your mother's one thing that doesn't count

00:17:08.860 like Catherine counted yeah no absolutely her children were absolutely loyal to her and Francis

00:17:13.440 was old enough to rule on his own he's 15 years old but he was also sickly is the descriptor that

00:17:20.520 he often is given well here's the thing she had raised her children to be dependent on her

00:17:24.900 too dependent on her she'd raised her children too dependent yeah yeah yeah so they were dependent

00:17:30.560 on her, but not really their own person. Anyway, because she wanted to have more power. 0.84

00:17:38.780 So she wasn't given an official role in her son's government. But what I wrote here is her influence

00:17:43.820 was clear in the language of his official documents, which mentioned her as a sort of

00:17:48.240 co-regent, even though she wasn't technically. But here's what she did. Here's what she was

00:17:53.780 able to do. Henry is dead. So guess who's kicked out of everything? Deanne. Deanne was forced by

00:17:59.800 Catherine to return her jewels. Catherine was able to take over that chateau that Deanne had

00:18:05.140 been given. So Deanne is just like, she's gone. She's, she's got no power anymore. Her power is

00:18:11.160 entirely dependent on being the mistress of the king. And now she's not. And Catherine is, yeah. 0.96

00:18:17.140 Basically anything that the Gieses didn't care about, Catherine got to be in charge of. 0.94

00:18:22.060 Yes. Yes. She, she got her way on anything that the Gieses didn't care about. And Deanne was one 0.90

00:18:28.360 of the things they did not care about. Like treat your mistress however you want. Yeah. So au revoir

00:18:32.520 Deanne. Like don't let the door hit you on the way out sort of vibes. So there were some

00:18:39.200 religious wars. We're in charge now. Let's kill Protestants. This is the DeGeese family motto. 1.00

00:18:47.820 The DeGeeses were very Catholic in a way that involved a series of massacres of Protestants.

00:18:56.420 and when they went in and friends just massacred you know a whole church full of protestants

00:19:02.080 then that tended to lead to civil war or what i call a tumultuous period of religious instability

00:19:08.680 i mean that's a polite way to say it that's that's how the geese is like it

00:19:14.860 so katherine herself initially supported just sort of uh like don't ask don't tell

00:19:21.320 sort of vibe where she's like you know i'll let the product she was cool with the protestants

00:19:25.840 worshiping in their own way as long as they didn't take up weapons against them she was smart

00:19:31.720 yeah like protestants you don't make protestants martyrs number one rule don't make protestants 0.94

00:19:37.880 martyrs if they're just like a quiet little subsect they aren't going to do a whole lot 0.98

00:19:42.660 and it's not going to be that big of a deal but the degeezes are are never give up never surrender 0.99

00:19:48.040 The Degeezes are just like, let's go kill some Protestants again today. 0.99

00:19:53.460 Catholic or else. 1.00

00:19:55.340 You're not Catholic. 1.00

00:19:56.160 We will murder all of you. 1.00

00:19:58.820 Which is funny that she's related to popes. 1.00

00:20:01.720 They're only related to cardinals.

00:20:03.240 And they're just like all in.

00:20:05.940 Yeah.

00:20:06.400 So Catherine had sort of, it's interesting. 1.00

00:20:08.220 It's interesting that they were there bringing this murderous Catholic energy. 0.99

00:20:13.000 And she was kind of more moderate. 0.92

00:20:15.240 it. And I don't know if that's just like, well, they already had that position. So she had to

00:20:18.680 take a different position or it's more just kind of like she was more, uh, not resilient, but just

00:20:23.620 malleable, flexible. She could kind of see like what's going to work well here.

00:20:29.240 It's a very much Machiavellian standard is don't give your enemy more power than they have.

00:20:33.760 Like if they're not doing anything to you, they're not worth your energy.

00:20:37.180 So the Degeizes were her enemy. The Degeizes were doing things like limiting her power,

00:20:42.280 limiting her influence the huguenots were just there yeah and again the huguenots that's the

00:20:47.720 i just want to clarify the huguenots is the word for french protestants yeah the this the sect of

00:20:54.180 french protestantism that my husband's family is actually descended from is there is there a

00:21:00.660 tumultuous period of religious instability in your household from that ironically um that side of the

00:21:06.460 family is his side of the family is actually catholic but they were descended of huguenots

00:21:10.960 and i thought that was kind of hilarious um he doesn't understand that because he is a humanist

00:21:17.620 and was when i met him so he's like he doesn't even remember what his parents were

00:21:22.200 or his his grandparents but it's really funny to me um no but the huguenots were like they're kind

00:21:29.980 of like they're kind of aesthetic aesthetic opposite usually protestantism is is a reaction

00:21:36.720 to the level of Catholicism that you have in the country. 0.88

00:21:40.320 And so the Catholics were very intense and showy. 1.00

00:21:44.240 So the Huguenots were really like quiet 1.00

00:21:46.520 and just like small churches and that kind of thing.

00:21:50.820 Well, and they're sort of like in the Queen Margot movie

00:21:53.700 dressed kind of like oldie time pilgrims.

00:21:56.960 Yeah. 1.00

00:21:57.580 Like the Catholics are like red and gold 1.00

00:22:00.420 and luxury and lace and jewelry and crowns. 0.97

00:22:03.220 And the Huguenots are just like, we wear black suits.

