"Med" Squared: (Med)ea and Catherine de' (Med)ici

Last night our AP Euro class watched a French movie (luckily for me, with English subtitles) called Queen Margot.  The movie follows a princess of the Valois dynasty, the daughter of Queen Catherine de' Medici and King Henry II of France.  She lived from 1553 to 1615.  She enters into an arranged marriage with Henry of Navarre (future King of France Henry IV), which supposedly will bring peace between the Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants); however, far from bringing "peace," St. Bartholomew's Day massacre follows her union with Henry, during which the fanatic Roman Catholic factions assassinated a ton of Huguenots who were at the wedding.

However, one thing that I've been thinking about, and which Mrs. Quinet pointed out, is the connection between Catherine de' Medici and Medea.  Catherine was a very powerful woman in France; she was both queen consort of France of Henry II and regent of France for her son King Charles IX after the death of Henry.  She was rather infamous for her ruthlessness, dedication to her sons and keeping the Valois line on the throne, and her dabbling in poison.  Some people even consider her the most powerful woman in 16th-century Europe.

Oh, wait, did you catch the part about poison?

Hmm...sounds like Medea.

Not only were these two both known throughout the lands in their time, both were also known for being rather cunning and clever women, not to mention women associated with sorcery and, specifically, poison.  I thought this was especially interesting in light of all our conversations about how women in Medea's time had to resort to stealthier ways to obtain their goals since, in most cases, they couldn't simply use force and boldness like men.

I was actually thinking about the link between these women even before watching Queen Margot because I've recently been watching a show on Netflix called Reign.  Reign mostly follows Mary, Queen of Scots.  She was married to Francis II of France, who was a son of Catherine de' Medici; although not super historically accurate, the show does point out things like Catherine's adept use of poison.  (Though I must say, Queen Margot's Catherine is rather creepier.)

Anyway, I've been finding a lot of parallels between the women in Reign and Medea.  Some of the lines of the female characters sounds like they could've been taken straight out of Euripides' play.  For example, Queen Mary realizes that, as a female ruler, she can't just send a bunch of warships into Scotland to stop the Protestant takeover, and she can't really threaten the Protestants into submission like a king might be able to do.  Instead, she says to one of her friends that, since she is a woman, she must find a subtler route.  She uses her smarts and wiles to get what she wants (I won't say exactly what in case anyone wants to watch it!).

Fellow Reign watchers: did y'all notice these similarities too?