When Catherine de’ Medici was eleven, her besieged city was demanded to surrender or else she would be chained to the wall and raped to death by the victorious soldiery. A terrible fate averted; however, if it had been done she wouldn’t have gone on to order the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
When her castle was besieged, and there were threats to kill her hostage children, did she mount the ramparts, raise her skirts and cry, “Did you not think I have the ability to have more?”
