Hi, I'm Malcolm Dance and I'm Cisteria. It's that time of the week when we check out what our sibling podcast is doing.

This week it's not just the choosers. Professor Suzanne Litt comes smash hit pod in which she talks about the Renaissance 16th century early modern late medieval.

I don't know what period it is. Anyway, it's not just the choosers, but there's a fair bit of choos in it as there is today.

This episode is about rival queens. It's done really well on Susie's feeds. I thought I'd bring it over to this one, give it a wider airing.

rival queens Elizabeth the first and Catherine de Medici. This is Elizabeth in her European context, which I think is really interesting and also addresses the fact that in this period in the 16th century,

there are some very, very powerful women in positions of authority in Western Europe. And that itself is pretty interesting.

The guest is Dr Estelle Perenck, who has been the spot cast before. She's an absolute legend.

She's a nuclear reactor of energy in a good way. She's absolute brilliant. So it's great to have her on the pod again.

If you wish to listen to previous episodes of this podcast, if you wish to listen to them without the ads, I can understand that. You don't want to listen to ads, I get it.

You can do so by subscribing to history hit. We've got a TV channel there with hundreds of hours of documentaries.

It's got big documentary on the end of the Anglo Irish war. Irish war of independence. The choosers was 100 years ago this month.

So please go and check that out at the moment. Lots of people watching that. And we've got big plans coming up for the rest of the summer.

And all to me, and love it. Lots of people subscribing over at history hit. Please go to history hit dot TV to check it out. That's history hit dot TV.

You get 30 days free if you sign up right now. But in the meantime, everyone, enjoy this episode of Not Just The Choosers with Zanilipskin and Estelle Perenck.

I still I imagine listeners are familiar with Elizabeth I, but could you introduce Catherine D'Amedici for us please?

Yes, of course. She was a French queen, but she was also from Italy. She was half Italian, half French from her mother. She was French and from her father. She was Italian.

And she's originally from the famous family, the midici. And she was from Florence. And she was not meant to be queen. I think that's why it's so extraordinary about her.

And she married Henry, the second war, he was Henry Duke of Orlil in 1533, a great year with the birth of Elizabeth and the marriage Catherine D'Amedici.

And then she became D'Offine of Hans, and then she became Queen Concert of France. And then even after that, her husband died. And she became a sort of Queen Regent, and then she became the Queen Mother of France.

So she's a very important 16th century French figure. She has an extreme dark legend around her brain and her life is full of drama and scandal, but also you learn so much from her.

And what were her dates when was she born and when does she die? So she was born on 13th April, 1519, and she died on the 5th January, 1589.

So she was very young when she married? Yes, she was. She was 14 years old. And in a way, she was really lucky because her husband was a same age.

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