By Kate Torgovnick
Here is a headline I just couldn’t make up, from the Washington Post: “16th century French Queen Catherine de Medici’s hairpin is discovered in communal toilet.”
Apparently , the majority of the Renaissance queen’s possessions have long since been lost, stolen or sold. But, this week, a conservator at the Fontainebleau Palace unearthed a hairpin from the late 1500s—which features two interlocking ‘C’s for ‘Catherine’—in an old communal toilet as the area was being restored. After cleaning off the pin, which was buried deep in the soil, he discovered that it was white and green, known to be Catherine de Medici’s colors.
There is a mystery, however.
Because the queen would never ever would have been caught dead in a communal bathroom.
“Maybe it was a lady-in-waiting who took it,” postulates the conservator. “Perhaps it was stolen, and just fell in.”
Got a Kate-
Duuuuuuude! That is AWESOME!!!! For Kates interested in historical Kates, Catherine de Medici is one of the most fascinating and badass women to ever be Queen in France! Her nickname was Madame Serpent, and in addition to inventing highheeled shoes and riding side-saddle, she was infamous for poisoning her political adversaries!
She is endlessly interesting to read about. (How did I get to be such a Catherine de Medici geek? I co-wrote a musical about her in highschool with 4 other friends)
A musical? Need to see it! Need to see it!