00:22:05.400 like yeah they're they're they're very reserved like we're not like those people

00:22:11.340 we're we're quiet and we're normal and they didn't have any martyrs until the degeyses

00:22:17.860 came around to make them some martyrs i'm really understanding more and more how the degeyses

00:22:23.340 just really fucked everything up for mary specifically here um so but then also there's

00:22:30.920 the bourbon brothers prince louis of conde and antoine of navarre her cousins whose cousins 0.83

00:22:37.860 mary's cousins like diggy's cousins the bourbons were the diggy's cousins the bourbons were cousins

00:22:46.160 of the diggy's okay remember through antoinette oh antoinette yeah yeah those are her brother's

00:22:52.500 kids and grandkids okay so we've got the bourbon the bourbon brothers if you're american the bourbon

00:22:59.020 brothers prince louis of conde and antoine of navarre were just they were in the con con con

00:23:06.280 i think so never mind i don't know go we're as we've said neither one of us really knows french

00:23:12.160 we just know what people have told us in french here's what i know on the tv show rain there was

00:23:17.080 a character who's called conde so whatever uh yeah i just remember a french professor who probably

00:23:24.560 was not French, but it is, it is Condé Nast. Yeah. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. So the

00:23:30.040 Bourbon brothers slash the De Guise family were just like refusing to keep the peace. They were

00:23:35.140 just like killing Huguenots everywhere. Catherine had Prince Louis, the Bourbon, brought to court 0.99

00:23:41.500 and imprisoned. He was sentenced to, wait, do you know anything about this? I'm sorry. The Bourbons

00:23:46.500 were on the Huguenot side. Oh, oh, interesting. They were Huguenot aligned. Okay. So the De Guise,

00:23:54.400 so it's cousin versus cousin and they were not keeping peace got it got it so because because

00:23:59.960 remember remember i'm as always i know what to do with anne bring it back to margot henry of navarre

00:24:07.440 was a burble margot's husband yes okay yes and he was huguenot aligned right because he wore the

00:24:14.080 black suit okay so here here we've got family verse family we've got the bourbons yes which

00:24:20.240 is louis and antoine and they're just like stop killing us and we've got the degesis their cousins

00:24:25.940 being like uh we will never stop killing you also called louis here's the thing everyone in the

00:24:31.180 story is called louis and or henry so catherine is like huguenots are cool if as long as you don't

00:24:40.020 fight back and louis and antoine were like well you keep killing us ergo we will fight back so

00:24:45.460 catherine had louis brought to court and imprisoned he was sentenced to be put to

00:24:48.840 death for offenses against the crown and he would have been killed dot dot dot except francis the

00:24:56.400 little sickly king died while louis was in jail not not of tuberculosis he died of an ear infection

00:25:04.060 which sounds like i as a child had ear infections and i remember how much like the like the pain of

00:25:13.000 that like the pain inside your head so apparently francis like just the descriptions i was reading

00:25:18.300 Like he was in such agony for quite a while with this ear infection.

00:25:24.620 His doctor didn't give him antibiotics.

00:25:26.840 Because they hadn't.

00:25:27.600 And your doctor did.

00:25:28.560 Yeah.

00:25:29.100 Yeah.

00:25:30.180 His doctor, I don't know.

00:25:31.140 He was like egg whites.

00:25:32.280 I don't know.

00:25:33.040 So he. 0.98

00:25:35.140 Let's bleed him. 0.99

00:25:36.360 Yeah. 0.98

00:25:36.580 I don't know.

00:25:37.080 I don't know. 1.00

00:25:37.420 Ear infection is just like that's beyond the ability of these shitty doctors. 0.98

00:25:42.260 It is an out of balance of the humors. 0.97

00:25:45.460 And now we're just going to take a break for a word from our sponsors.

00:25:49.920 The war is over and both sides lost.

00:25:54.220 Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust.

00:25:59.220 Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world,

00:26:03.860 praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight.

00:26:07.140 But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins.

00:26:10.840 This is old-school adventuring at its most cruel.

00:26:14.900 Your torch ticks down in real time, and when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job.

00:26:20.820 This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make.

00:26:28.380 This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back.

00:26:33.020 Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern

00:26:38.140 on youtube.com slash the glass cannon

00:26:40.440 with the podcast version dropping the next day.

00:26:43.800 See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark.

00:26:50.940 Welcome to the realms of peril and glory.

00:26:56.180 Explore the mechanically magical vistas of Vale,

00:27:00.900 the paranormal mysteries of liminal London,

00:27:03.680 And the cyberpunk chaos of Cyborg.

00:27:09.760 Be awed by our incredible guests from familiar shows like Oxventure and No Rolls Barred.

00:27:17.300 Search realms of peril and glory to find out more.

00:27:22.920 Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership.

00:27:29.560 I'm Mick Hunt, your host, and I'm here to challenge your why and fuel your because.

00:27:35.980 This is where leaders, entrepreneurs, and go-getters come to level up.

00:27:39.800 Each week, I bring you unfiltered conversations, game-changing strategies,

00:27:45.040 and the kind of motivation that transforms lives and legacies.

00:27:48.640 I've learned from legends like Les Brown, Damon John, and Robert Irvine.

00:27:52.960 And now, I'm bringing their lessons, along with mine, straight to you.

00:27:57.760 From modern leadership tips to creating unstoppable momentum, this is the podcast that redefines what's possible.

00:28:06.000 Hit play, subscribe, and join the millions who've made Mick Unplugged their go-to source for growth and greatness.

00:28:13.640 Because your next breakthrough is just one episode away.

00:28:17.820 This is Mick Unplugged, the voice and face of modern leadership entrepreneur and self-improvement.

00:28:24.120 Let's get started.

00:28:27.760 I'm Anne Foster, and I have never watched the show Spartacus, Blood, and Sand.

00:28:37.420 And I'm Gina Berry, and I've watched this show numerous times.

00:28:41.740 On our new podcast, NeferTV, we discuss TV shows and movies set in ancient history.

