Is Starz Play drama The Serpent Queen based on a true story?
From The Crown to Outlander, we, like so many of you, love a gripping historical drama which is why we've found ourselves glued to our screens watching new Starz Play series, The Serpent Queen.
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But how true is the story? Find out if the period drama is based on real-life events here…
WATCH: Check out the trailer for new costume drama The Serpent Queen
Starring Samantha Morton, Charles Dance and Antonia Clarke, The Serpent Queen follows Catherine de Medici, an orphaned young woman who marries into the French court only to discover that her husband is in love with an older woman who cannot conceive children.
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The show is described as a "historical drama with an edge," that "puts a contemporary spin on conventional storytelling" in recounting Catherine de Medici's rise to power, and so as a result, it is indeed based on a true story.
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In fact, The Serpent Queen takes inspiration from Leonie Frieda's 2003 book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France, which is considered the most comprehensive biography of the much-maligned 16th-century ruler.
Creator Justin Haythe, however, did take some liberties when it came to translating Queen Catherine's life onto screen. While the show depicts her as having an impoverished upbringing, in reality, she was considered an aristocrat and lived with various relatives and family friends after her noblewoman mother abandoned her as an infant.
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However, the creator has stressed that he was keen to create a sympathetic portrayal of the character because of how single-note historians have been about her in the past.
"I liked the idea of a villain from history who would address us and say, 'Let me you tell why I did the things I did, and you'll judge me differently,'" he 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."
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