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Book Corner: The Druid’s Prey by Steven A. McKay

20/08/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

A vicious attack. An enraged warrior-druid. A relentless hunt for vengeance!

Following a cowardly raid on Dun Breatann the Saxon attacker, Saksnot, rides back to rejoin his bretwalda, Hengist, in far-off Garrianum. Bellicus, outraged by the savage attack on his people and his closest friend, follows the perpetrator with just one thing on his mind: bloody justice!
As the towering druid hunts his prey across the summer fields and streams, Arthur, Bear of Britain, seeks to make a lasting peace with the new immigrants from across the sea. Hengist has no such plans however, instead working alongside his terrifying volva, Thorbjorg, to bring only blood, fire, and death to the embattled Britons.

As the brutal struggle for supremacy rages between the two warlords and their armies, Bellicus will find himself drawn into an adventure he could never have foreseen. An adventure that may seal the fate of Britain for generations to come.

Yes! Bellicus is back!

And better than ever! The Druid’s Prey by Steven A. McKay is the seventh book in Steven’s excellent Warrior Druid of Britain Chronicles. As regular readers will know, I have been reading this series since the first book, The Druid. The books follow the adventures of Bellicus the druid, his family and his Roman friend, Duro, as the defend their home, Dun Breatann, and the rest of Britain from the invading Saxons, led by Hengist and Horsa. Well, its just Hengist now, thanks to The Vengeance of Merlin. A sucker for anything Arthurian, Steven A. McKay also draws in the legendary Arthur, Lancelot and his loyal knights. And I love how Arthur is drawn into Bellicus’ story, but never fully takes over.

It’s a perfect combination and partnership.

In The Druid’s Prey, Bellicus is set on revenge, traveling the length of Britain to find the man who had tried to kill him and hurt his friend. Further south, Arthur is trying to take the war to Hengist, to strike a blow that will hurt the Saxon leader’s forces, and to find a friend of his own who has been captured by the enemy. Oh, and while Bellicus is away, his wife and daughter, Narina and Catia, work to strengthen Dun Breatann’s position and stave off the influence of the hated Hengist. Three missions that the reader can’t help but hope they collide…

The bear stopped moving, taking in the sight of the boar which was peering at it in return. And then the bear looked up at Bellicus and their eyes met. The druid swallowed, knowing for certain that he had come across this very animal before – it had attacked them some years prior, not far from where they were now, badly injuring King Coroticus and Gavo and killing one warrior and three dogs. It had eventually decided to give up the fight but only once it had a spear stuck in its back and a number of arrows from the Damnonii hunters’ bows. Bellicus examined its hairy pelt for evidence of those earlier wounds but it seemed to have healed well in the intervening years.

As if it recalled the battle the bear suddenly stood up on its hind legs and let out an enormous roar. Bellicus gazed at it in awe – the animal was not just enormous, it was majestic, and the thought of trying to kill it again was truly terrifying.

It seemed the boar had similar thoughts, for instead of charging at the bear, it turned and hurried off into the trees, the spear that Duro had planted in its side clattering noisily against tree trunks until, at last, it must have snapped off for there was a last, distant squeal and then only the low growling of the bear was left to fill the clearing.

“Mithras protect us, we’re in for it now,” Duro said, doing his best to draw his spatha while still gripping the trunk of his tree for dear life. “At least the boar couldn’t get up here.”

“Don’t do anything,”Bellicus ordered in a low voice. “Do you not recognise it?”

“Aye,” the centurion nodded. “It’s the same bear that almost killed us all before. You told us to let it go back then for some mad reason.”

“The Bear of Britain,” Bellicus said, so softly Duro could not hear him. “That’s what the Merlin had called Arthur.” Memories of the previous encounter with the bear were filling his mind and he remembered being in a shocked stupor as he’d stared at the bear bristling with missiles like a hedgehog. The animal had lost the will to fight that day and Bellicus had commanded those with him to let it go, a decision he’d never really understood himself. For some reason he’d seen the beast as connected to Arthur, or perhaps he just didn’t want any more people – or Cai, for the mastiff had been involved in the fighting too – getting injured or killed.