00:28:46.240 This season, we are discussing Spartacus, Blood, and Sand.

00:28:50.280 Follow NeferTV, that's N-E-F-E-R-T-V, wherever you get your podcasts.

00:28:57.760 and we're back yeah so he was really sick katherine was really like she was really

00:29:06.960 attached to her children she was very emotionally involved with her children in a way that not a lot

00:29:13.340 of mothers that i've talked about on the show have been so she was i mean personally devastated that

00:29:20.160 her son was in pain and clearly dying but also she was just like this is gonna like her husband

00:29:24.780 only recently just died like now he's gonna die like what's this gonna mean for her like it was a

00:29:29.660 whole crisis um and we're gonna pause get back to what that means in a second to marry queen of

00:29:37.560 scots now the widow the teenage the teen widow of king francis but i just want to get back to the

00:29:43.280 bourbon brothers so uh louis is in jail he would have been killed but then francis dies so sensing

00:29:50.320 an opportunity. Catherine makes a pact with Louis's brother, Antoine, that promised, that said,

00:29:55.960 like, I'll release Louis if you promise that the Bourbons will stop fucking shit up. And Antoine 0.99

00:30:01.680 agreed. And due to the success of this negotiation, Catherine was given a job title. It's basically

00:30:09.580 governor of France. It's like a new made up title just for her. She was called Gouvernante de France. 0.60

00:30:17.280 So with this title, she essentially matched Elizabeth I as a ruling queen.

00:30:23.680 She was 41 years old, and the new king was her nine-year-old son.

00:30:27.860 And that does tie back to Mary because the Degeeses were no longer related to the royal family, the royal couple.

00:30:35.280 This is huge for Mary, Queen of Scots.

00:30:39.820 Yeah. 1.00

00:30:40.420 So I blame everything on the Degeese brothers, but that's just me. 1.00

00:30:43.260 I do too now. 1.00

00:30:44.760 I understand why you say that.

00:30:45.600 So what happened was, so Francis died.

00:30:49.880 You know, Mary Cleary of Scots is now a widow.

00:30:52.380 And suddenly...

00:30:54.080 A young widow, like 14, 15. 0.95

00:30:57.140 Yeah. 0.80

00:30:57.680 She's like a teen widow. 0.97

00:30:58.960 And she's just kind of there like, okay, what's going to happen now?

00:31:01.720 But her uncles had burned so many britches with Catherine.

00:31:05.100 Like her uncles, like Catherine hated them so much because they had...

00:31:09.920 Like she knew their power.

00:31:11.520 She knew that they wanted more power. 1.00

00:31:12.520 And she was just like, these Diggies guys, get the fuck out of here. 1.00

00:31:15.140 Well, and they were violent with it. Like they were causing problems in France that didn't have 1.00

00:31:20.740 to exist because they got a little bit of power. Like they were not good people.

00:31:25.380 The De Geese brothers were like, they took like, because their niece was the queen of France,

00:31:31.180 they took every job. And then with her ascent, like with, like she was cool with it. They just

00:31:37.040 started having lots of power and control. And Catherine was just like, not on my watch. 0.79

00:31:42.080 so like she made this deal that neutralized the bourbon threat she got this job gouvernant of

00:31:48.420 france and the new king basically making her regent yeah basically regent because the new king

00:31:53.440 was her second son charles who is nine years old and i have to say useless so here's the thing so

00:32:01.120 mary queen of scots what does this mean for her so she like the degueses were like well what if

00:32:07.420 you marry charles to marry queen of scots and then she can be queen of france again and charles

00:32:14.520 was down for it charles had such a crush on her charles loved her and and this is my this is this

00:32:21.220 is that moment now keep in mind like no one yes they married people nobles married each other

00:32:27.420 very very young but zero people expected them to actually start producing heirs until they were

00:32:33.860 much older like there was no expectation you marry young for political alliances but the

00:32:40.000 production of errors starts happening when it is reasonable and rational no one is expecting a

00:32:44.060 nine-year-old and an 18-year-old advocate yeah no and honestly like so if they had this happen

00:32:51.420 so had a nine-year-old married an 18-year-old like they'd wait until he was whatever 16 and

00:32:57.540 she was like in her 20s and maybe you know it's like this is still workable this is this could

00:33:02.260 work. Unlike some of the marriages that Catherine later proposes between her teenage children and

00:33:07.040 the like 45-year-old Elizabeth I. But we'll get to that. Look, it worked for Elisabetta.

00:33:14.440 Who's Elisabetta? The oldest daughter. Have you forgotten this? Yes. The oldest daughter of 0.53

00:33:23.860 Catherine de' Medici was married off to one Philip II of Spain. And at 50,

00:33:32.260 15 and it was the love of his life philip finally found the love of his life it was a 15 year old

00:33:39.680 they they were desperately in love like creepy and wrong he was like what 50 or something she

00:33:45.160 was supposed to marry his daughter or his son and and he's like no i'm keeping her for myself and

00:33:50.300 they were like desperately in love with each other like teenage he was like a teenager she was actually

00:33:56.640 a teenager and that's the same philip who was married to mary the first like philip from the

00:34:00.680 armada yes the one who like drove Mary the first insane by being a horrible husband to her

00:34:06.880 yeah the creepiest dude ever there was and he finds the love of his life in a 15 year old of

00:34:13.060 course he does but this is crucial oh here so um let's see I have some stuff about her children

00:34:19.320 but Catherine had sort of a goal she had all these children she had six surviving children 0.99

00:34:22.680 and her plan was to marry them off to various other monarchs of other European countries so 1.00

00:34:28.480 that her bloodline would be in power everywhere. 0.54

00:34:32.500 And so, you know, step one of that

00:34:33.680 was marrying Elizabeth to the King of Spain.

