Reluctant Queen

Weary of her husband’s many mistresses, Marguerite de Valois returns to Paris and her own lover, Henri de Guise. But when her brother Henri Trois once more makes life impossible for her, and her situation as Queen of Navarre becomes increasingly insecure as her husband speaks of divorce, where can she possibly find safety? 


Gabrielle d’Estrées, a young beauty, wants nothing more than to marry for love, and enjoy the respectability of a happy marriage. But in the court of sixteenth century France this is almost impossible to achieve. She is sold by her own mother to three different lovers before catching the eye of a king. 


Henry of Navarre has a weakness for beautiful women with fair hair and blue eyes, and once he sees Gabrielle, he knows he must have her. She bears him children and he promises to marry her, despite still being married to the exiled Queen Margot. But is the love of a king enough to secure Gabrielle the happiness and respectability she craves, and a crown for her son as the next dauphin of France?