Anne Easter Smith is the award-winning author of The King’s Grace and the best-selling A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, Queen By Right, and Royal Mistress. She is an expert on Richard III, having studied the king and his times for five decades. Her sixth book, This Son of York, will be published soon. She grew up in England, Germany and Egypt, and has been a resident/citizen of the US since 1968. Anne was the Features Editor at a daily newpaper in northern New York State for ten years, and her writing has been published in several national magazines. She lives in Newburyport, MA with her husband, Scott.
Sharon: This Son of York is the sixth book in your series about the York family during the Wars of the Roses, Anne. I thought A Rose for the Crown was your Richard III book. Why have you chosen to write another about him?
Anne: As a matter of fact, Sharon, I thought Rose was my Richard book, too! I thought I had nicely tied up the series with Royal Mistress, and in fact had embarked upon a totally new project—a Portuguese prince and his lady-in-waiting lover—when Richard’s grave was uncovered in the car park in Leicester in 2012. It was then that my “first reader/editor” reminded me that Rose was Kate Haute’s book, not Richard’s and that this was the moment to retell Richard’s story. “But Sharon Kay Penman wrote the definitive Richard book, Sunne in Splendour,” I protested. She pointed out that with the discovery of Richard’s bones, surely there was now more to add to Richard’s story that Sharon couldn’t possibly have known in 1983. I knew she was right. And so poor Pedro was put aside, and I plunged back into the period I know better than my own in some ways. When I talked to you at the Denver Historical Novel Conference, Sharon, and you convinced me I was the right person to retell Richard’s story, it rekindled my passion for writing about this much maligned king.
Sharon: Were you as excited as I was when they found the grave after more than 500 years?
Anne: OMG, I was thrilled! It so happened that I was visiting my sister in London when the news broke that August 25th. I had donated money along with hundreds of other Ricardians when the plea went out to the Richard III Society membership to help with the dig. Without that last fundraising push, the Leicester City Council would have been forced to hand over the car park property to the developers. So I felt like I’d had a vested interest in the dig! What was so exciting was that the August 25th discovery of his skeleton was most likely the same day Richard had been ignominiously buried in the shallow, too-short grave in 1485! What were the odds of that! I was on my winter break in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in February 2013 when the DNA study definitively identified the bones as Richard’s. I cried. Checking my in-box that morning, I saw dozens of emails from friends exclaiming they had seen it on TV and thought of me. Among them was one from PRI’s The World national radio news program that is based out of Boston’s WGBH (my local station). The host, Marco Werman, would like to interview you about Richard III and the discovery, the email informed me. So I Skyped with him an hour later and was excited to have been named as “a Richard III expert.”
Sharon: It looks like you have a new publisher for this book. Can you explain?
Anne: After Royal Mistress was published by Touchstone at Simon & Schuster, I was let go—as were several other historical fiction authors in their stable. Touchstone has now been absorbed by Atria at S&S. It took me a while to get over myself and continue writing, and despite being turned down by several other editors for the Portuguese Prince story, I thought it was the unknown historical figure that was the problem. But after finishing This Son of York, it seemed the market wasn’t right for a medieval male protagonist from any country, and so, after many rejections for Richard and my agent quitting the business, I found myself on my own after two years of trying. Enter two fellow authors who had also been let go by Harlequin after several books and who decided to combine their editing and business skills to start their own publishing house to help women authors like me floundering around in these new boggy publishing waters. I am delighted with the result, and thrilled that Richard’s book can now be “birthed.”
Sharon: What makes you think medieval Richard can buck the trend of female protagonists in World War II novels so popular right now?
Anne: Because Richard is a rock star! At least certainly in England he is ever since the bones were discovered. I was astonished that more than 20,000 people from all over the world crowded into Leicester for the reinterment. Leicester was gobsmacked too! I got up early that day as my husband had finagled a way to see the funeral on BBC-TV live. It was magnificent, and the slew of celebrities interviewed in the special glass booth on the cathedral grounds all day helped to put Richard’s name on everyone’s lips all over the world. I really think he is still a compelling historical figure for lovers of our genre, despite being medieval and male! I don’t think I, or anyone else, can eclipse the great Sharon Kay Penman’s take on this king but I think this new evidence is a wonderful opportunity to again bring his light out from behind Shakespeare’s monstrous depiction and try and restore his reputation, don’t you? I am hoping my book will help and that allowing me to guest post on your blog might start the ball rolling! Thank you so much.
Excerpt from This Son of York: https://anneeastersmith.com/excerpt
Buy books at: https://amzn.to/2IIMKNl
Sharon: As my readers know, I never read another writer’s novel about a historical figure who has been featured in one of my books. As Anne and my other writer friends can testify, we become emotionally invested in our characters, having spend years in their company while attempting to view the world through their eyes. But I like to alert my readers to any book that is likely to appeal to them, and obviously This Son of York (clever title, by the way) falls in that category. My readers share my fascination with Richard III and many of them are already fans of Anne’s earlier historical novels. I am sorry I cannot add the photo of the book cover, a problem that will definitely be resolved with my new website, coming next month. But you can see it for yourselves by clicking onto the Amazon link above.
Anne, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview about a man very close to both of our hearts.
January 29, 2020
Great interview! I just bought the book and look forward to a good read!
Great interview! I just bought the book and look forward to a good read!
I received the first copy of The Land Beyond the Sea this afternoon, and as a totally unbiased observer, I can report that it looks spectacular.
Am I glad I am getting a new website soon. This one cut off all of the post after that first sentence. Trying again, but first sending this out to explain why that post is so truncated compared to the one on my Facebook pages.
I received the first copy of The Land Beyond the Sea this afternoon, and as a totally unbiased observer, I can report that it looks spectacular.
No luck….sorry about that.
Lately, I’ve been unable to share my Facebook posts here, which has me counting the days till we launch my new site this month. But I will try again with today’s post for February 2nd was an important day on the medieval Church calendar and in my books, the date of the battles of Lincoln and Mortimer’s Cross and the date of death for Llywelyn Fawr’s beloved wife, Joanna.
February 2nd was an important date on the medieval Church calendar, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, more commonly known as Candlemas. February 2nd is a secular holiday in the US this year—the date of the Super Bowl. And not to slight Punxsutawney Phil, it is also Groundhog Day.
February 2nd also resonated in several of my novels. Here is a post from several years ago about all that happened on this date; hope you all don’t mind a rerun.
February 2nd, 1141 was the battle of Lincoln, in which Stephen was defeated and taken prisoner by Robert, the Earl of Gloucester, on behalf of his sister, the Empress Maude. At the risk of seeming blood-thirsty, I like writing of battles and this was a good one, filled with high drama and suspense. February 2nd was also the date of an important Yorkist battle, at Mortimer’s Cross in 1461. Edward, who’d become Duke of York and head of his fractured family upon the death of his father at the battle of Wakefield barely a month ago, was trying to prevent Owen Tudor and reinforcements coming out of Wales from joining the Lancastrians, and he forced a battle not far from Wigmore. Even before the fighting began, he faced a challenge when a parhelion appeared in the sky, a phenomenon that made it look as if there were three suns overhead. Naturally this frightened his soldiers, but the quick-witted Edward cried out that the suns represented the Holy Trinity and was an omen of victory; he would later adopt this as his cognizance, the Sunne in Splendour. Having staved off disaster, he then proceeded to defeat the Lancastrians, captured Owen Tudor, and had him executed—not surprising, since the heads of his father and brother and uncle were even then on poles above Micklegate Bar in York. Edward then went on to receive a hero’s welcome by the city of London and shattered the Lancastrian hopes in a savage battle fought in a snowstorm at Towton on Palm Sunday. What is truly remarkable is that Edward was not yet nineteen years old.