Whatever his motives had been, the bear stared up at him now, its round, dark eyes fixing on his own. There seemed an intelligence behind that gaze that Bellicus had not expected. Did it recognise him? Did it understand that he’d been the one that called off the attack on it and most likely saved its life after their previous encounter? Maybe. The druid knew that bears had an even more developed sense of smell than dogs, so it was possible the beast, which had dropped back to all fours now, recognised his scent if not his face.

The bear made a strange, ululating, guttural grunting sound and then simply wandered off into the trees, quickly disappearing from sight.

“Is… Is it over?” Duro gasped, sword still glinting in the last of the sunshine as he lowered himself down, hanging from a branch by one arm as he tried to see through the foliage and make sure the bear had really gone.

Hengist is on the road to revenge, taking any opportunity he can to punish his brother’s killers, whilst at the same time increasing his hold on Britain, extending his influence and grabbing more land. He sends an assassin north to Dun Breatann, captures one of Arthur’s leading men and seeks allies among the enemies of Bellicus and Queen Narina. The Druid’s Prey by Steven A. McKay has more than one story within its pages – and more than one hero!

It is a rollercoaster journey through post-Roman Britain as the lead characters fight to hold onto their lands, their friends and their family. Their are more than a few heart-in-the-mouth moments along the way. And, if you are reading at night, beware! “Just one more chapter…” will lead to 3 or 4 more!

As we are at book no. 7 in the Warrior Druid of Britain series, Steven A. McKay’s characters are well developed and very familiar to us. We know how Bellicus will react to his family and friends being attacked. We know that his daughter, Catia, now 12 years old, is not a little girl to whom things happen-she is a pre-teen, trained in warfare, experienced beyond her years but still needing the guidance of parents to keep her out of the worst trouble. And Arthur, everyone’s hero and Bellicus’ friend. Well, his adventures never fail to inspire and entertain. And each of these characters have to make choices and decisions that affect, not only themselves but also their people. Agonising decisions will lead to more danger, adventure and not a little swordplay.

I won’t tell you any more – I do not want to ruin it for anyone.

All I will say is, The Druid’s Prey by Steven A. McKay is the 7th book in a series and yet is as fresh and original as the first. If you have not yet read this excellent series, you are missing a treat – but I envy the fact you have 7 books to read, one after the other. What a treat you have instore.

To Buy the Book: The Druid’s Prey

About the author:

Steven A. McKay was born in Scotland in 1977 and always enjoyed studying history. He decided to write his Forest Lord novels after seeing a house called “Sherwood” when he was out at work one day. Since then he’s started a new series, the Warrior Druid of Britain Chronicles, and just completed a trilogy about Alfred the Great.

In 2021 the Xbox game HOOD: Outlaws and Legends was released, featuring Steven’s writing.

He used to be in a heavy metal band although he tends to just play guitar in his study these days. He did use those guitars to write the theme song for the podcast he co-hosted, Rock, Paper, Swords! with Matthew Harffy, though. Give it a listen, they’ve interviewed great guests like Diana Gabaldon, Simon Scarrow, Bernard Cornwell, Dan Jones and more!

My books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Scotland’s history is dramatic, violent and bloody. Being England’s northern neighbour has never been easy. Scotland’s queens have had to deal with war, murder, imprisonment, political rivalries and open betrayal. They have loved and lost, raised kings and queens, ruled and died for Scotland. From St Margaret, who became one of the patron saints of Scotland, to Elizabeth de Burgh and the dramatic story of the Scottish Wars of Independence, to the love story and tragedy of Joan Beaufort, to Margaret of Denmark and the dawn of the Renaissance, Scotland’s Medieval Queens have seen it all. This is the story of Scotland through their eyes.

‘Scotland’s Medieval Queens gives a thorough grounding in the history of the women who ruled Scotland at the side of its kings, often in the shadows, but just as interesting in their lives beyond the spotlight. It’s not a subject that has been widely covered, and Sharon is a pioneer in bringing that information into accessible history.’ Elizabeth Chadwick (New York Times bestselling author)

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org. Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available in paperback and hardback from Pen & Sword, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon, Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.

