How Much of The Serpent Queen Is Based on True Story?

Summary

• Starz's The Serpent Queen has turned our view of Catherine de' Medici on its head.
• But how much of the show is historically accurate?
• Surprisingly, for all its creative liberties, the show adheres to accepted facts.

Catherine de' Medici is a truly iconic historical figure, shrouded in myth and speculation. We are used to seeing her in various on-screen projects as this dark, ruthless, cunning figure, the Black Queen as she is often referred to.

That's why when Starz's The Serpent Queen premiered in 2022 with a whole new take on the legendary woman's life, many viewers were confused. Is Catherine de' Medici the psychopathic villain we are used to hearing about, or a woman who had to make the best of her situation? How much of what we see on screen is historically accurate? Now that the second season is airing on the platform, let's delve into this question.

True Story

The Starz show is based on the non-fiction biography of Catherine de' Medici by Leonie Frieda. So at its core, the show is true to widely accepted historical facts. More than that, it tries to tell them from the point of view of the protagonist herself.

'I liked the idea of a villain from history who would address us and say, "Let me tell you why I did the things I did, and you'll judge me differently,"' the show creator Justin Haythe told Town & Country. 'You have to really wonder if this is an evil person with shards of good, or it's a good person who's capable of evil to survive.'

And The Serpent Queen really does change the way we look at Catherine. In a light and humorous tone, it tells the horrific story of a girl who lost her parents in the first month of her life and has been used as a pawn in power games ever since.

The facts about Catherine's early years and rise to power are all true. She did marry the second son of a French king and had a long childless period of ten years, making her position at court tenuous at best. She did have a longstanding confrontation with her husband Henri II's mistress, Diane de Poitiers, and the Protestant Bourbons who would eventually take the throne.

Most importantly, many historians today believe that the dark myths surrounding Catherine de' Medici – stories of poisoning, black magic, and severe manipulation – are false and were created by the queen's enemies after her death to villainize her. Catherine was a woman who did her best to protect her family. This is exactly what Samantha Morton's brilliant performance conveys.

However, The Serpent Queen is not a documentary and takes some creative liberties to enhance the story.

Creative Additions

'I felt we're free to invent, hypothesize, to create an alternative history,' Haythe told Decider in 2022.

The character of Catherine's maid, Rahima, a central figure in the onscreen story, was created specifically for the series to give Catherine a voice and show viewers the underbelly of the 16th-century French court.

In addition, some of Catherine's betrayals depicted in the show have no historical basis. And, of course, there is no evidence that she used magic in her dealings. That being said, Catherine did have an interest in the occult and was close to the famous Italian alchemist Cosimo Ruggieri and the reputed seer Nostradamus, who we can't wait to meet in The Serpent Queen.

The Serpent Queen Season 2 Episode 2 is scheduled to air on Starz on July 19, 2024.

Sources: Town & Country, Decider.