“Where once she had been flattered by his attention, now she felt only loathing and fear. Knowing the sorry state of their relationship, of his petty jealousies and the way he had always tried to control her, she could not imagine his becoming King of France would improve relations between them. On the contrary, she rather thought all the worst excesses of his nature would come to the fore once he held the reins of power in his hands. Having learned of the death of his brother, Charles IX, from ...the Emperor Maximilian, whose messenger reached him before those of Catherine, he’d been so anxious to escape Poland that he’d apparently galloped off in the dead of night. ‘Not only that, but he took with him the Polish crown jewels: pearls, rubies and diamonds,’ Henriette said, savouring the telling of this convoluted tale to Margot. ‘He’s like a greedy jackdaw,’ Margot scathingly remarked. ‘Lost in the forests and pursued by the ambassadors of his court, Henri’s men forced a poor woodcutter at sword point to lead them safely to the frontier.’ ‘He must have thought he was the hero in some romantic ballad.’ The scorn she felt for her elder brother was all too evident in her tone.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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