Alternate Endings: An anthology of historical fiction short stories including Long Live the King… which is my take what might have happened had King John not died in October 1216. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.

Podcast:

Have a listen to the A Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Bernard Cornwell and Michael Jecks, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Wordly Women: Kathryn Warner

16/08/202502/07/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

I am very happy today to welcome historian Kathryn Warner to History…the Interesting Bits in a new instalment of my Author Spotlight series, Wordly Women. Kathryn is the ‘go to’ person for all-things Edward II. She has also written about John of Gaunt, the Beaumont kings of Jerusalem, the Clare sisters and her latest book is The Black Death in England: Journal of the Plague Years in the Fourteenth Century. Her books are always well research and enjoyable reads. And when we get together to chat on A Slice of Medieval, it is always a fabulous discussion and a pleasure.

So, over to Kathryn…

Sharon: Hi Kathryn, I would love to know what got you into writing?

Kathryn: In a nutshell, my passion for Edward II and his era! It was strange, because during my time at university studying medieval history, I’d never been that interested in him, but my fascination developed some years after I graduated. I started writing stories about him, then started a blog about him and his reign as well, because my passion was so overwhelming that I just had to get it down on paper or on a screen and share it with people. Some years later, I wrote some academic articles about him, then went on to write a full-length biography of Edward and his life and reign, which became my first published book.

Sharon: Tell us about your books.

Kathryn: I’ve written at least twenty non-fiction books now. My earlier ones are biographies and joint biographies, including Edward II’s queen Isabella of France, their daughter-in-law Philippa of Hainault, their grandson John of Gaunt, Edward II’s last and most powerful favourite Hugh Despenser the Younger, Edward’s nieces the de Clare sisters, and Edward III’s granddaughters. These days, I’m massively getting into social history too, and have written a book about aspects of life in London between 1300 and 1350, one about the victims and survivors of the fourteenth-century pandemics of the Black Death, and one called Life in a Medieval Town.

Sharon: What attracts you to the 14th century?

Kathryn: It was such an astonishingly dramatic and turbulent era. As well as the chaos of Edward II’s reign early in the century – battles, rebellions, executions, betrayals, changes of fortune, hatreds and passions, Edward’s forced abdication, and much else – there were natural disasters too. The pandemics of the Black Death are well known, especially the first one in 1348/49, but there was also a massive famine in England in the 1310s. Edward III began what we know as the Hundred Years War against France in the 1330s, his grandson Richard II witnessed the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, and so on. I really don’t think I’d have liked to live in the fourteenth century, haha, but it’s an endlessly fascinating era to research and write about.

Sharon: Who is your favourite 14th century person and why?

Kathryn: To the surprise of absolutely no one who knows me, Edward II! Without question, he’s one of England’s most unsuccessful kings in history, and was the first one who suffered the fate of deposition or forced abdication in 1327. His reign of just under 20 years is dramatic almost beyond the telling of it, as Edward lurched constantly from one crisis to the next, crises almost entirely of his own making. He was completely unsuited to the position he’d been born into, and was a deeply unconventional man by the standards of his era. I feel that he makes much more sense to us than he did to his contemporaries: he openly loved men, he enjoyed the company of his common subjects and even went on holiday with them, he enjoyed being outdoors and doing hard physical labour. Edward II, born in 1284, is exactly 700 years older than Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex, born in 1984, and I often think that Edward would have been much happier and more successful if he’d been born into the royal family of the late twentieth century than he was in his own lifetime.

Sharon: Who is your least favourite 14th century person and why?

