In the fierce fantasy universe of The Serpent Queen, one of my favorite series of 2022, there will be a meeting that would have everything to have been real, but is fictional: Catherine de Medici and Elizabeth I. That’s right, the Serpent Queen and the Virgin Queen, who were contemporaries, friends by letters and almost linked by marriage (Catherine’s son was one of the English Queen’s suitors), but were never physically in the same environment, but it’s why series are created for, isn’t it?
The best part of this meeting that will soon become a confrontation of wits is that it also puts two great actresses on the scene: Samantha Morton, our Catarina, and the newcomer to the cast, Minnie Driver, who will play Elizabeth I.
The Queens’ rivalry
France and England have always rivaled, long before the Italian Catherine de Medici married the spare prince-turned-King, and the “bastard” Elizabeth I was the only living heir to the British Crown. Considering that neither of them would be in the most obvious line of power, it is equally admirable that in a male universe, they have maintained command.
We can continue comparing because the two queens had a lot and nothing in common. Catherine was the mother of kings and the other went down in history as a “virgin”. One was Protestant and the other Catholic. Still, at some point, they became friends.
Elizabeth’s youth was covered in Becoming Elizabeth, but in the 1st season of The Serpent Queen, we followed the difficult life of young Catherine, daughter of Lorenzo II de Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeline de La Tour, d’Auvergne. Her parents died and left her a rich heiress, she became valuable on the marriage market. The chosen one was Prince Henry, who would become king only after his brother died. Catherine loved her husband, but he only had affection for Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier). The two had 10 children, with only four surviving. On Henry’s death, their firstborn son succeeded him, but he also died (and Catherine sent her daughter-in-law, Mary Stuart, back to Scotland) and we said goodbye to her as regent of her son Charles, just 9 years old.
We will meet her again with an adult and unstable son, with a country divided by religious issues and enemies emerging from all sides. The friendship with Elizabeth I is crucial and diplomatic, so much so that the Englishwoman flirted with the idea of marrying one of Catherine’s sons. Their relationship, which lasted no less than 30 years, began as a friendship, but in the end, it turned into an open rivalry. It will be curious when the two deal with issues as complex and interconnected as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, the Spanish Armada, and, of course, Mary Stuart.
Who returns and who debuts?
Samantha Morton as Catherine de Medici
Emma McDonald as Rahima
Danny Kirrane as Louis de Bourbon
Ray Panthaki as Charles Guise
Raza Jaffrey as Francois de Guise
Enzo Cilenti as Ruggieri
Amrita Acharia as Aabis
Ruby Bentall as Angelica
Beth Goddard as Antoinette Guise
Ludivine Sagnier as Diane de Poitier
Rupert Everett as Charles V
Minnie Driver as Elizabeth I
Angus Imrie as Henry IV
Stanley Morgan as Anjou
Philippine Velge as Margot
Rosalie Craig as Jeanne d’Albret
Isobel Jesper Jones as Edith
Bill Milner as Charles IX
Ashley Thomas as Alessandro de Medici
Alexandre Willaume as Montmorency
The series premieres in June in the United States. I can’t wait for it to arrive in Brazil!
miscelana.com 