I thought of Edward’s parhelion when I was reading a chronicler’s account of the building of Richard I’s beloved “saucy castle, “ Chateau Gaillard. I was familiar with the exchange between the kings over Chateau Gaillard. Philippe, fuming at seeing this formidable stronghold rising up on the Vexin border, vowed that he would take it if its walls were made of iron. When he was told this, Richard laughed and said he’d hold it if its walls were made of butter. But there is another story about Gaillard not as well known. In the spring of 1198, Richard was personally supervising the construction, as he often did, when a shower of blood suddenly fell from the skies. Naturally, this freaked out everyone—everyone but Richard. The chronicler reported that “The king was not dismayed at this, nor did he relax in promoting the work in which he took so great delight.” Now I confess my first reaction to this story was an uncharitable one, wondering if the chronicler, William of Newburgh, had been hitting the wine when he wrote this. Shower of rain and blood? But when I Googled it, I discovered that red rain has indeed fallen at various times, and there were even some unsettling photos of a red rain in India that really did look like blood. Clearly strong-willed men like Richard and Edward were not as superstitious as their brethren.
For me, though, February 2nd has another, sadder meaning, for on this date in 1237, Joanna, daughter of King John and wife of Llywelyn Fawr, died at Aber and was buried at Llanfaes, where her grieving husband established a friary in honor of her memory. Below is that scene from Falls the Shadow, page 26
* * *
Joanna closed her eyes, tears squeezing through her lashes. So much she wanted to stay, but she had not the strength. “Beloved…promise me…”
Llywelyn stiffened. She’d fought so hard to gain the crown for their son. Did she mean to bind him now with a deathbed bow? He waited, dreading what she would ask of him, to safeguard the succession for Davydd. Knowing there was but one certain way to do that—to cage Gruddydd again. And how could he do that to his son? How could he condemn him to a life shut away from the sun? But how could he deny Joanna? Could he let her go to her grave without that comfort?
“Llywelyn…pray for me,” she gasped, and only then did he fully accept it, that she was indeed dying, was already lost to him, beyond earthly cares, worldly ambitions.
“I will, Joanna.” He swallowed with difficulty, brought her hand up, pressing her lips against her palm. “You will have my every prayer.”
“Bury me at…at Llanfaes…”
His head jerked up. He had an island manor at Llanfaes; it was there that Joanna had been confined after he had discovered her infidelity. “Why, Joanna? Why Llanfaes?”
Her mouth curved upward. “Because…I was so happy there. You came to me, forgave me…”
“Oh, Christ, Joanna…” His voice broke; he pulled her into an anguished embrace, held her close.
* * *
I was reading about Kirk Douglas today; many people don’t know that the celebrated actor was also the author of a dozen books. I actually have a “Kirk Douglas story” about one of them. A few years ago, I did a blog about books I’d enjoyed and recommended, and one of them was his I am Spartacus, his behind-the-scenes account of the making of that classic film and the fight he waged to defy the Hollywood Blacklist. I gave it a rave review. Much to my surprise, about a week later, I got a letter from Kirk Douglas, or at least so it said on the envelope address. When I opened it, I found a very sweet, handwritten note (!) thanking me for my praise of I am Spartacus. Obviously, someone on his staff called it to his attention, since I think we can safely say he was not a devoted follower of my blog. And yes, I went totally Fan-girl, spreading the news far and wide about his kind gesture. For those of you who have not read this book, I think you should; I found it riveting. And below is a link to his last interview, which he and Anne, his wife of 65 years, gave in 2017. I thought it was absolutely charming, the sort of interview that makes you think, “Wow, I’d love to know these people.” It sounds as if Anne and Kirk were very well-matched.
I also have good news about The Land Beyond the Sea, another good review, this one in the Historical Novel Society; I’ll post that one later. Meanwhile, if you have a few free minutes, spend them with the Douglases.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/02/05/kirk-douglas-dies-103-final-interview/4674442002/
Re the Anne Easter Smith interview: Thank you for sharing this! In addition to all the other exciting books and news, I actually bounced in my chair when I read of the plotting for a novel about Pedro and Ines. I would very much like to read that AND all the wonderful Yorkist/Ricardian novels I hadn’t known about before!
I will pass your comments on to Anne, Teka Lynn, in case she misses them here.
I’ve spent much of the day following the accounts of the storm battering the UK, am horrified by the damage it is causing and on such a wide-spread scale. I’ve been able to reach friends in Yorkshire and one in Wales so far, but have had no word from my friends who live in Llanrwst, one of the hardest hit towns in Gwynedd. I heard there were extensive power outages, so I will keep trying to reach them. The streets of Llanrwst look like the canals of Venice. I hope all of my British readers are safe and dry and able to ride out the storm.
As promised, here is the Historic Novel Society’s review of The Land Beyond the Sea. I cannot remember if I posted the Publisher’s Weekly review here, too? Maybe someone could nudge my memory?
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-land-beyond-the-sea/
It was heartbreaking to see so many of my favorite places in Gwynedd underwater and to learn that my friends in Llanrwst had been hit hard, as I’d feared. And after suffering through Storm Ciara, the besieged residents awoke yesterday to a snowstorm, serious enough to close some roads and to send the police out to rescue stranded motorists. So what was the news this morning? That the UK is going to be hammered with another storm this weekend. What next? The Biblical plague of locusts?
I do have some good news, though, about Lionheart. Like A King’s Ransom last month, Lionheart’s e-book edition is now available at the bargain price of $1.99 on all the major on-line book outlets: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Google, and Kobo. https://www.bookbub.com/books/lionheart-by-sharon-kay-penman-2019-03-07
My friends and readers in the UK must feel as if they’re trapped in Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, for just as last weekend saw them hammered by Storm Ciara, this weekend it is Storm Dennis, bringing high winds and heavy rains to many of the same areas that were flooded just a week ago. Please stay safe and dry in what looks to be another wretched weekend.
I mentioned a few days ago that Lionheart is available in its ebook edition for only $1.99. I am happy now to report that the bargain price will remain in effect on all on-line book sites for another week, till the 23rd. Now, onto Today in Medieval History. I am a few days late with this entry, but it’s worth waiting for; I picked a very busy date to chat about.
February 10th was the date of death of two dukes, a king, one of those treacherous Stanleys, and the worst king-consort ever. Only two of them—maybe two and a half—were worth mourning.
On February 10, 1126, William, the ninth Duke of Aquitaine, also known as the first troubadour duke, died after a long and eventful life. He had a keen sense of humor so he may have been amused that today he is mainly remembered as the grandfather of our Eleanor. But he also had a healthy ego, so maybe not. I would have grieved for him—unless I was one of his wives!
On February 10, 1134, Robert, the Duke of Normandy died after being held prisoner by his not-so-loving younger brother, Henry I, for twenty-eight years. Robert seems to have been a feckless sort, certainly no match for the ruthlessness of Brother Henry, but he probably didn’t deserve nearly three decades of captivity.
On February 10, 1163, Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, died. He was only in his 33rd year and by all accounts was a very good king, an adroit politician, and a courageous battle commander. He also seems to have been a genuine good guy, charming, affable, and handsome. His death dramatically changed the history of the Holy Land, for he’d not yet had children with his beautiful bride, the seventeen-year-old Byzantine princess, Theodora, and so the crown passed to his younger brother Amalric, the Count of Jaffa. Amalric had none of Baldwin’s charisma, being taciturn and introverted. He proved to be a capable king, though, but he, too, died prematurely, leaving a thirteen-year-old son as his heir, the boy who would tragically become known to history as the Leper king. Had Baldwin not died so young or had Amalric lived long enough for his queen, also a Byzantine princess, to give him another son, the kingdom’s doomed march to Armageddon might not have happened. There is no doubt that Saladin is one of history’s more fascinating figures, a brilliant politician, but his great victory at Hattin was based in part upon the disunity among his Christian foes, just as the first crusaders took advantage of Saracen discord to carve out the kingdom of Outremer eighty-some years earlier. Baldwin III does not appear as a character in my new novel, being dead by the time the book opens, but Amalric makes a few appearances before dying of dysentery and his son is a major character, of course. Had I lived then, I would definitely have mourned Baldwin.