00:34:36.520 And yeah, so Mary Queen of Scots. 0.97

00:34:38.880 So there was, the Degezes were like,

00:34:40.480 okay, so if you're not going to marry Mary

00:34:42.640 to your son, Charles,

00:34:43.600 what if we marry Mary to Philip's son, Don Carlos,

00:34:47.860 who is insane?

00:34:49.580 He's very not able to function

00:34:53.580 as a normal member of society.

00:34:55.080 Don Carlos does appear in rain.

00:34:57.240 and when i was like who's this and i'm like actually this is a borderline accurate portrayal

00:35:02.080 of don carlos who just had various i think he had a head injury he he was severely inbred yeah he had

00:35:09.100 a little bit too much a little bit too much uh hapsburg in him he was not the number one bachelor

00:35:16.880 in europe he his his genetics did him zero favors yeah let me see there's a i'm just looking up

00:35:26.580 don carlos there's an opera called don carlos and that's what a lot of the first anyway don carlos

00:35:31.060 not a catch in terms of like him as a person but if mary queen of scots had married the son

00:35:36.880 of the king of spain then that would maybe be good for the degises because then she would

00:35:42.280 you know and here's another signing doors moment what if that happened all right you know we know

00:35:46.980 that charles can have kids we know that mary can have sons has a proclivity towards sons

00:35:52.700 they if they both actually genuinely like each other

00:35:57.120 you know this is my sliding glass doors moment i know so if mary had married charles catherine

00:36:04.480 de medicis and charles then like follow this through lana so what would have what would have

00:36:09.460 happened and what would have not happened if these two had gotten together so so first of all charles

00:36:14.160 wouldn't have gone around licking books i'm sorry can you explain that do you remember that and

00:36:21.160 prince mar queen margot when katherine had the poison book and he was like licking his fingers

00:36:27.640 and turning the pages and of course they were all poisoned because it was fanfic evil fanfic

00:36:32.660 and then he the movie queen margot yes and then he dies of blood in his sweat he he sweaty blood

00:36:38.940 he's he's so much sweat blood he probably wouldn't have had as many diseases because if he was

00:36:44.440 desperately devoted to his wife he wouldn't have had mistresses he so then let's pretend they can

00:36:49.520 have as many kids as they want she's still in france she's away from all of the nonsense of

00:36:54.640 scot well the nonsense she created in scotland let's be real you'll get to that later i will

00:37:01.860 but like who if mary hadn't returned to scotland who her brother would have just continued on as

00:37:06.980 the regent there like who would be in charge of correct yeah and it would just be like various

00:37:10.980 illegitimate sons james james would have never been king of england james wouldn't have existed

00:37:16.700 James would never have existed.

00:37:18.580 There would be no King James version of the Bible.

00:37:21.340 There would be no Stuart line.

00:37:24.720 There would be no combination.

00:37:27.520 If there was, if England somehow managed to overcome Scotland and France,

00:37:33.940 probably what would have happened is that one of their younger sons would have ended up inheriting France or inheriting Scotland.

00:37:40.140 And Scotland would have remained a cadet state of France for as long as it could.

00:37:44.420 who knows what that history would look like but we're talking about no eng like the english

00:37:49.320 translation of the bible would have who knows when that would have happened or if there would

00:37:54.420 have been you know like all of the scottish witch purgings that happened well and then the way that

00:38:00.200 that inspired the witch trials in well and then the colonies in america there's like jamestown

00:38:06.260 and stuff right so yeah it's it's the ripple effects become too huge for me to even quantify

00:38:13.740 It is it. This one decision by Catherine fundamentally changes not just England and Scotland and France. It fundamentally changes the course of world history because it's not long after this that England starts its colonial expansion.

00:38:33.580 And part of that colonial expansion is attempts to legitimize their rule and their claim to the claim to power, because it goes from the stewards who took and lost power to girls to Hanover's who are basically Germans, like they're barely even English. 0.63

00:38:55.720 they're just germans so there's and so elizabeth goes to her second choice of heir who may have had

00:39:06.240 a far more stable bloodline because it's farther away from inter noble marriage like who knows

00:39:14.400 what the history of the world would look like without these three countries and their instability

00:39:19.900 there would be no bourbon line oh my god then there wouldn't be the louis like the versailles

00:39:25.520 yeah correct so again uh the this period of france the dukes have far more influence

00:39:34.340 they have a lot of influence on on the way that that uh france is run so much influence that

00:39:43.040 uh louis catorce by by the time louis catorce comes around who is raised in all of the different

00:39:49.100 things he like centralizes power in himself by forcing the dukes to spend all of their money to

00:39:56.560 keep up with him and so they can't spend time back at their home bases they can't uh like maintain

00:40:03.740 their their power bases strongly so like that leads to the centralization of power in the king

00:40:10.740 which leads to the french revolution which leads to napoleon which leads to correct which makes

00:40:18.140 alice and happy there's no napoleon then alice's life is better there's no fbi there's no fbi

00:40:25.280 for those who don't know um the the original bureau of investigations was started by

00:40:32.940 i believe it was charles bonaparte who was the grand nephew of napoleon yeah this is like

00:40:39.600 like people are always like what if we kill hitler which is like yes there would be some

00:40:44.160 understandable changes to history as well. But this is like, the world would be unrecognizable.

00:40:49.900 Yeah. It has the potential to be unrecognizable. There's a lot of things that could have still

00:40:54.380 happened that could have brought things back into alignment. But a small change in the bloodlines

00:41:03.240 of France and England fundamentally changes the course of history in a way that you can't predict.