Kathryn: That’s a tricky question to answer, really, as even the people I instinctively don’t tend to like all that much intrigue me and led fascinating lives that I want to delve into. Someone like Roger Mortimer, the first earl of March, for example. He played a massive role in Edward II’s downfall in 1326/27, and as such is someone I feel I should dislike, but I really don’t, because he’s such a complex fascinating person. It’s not Roger that I dislike, it’s the way he’s often been written in modern times, in this absurdly over-romanticised way as the adored lover and saviour of Edward II’s queen, Isabella of France. It flattens his character and turns him into a caricature that has very little to do with the person he actually was. So I can’t say that I have a least favourite fourteenth-century person, but I do often profoundly dislike the simplistic, one-dimensional ways in which many fourteenth-century people are depicted nowadays.

Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?

Kathryn: I think a lot of people might be surprised at just at how many sources we have from the fourteenth century, and how much information there actually is once you start delving into them. In the period I write about, pretty well all the sources are written in Latin or French, and though many have been transcribed and translated, many have not. Looking at original documents in the National Archives is such a joy! I’ve found lots of wonderful details about Edward II and his life and household from his extant accounts, for example. I often fall down a rabbit-hole of research and emerge blinking hours later, and oddly enough, some of my best finds are things I stumbled upon by accident while researching something else.

Sharon: Tell us your ‘favourite’ 14th century story you have come across in your research.

Kathryn: While I was researching a book about London between 1300 and 1350, I came across this fab story. The rector of the church of St Margaret Lothbury in London around the year 1300, whose name was William (his last name was not recorded), had an insatiable curiosity about a disease he called Le Lou. This means ‘The Wolf’ in medieval French, and probably referred to the condition we now call lupus, which means ‘wolf’ in Latin. Believing that wolf flesh could cure the disease, William ordered a cask of four dead wolves from abroad (where exactly was not specified) to be sent to his church. By the time the dead animals arrived in London, however, their corpses had become ‘putrid’, and William was hauled before the court of the mayor of London, Elias Russel, on 5 January 1300, and ordered to explain himself. To me, this situation reveals several things that are worth knowing about the early fourteenth century. Firstly, that a man in England somehow managed to contact a person on the Continent who was willing and able to send him dead wolves; secondly, that officials around the year 1300 were aware that the welfare of the general public in a crowded city might be worsened by the presence of decaying animal corpses; and thirdly, that a person was deeply interested in a particular disease and cared about its victims, and attempted, albeit in a comically misguided way, to find a cure for it.

Sharon: Tell us your least ‘favourite’ 14th century story you have come across in your research.

Kathryn: It’s one that breaks my heart. At the start of the year 1349, Agnes Stokwell was living on Whitecross Street in London with her family, who consisted of her father Walter, a painter; her mother Joan; her older brother Laurence; and her three older sisters, Christine, Imania, and Alice. She also had an aunt named Isabel and an uncle named William, her father’s siblings, and her father’s apprentice Thomas Bournham lived in the household as well. The Stokwell family were pretty well-off and thriving, but by the end of 1349, all of them were dead in the first massive pandemic of the Black Death, except only Agnes. She was just seven years old, and within a few months had lost her entire family, every living relative; her parents, her four older siblings, and her aunt and uncle. Thankfully, her late father’s apprentice Thomas Bournham also lived through the plague, the only other survivor of the household, and was given custody of Agnes at the end of 1349. They both disappear from written record after that, or at least I’ve never been able to find them again, but I hope they lived long and thrived.

Sharon: Are there any other eras you would like to write about?

Kathryn: My second favourite era after the fourteenth century is the eleventh century. I did a few courses on Old English language, literature, history and culture at university, and loved it. I’m particularly interested in the first few decades of the 1000s – the end of Aethelred’s reign, the brief reign of his son Edmund Ironside, King Cnut and his son, and Emma of Normandy, who married both Aethelred and Cnut.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Kathryn: My current project is provisionally titled Murder and Mayhem, and is about some of the violence, homicide, gangs and feuds in fourteenth-century England. There’s a wealth of material, almost too much, in fact! The book after that is about the royal English household in the late Middle Ages, which is a subject I’ve been wanting to write about for ages.

Sharon: Now that, I want to read!

Sharon: And finally, what is the best thing about being a writer?