On February 10, 1495, William, Lord Stanley, was executed by Henry Tudor, accused of treason, irony at its best. Party time!
Lastly, on February 10, 1567, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was messily murdered, a death that was richly deserved. One of my favorite scenes from the wonderful film, Mary, Queen of Scots, had Elizabeth (the incomparable Glenda Jackson) and Cecil practically falling on the floor laughing upon learning that Mary had been foolish enough to take the bait and marry Darnley.
My friends and readers in the UK must feel as if they’re trapped in Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, for just as last weekend saw them hammered by Storm Ciara, this weekend it is Storm Dennis, bringing high winds and heavy rains to many of the same areas that were flooded just a week ago. Please stay safe and dry in what looks to be another wretched weekend.
I mentioned a few days ago that Lionheart is available in its ebook edition for only $1.99. I am happy now to report that the bargain price will remain in effect on all on-line book sites for another week, till the 23rd. Now, onto Today in Medieval History. I am a few days late with this entry, but it’s worth waiting for; I picked a very busy date to chat about.
February 10th was the date of death of two dukes, a king, one of those treacherous Stanleys, and the worst king-consort ever. Only two of them—maybe two and a half—were worth mourning.
On February 10, 1126, William, the ninth Duke of Aquitaine, also known as the first troubadour duke, died after a long and eventful life. He had a keen sense of humor so he may have been amused that today he is mainly remembered as the grandfather of our Eleanor. But he also had a healthy ego, so maybe not. I would have grieved for him—unless I was one of his wives!
On February 10, 1134, Robert, the Duke of Normandy died after being held prisoner by his not-so-loving younger brother, Henry I, for twenty-eight years. Robert seems to have been a feckless sort, certainly no match for the ruthlessness of Brother Henry, but he probably didn’t deserve nearly three decades of captivity.
On February 10, 1163, Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, died. He was only in his 33rd year and by all accounts was a very good king, an adroit politician, and a courageous battle commander. He also seems to have been a genuine good guy, charming, affable, and handsome. His death dramatically changed the history of the Holy Land, for he’d not yet had children with his beautiful bride, the seventeen-year-old Byzantine princess, Theodora, and so the crown passed to his younger brother Amalric, the Count of Jaffa. Amalric had none of Baldwin’s charisma, being taciturn and introverted. He proved to be a capable king, though, but he, too, died prematurely, leaving a thirteen-year-old son as his heir, the boy who would tragically become known to history as the Leper king. Had Baldwin not died so young or had Amalric lived long enough for his queen, also a Byzantine princess, to give him another son, the kingdom’s doomed march to Armageddon might not have happened. There is no doubt that Saladin is one of history’s more fascinating figures, a brilliant politician, but his great victory at Hattin was based in part upon the disunity among his Christian foes, just as the first crusaders took advantage of Saracen discord to carve out the kingdom of Outremer eighty-some years earlier. Baldwin III does not appear as a character in my new novel, being dead by the time the book opens, but Amalric makes a few appearances before dying of dysentery and his son is a major character, of course. Had I lived then, I would definitely have mourned Baldwin.
On February 10, 1495, William, Lord Stanley, was executed by Henry Tudor, accused of treason, irony at its best. Party time!
Lastly, on February 10, 1567, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was messily murdered, a death that was richly deserved. One of my favorite scenes from the wonderful film, Mary, Queen of Scots, had Elizabeth (the incomparable Glenda Jackson) and Cecil practically falling on the floor laughing upon learning that Mary had been foolish enough to take the bait and marry Darnley.
A friend from the UK sent me these remarkable photos of Tewkesbury Abbey in this week’s flood and in floods in years past. It looks like an island in an endless sea, and yet the flood waters have never entered the abbey itself, which seems somewhat miraculous to me. I love Tewkesbury, the abbey and the town, and always stopped there on my way into Wales. The scene in Sunne in which Lancastrian soldiers have taken refuge in the church after the battle is one of my favorites. I remember standing in the shadows and envisioning Edward riding his destrier right up to the great double doors…..long before I actually wrote about it. Tewkesbury is one of those places where the past seems very close at hand. As many of you already know, England and Wales suffered more flooding…..so many places I loved, like Ludlow and Shrewsbury and York and almost all of Wales. My heart breaks for the people who’ve lost so much; the aftermath of a flood can be almost as bad as the flood itself.
I suppose I could explain away my absence by claiming I was trapped in a tower by a hungry dragon, but the truth is far more mundane—I am bogged down doing my income taxes. I’d almost prefer the dragon. The news from the UK continues to be troubling, with more flooding today in Wales and parts of Yorkshire; I don’t think the water has yet receded in those villages and towns in Herefordshire and Shropshire that were hit with awful flooding last weekend. But here is a flicker of light in the darkness, a heartwarming article about how ordinary people are stepping up to help their beleaguered countrymen. Below that is one of my Today in History Posts, albeit a late one.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-51573596
On February 13, 1177, Henry and Eleanor’s youngest daughter, Joanna, was wed in Palermo to William, the King of Sicily and then crowned as his consort. She was all of eleven years old. It is hard for us to imagine sending children off to foreign lands to marry strangers at such young ages, but this was the way of life for the highborn in the MA. Surely some parents must have felt some qualms, though, for the safety or wellbeing of their daughters. Some of these marriages were happy ones; Joanna’s older sister Leonora came to love her husband, the King of Castile. Some were not as successful and some brought only misery to the young brides; surely the worst case was that of Agnes, daughter of Louis VII of France, sent off to wed the son of the Byzantine emperor at age eight; her young husband would be murdered and she would be forced to wed his killer, a man whose reign was so brutal that the citizens of Constantinople rose up against him and he fled the city with his favorite concubine and his little French bride. He was later captured and died rather gruesomely, but Agnes was spared.
Joanna encountered no such horrors in Sicily and was well treated by her husband, although he did keep a harem of Saracen slave girls. She would be widowed young, imprisoned by the man who usurped her husband’s throne, and then rescued by her brother Richard and accompanied him on crusade. Here is the account by Roger de Hoveden of Joanna’s introduction to her new life in Sicily. It had been a rough trip for her; she’d been escorted into Poitou by her eldest brother Hal, and then Richard escorted her all the way to St Gilles, where she was turned over to the Sicilian envoys. On the voyage, she’d suffered so severely from seasickness that the fleet had to hand at Naples and continue on land. But she was given a magnificent welcome into Palermo.
“The whole city welcomed them, and lamps, so many and so large, were lighted up, that the city almost seemed to be on fire…for it was by night that they entered the city of Palermo. The said daughter of the King of England was then escorted, mounted on one of the king’s horses, and resplendent with regal garments, to a certain palace, that there she might in becoming state await the day of her marriage and coronation.
After the expiration of a few days, the before-named daughter of the King of England was married to William, King of Sicily, and solemnly crowned at Palermo, in the royal chapel there, in the presence of Gilles, Bishop of Evreux and the envoys of the King of England.”
That same day William issued a charter in Joanna’s favor, providing generously for her dowry, describing her as “the maiden Joanna, of royal blood, and the most illustrious daughter of Henry, the mighty king of the English, to the end that her fidelity and chaste affection may produce the blessings of the married state.”