00:41:09.680 And this is all because the DeGeese brothers were so power hungry when Mary was queen that Catherine was just like, there is 0% chance. I'm going to let Mary marry my son Charles. That will never happen. 0.54

00:41:23.100 Yep. So shipped her back home and thus history unfolded the way it did. There are a lot of sliding glass door moments in the course of history, but there are a few that are this fundamental. Who knows what language you and I would be speaking now?

00:41:41.320 yeah or we definitely wouldn't exist but like i'm so german that i like i might still exist

00:41:48.300 and but i might be speaking german i might i might be speaking french because like you'd

00:41:56.160 probably be speaking french because who knows if this yeah because my ancestors were scottish

00:42:00.540 and if scotland became sort of cadet state of france yeah canada was was more french than it

00:42:06.920 was english and so let's put scottish canadians in france french french and scottish have their

00:42:15.640 own colony like imagine you'd probably be speaking french and i would probably be speaking german

00:42:20.380 and this it's like i love that this is your i had never thought about all of this until you

00:42:28.580 mentioned it to me for the first time and now just spelling it out it's just like the entire

00:42:32.740 post whatever 1600 history of scotland england and i mean all the countries that england affected

00:42:40.700 right the whole colonial empire but then also france just the french revolution inspired other

00:42:47.600 revolutions in other places and maybe would have happened or not anyway it's just mind-boggling

00:42:53.520 well and if the french revolution destabilized france to the point that napoleon could take over

00:42:58.240 and then that all of the other countries the world could be invaded like all the countries

00:43:02.220 of europe could be invaded why does everything come back to the louisiana purchase why does

00:43:07.920 everything come back to louisiana i like living in the louisiana purchase okay

00:43:13.740 it was you i was talking to yes of course it was you i was talking to about the louisiana purchase

00:43:19.020 okay no like it keeps like it came up when i did the napoleon episode with allison and then you

00:43:24.220 were telling me something else and i'm like wait this is also to do with we were talking about

00:43:27.620 Lewis and Clark. Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea. Yeah. And then, which, you know, later episode

00:43:32.380 listeners. Um, anyway. Spoilers. So that's, that's the, this is a crucial moment. Um, this is like

00:43:41.680 Catherine, the Degeese brothers were like, let's just marry Mary to your son Charles. And Catherine

00:43:46.920 who had been spending all this time, like in the background, maybe the Degeese didn't take her 1.00

00:43:50.980 seriously or whatever, but she had consolidated enough power. She's now the governor. She was 1.00

00:43:56.100 the government of france um and she suddenly had more power than they did and she wasn't going to

00:44:02.860 do what they're going to say because then she knew that they made the right choice for herself

00:44:07.040 yeah yeah she absolutely she did and that's what she was making and she made the right choice for

00:44:12.040 her son as well well i don't know that she made the right choice for charles i will i will disagree

00:44:17.360 that she made the right choice for charles she made the right choice for herself and probably

00:44:21.540 France. Yeah. Charles was just sort of like, I don't know, an accessory. He wasn't really...

00:44:28.820 Poor Charles. Poor, poor Charles. No, but then the other thing in terms of Mary Queen of Scots

00:44:32.880 is that the de Guizas were like, okay, if she can't marry Charles, then let's marry her to Don

00:44:38.380 Carlos, the aforementioned inbred insane person, son of Philip. And that would have also had

00:44:46.140 trickle effects we don't need to get into. But, you know, at this point, there's like Spain,

00:44:49.880 england france and it's just kind of like who's allied with who and a lot has to do with who's

00:44:53.920 catholic and who's protestant so if the de guises had gotten in with spain then that would also

00:45:00.680 have changed a lot of things if mary became mary queen of spain but but she still but part of her

00:45:06.780 not marrying the queen of or sorry not marrying don carlos was that catherine basically said you 0.97

00:45:12.360 don't have to go home but you can't stay here and and so she but she had to go home because like

00:45:18.000 Spain's like okay well we'll talk about it but she goes home and she basically gets kidnapped

00:45:22.700 immediately so Mary Mary does Mary also was um just from what I was reading again in this the

00:45:30.460 the more recent biography the Estelle Perenque one was saying how there was sort of talks between

00:45:35.600 the de Guises and Spain about maybe marrying to Don Carlos and Catherine just pulled every

00:45:40.760 influential thing she had her daughter was there right yeah so Catherine would just kind of like 1.00

00:45:45.740 messed up those negotiations as well, because she was just like, I don't want the Diggieses. 1.00

00:45:49.600 I don't want Mary there. I don't want the Diggieses to have power there. She's just like, 1.00

00:45:53.880 I want, I want the Diggieses. The Diggieses aligned with Spain would have made, 1.00

00:45:58.580 will make the Catholic League thing that we're still not at yet. 0.99

00:46:03.600 That's the next king of France. So this is where like, so it's all, you know,

00:46:07.580 a lot of backroom negotiations, but Catherine just kind of like being like, she wanted Mary

00:46:11.760 in scotland because that was kind of the least powerful place where mary could be

00:46:15.880 yeah oh the for the degeezes she didn't care about mary at all mary was a blip katherine wanted mary

00:46:23.400 gone because that meant the degeezes would be gone it would reduce their influence yes exactly

00:46:28.440 you can't make the degeezes gone no matter how hard she tried and how much she may have wanted 0.82

00:46:34.200 to and no matter how many people whose lives would have been saved fair fair good good distinction 0.97

00:46:40.120 but yeah so this is where mary queen of scots you know god knows how many episodes i'm going

00:46:44.660 to talk about her but this is where she um when she was queen of france well and also had francis

00:46:51.380 not died you know if she if she had had a child with francis everything would have changed but