Kathryn: For me, it’s the chance to immerse myself in the fourteenth century, to discover fascinating stories and to share them with readers. I also love that my time is unstructured, and I can write whenever I like and take breaks whenever I like, which suits me very well. And finally, it’s simply amazing that I’ve been able to turn my passion for fourteenth-century history into a job!

About the Author:

Kathryn Warner holds two degrees in medieval history from the University of Manchester. She is considered a foremost expert on Edward II and an article from her on the subject was published in the English Historical Review. She has run a website about him since 2005 and a Facebook page about him since 2010 and has carved out a strong online presence as an expert on Edward II and the fourteenth century in general. Kathryn teaches Business English as a foreign language and lives between Dusseldorf and Cumbria.

To buy: Kathryn’s books

My books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Podcast:

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Wordly Women: Aimee Fleming

02/08/202502/07/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

In today’s episode of my Wordly Women, author spotlight series, I have a chat with Tudor historian Aimee Fleming. I have followed Aimee’s career from the very beginning. Her first book, The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer: The Life and Times of Margaret More Roper came out last year and just last month Aimee published her second book, Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

So, it was wonderful to get the chance to talk with Aimee about her writing…

Sharon: Hi Aimee. First question, what got you into writing?

Aimee: I have always enjoyed writing as a process, but it was really during secondary school I was encouraged to write poetry by my English teacher. I did English Literature A Level and loved studying the classics, but it was History that really sparked my interest. After I finished my BA I remember I wanted to keep going and write more, but I didn’t begin properly until after my MA when I decided to really put pen to paper properly. I loved to read work by Alison Weir and Tracey Borman (amongst lots of others) and think that I could perhaps do something like that!

Sharon: Tell us about your books.

Aimee: My books are all non-fiction books about the Tudor period. My first book came out in summer 2024 and was a biography of Margaret More Roper, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, called ‘The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer’. I also have a study of the early lives of the children of Henry VII coming out soon, called ‘Tudor Princes and Princesses.’ It is available for pre-order now and is due to be released at the end of June.

Sharon: What attracts you to the Tudor period?

Aimee: I think the Tudor and Early Modern period generally is fascinating. There are such larger-than-life characters, the artwork and portraits bring those characters into such clear detail, dramatic events just keep on coming, and the clothing is so flamboyant and over the top. I do love other periods too, the medieval period and the later periods of the Stuarts and Georgians are also very interesting, but I am always drawn back to the tempestuous Tudors.

Sharon: Who is your favourite Tudor and why?

Aimee: Do I have to pick just one? I obviously have a soft spot for Margaret More Roper. She is such an inspirational woman, and I genuinely believe that we all owe her a debt; if it wasn’t for her taking that first step of getting her work published, we may not even be doing what we do today!

Sharon: Who is your least favourite Tudor and why?

Before I wrote my most recent book, I probably would have said Henry VIII. I was always a bit of a critic of his, but my writing and research has actually made me a lot more sympathetic. I think now my hatred properly ends up at Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk’s door – an all-round unpleasant creature if ever there was one.

Sharon: Howard was horrible, but I will have to read your book to see if I can find any sympathy for Henry VIII!

Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?

Aimee: I start quite broad and work my way in. I think we all have out go-to textbooks on subjects and for me it’s always my old copy of John Guy’s ‘Tudor England’. I start by looking up whatever I’m researching up in that, and then other books that may be on my shelf. I’m lucky enough to live close to York and I do try to make full use of the University library and their archives too for those all-important primary sources. If it’s possible I also like to try to take a trip to see some places and experience the surroundings that my subjects would have known.

Sharon: Tell us your ‘favourite’ Tudor story you have come across in your research.

