Medvedev Dmitriy: http://www.proza.ru/2013/01/30/1639
Marie de Medici was born on her namesake day, somewhere about the second millennium of our era, somewhere in the land of Italy. To spare her daughter the trouble, her mother died when Marie- dear was already weaned from breast, but still didn’t know the rest. Her father married an old paramour, who was still young, and as customary in such stories, they lived long and happily after, thrice a day, for thrice the three years, and died on the same day, because some people just can’t hold their arsenic.
The sheltered life in her dear parents’ home was replaced with the life of an orphan in the same house, but under the custody of an uncle, who immediately inherited his tasking seat on the Tuscan throne, which traditionally moved from one sitter to another through TOXICan reasons (tisk- tisk). In the wake of his brother’s wake, the uncle married the granddaughter of Catherine Medici, already being lost between the branches of the family tree regarding who was his new wife in relation to the other granddaughters’ cousin of Catherine, meaning Marie.
The wedding was slow and sad, especially seeing that the bridegroom had to abandon his proud status of Cardinal and to become some Great Duke or another. Then again, he got his rank without even being a priest, so, basically, no cardinal changes took place in this cardinal’s life.
As for Marie, her childhood ended at the age of 12, and she could no longer keep living as a girl, who, judging from the amount of dresses, had no less than ten seasons a year, and believed that the whole working week was for the weak. More than that, the Land of Illusions didn’t offer her citizenship, despite the long time our heroine lived there. Now Marie had to discover the abhorrent reality around her.
The horror of that strange, real life was that she was from a very noble bloodline and a very rich family. Besides, she lived in a castle that could make count Dracula suck eggs through all of his immortal live. The whole thing was very depressing and the dreams of escaping from this hell went through an obvious path: if you don’t work- you're better off married off.
When her older sister Leonora followed the abovementioned algorithm, Marie was given a friend with the same name as the departing sister, perhaps to spare the child the trauma, or just to make it easier to remember. Nursed on the same property by the same pair of breasts, this Leonora was also from a good family, thus had all the bad habits. Since that time, the sisters by nursing became attached by the hip, showing everyone that it doesn’t matter what life sends, it’s how the girl spends.
The maidens made wreaths from the corpses of flowers, fed the courts parrots and taught them all kinds of phrases such as:” Possession is nine tenths of the talking parrot”. At night, both fell asleep to the sound of fairy tales about the enchanted prince who kissed the sleeping ugly sheep to have it turn into a beautiful swan.
When the young beauties grew up, their amusements grew more interesting, prompting the court teacher to mark their essays about “how I spent the summer” not with a “B” or “C” but with an “R” or even “X”. Besides, the Gonzo gossips about the older sister in the Gonsag hive poured honey into the already sweet fantasies of the teenagers, making them realize that a chastity belt doesn’t prevent cheating, but only one way of it. As for the whole “no can do before you say I do” business, the girls assumed it was more for the old dames, who were whining about dining sans the sixty-nining.
The concerned guardians stopped caring for Marie’s happiness, which implied people who aren’t proper don’t get to see her properly, and started an actively advertising her through the high society, hoping to organize a pre-wedding flash-mob. But Marie just made a face, which before the birth of Instagram could only mean a refusal.
She didn’t want the image of the perfect man, who’s stout and hot, ready always to smooth things and drinks nothing but water, meaning some laundry iron. She also didn’t want a romantic, who kneels and offers her his hand, to spare himself the need to resort to his own. As for the old soldier, who knew not the words of love, she told him off tactlessly, due to her strategic ways.
The strategy of life according to Marie came down to waiting for a prince on white horse, who turned up to be Henry the 4th, king of France, on his dark steed. The newly-minted august moved into his palace with an oversized escort and an even more oversized self-image and ambitions, but without any shame or manners (basically, bringing only what he needed). So now what was left of her plan is to do something of such scale, that her name will forever be smudged by history.
* Marie Medici was born April 26th, 1575, in Firenze.
** The Gonsag coat of arms- a yellow and black striped shield.
*** This implies the candidates turned down by Marie Medici, while waiting for the offer of the French crown.
The painting is “The portrait of the Marie Medici, queen of France” By Marie-Victoire Giacoto. It served as a basis for Rubens’s portrait of young Medici in his piece “The presentation of Her portrait to Henry IV”.