00:46:55.360 she hadn't that would and the the diggies is like she was she was useful to them when she was queen

00:47:01.560 of france but now that she's not they're kind of like okay plan b like and and they forget about

00:47:08.140 her yeah yeah absolutely they forget she she okay you're no longer useful you're dead to me yeah

00:47:13.860 and she goes home and she's entirely at the like john knox the douglases like every political 0.80

00:47:23.260 power player in scotland she's entirely ill-equipped to deal with them because she was raised on french 0.95

00:47:28.840 politics yeah and she didn't she just didn't have the support of this powerful family that had been

00:47:33.540 supporting her when she was in france so for her in terms of mary queen of scots like there's kind

00:47:37.820 like her life in france and then her life after and it's wildly different but it took a while to

00:47:43.740 build a power base in a place she had never been so let's see here's what i wrote the next several

00:47:51.900 years saw more battles between the huguenots and the french royal family well between the huguenots

00:47:56.200 and the catholics with lots of battles and bloodshed along the way after one battle too

00:48:01.200 many catherine changed her policy regarding the huguenots so from 1568 onwards she said about

00:48:06.020 destroying them rather than allowing them freedom of religion because you know at the end of the day

00:48:12.580 she's still catholic and the diggies were still diggiesing well and the and the bourbons were 0.95

00:48:19.420 a genuine threat like like the diggies are a threat but he they have neutralized their one

00:48:26.320 chance to take noble noble like any sort of royal lineage by getting rid of mary so now the bourbons 0.97

00:48:35.000 like they do have royal lineage they're they're prince de sangrai they're princes of the blood

00:48:41.740 of a of a cadet branch of a legitimate cadet branch not not a john de la motte cadet branch

00:48:48.520 yeah so now the bourbons are bigger problem than the de guises right so what does catherine do

00:48:57.300 So she's like, well, what if I marry my youngest daughter, Margot, to a Bourbon?

00:49:04.280 What could possibly go wrong?

00:49:07.060 So I have done an entire episode about Queen Margot.

00:49:10.100 So like, I'll give you the, I'll tell you what happens.

00:49:13.820 But if you want to like dive into that, I did, who knows, two hours of talking about

00:49:17.980 that before.

00:49:19.140 And if you want the world's most chaotic episode of Vulgar Peace History on the Patreon, we

00:49:25.320 also watched queen margot there and my poor husband had to watch just the end yeah queen

00:49:32.340 margot at the end of both her story in life and the movie well the movie was also fan fiction

00:49:37.960 based but legend has it that margot kept the severed head of her executed lover and carried

00:49:43.920 it around with her and the movie spoiler ends with her taking that head and getting into a

00:49:48.460 carriage and just driving off with a little head on her lap and my poor husband sitting on the 0.52

00:49:54.260 eating a salad going what's going on did that she why did she give him money what why does she have

00:50:02.240 a head because he he also relies on me to interpret french history and german history

00:50:08.140 i mean that's quite a moment to walk in to any movie um so here's what happened just like briefly

00:50:15.160 so catherine was her youngest daughter margot who we've talked about before but of all of her

00:50:20.340 children, Margot was the best one. Margot was the smartest. She also, like in terms of health,

00:50:25.920 the longest lived, the least sickly. She was also beautiful. And she's also the one who's the most

00:50:32.680 similar to her mother in terms of just intelligence. She also thought for herself.

00:50:37.600 Yes. Yes. She was least dependent on her mother as well.

00:50:41.640 And that's why her mother liked her the least. So she decides to marry her Catholic daughter 0.99

00:50:46.220 to Henry of Navarre, who's the son of Antoine of Navarre from before. And so this is like a

00:50:52.760 Catholic marrying a Huguenot. It's kind of like, I don't know, you know, it's like, let's solve

00:50:58.580 racism by, you know, having a mixed race baby. It's just like, that's not anything to do with

00:51:04.080 anything. So Henry of Navarre's mother is Jean d'Albray, who is a force of nature herself.

00:51:12.420 She has sort of Catherine de Medici vibes.

00:51:14.720 She's a very powerful woman who potentially was murdered by Catherine via poison gloves,

00:51:21.340 which is probably not true, but is a great story.

00:51:25.000 I want it to be true.

00:51:26.520 Like, I want Catherine to be taking out. 1.00

00:51:28.800 But if she's taking out anybody, she's taking out the DeGeezes. 1.00

00:51:31.580 Like, I'm sorry. 1.00

00:51:32.640 If that woman was genuinely going around poisoning people, 1.00

00:51:35.900 the DeGeezes would have been gone a long time ago. 1.00

00:51:39.000 Yeah.

00:51:39.340 Yeah. So the rumor has it that Catherine, I think, gave a pair of gloves to Henry of Navarre's mother, Jean d'Albert. Jean put on the gloves and then in sort of like a Fredigan-inspired shelf-staple poison situation, she then died of poison hands.

00:51:56.040 But this is, again, that's a rumor that came out later where people had reasons to vilify Catherine and to make the Bourbons sound like cool people. 0.88

00:52:07.600 Yeah, she woke up the next morning with a fever.

00:52:10.040 So, you know, obviously she died of poisoning.

00:52:12.980 And obviously it was poison gloves from Catherine.

00:52:15.340 So Henry of Navarre's mother died like shortly before the wedding.

00:52:18.440 Then they had the wedding.

00:52:19.960 And because it was this wedding of like the king of Navarre and this princess of France.

00:52:25.440 So kind of everybody came to town.

00:52:27.400 Everyone was in Paris.

