Catherine de Medici and Mary Stuart are two of the best-known queens of all time and if you’re a European history fan, you’ve likely already read about them. But Leah Redmond Chang’s Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power presents them, alongside Elisabeth Valois, in a whole new light, focusing on their years as “young queens.”

For those unfamiliar with these women, Catherine de Medici was a young Italian woman born into nobility who became the Queen of France through her husband, Henry II. She ruled at his side through his lifetime and as advisor and later regent for her sons, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. Catherine’s son Francis was Mary Stuart’s first husband; the little girl had been raised in France in preparation for her marriage and to keep the young Queen of Scots away from the turmoil of her own country. Meanwhile, Elisabeth Valois was Catherine’s eldest daughter, married to King Phillip II of Spain after the death of his previous wife, Mary Tudor, when she was barely a teenager.

All three women faced enormous hardships, despite their wealth and position, from illness to the loss of children to sexual assault. They were often used like pawns by their families to try to achieve their ambitions, and their attempts to take agency into their own hands sometimes backfired. Each of their stories ends in tragedy and I will readily admit that I cried multiple times while reading the book. It was a stark reminder that in the sixteenth century, even the most privileged women were at the mercy of the dangerous world they lived in.

Chang does an excellent job weaving the three interconnected stories together, stopping around the time of Elisabeth Valois’s early death and Mary’s imprisonment in England. My only issue with the book is that I would have loved to have it extend to the end of Mary and Catherine’s lives, but I know that doesn’t exactly go along with the theme and title, Young Queens.

Chang brings in many primary sources, using a seemingly endless number of letters exchanged between Catherine and Elisabeth, Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, and Catherine and her ambassadors in other courts, amongst others. Particularly touching were those between Mary’s mother Marie de Guise and the son she was forced to leave behind when she went to Scotland for her second marriage, to Mary’s father James IV. These letters, and hearing these women’s actual voices, helped to humanize them and make them seem more real. Chang’s endnotes are excellently put together, with explanations for everything that you might want to know more about.

In addition to having the book itself to flip through, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Olivia Dowd. Her narration is engaging and empathetic, without ever veering into being overdramatic. Chang’s excellent writing lends itself well to being listened to, as it flows well, like a story rather than a dry history text.

If you’re interested in royal women, the Renaissance, or understanding more about how the personal strongly influenced the political in Europe’s kingdoms, this book is a great read. While I listened to the audiobook and read an eBook, I loved it so much that I plan to purchase a physical copy. It’s one of the best history books that I can remember reading and is one that I plan to return to in years to come because of how well Chang presents her information.

I was given ARCs of this book and audiobook by Net Galley, RB Media, and Faux, Straus, & Giroux in exchange for an honest review. Both are now available for purchase. You can find more on Leah Redmond Chang’s website.