I don’t think people give Claudia enough credits for what she’s been going through.
When we first meet her, she has learned that the man she was bethroed to is cheating on her.
She says she loves him, but quickly realizes Ezio is right when he says she only thought she did.
Claudia looks and sounds like she would like to punish Duccio herself, and she probably would have, were it not for the reputation of her family.
Then her father and two of her brothers are arrested. She’s scared, and we don’t know what happened to her mother, but they make it sound like Maria was raped.
Claudia is grief-stricken when she learns they were executed, and wishes they wouldn’t have to leave town.
When they arrive at the Villa, she must remain there, taking care of her mute mother, who refused to move from her bed and from Petriccio’s chest of feathers.
Claudia is also put in charge of the banking and her brother’s founds, never having worked before in her life.
And each day she remains there, looking after her mother, overseeing the restoration of the Villa and the town itself.
On top of that, she spends each day worrying over Ezio, never knowing if he’s still alive, or if she has lost him too.
Her uncle, a man she’s barely met, is never at home, and when he is, he is always busy with somthing.
Then Monteriggioni is attacked.
Her uncle is murdered, Ezio is hurt and they have to flee under the city.
She was meant to go to Firenze with her mother, but decided to go to Rome instead, to be there for her brother.
Chosing to take over Rosa del Fiore was a brave and smart choice, though it - for a while - took its toll on her relationship with Ezio.
Claudia learned much during the years at her uncle’s villa, and used those skills to take good care of the girls, treating them much better than the last madam.
Her strenght and courage pays off, as she is made a member of the Assassin order, an order of which the males of her family has belonged to for centuries.
Throughout Revelations, Ezio writes her several letters, and she reades them, never stopping to wonder if the one she’s holding in her hands will be the last one.
And yet, we hear her complain once or twice throughout it all