00:52:28.120 All the Huguenots were there. 0.94

00:52:29.760 All the Catholics were there. 1.00

00:52:31.580 You know, it's a powder keg to begin with. 1.00

00:52:33.500 It's these people who have been like murdering each other for decades.

00:52:36.760 all in town to go to the same wedding and then what happened and no one knows what really triggered

00:52:43.380 this but they all started killing each other the degeeses the degeeses triggered this okay yes

00:52:49.640 who knows like could it be these these men who continuously massacre huguenots

00:52:55.800 just go around looking for excuses to start massacres against huguenots so this is called

00:53:01.920 the saint bertholome musday massacre and this occurred a few days after the royal wedding like

00:53:05.700 while the royal wedding partying was still going on.

00:53:08.120 And so it started in the castle

00:53:09.680 and then it spread around to Paris

00:53:11.780 and then it spread from Paris out into the countryside

00:53:14.400 for the next several months, which was...

00:53:17.940 And the massacre was not a back...

00:53:20.020 It was not equal amounts of people being killed.

00:53:22.540 It was...

00:53:23.020 So all the important Huguenot leaders were all murdered.

00:53:26.380 Huguenots were just being murdered all over France.

00:53:28.360 Just... 1.00

00:53:28.920 It's the de Guise's dream come true, truly. 1.00

00:53:32.540 Just Huguenots being murdered. 0.94

00:53:33.980 It's everything they'd prepared for their whole entire lives. 0.98

00:53:36.840 They're just like, finally, the race war that we wanted. 0.86

00:53:40.980 It's like, well, we can't be in charge. 0.99

00:53:43.000 We're just going to kill everybody, okay? 0.98

00:53:45.600 Yes.

00:53:46.500 And so, you know, what was Catherine's involvement in this?

00:53:50.360 Like, we don't know.

00:53:52.060 But she was certainly blamed for it.

00:53:54.340 She wasn't able to stop it.

00:53:55.840 Who could?

00:53:56.580 Like, her role was she wasn't able to stop it.

00:54:00.660 she wasn't able to make either side like the side that was being killed she couldn't make them

00:54:06.280 stop being killed and she couldn't make the diggies stop killing them so i'm not sure how

00:54:13.000 it ended i think everyone just was dead or just too tired to keep going like and oh and and whatever

00:54:19.980 remained of the leadership ran away uh i think to denmark yeah the huguenots ran away yeah which is

00:54:24.900 how Calvin ended up in Denmark.

00:54:27.920 Was he French? 0.64

00:54:29.480 Not Denmark, Netherlands. 0.99

00:54:33.920 So next week, next Wednesday

00:54:36.460 is going to be the Catherine de Medici part three,

00:54:40.020 the finale.

00:54:41.040 It's the Return of the Jedi vibes,

00:54:43.700 which for her, I guess, 0.91

00:54:44.600 is not the Return of the Degeezus 0.97

00:54:46.500 because they're always kind of there.

00:54:47.840 It's the conclusion of the Catherine de Medici series

00:54:52.740 within a series.

00:54:53.880 She's going to get her score. So, I mean, you know, you have to come back for that.

00:54:58.920 Anyway, so again, next Wednesday is going to be Catherine and Muddy G part three on Friday.

00:55:04.540 Like every Friday for the foreseeable feature, there's going to be these bonus super special

00:55:07.980 episodes as well. So just like I'm providing you, I'm serving content. I'm giving you lols

00:55:14.140 and we're having a good time and I'm not losing my voice, even though I'm recording 10,000 things,

00:55:19.460 including. So this past Monday, I was a guest on the worst bestsellers podcast, which was

00:55:26.360 a thing that I manifested using The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, a book that the worst bestsellers

00:55:32.340 have previously talked about. So if you don't know that podcast, the worst bestsellers,

00:55:35.280 it's been around for like several years. And it was one of my big comfort podcasts,

00:55:38.880 just binging the whole archive early in like 2020 and like during COVID era where I felt like

00:55:43.960 I was working at home by myself. And I'm just like, I really need the sounds of people talking

00:55:49.180 And so that was a podcast I listened to. And I really developed a strong parasocial relationship

00:55:53.040 with the hosts of that show, Kate and Renata. And so a while ago on Instagram, I was doing an

00:55:58.500 Ask Me Anything and somebody asked, what's your dream podcast collaboration? And I said,

00:56:02.220 worst bestsellers. And they saw it and they invited me on and honestly, dream come true.

00:56:06.140 And so the book that we talked about on worst bestsellers podcast is The Other Boleyn Girl,

00:56:11.440 which it's a wide ranging discussion of a book about which I have various, very strong feelings.

00:56:17.660 So anyway, I really, I love the Worst Best Sellers podcast. I think you'll enjoy it. And if you just want to like follow me and see what else I've been doing, listen to the Worst Best Sellers podcast this week because I was on it. Also, it's April, we're getting towards the end of April. I've been doing this fundraiser all month, tits out for trans lives, tits out for trans rights, tits out for trans everything. Frankly, if you go to vulgarhistory.com slash donate, all this stuff is there.

00:56:41.900 But basically, I'm raising money for the Trevor Project, which is an American organization that is trans-affirming and also just supporting LGBTQ people.

00:56:51.720 And then I also am selling merch that was designed by non-binary artist Yann Yuppiter.

00:56:57.060 It's beautiful merch.

00:56:58.340 It's unbelievably, it's better than I could have imagined.

00:57:00.600 Yann knocked it out of the park.

00:57:01.960 It's an image of the Chevalier Dayan, iconic trans woman we talked about last season.

00:57:07.480 She was the one who was the spy. 0.95

00:57:09.140 She like blackmailed the king.

