" Catherine de Medicis and Her Florentine Friends was written by De Lamar Jensen and published in July 1978. Like the other two authors presented here, Jensen adopts the line of scientific objectivity in treating the image of Catherine de Medicis free of the controversies of the legend and based on reliable historic sources. Like Catherine Crowford, a few decades later, he will take the personality out of the extraordinary circumstances of mysterious circumstances and put her in the context of historic reality, much less spectacular, but also much more appropriate for a scientific attempt to restore her image and place her in the right lines of history. Jensen presents the much blamed Italian origins of the queen as having also plaid a positive role for the history of France: "When france needed money to help finance the costly civil wars, Catherine took great pains to remind Cosimo of their kinship, friendship and common goals, just as the grand duke did when he sought a French alternative to Spanish dominance."

After having considered Catherine's actions in the light of the objective historic accounts Jensen expresses his belief that despite all her detractors, Catherine was devoted to France completely, never letting her Italian ties come in the way of her actions.

Catherine de Medicis and the Performance of Political Motherhood"

Catherine Crawford. The Sixteenth Century Journal,...

31, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000) pp.643-673
Catherine de Medici: The Legend of the Wicked Italian Woman."

N.M. Sutherland. The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, France in the Sixteenth Century (Jul., 1978) pp. 45-56

Catherine de Medicis and Her Florentine Friends"

De Lamar Jensen. The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, France in the Sixteenth Century (Jul., 1978) pp. 57-74

Catherine Crawford, "Catherine de Medicis and the Performance of Political Motherhood," the Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000): 643

Catherine Crawford, "Catherine de Medicis and the Performance of Political Motherhood," the Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000): 644

Ibid: 645

Catherine Crawford, "Catherine de Medicis and the Performance of Political Motherhood," the Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000): 645

Catherine Crawford, "Catherine de Medicis and the Performance of Political Motherhood," the Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000): 655

N.M. Sutherland. "Catherine de Medici: The Legend of the Wicked Italian Woman." The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, France in the Sixteenth Century (Jul., 1978):47-48

De Lamar Jensen. "Catherine de Medicis and Her Florentine Friends." The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol.…