Aimee: I have a few favourites, but I think the one that I particularly love is the ‘shipwreck’ of Archduke Phillip, heir to the Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Queen Joanna of Castile. The Archduke had led his fleet from Flanders intent on taking the throne of Spain for himself, but the weather turned against him, and he, Queen Joanna, and the rest of the fleet had to take refuge in the harbour at Weymouth. They came ashore at Melcombe Regis in Dorset – about as far from London and civilisation as you can get, and in November too! Henry VII of course welcomed them and invited them to London, even sending carriages for them and their luggage, but the Queen was too shaken and took refuge at Wolfeton Hall near Dorchester. A welcoming party was sent to greet them, led by fourteen-year-old Henry, the royals did eventually meet up and they held all sorts of talks, agreeing marriages seemingly for everyone…but none of them came to fruition.

I have spent many a family holiday in Dorset, especially Weymouth, and it makes me smile that Queen Joanna may have walked up that beach on a cold November afternoon.

Sharon: Tell us your least ‘favourite’ Tudor story you have come across in your research.

Aimee: The worst bit of writing history is the sad stories that you have to read and write about. In Tudor Princes and Princesses, I had to research about Elizabeth of York’s pregnancies and the deaths of the Tudor children who did not survive until adulthood. The arrangements made for the funerals, particularly of little Elizabeth really brought home just how much these children were loved in their short lives.

On the other side, writing about the death of Thomas More’s first wife, Joanna, was particularly heart-rending. She died when Margaret was only 5 years old, but Margaret would have been expected to play a full role in her mother’s funeral, reading a prayer in front of the whole congregation. That in itself was bad enough, but reading further it was commonplace for people who weren’t connected to the family to still attend the funeral. I was in bits writing about Margaret standing up and reading the prayers, imagining her fear as she looked out on all those strangers’ faces.

Sharon: Are there any other eras you would like to write about?

Aimee: I am doing a lot of research into Stuart Scotland at the moment, and it has made me want to go deeper into Stuart England and the English Civil War. I would love to learn more about the people as well as the politics of the period, but it’s not something I’ve ever really looked at in depth.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Aimee: My current project is a period study of Tudor England and Stuart Scotland, looking at the relationship between the two countries while the Tudors were on the throne in England and what brought us to 1603 and the succession of James VI and I. It’s a lot of work but I am thoroughly enjoying it, and I’m loving looking at Scottish history in more detail. That manuscript is due for submission in the Autumn, and then after that I have another book lined up to write, about Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of Kent.

Sharon: And finally, what is the best thing about being a writer?

Aimee: I enjoy the freedom it gives me to explore things I find interesting. No two days are the same, and it’s never boring. Losing myself in documents at the library really is a dream come true.

About Aimee:

Aimee Fleming is a historian and author from North Yorkshire. She is happily married, with three growing boys and a whole host of pets. She studied history at the University of Wales, Bangor and then later completed a masters in Early Modern History at the University of York as a mature student. She has a passion for history, particularly the Tudors, and worked for over a decade in the heritage industry in a wide variety of roles and historic places.

Books by Aimee Fleming:

The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer: The Life and Times of Margaret More Roper

Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

Where to find Aimee:

Website; Facebook; Threads and Instagram: @historyaimee; Substack.

My books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Podcast:

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Guest Post: Inside the Book Trade of Late Medieval London by Toni Mount

30/07/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

It is always a pleasure to welcome Toni Mount to History … the Interesting Bits. Toni is a brilliant historian and born storyteller and she is here today to give a glimpse of the history behind her latest Seb Foxley novel, The Colour of Darkness. If you haven’t met him yet, I really do recommend you pick up a Foxley book. They are simply delicious!

So, it’s over to Toni…

Inside the Book Trade of Late Medieval London

When we think about medieval London, we probably imagine grimy streets, plague and maybe a knight or two clanking through the city. But tucked within the chaos was a quiet revolution – one involving paper, ink and a growing thirst for knowledge. By the late 1400s, the book trade in London wasn’t just alive; it was thriving. And at the heart of it all stood St Paul’s Cathedral – not just a place of worship, but a book-fest for the city’s literate elite.

To put this in context, the printing press arrived in England when William Caxton famously set up the first one at Westminster in 1476 and the world of books was changing fast. Previously, books were hand-copied by scribes – as at the fictional Seb Foxley’s workshop in Paternoster Row, just north of St Paul’s, in my latest novel, The Colour of Darkness. Writing every page by hand meant they were expensive and slow to produce. But then came the printing press – a real game-changer.