00:57:10.620 it was it was an iconic story anyway so the artwork is the chevalier d'on mid-lunging she's

00:57:17.240 one of her famous fencing battles wearing her iconic black dress ensemble and then it says

00:57:21.640 we have always been here in the sense of trans people have always been here like anyway there's 0.94

00:57:26.820 so much shitty stuff happening in the world and there's especially a lot of shitty stuff happening

00:57:30.720 right now in terms of trans rights and things and so i am doing this fundraiser so anyway if you go

00:57:36.620 to vulgarhistory.com slash donate there's a link there to donate to the trevor project and then all

00:57:40.860 the proceeds from sales of the chevalier day on merch i'm going to be donating to point of pride

00:57:45.440 which is another american organization that is trans affirming and if you this month are donating

00:57:50.520 money to another trans affirming organization there's a form at vulgarhistory.com slash donate

00:57:55.640 so you can just let me know what you donated and to who and that way at the end of the month i can

00:58:01.040 announce how much money we raised and for where and i can shout out the people who donated who

00:58:05.220 want to be shouted out. So anyway, that's all happening. You can follow me on Instagram at

00:58:11.040 vulgarhistorypod. You can follow me on TikTok at vulgarhistory. And I have my Patreon at

00:58:19.140 patreon.com slash annfosterwriter. And that's where if you pledge a dollar a month, you get

00:58:23.980 early ad free access to all of the episodes. And if you pledge at least $5 or more a month,

00:58:29.160 you get the early ad free access to episodes as well as bonus episodes, like one that I believe

00:58:34.960 we'll have just posted with special guest Alison Epstein. And we're talking about Australian

00:58:39.900 bush ranges. And I unleashed my heretofore unheard Australian accent. And it's a really

00:58:48.480 good time. Anyway, that's on Patreon. We also do vulgar peace theater. We've recently talked

00:58:52.600 about the movie Corsage, which is the Empress Cece movie. Empress Cece, you know, that's Lana's 0.94

00:58:58.420 person. So it was a good discussion. Again, Alison, Lana and I do those on Patreon. And you

00:59:04.740 listen to that if you pledge at least five dollars or more and actually there's a new thing if you

00:59:08.300 even if you just want to hear a little bit on patreon there's a thing where you can get like a

00:59:12.420 five minute um you can hear the first five minutes of all these bonus episodes on patreon so you can

00:59:17.140 just like if you need like just a little bit more of my voice besides twice weekly episodes and

00:59:23.440 other things you can get a little preview of the bonus episode about the bush ranges and also about

00:59:29.580 the corsage episode of vulgar peace theater anyway thank you all for listening next week

00:59:34.520 next wednesday is going to be catherine de medici finale and then on fridays there's going to be a

00:59:41.180 series of really fantastic bonus episodes conversations with authors and until next 0.96

00:59:45.740 time my friends keep your pants on and your tits out vulgar history is hosted written and researched 0.98

00:59:52.540 by ann foster and edited by christina lumagi 0.99

00:59:59.580 Legendary stories, awe-inspiring sound, and endless adventure.

01:00:08.700 Welcome to the Realms of Peril and Glory.

01:00:14.780 Explore the mechanically magical vistas of Vale,

01:00:19.540 the paranormal mysteries of Liminal London,

01:00:24.920 and the cyberpunk chaos of Cyborg.

01:00:29.580 Fall in love with our core cast

01:00:34.600 or be awed by our incredible guests

01:00:37.600 from familiar shows like Oxventure,

01:00:40.920 Three Black Halflings,

01:00:42.600 and No Rolls Barred. 1.00

01:00:45.960 Ignite your imagination

01:00:47.440 and discover the Realms of Peril and Glory today.

01:00:51.180 Go to RealmsPod.com

01:00:53.220 or search Realms of Peril and Glory

01:00:55.660 wherever you listen to podcasts.

01:00:59.580 You've watched them from the outside your whole life.

01:01:05.500 On TV, on stage, on the cover.

01:01:08.020 The success that always looks like it happened to someone on a different planet.

01:01:12.420 But what if it didn't?

01:01:14.080 I'm Evelyn, and I've spent over 25 years in entertainment,

01:01:17.540 producing for some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

01:01:19.920 And here's what I learned.

01:01:21.260 The distance between you and them, it's a lot shorter than anyone's letting on.

01:01:25.480 On my podcast, Reppin', I sit down with the people you've been watching and I ask them

01:01:30.780 who they actually are, not the brand, the person, where they started, what it costs

01:01:36.600 them, what almost broke them, their grit, their courage, their resilience, and the lessons

01:01:42.720 they've learned.

01:01:43.600 It's all yours for the taking.

01:01:46.600 Reppin', wherever you listen.

01:01:48.100 welcome to mick unplugged the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership

01:01:55.720 i'm mick hunt your host and i'm here to challenge your why and fuel your because this is where

01:02:03.380 leaders entrepreneurs and go-getters come to level up each week i bring you unfiltered

01:02:09.000 conversations game-changing strategies and the kind of motivation that transforms lives and

01:02:14.480 legacies i've learned from legends like les brown damon john and robert irvine and now i'm bringing

01:02:21.320 their lessons along with mine straight to you from modern leadership tips to creating unstoppable

01:02:27.860 momentum this is the podcast that redefines what's possible hit play subscribe and join the millions

01:02:35.860 who've made mick unplug their go-to source for growth and greatness because your next breakthrough

01:02:41.700 is just one episode away.

01:02:44.520 This is Mick Unplugged,

01:02:46.160 the voice and face of modern leadership,

01:02:48.440 entrepreneur, and self-improvement.

01:02:50.860 Let's get started.

Vulgar History - April 26, 2023

Catherine de'Medici, Part Two

Episode Stats

Transcript