11th of december , 1535
Florence, Italy
Margarita was sitting on the floor of the nursery where she was playing with little Simonetta. Beside her lay her twin, Giulio, playing with his rattle.
Her days have looked like this for the last few months since her marriage to the Duke of Florence.
"Lorenzo, watch out!" she warned the toddler who was running across the room at a brisk pace. Margarita was late since the child was already tripping.
The toddler started crying. "Take her." Said Margarita as she stood up and gave the child to the nursemaid. She made her way to Lorenzo and lifted him off the ground. She rocked him in her arms as she pushed him against her. "Hush sweet child." she whispered.
She might not have had the chance to bear a child of her own, but she loved her husband's bastards as if they were hers.
The nursery door opened and Margarita's ladies-in-waiting, Luisa, entered the room. "Madonna, the duke is asking for you." Luisa said. She took the child from her mistress arms.
"Have him checked for wounds, he just fell." Ordered Margarita. She looked around the room again, at the two babies playing on the floor and at Lorenzo in Luisa's arms, then walked out of the room.
༺༻
Alessandro Di'medici looked out at the city through the large windows of his study. Around this time of day, the city was in turmoil. merchants from all over Tuscany came to Florence to conduct their business.
"Husband." Margarita greeted her husband with a kiss on the cheek.
She and the duke had been married for a year now. Yet she had not provided her husband with a child.
Not that it mattered to Alessandro, he had only an alliance to hold with the holy Roman emperor. If his wife never gave birth to a child, Florence would be passed on to his son Lorenzo.
"Margarita, dearest. I have called for you to ask for your advice." Alessandro moved away from the window and sat down at his desk. "The people of Florence are more dissatisfied than ever before, and I can find no way of regaining their contentment and confidence in me, so I ask you; what should I do?"
In recent years, unrest in Florence had grown. The people were constantly complaining about the way the duke spent their tax money on luxuries and parties.
While the people were dying of hunger, and will now die of cold with the coming winter, their duke was indulging in the most expensive food, less than half of which is eaten and then discarded.
Margarita placed her slender hands on his shoulder and massaged them.
"You have done your best these last months. I will distribute money to the poor tomorrow after Mass, I am sure that would satisfy them for a while."
Alessandro took her hand and kissed it. "Thank you, dear wife. I couldn't do it without you." he said gratefully.
They stood in the room in silence, both absorbed in their own thoughts.
"My sister is pregnant." Alessandro broke the silence.
A smile broke on Margarita's face. "That is excellent news. How happy I am for her."
She also writes that the king of France has betrothed his eldest daughter to the king of Scotland, and he also intends to betroth his son, the youngest, to the bastard Elizabeth of England." Alessandro continued, his own expression sulky.
The thoughts of the traitor king embittered him. After his alliance with the Pope, it was intended that all his alliances with England would be stopped.
Before his uncle's body was even cold, he had already entered into a new alliance with the King of England.
"May God guide the king of France in the right direction and protect your sister at the French court." Margarita said gently.
"Amen."
YOU ARE READING
The Serpent Queen
Historical Fiction"I am Catherine di Medici; queen of France and mother of kings." At a time when women are taught to be quiet and obedient, never to live her own life but to follow the path men have written for her, Catherine is challenged to be more and make her o...
