Marie de' Medici or the lust for power This Italian princess became Queen of France. One of the Medicis, a shady Tuscan banking family, Marie experienced luxury and power but also humiliation and destitution. The mother of several European monarchs and grandmother of Louis XIV, Marie de' Medici's life resembled a fairy tale. Presentation: Stéphane Bern.

Mary Stuart, Queen of France and Scotland We're in Edinburgh, in Scotland, in front of what remains of Linlithgow palace, where Mary Stuart was born on 8 December 1542, a few days before her father King James V's death. And so began the tragic story of the woman who would be Queen of France and Scotland. Presentation: Stéphane Bern.