Medvedev Dmitriy: http://www.proza.ru/2012/08/15/647
Marie Medici was as strong as they get in her belief the more jewelry she collects, the bigger the diamond fund of France will get. Unfortunately, her contemporaries were far from sharing her point of view, seeing instead her attraction to the shiny thingies as greed and waste. Therefore, they had it our royally for her Royal Highness. And it's common knowledge, that the ones whom one finds the hardest to digest are also those most likely to chew you out. Therefore, no matter how well versed the Regina was, everything set out versus her.
Not that it was such a big deal, because according to the probability theory it's always like that- joy is followed by sorrow. Therefore, after seven years of happy reign, and messing everything up just like Joseph's pharaoh, the poor soul was sent to chateau Blois.
"That's not a good sign." Lamented her inner voice after reading the word ‘bad’ between the lines. "You should steer clear of this place, because suffering and death await you there."
But how can one not go, when they all keep waiting. Besides her dear own purple-wearer left her a clear message about Blois being a matter of choice: you want- you go, you don't want- you go six feet under. Not that many options, are there? Well, unlike her dear ole granny Cathy (who passed away in that very castle), Marie didn't poison anyone, had nothing to do with St. Bartholomew’s night or the huge Huguenots misunderstanding, therefore she rightfully considered herself as pure as the whitest snow, as opposed to the Black Queen*. So, after spending a bit less than two years in prison, she paroles herself by her own majestic right on the grounds of good behavior and decides to escape the Blois grounds.
This flight from captivity is the exact moment the famous painter decided to capture. Marie is depicted as fragile as china and as suspiciously calm as a cucumber. But not like "give her a jar and she'll make it out from any pickle" but as if someone gave her one drink too many and now she's totally pickled. Obviously, in that relaxed state, the best she can do by her own is crawl to rehab. So, she's graciously supported by Minerva, who leads her to a crowd of flamers, who carry a big torch for anyone who stands in her way, be it a road to heaven or hell (wherever a road of good intentions can take them).
But the downcast monarch had a wider view from her obtuse angle, so she was in no rush to boldly go where no man has willingly gone before. However, her companions, with their different angle of observation, couldn't get why the sudden rush to travel to Angouleme, especially in such an ungodly time: since the goddesses of night and dawn are busy flying above her head instead of telling the time. But the followers decided not to argue, since Marie considered herself a cornerstone of the state, rejected by those who should have played by her fiddle. And no one wanted to be crushed either morally (considering her temper) or physically (weight considered).
Rubens increased her likeness to the Savior, by creating a composition opposite to the popular motive of Christ's arrest. The inversion can be followed through the whole masterpiece: from the time of day and surroundings, to the gender and measures of the main characters. And off course, the outcome of the plotline from those children of God was quite different.
After going out of bounds in Blois (more like of Blois), Richelieu decided that he had it with sitting in the secretariat and now is a good time for promotion as it gets. The first thing he did was to draw a secret pact with Marie, bribing her with a promise to make peace with King Louis, and some jewels by Armani**. Thus, by the summer of 1619, Marie gets the province of Anjou with the castles of Loire. And by September, in the curious castle of Qusier, she cries a crocodile's tears as she embraces her all-forgiving son. And that's the kind of essays on "how I spent the summer" people should be writing, instead of that modern "Mein Summer Kampf" nonsense.
* As a sign of her grief for her husband, Catherine de Medici wore only black attire, earning her the nickname “the Black Queen”.
** Armand de Richelieu was the secretary of state during 1616- 1622.