And on February 13, 1542, silly little Catherine Howard became yet another victim of her husband’s monstrous ego. When Henry VIII discovered that she’d had a colorful past prior to their marriage, he was so outraged that he pushed a bill of attainder through Parliament making it treason for an “unchaste” woman to marry the king, then sent Catherine to the Tower, where she was beheaded on this date. In the past, we’ve talked of Jane Grey, who paid with her life for her family’s all-consuming ambition. So did Catherine Howard, although she had none of Jane’s intelligence or education, which makes her pathetic story all the sadder. Marriage to the aging, ailing, hot-tempered Henry was more than punishment enough for any sins of her feckless youth. Despite the legend, though, she did not say that she died the Queen of England but would rather have died the wife of Thomas Culpepper. Those about to be executed in Tudor England did not make defiant gallows speeches, wanting to spare their family from royal retribution. But Catherine really did ask for the block to be brought to her the night before her execution; she wanted to practice kneeling and putting her head upon it so she would be sure to do it correctly come the morning. How pitiful is that?
Some of you expressed disappointment that Putnam’s is not sending me out on a book tour for The Land Beyond the Sea; I was disappointed, too, for I love getting to meet my Facebook friends on these tours. But this is apparently the wave of the future since publishers no longer consider most book tours to be cost-effective. So I am very happy to report that I will be doing one event after all, and at my all-time favorite bookstore, the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona. They invited me and I took all of three seconds to accept! We are considering two dates and they suggested I ask you all for feedback. Would you prefer to attend a book signing and talk on a weekend or on a weeknight? Which would be more convenient for you? The first date is Tuesday, March 24th in the early evening at 7 PM and the other date is Sunday, March 29th in the afternoon at 2 PM. Even if you could not even consider a visit to Scottsdale, I’d still like to hear your opinions. We don’t censor on the basis of geography.
Thank you all for responding to my query about a weekend vs weeknight event at the Poisoned Pen. The consensus seems overwhelmingly in favor of the weekend, so we will be holding it on Sunday, March 29th at 2 PM. I am sorry we have to disappoint anyone, but this date seems to work best for most. They will be doing a podcast and videotaping the event, too. The Poisoned Pen knows how to throw a party!
Below is a link to the Poisoned Pen, so those who cannot attend can still get a signed copy of The Land Beyond the Sea. I will be back later to respond personally to individual posts about this. Now I have to get ready to fetch Holly (my spaniel) home from the vet; the poor little girl had minor surgery today and I admit I was nervous, as I always am when one of my dogs has to undergo anesthesia. All went well, though. Guess who gets spoiled rotten today?
https://store.poisonedpen.com/?q=h.ts&opt=kw&tsf=y&so=oh&qs=9780399165283
I have good news for readers who love audio books. Two more of mine have broken through the barrier—Time and Chance and Devil’s Brood. Since Saints and Lionheart and Ransom are already available in the audio book format, now all in the Angevin series are covered.
Holly is home, rather subdued, which is not surprising. It is also an effective way to stir up owner guilt, which—as all of us with pets know—never really sleeps. She’ll be getting antibiotics and lots of pampering for the rest of the week.
Thank you all for the interesting and helpful feedback about my event at the Poisoned Pen. As I posted earlier today, it will be held on Sunday, March 29th at 2 PM, and there will be a podcast and video. I’ve always loved doing book tours, but the ones I did for Lionheart and Ransom were especially memorable, for they occurred after I’d joined Facebook and I was able to meet Facebook friends from all over the country. So I am really looking forward to the Scottsdale reading.
I wanted to share a wonderful book bargain with you all. Sue Monk Kidd’s classic novel, The Secret Life of Bees, can be bought for now in the ebook format for only $1.99; this applies to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Store, Google, and Kobo. I was alerted to this by BookBub, which really is a great way to find books on sale.
Thank you all again for the feedback about my event at the Poisoned Pen. I still plan to come back and respond to individual posts, was temporarily sidetracked by Holly’s surgery and by a few writerly things that I had to do ASAP. I will be back, though! Meanwhile, Holly is much better and here is my Today in History Post.
On February 26, 1461, Edward of York and the Earl of Warwick were given a tumultuous welcome into the city of London, the citizens having refused entry to Marguerite d’Anjou. This was one of my favorite scenes in Sunne, so here are a few passages:
Sunne in Splendour, pages 83 & 84
* * * * *
It seemed as if every church bell in London was pealing. Seeing the smoke spiraling into the sky from a dozen different directions, knowing that meant the jubilant Londoners were burning bonfires in the streets as if this were the June Feast Day of St John the Baptist, Cecily breathed a brief prayer that God might mercifully spare the city from fire this noon, for there was no way the fire bells could ever be heard or heeded.
The volume of noise was increasing; she’d not have thought it possible. The shouts were audible now, shouts of “York!” and “Warwick!” But, overriding all, one name again and again, a hoarse chant that sent shivers of emotion up Cecily’s spine…Edward! Edward! Until the entire city echoed with the sound, with the name of her son.
(omission)
As another outburst of cheering rocked the churchyard, eclipsing all that had gone before, she knew even as she straightened up that her son had ridden through the gateway.
He was astride a magnificent white stallion with a silvery tail that trailed almost to the ground and he seemed to be enveloped in light, with the sun directly over his head, gilding his armour and tawny hair.
“Oh, Ma Mere!” Margaret gasped, in a voice that was strangely uncertain, unexpectedly awed. “He does look like a king!”
“Yes, he does,” Cecily said softly, forgetting that she had to shout to make herself heard. “He does, indeed.”
(omission)
Cecily clutched at her composure, smiled at her son. “Never have I seen such a welcome, Edward…never in my lifetime!”
“Welcome, Ma Mere?” he echoed and kissed her lightly on both cheeks so that his voice reached her ear alone. “I rather thought it to be a coronation.”
For a moment, their eyes held. And then Cecily nodded slowly and Edward turned back to face the crowds thronging the churchyard, raising his hand in careless salute of the continuing cheers. She watched, the faintest of smiles curving the corners of her mouth.
* * * * *
I have more good news about my books, sadly, none about the world at large, where we are dealing with the corona-virus and savage storms and flooding.
I was able to find out when Time and Chance and Devil’s Brood will be published: May 19th for Time and Chance and June 12th for Devil’s Brood. And in response to one of my Canadian reader’s query, I am in the process of verifying that they can be bought as audio books in Canada, but it seems very likely; I checked and Canadian readers can buy the audio book editions for Saints, Lionheart, and A King’s Ransom. I also have good news about my Poisoned Pen reading and will post about that later today.
Here is the other good news for readers who are interested in my event at the Poisoned Pen on March 29th, but who cannot attend. Here is the link to Poisoned Pen’s Livestream. Be forewarned, though, when you visit, for you’ll find many tempting interviews with other writers, and before you know it, two hours have passed; that’s what happened to me this afternoon. And they archive interviews; I’ve also included the link to my interview for A King’s Ransom in 2014. Poisoned Pen rocks!
https://livestream.com/poisonedpen
https://livestream.com/accounts/147438/kings-ransom
I couldn’t find anything of interest in medieval history today—well, maybe a book being published about the Kingdom of Jerusalem? It is a great relief that it has finally seen the light of day, and in just two more days, it will be published in the UK, on what is also Henry II’s birthday. Henry never appears in the new book, but they talk about him a lot since he was King Amalric’s nephew and he was also sending large sums of money to Outremer as part of his penance for Thomas Becket’s murder.
Meanwhile, going back a few days, here are some thoughts on March 1st.
