Historical parallels: Cersei and Catherine de' Medici

[SisterWithoutBanners]

 As we all know, GRRM is inspired by English history, and there are a lot of historical comparisons between English history and ASOIAF. But I haven't seen anyone pointing out this parallel before (if you have, please link to the topic below!). 

Catherine de' Medici was an Italian woman of high birth (the Medici family is fairly famous). She was also said to have a taste for political intrigue, and was married to the French king Henry 2. Henry died in a tournament, and left 3 children, of which the eldest was only 15 years old at the time. Catherine thereafter tried to govern France for her sons, but she was unable to control the land, and the country fell into chaos, whilst different political players tried to control her sons (A History of the Modern World, by Palmer, Colton, Kramer. 10.edt. Page 131). 

What do you guys think? 

[Winter's Breath]

Catherine de' Medici was brutal ruthless, and was very cunning, although I don't know the history that well. France was falling apart politically because of large religious differences. There were a lot of mistakes made early on by many people pushing the country towards war, and as Catherine gained power she tried hard to prevent war. She did this violently, with massacres, and she even beat her children when they threatened the peace. Here sons took the throne solely because of her ability, and some think as her as the most power woman in 16th century Europe. While unable to achieve her goals, the fact that she survived at all is impressive. 

There might be some elements linking her to Robert. But I don't think the parallel is that strong.

[Duncan_The_Short]

I've always thought of Cersei as being analogous to Margaret of Anjou.  The reason I'm attracted to this particular analogy is that I have noticed that GRRM seems to use the whole fantasy as historical fiction aspect of his work to rearrange events and relationships in a way that amounts to a critical analysis of history itself.  For instance Margaret of Anjou was the mother of Edward of Windsor who I believe is the historical counterpart of Joffrey, but was the wife of Henry VI the historical counterpart of Tommen IMO.  Henry VI was a very mentally unstable person and a fairly weak ruler so Margaret was able to rule through him and I believe that by making Tommen Cersei's son and not her husband GRRM is pointing out that the relationship that Margaret had with Henry is much more akin to that of a caretaker/mother than that of a wife.

[dsug]

I'm not a history major by any means, but I've always seen Cersei as Margaret of Anjou, Bloody Mary, Catherine de Medici, Isabella of France, and Marie Antoinette just kind of rolled into one woman. She's an original character so she's never gonna follow one woman's life story, but there's elements of each of them that we could pick out. 

[SisterWithoutBanners]

2 hours ago, dsug said:

I'm not a history major by any means, but I've always seen Cersei as Margaret of Anjou, Bloody Mary, Catherine de Medici, Isabella of France, and Marie Antoinette just kind of rolled into one woman. She's an original character so she's never gonna follow one woman's life story, but there's elements of each of them that we could pick out. 

I agree with you. GRRM is not likely to copy history, but it is interesting to seek out parallels and likenesses between characters and our own history!

And of course, it would have been kinda cool seeing Cersei doing a "Bartholomews Day Massacre" on the Sparrows

[dsug]

12 hours ago, SisterWithoutBanners said:

I agree with you. GRRM is not likely to copy history, but it is interesting to seek out parallels and likenesses between characters and our own history!

And of course, it would have been kinda cool seeing Cersei doing a "Bartholomews Day Massacre" on the Sparrows

Yeah I definitely agree it's fun picking out little parallels and stuff. 

Maybe Cersei has a little bit of like Livia in her as well. 

[Duncan_The_Short]

15 hours ago, dsug said:

I've always seen Cersei as Margaret of Anjou, Bloody Mary, Catherine de Medici, Isabella of France, and Marie Antoinette just kind of rolled into one woman. She's an original character so she's never gonna follow one woman's life story, but there's elements of each of them that we could pick out. 

Absolutely, each character has a narrative goal that will never completely fold into the history of the person that character is based on, however I do think that sometimes the difference between a character and their historical counterpart serves an analytical function rather than a narrative one.  For instance Robb Stark's historical counterpart (young Edward IV) really did make a politically disastrous marriage alliance.  Unlike Robb, however, Edward survived his mistake went on to defeat his remaining enemies and after attaining power turned into the fat lecherous drunkard represented by Robert Baratheon.  I think GRRM did this specifically to make the point that as long as Edward wasn't exercising his royal authority he was viewed in his most idealized form, but as soon as he did start to wield that authority it caused a resentment that allowed people to clearly see his faults as well as his virtues and ironically that if he had not survived the mistake of his marriage his reputation would be much the better for it.