Queens Mary of Scotland, Elizabeth of England and Catherine de Medici (Valois) of France
I am an avid reader of history, if not a student of one. I’m especially interested in the history of royalty the world over. If I were asked who I would like most to meet it would most definitely be a woman, and likely a queen. Ideally, I would get to meet several from the same time period to get their perspectives instead of the speculations filled in between the gaps. The queens pictured are of special interest to me because I’ve read the most about them and their reigns overlapped. I would want to know from Queen Mary of Scotland what it was like to never be free to rule her own country, to be hunted down and under almost constant lock and key by her own family. From Queen Elizabeth I I would want to know what it was like to be considered a bastard most of her early life, having to endure her father’s hard and fickle ways, the threat of her sister Mary, what it was like to suddenly find herself the ruler of a country, childless and single her entire life but surrounded by court personnel who saw her as their golden ticket. From Catherine I would want to know what it was like to agonize over being barren for the first ten years of her life and having her husband’s mistress encourage him to bed her, to then bearing him ten children and outliving him and three of their sons after they were crowned kings themselves. I would want to know if there was kindness in her, or just a driving and consuming passion to be on top lest she be toppled. If time travel ever became available, I would use it only to satisfy my curiosity, but then skedaddle as quickly as possible before I lost my head or contracted a deadly disease. It is not a time in which I would want to reside.