On March 1, 1244, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, eldest son of Llywelyn Fawr, died in an escape attempt from the Tower of London. He was being held prisoner by the English king, Henry III, and although he was kept in comfortable confinement, it was still confinement, and, always a bold, impulsive man, he tried to climb down from the upper story of the White Tower on knotted sheets. An English chronicler laconically noted that he was a big man and had grown heavy in captivity and the sheets broke, hurling him to a gruesome death; I will spare you all the gory details in case some of you are reading this while having breakfast. Ironically, he died on the feast day of the patron saint of Wales, St Dayvdd
I will be back later, with some random thoughts about life in the 21st century and plagues of the past. For now, I wanted to post the link below to a wonderful website for history lovers, the History News Network, which is affiliated with George Washington University. I was asked to do an op-ed piece for them and I chose to write about the obligations and responsibilities of writers of historical fiction. It ran yesterday; I am posting their home link so you can explore the site and see all it has to offer. You can access my article by scrolling down the page.
https://historynewsnetwork.org/
I hope all of my Facebook friends and readers are well and avoiding exposure to the coronavirus. I am enclosing below a link to an article I found helpful, listing the best products for keeping us as germfree as possible’
While a pandemic is always frightening, at least we are still able to communicate easily with one another and for people in past centuries, that comfort was denied them. Their sense of isolation must have been terrifying, for we humans are social creatures, and we instinctively reach out to one another in times of crisis. I hope I do not upset anyone by sharing a story of an English village under siege by the bubonic plague in 1665. History takes up so much of my brain that I naturally look to the past to see how men and women dealt with dangers now facing us. I grew up listening to stories from my mother about the great Flu Epidemic in 1918. I’ve read of cholera epidemics in 19th century Philadelphia and deadly outbreaks of yellow fever, smallpox, measles, and malaria. But because I spend so much of my time in the Middle Ages, I think first of the Black Death when I think of a worldwide plague. Below is the tragic story of English villagers who doomed themselves by quarantining their village, but stopped the plague from spreading to neighboring towns by their self-sacrifice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/02/bubonic-plague-coronavirus-quarantine-eyam-england/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/05/health/epa-disinfectants-coronavirus-trnd/index.html
I have good news for my fellow lovers of historical fiction. Elizabeth Chadwick’s novel about William Marshal’s odyssey to the Holy Land, Templar Silks, is now available at a bargain price for the e-book. Below is the link to BookBub, which rides through the night like Paul Revere, alerting us that book bargains are coming; it includes the links to all the online sites where you can buy Templar Silks for just $2.99. I am really looking forward to seeing how she deals with some of the same characters and events to be found in The Land Beyond the Sea. We know nothing about William’s pilgrimage, for he never spoke of it, clearly seeing it as a private way to honor his young lord’s memory; as readers of Devil’s Brood will remember, the Young King, begged William as he lay dying to fulfill the crusader’s vow he’d made so carelessly. William’s silence means writers are free to let our imaginations soar, which is always fun. The Marshal had a very small part in my book, appearing briefly in several scenes, but now you have the chance to read about his entire journey through Elizabeth’s eyes. https://www.bookbub.com/books/templar-silks-by-elizabeth-chadwick-2019-01-23?buy=&ebook_deal&position=title®ion=us
Greetings to all on Spaceship Earth as we struggle through a truly global crisis. I am so thankful that we can still congregate in cyberspace; at least we won’t have to feel the terrifying sense of isolation that accompanied other epidemics throughout history. I want to know how people are coping in other countries. Somehow, it helps to learn that Italians are serenading one another from their balconies and dog owners in shut-down countries like France and Spain are still permitted to venture out to walk their dogs and people and companies are doing what they can to help those in need.
I am sure it will be no surprise to hear that the Poisoned Pen has postponed my event at their Scottsdale store on March 29th. I am very happy that it was postponed, not cancelled, and it will be rescheduled once it is safe to fly again. And when that happens, the Poisoned Pen will be taking orders for signed copies of The Land Beyond the Sea for those who do not live within traveling distance.
I hope you all are keeping safe and as calm as we can be when facing such an upheaval of our lives. Since most of us will be housebound for a while, we will have more time to read, and at least that is a good thing. So I am happy to share this news. You know that I am a great fan of Bernard Cornwell’s books, especially his Saxon series. Well, you can now buy the e-book version of The Last Kingdom for only $1.99. This is an excellent opportunity to buy it if you do not already own it, and for new readers, this is the first book in the series, so don’t miss this chance to jump on the Uhtred bandwagon with the rest of us! https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-last-kingdom-by-bernard-cornwell?buy=&ebook_deal®ion=us
It is awful to feel so helpless, to want to help during this crisis while not knowing the best way to do that. Some things are very obvious. College students can stop flocking to Florida beaches on Spring Break. The governor of Oklahoma can stop urging residents of his state to follow his example and take their families out to dinner and to go grocery shopping. People can fight the understandable impulse to stock up on so many supplies that they leave the grocery shelves bare. Donald J. Trump can stop calling it the “Chinese virus.” Price-gouging should stop. People can stop yelling at those who call them to postpone routine doctors’ appointments; yes, that is really happening. We can donate blood, if we can. And we all can strive for patience and pray for those at ground zero, like the Italians.
We also can try to support our local businesses and give what money we can afford to organizations on the front lines. I have donated to Doctors Without Borders and my community food bank and my favorite animal rescue. I wanted to do more, though, and so I was glad when I found this article listing all the charities and groups battling the coronavirus in numerous ways. I chose Direct Relief, which is trying to provide doctors and nurses and other health care workers with the protective masks and equipment they so desperately need, but there are so many charities to choose from. Here is the link.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/21/how-you-can-help-during-coronavirus/?arc404=true
I feel that we’ve established our own little community here, forming friendships that flourish on-line and off-line, too, in many cases. That is a true blessing, but the downside of it is that we now have so many more people to worry about. The Internet truly has made us global citizens as we have Facebook friends scattered around the world. I hope you all are staying safe and coping as well as any of us can in these trying times. My family and I are okay, although under lock-down, but that is a good thing since only three states have more cases of the coronavirus than mine. Please keep posting here when you can; it helps to share our stories and remind ourselves we are all in this together. Since we are avid readers, here is a great article about the various ways people can still access books even under quarantine. I’ll be back later with “good news” stories, for we need them now more than ever.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/readers-stuck-at-home-need-books–and-community-heres-how-to-access-them/2020/03/20/4fe14f70-6adb-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html
Here is today’s post that I shared on Facebook, which included a photo of the Horns of Hattin battlefield. Sadly, I cannot add a photo here, but if you’re curious, you can see it on my Facebook pages. And when we add a photo galley to the new website, it will be displayed there, too.
I hope none of you are ill and all we catch is cabin fever. Meanwhile, for those of you who are reading or have read The Land Beyond the Sea (everyone, I hope!), I thought you might like to see what the Horns of Hattin look like. The battlefield is as bleak and barren as it looks in this photo; it helped me greatly to have seen it for myself when it came time to write those chapters—yes, I got to “fight” a battle that lasted two chapters. I will be back later to share a stunningly beautiful video of Italy that I found by chance. Take care, everyone!
I wanted to share this brief video of one of the most beautiful countries in the world, Italy, still ground zero for the coronavirus, for after a two-day drop, its death toll is soaring again. The death toll there is almost 10%. Closer to home, my state of NJ is now second only to New York in the number of cases, the “top” five being New York, New Jersey, Washington, California, and Michigan. But the most frightening statistic I read came from the World Health Organization. It took 67 days to go from the first reported case to 100,000 cases; it took only 11 days to reach 200,000, and just 4 days to hit 300,000. We are currently at over 400,000 cases worldwide, more than 50,000 of them in the US.
Sorry, it was not my intention to depress us all with such sobering figures; I promise not to keep coming here to share my fears for us all. I’ll try to confine myself to medieval death tolls, as when I posted that photo of the Horns of Hattin earlier today! And for a respite from reality, here is the link to Italia, which is dedicated to the doctors and nurses and first responders of Italy; the music is lovely, too. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=634169734073149
At the end of this post, I am adding a link to an article about free TV shows and films and even audio books to keep cabin fever at bay during the quarantine. And here is a Today in History post.
Yesterday, March 24, 1603 was the date of death for the woman I always call (with a smile) “the only good Tudor,” Elizabeth I. She was sixty-nine and her death does not seem to have been a peaceful one. She is fortunate in that she has had two brilliant novels about her, which is more than many historical figures can say. Legacy by Susan Kay, covers Elizabeth’s entire life, and Margaret George deals with her last years in Elizabeth I, which I can’t resist thinking of as The Lioness in Winter. I highly recommend both novels.
March 25th in 1306 saw the coronation of Robert the Bruce as King of Scotland.
March 25th was also the birthdate of Blanche of Lancaster; 1345 is traditionally given as the year of her birth, but I’ve also seen it as 1346. She was a great heiress, and in 1359, she wed her third cousin, John of Gaunt. They had seven children, so she was usually pregnant during her nine year marriage, which is believed to have been a happy one. Only three of her children survived, but one would become the first Lancastrian king, Henry IV. She died in 1368, of what may have been the bubonic plague, at only twenty-one or twenty-two, and her husband grieved greatly for her. I tend to envision her as soft-spoken and fair, a lovely ghost who would haunt her husband’s memory with a rustle of silken skirts and a swirl of silvery blonde hair, an ethereal creature of moonlight, ivory, and lace, forever young. She inspired the major character in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess, and was sympathetically portrayed in Anya Seton’s classic novel, Katherine. Katherine is, of course, Katherine Swynford, one-half of one of the more famous love affairs of the Middle Ages; she was governess to Blanche and John’s children and, after Blanche’s death, his mistress, and eventually his third wife, a marriage that scandalized his world and delighted all of us who are secret romantics at heart. Yet he requested to be buried next to Blanche.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/03/18/coronavirus-free-tv-movies-stream-you-quarantine-home/5074254002/
I have a Today in History post that I confess is a rerun, but it is several years old so I am hoping none of you remember it. And also a link to an interesting article about receiving packages in the mail; I was not taking any precautions when getting boxes from Amazon, but I think I will be a bit more careful from now on.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/26/dont-panic-about-shopping-getting-delivery-or-accepting-packages/
On March 26th, 1199, Richard Coeur de Lion’s fabled luck finally ran out. He rashly ventured out to inspect the siege of Chalus Castle without armor, and was struck by a crossbow bolt. He’d been watching a man up on the battlements who was using a large frying pan as a shield and that amused him greatly; he was laughing and cheering the man on when he was hit. He gave no indication of it (it was dusk at the time) and returned to his own quarters, where he attempted and failed to remove the bolt. A doctor summoned by his mercenary captain Mercadier had no better luck and apparently made the injury much worse in his ineffective attempts to extract it. Richard had enough experience with battle wounds to realize that he was doomed and sent for his mother as his condition worsened; she arrived in time to be with him when he died. By all accounts, it was a very painful death, but he endured it with his usual stoicism. Here is a passage from the chronicle of Ralph de Coggeshall; the translation comes courtesy of my fellow historical novelist and friend, Sharan Newman.
“Therefore the king was wounded, as usual through his well-known reckless behavior. He gave no heartfelt sigh, no mournful cry, nor did he show any sign of pain by expression or gesture to those present, nor show his sadness or fear so that his enemies might not report how severe the wound was. Afterwards, he endured the pain to the end as if it were a trifle, so that there were many who were ignorant of the calamity that had occurred.”
Here is a more cheerful document, a letter written by Richard himself to his good friend, the Bishop of Durham, who’d been with him in the Holy Land and during his German captivity. Richard describes how he won a victory over the French king in September of 1198. Richard had captured the castle of Courcelles and Philippe marched from Mantes to relieve it, not knowing that it had already fallen. When Richard’s scouts reported the movement of the French army, he assumed they were massing to attack his own troops. But when he saw that they were heading north toward Courcelles, he determined to attack them even though he only had a small band of knights with him.
In his letter to the bishop, which was widely circulated, Richard describes how the French fled before his men, a retreat turning into a rout, with so many knights crowding the bridge over the River Epte that “the bridge broke down beneath them, and the King of France, as we have heard say, had to drink of the water, and several knights, about twenty in number, were drowned. Three also, with a single lance, we unhorsed, Matthew de Montmorency, Alan de Rusci, and Fulk de Gilveral, and have them as our prisoners. There were also valiantly captured as many as one hundred knights of his….and Mercadier has taken as many as thirty. Men-at-arms, also, both horse and foot, were taken; also two hundred chargers were captured, of which one hundred forty were covered with iron armor. This have we defeated the King of France at Gisors. But it is not we who have done the same, but rather God, and our right, by our means, and in so doing, we have put our life in peril, and our kingdom, contrary to the advice of all our people. These things we signify unto you, that you may share in our joy as to the same. Witness ourselves at Anjou.”
The “we” he employs is the royal we, so when he says “we unhorsed” those French lords, he is referring to his own derring-do. Ironically, Matthew de Montmorency was one of the men who’d fought beside Richard in the Holy Land; readers may remember him from Lionheart. Even down through eight centuries, Richard’s glee at the humiliation of the French king, who “drank of the water” of the river, comes through loud and clear. Buried in the last sentence of the letter is the admission that he’d launched this attack against the advice of his men, counting upon surprise and the ferocity of the attack to carry the day; William Marshal colorfully described him that day as a “ravening lion, starved for food.”
William Marshal also gives us the name of the man who rescued Philippe from drowning, saying “When they pulled the king out of the water—he had been extremely frightened for his life—he declined to stay in Gisors, even though it had a very strong castle, for he feared his enemies so much that he feared he would be besieged inside the town.” The Marshal did not have much respect for Philippe, as you can tell.
As you may remember from Ransom, Richard inflicted some very humiliating defeats upon the French king in the years 1194-1199, and the English chroniclers reveled in them. Richard had also drawn a diplomatic noose around Philippe by 1198, having lured away Philippe’s major allies and vassals, so that the French king’s position was looking more and more precarious in the spring of 1199. But as Uthred, Bernard Cornwell’s wonderful, conflicted hero in his magnificent Saxon series, often says, “Fate is inexorable,” and a crossbowman at Chalus would do what the French king could not, bring down a lion.
I hope you all are coping. I may not be able to post here as often as I’d like, but please don’t worry; my absence has nothing to do with the coronavirus. I’ve been dealing with an acute sinus infection and when it did not respond to antibiotics, I was supposed to see a sinus surgeon; of course, that appointment was cancelled and so for the foreseeable future, I will be having good days and bad days and on the bad days, I’ll be elsewhere. I’ll be thinking of you all, though, whether I am here or not, hoping for the best for people all over the world.
I was going to post about the battle of Towton, Edward IV’s bloody coronation, but I couldn’t bring myself to write about so much suffering and death. So, instead, I will play catch-up. Here is a post from last year about one of our favorite queens, the incomparable Eleanor of Aquitaine.
One of history’s most consequential divorces occurred on this date. On March 21, 1152, Louis Capet and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s marriage was annulled at Beaugency on the grounds of consanguinity. Think how history would have changed if Louis had elected to stay the course and kept Eleanor as his queen. If Eleanor had never given birth to a son, France could have had a Queen Marie, as the Salic Law was not in force then. There would have been no Philippe Capet, no St Louis, no Philippe the Fair—shedding no tears here, folks. But there would have been no Plantagenets as we know them! Yes, Henry II would still have become king—most likely. But without Eleanor’s Aquitaine, maybe not? And without Eleanor as his queen, no Devil’s Brood. Take her DNA out of the mix, and the Plantagenet dynasty would have been an entirely different breed of cat. If the Chaos Theory is applied (the argument that a butterfly’s flapping wings could give rise to a hurricane), history as we know it would have been utterly altered. For better or worse? Who knows? But my history would definitely have been changed for the worse without Richard III to write about. I’d have still been a lawyer—shudder. So I am happy to celebrate the Beaugency annulment, thanking my lucky stars that Louis set Eleanor free to hook up with Henry just two months later. As Eleanor says to her sons in The Lion in Winter, “Such, my darlings, is the role that sex plays in history.”
I am very happy to be back; the antibiotic has finally kicked in and I am no longer under siege by three or more severe sinus headaches a day. I hope you all are coping, staying safe, and not going stir crazy in quarantine. I know we are all avid readers here, so what are you reading while you’re sequestered? I am about half-way through Geraldine Brooks’s brilliant novel about a 17th century English village that courageously chose to self-quarantine to stop the spread of the Bubonic Plague, The Year of Wonders. I cannot recommend it highly enough, but there are times when their reality blurs with our own and I need lighter reading. So then I switch over to Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling or Franklin and Washington, a joint biography of my two favorite Founding Fathers.
Now, in an attempt at “normalcy,” here is one of my Today in History posts. If I were to compile a list of my favorite characters, Edward IV would definitely be on that list. I was charmed by his sense of humor and his refusal to take himself that seriously, which made for some lively scenes with Elizabeth Woodville, who took herself very, very seriously indeed. So here is Edward on his deathbed, in a scene from Sunne.
The Yorkist king, Edward IV, died on April 9th, 1483, just weeks from his forty-first birthday. We do not know the exact cause of death, though pneumonia has been suggested, and it has also been suggested that his health had deteriorated because of his self-indulgent lifestyle; Philippe de Commines claimed it was apoplexy. I saw no reason to doubt Mancini’s report that he’d caught a chill while boating on the river and it grew progressively worse. He lingered for ten days before dying, and his death would have dramatic repercussions. Had he not died so prematurely, the history of England would have been drastically different, for had he lived until his eldest son and heir came of age, I do not think there would have been a Tudor dynasty, which would have been catastrophic for screen writers and historical novelists, and not so good for a playwright named Shakespeare, either. I have always seen Edward as one of those men who were at their best when things were at their worst and vice versa. Historians have differed in their assessment of his reign, but I can say for a certainty that he was great fun to write about. He was buried at Windsor in the Chapel of St George; sadly, his tomb of black marble was never completed, for his dynasty would not long survive him. Here is Edward’s death scene in Sunne, page 662-663
* * *
“You’d best prepare yourself, my lady. It’ll not be long.”
She knew he meant to be kind, but she had to fight the urge to spit at him, to scream that he was wrong, that she didn’t want to hear it. She touched her fingers again to her father’s face, and as she did, his eyes opened. They were glazed a brilliant blue with fever, were sunken back in his head. But they were lucid, looked at her with full awareness for the first time in hours.
“Bess….”
“Yes, Papa, yes! I’m right here.”
“Sorry….so sorry….”
“For what, Papa? You’ve nothing to be sorry about, nothing at all.” She could see him straining to speak, and knew she should urge him to be still, but she could not; these last moments of coherent communication were too precious to lose.
“Sweet Bess….so loved.” He made an uncertain movement; she knew he was searching for her hand and quickly laced her fingers through his.
“Don’t worry, Papa. Please don’t worry.”
“Do you know….what be the worst….worst sins?”
She bent closer, not sure if she’d heard him correctly. “No, Papa. What be the worst sins?”
The corner of his mouth twitched, in what she knew to be the last smile she’d ever see him give.
“The worst be,” he whispered, “those about be found out.”
Bess didn’t understand. “Rest now, Papa. It will be all right for us, truly it will. Rest now.”
* * *
I have a special story to share of a 99-year-old British veteran who has managed to raise a staggering eighteen million pounds or twenty-two million dollars for the National Health Service. The link is below.
Here is one of my Today in History posts. April 9th was a busy day in medieval history, so here is a belated post, for it was too interesting a day to ignore. It was, of course, the date in 1483 that Edward IV died, just a few weeks shy of his 41st birthday. We sometimes play the What If game here. Well, Edward’s death offers a gigantic What if. Had he not died prematurely, had he lived another fifteen years, the consequences of that would be mind-boggling. His son would have been grown at the time of his eventual death and most likely would have succeeded to the throne. It is impossible to say what would have happened then. We can only be sure of the obvious. No King Richard III. No Shakespeare play. No Sunne in Splendour. No Tudors! Would England have remained Catholic? Or would it have heeded Martin Luther’s siren song? Who knows? But it is fascinating to speculate about it.
April 9th was also the death date of Eleanor’s father, William, the 10th Duke of Aquitaine. He was only thirty-eight. And on this date in 1413, Henry V was crowned as King of England.
April 9th is often given as the death date for Richard III and Anne Neville’s son, Edward of Middleham. I’ve always been skeptical of this; it sounded like Tudor propaganda, for if Richard’s son had died on the same day as his brother, it would seem as if it was the punishment of God for his sin in claiming the throne and supposedly putting his nephews to death. The Croyland Chronicler was no friend to Richard, but this is what he wrote:
“However, in a short time after, it was fully seen how vain are the thoughts of a man who desires to establish his interests without the aid of God. For, in the following month of April, on a day not very far distant from the anniversary of king Edward, this only son of his, in whom all the hopes of the royal succession, fortified with so many oaths, were centred, was seized with an illness of but short duration, and died at Middleham Castle, in the year of our Lord, 1484, being the first of the reign of the said king Richard. On hearing the news of this, at Nottingham, where they were then residing, you might have seen his father and mother in a state almost bordering on madness, by reason of their sudden grief.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/99-year-old-british-wwii-vet-raises-22-million-health-n1185981
I hope you all are coping as well as we can. I wanted to let you know that Amazon is running a great ebook sale from now till May 3rd, offering 100 books at greatly reduced prices, usually $2.99. I would definitely recommend taking a look at these bargain books. For example, you can get Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. You can get the first book in the mystery series by Sue Grafton and the Canadian writer, Louise Penny. The first book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. An excellent novel that I recently read by the Australian writer, Jane Harper, The Dry. Elton John’s autobiography. Histories. Fantasy and science fiction. Truly something for everyone.
https://www.amazon.com/b?node=21177108011&pf_rd_p=16ecc817-f2e5-42ec-98ff-3d9864b6bfa6&pf_rd_s=detail-ilm&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B07SQMVBWH&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=WHENYAAKNSHMSZPQVW8M&pf_rd_r=WHENYAAKNSHMSZPQVW8M&pf_rd_p=16ecc817-f2e5-42ec-98ff-3d9864b6bfa6
While I really liked the film Groundhog Day, I never thought I’d be living it and I bet none of you did, either. The quarantine might even be easier for writers since we tend to live like hermits anyway; the one drawback of writing is that it is such a solitary profession. But I am hanging in there and hope you all are, too. My sinus headaches are back; I will still try to stop by when I can to check on everybody! Meanwhile, here is a Today in History post for yesterday, May 2nd.
What do a 12th century Marcher lord and a 16th century queen have in common? They were both undone by their lack of caution. William de Braose, the grandson of one of King John’s most notorious victims—his grandmother and uncle were starved to death at Windsor Castle—was hanged on this date in 1230 by the great Welsh prince, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, after being found in compromising circumstances with Llywelyn’s wife, Joanna, in his own bedchamber. What could have been more reckless than that?
Recklessness also helped to doom that Tudor queen, for Anne Boleyn ought to have known the sort of man she’d married; had she continued to cater to his monstrous ego and bloated pride, perhaps he might not have turned on her with such terrifying suddenness, giving her time to produce the male heir that would have been her salvation. But she was too proud, too quick-tempered, and she paid a high price for that. This is a sad day for anyone who cares about justice, for on May 2, 1536, Anne was arrested at Greenwich Palace, thus setting in motion the events leading to her execution on Tower Green. I always thought one of the bravest men in the world was the Lord Mayor of London, who’d dared to say after her trial that he was convinced of her innocence. Imagine the courage that took when he’d just seen the lengths to which Henry would go to rid himself of an unwanted wife. One of the many reasons why I love the two brilliant novels about Anne’s daughter—Susan Kay’s legacy and Margaret George’s Elizabeth I—is the way both authors showed how traumatized Elizabeth was by her mother’s beheading.
Moving on, an indisputable genius died on this date in 1519, Leonardo da Vinci.
Lastly, we often talk about history trumping fiction, and nowhere is that more obvious than in Joanna’s mad affair with Will de Braose. What writer would have dared to send a woman into the bed of the man whose grandmother had been starved to death by her own father? I could not possibly make something like that up!
Sorry for falling off the radar screen again, but the antibiotics only gave me a brief respite and the sinus headaches returned with a vengeance. A minor problem compared to what so many others are facing, but it does keep me off the computer. Today is a better day so I hope to be able to get online again later. Meanwhile, I wanted to alert everyone (aside from my readers in the UK or Down Under) that you can get David Blixt’s spoof spy novel, Her Majesty’s Will, for free today on Amazon. This is a delightful book, very funny, with numerous “Easter eggs” tucked away for readers who find the Elizabethan Age as interesting as I do. It is a perfect way to escape our reality for a while. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HH28Q3Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=blixt44-20&linkId=48f4cb0a2fc41a48e56d4e05d3aace39&language=en_US
Me again. I just checked and am happy to report that readers in the UK and Down Under can also get David Blixt’s Her Majesty’s Will for free today, too, as an ebook on Amazon.UK and Amazon.Au. I assume that will be true also for Amazon.Canada
Like many of you, I’ve been binge-reading; my Kindle always seems to win out over Netflix. But I have found something that is even harder to resist than books. This link will take you to the Explore.org website, where you’ll find dozens of live webcams, all of which offer us what we most need—a brief respite from reality. You can watch 12 Africa Wildlife cams, ocean cams, shark and orca and dolphin cams, wolf and bear and bird cams, dog and cat cams, Hawaii cams, even some films. Since I started watching, I’ve seen elephants, hippos, lions, antelope, giraffes, and heard African Wild Dogs barking in the distance, which actually attracted the attention of my spaniel, Holly. There truly is something for almost everyone on this website; well, kangaroos would have been fun, too, but I don’t want to be greedy. https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/tembe-elephant-park
I have loved all of your books which I read after discovering you in about 2014. Since then I have been ill and had a stem cell transplant. I am very grateful and pleased to be alive and generally well, however I can no longer read for more than a few minutes and am hence using Audible now.
I know your publisher has so far avoided audible. I would love to read your latest book and was wondering if you could try with your publisher again.
Yours Geoffrey Cox Central England
I am so sorry for the disappearing act again; as many of you suspected, I have not been well. As long as it is not covid-19 or Baldwin’s leprosy, I am not going to complain. But I have been coping with three different ailments, and while none of them are life-threatening, the cumulative effect has been very debilitating and has kept me off the computer for what feels like forever. I’ve been able to consult with doctors again and hope to resume more frequent postings soon. We live in very scary times and I confess I am worried about all of you, praying that you and your families are still safe from the virus and able to deal with the economic chaos while also coping with severe cabin fever. Since my readers are both compassionate and intelligent, I am sure you’re wearing masks, but I hope you will encourage others to wear them, too—and remind them that we don’t wear masks to protect ourselves, but to protect our fellow Americans.
I have good news about one of my books. Lionheart will be Amazon’s Deal of the Day tomorrow, the ebook for sale at just $1.99. And here is a Today in History repeat post that I hope you’ve all forgotten by now!
June 2nd, 1420 was the wedding day of King Henry V of England and Catherine Valois of France. She soon satisfied a queen’s primary duty and gave him a son and heir, (the unfortunate Henry VI). But within two years, she’d be a young widow after his death from dysentery, which was often lethal in the MA. John and Edward I were among its royal victims, as was Henry’s son Hal. Catherine had a much more interesting widowhood than Berengaria of Navarre, who never wed again, which can be interpreted in a number of ways. But Catherine’s eye was taken by a handsome young Welshman, Owen Tudor; a secret marriage followed, and the result would be a blessing for future historical novelists and Hollywood screenwriters—the Tudor dynasty. Whether they were such a blessing for England is very much open to debate. They did save their best for last, though, Gloriana.
I hope that my American readers have a peaceful July Fourth and that all of my readers and Facebook friends stay safe in these troubled times. My publisher reminded me that Lionheart is Amazon’s Deal of the Day today, the ebook available for only $1.99; I am not sure how long that bargain price will last. Please take care of yourselves and one another; never have we needed kindness more.
https://www.amazon.com/Lionheart-Plantagenets-Book-Sharon-Penman-ebook/dp/B0054TVWOU/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&qid=1593810072&refinements=p_27%3ASharon+Kay+Penman&s=digital-text&sr=1-14&text=Sharon+Kay+Penman
I should probably issue a self-renewing apology, given all the times I’ve had to post one in recent months, saying how sorry I was for my prolonged absences. I know many of you are aware that I’ve been having some health problems for a while. It doesn’t feel right to be complaining of any ailment that isn’t Covid-19 or poor Baldwin’s leprosy, but the cumulative effect of these “problems” was enough to keep me off the computer. And I really missed you guys! I’ve been worrying about you, too, for this is a very stressful time for the entire world. Every day seems to bring fresh heartbreak, doesn’t it? I hope that you all are coping as well as we can expect in the midst of a pandemic and that you have found the support systems you need among your families and friends and, yes, your pets. Writers tend to live like hermits even in normal times for ours is such a solitary profession. But as the months drag by, living in our imaginations gets old fast. Luckily, I have a support spaniel who is also a love sponge.
I am relieved to report that my BP problems seems to have stabilized; it had begun to plunge to truly dramatic depths. The scoliosis that I share with Richard III is under control now that I’ve been able to get regular adjustments again. Richard had enough problems with the Lancastrians and Tudor and those vile Stanleys without also living in an age without chiropractors. Best of all, I am finally able to treat acute and chronic sinus infections, and will be having surgery in September. After that, not only can I start spending time again on my Facebook pages, I might even be able to resume my blogs!
I want to share with you all a truly amazing map that a friend sent to me recently. Unfortunately, it only covers the US, but we probably need it more because cases are still surging here. It allows us to calculate the odds of coming in contact with someone infected with Covid-19. You simply choose your location, list the number of people you’ll be mingling with, and then find out how dangerous it may be. For example, you live in Sacramento, CAL and have been invited to attend a wedding with one hundred guests. Enter that information and you get the bad news that there is an 80% likelihood that at least one of the guests will have the coronavirus. https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/
I wanted to end on a more cheerful note, though, and I happened upon this “warning” by the National Parks Service, telling us the best way to react if you encounter a bear in the woods. Here is a sample. “Do NOT climb a tree. Both grizzlies and black bears can climb trees. Do NOT push down a slower friend (even if you think the friendship has run its course). Stay calm and remember that most bears do not want to attack you; they usually just want to be left alone. Don’t we all? Identify yourself by making noise so the bear knows you are a human and not a prey animal. Help the bear recognize you as a human. We recommend using your voice. Waving and showing off your opposable thumb means nothing to the bear.” There is a sort of crazy comfort in knowing that we can cross at least one danger off our high-risk lists. Thanks to the National Parks Service, we ought to be able to avoid being eaten by a bear.