Printing took a decade or two to catch on in England, mainly because it was a tricky procedure to master – see my next guest Blog on printing books – but once the techniques were established books could be produced faster and cheaper. More books available led to an increase in literacy, especially among the urban middle classes, clergy and educated elite. London, with its bustling population and growing trade networks, became a prime spot for this new business.

St Paul’s Cathedral: The Book Trade’s Beating Heart

Forget the grand white dome you see today in the City of London because that was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666. Before that catastrophe, it was ‘Old St Paul’s’, a massive gothic structure that dominated the skyline with a spire over 400 feet tall, at least until it was struck by lightning in the reign of Elizabeth I. Its precinct and churchyard weren’t just for prayer and pigeons but, together with nearby Paternoster Row, were at the very centre of London’s book trade. In fact, Paternoster Row remained at the heart of the British publishing industry until it was destroyed by bombs during World War II.

But returning to the late fifteenth century, imagine a lively courtyard filled with wooden stalls, booksellers shouting out their latest wares, customers thumbing through new pamphlets and prayer books. The area around St Paul’s was known for its ‘stationers’ – a term that, back then, didn’t just mean a place to buy paper and pens. These were the printers, booksellers, and binders who brought the written word to the people.

Why did St Paul’s become such a hive of book-production? The cathedral’s proximity to learning helped. The Cathedral School and other educational institutions were nearby, including the Inns of Court to the west of the city where lawyers were trained and the sons of the aristocracy were schooled in the arts required for life at the royal court. The clergy needed books for sermons, study and teaching, so local demand was ensured.

Who were the Printers?

By the 1480s, London had a small but important group of professional printers. William Caxton deserves the spotlight since he was the first to introduce a press, having learned the business in Burgundy and the Low Countries. His press in Westminster produced some of the first books in English, making literature and religious texts more accessible to the public. After Caxton, his former assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, took over the operation and moved it closer to the action, by St Paul’s. De Worde knew the churchyard was where the customers would come. He printed everything from devotional tracts to almanacs and even the occasional romance or how-to guide. He’s sometimes credited with being one of the first to market printed books to a wider audience.

But printers, like the scribes before them, didn’t only create the pages. They often collated and stitched the pages before either binding them or passing them on to a specialist binder to stitch the pages into a cover. A book’s binding could range from simple stitched parchment to elaborately tooled leather with jewelled clasps. The wealthy might commission personalised bindings with their family crests. The printers often dealt with sales too or went into partnership with independent booksellers. These sellers might have a permanent stall near St Paul’s or be mobile, setting up shop at fairs or markets – wherever there were customers.

What was on the shelves?

So what were Londoners reading? A lot of religious texts, unsurprisingly: sermons, Books of Hours, Psalters and the lives of popular saints. The Church was a dominant force in everyday life and owning religious books was a sign of piety and status. For this reason, the new fashion of portrait painting would frequently show the sitter with a religious book in their hands. But secular works were creeping in, too. Translations of classical texts, histories, medical manuals and even cookbooks began to appear. One popular genre was that of ‘books of courtesy’ – guides to correct behaviour, speech and etiquette for the aspiring gentleman or gentlewoman. There were also the early English romances and poetry. Caxton and de Worde printed tales of King Arthur, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and other stories that helped shape English literary culture down to our own times.

Not only Men’s work

While the big names in printing were all men, there is increasing evidence that women played a quiet but important role in the trade. Widows who took over their husbands’ businesses often became successful printers or booksellers in their own right. The trade was one area in medieval commerce where women participated openly, though their contributions often went under-recorded.

Censorship and Control

Of course, not everyone was thrilled about the explosion of printed material. The Church and the Crown kept a watchful eye on the presses. Unauthorised texts, especially those seen as heretical or politically subversive – such as the Ars Notoria in The Colour of Darkness – could get a printer, stationer or book seller into trouble. The Stationers’ Company, officially incorporated in 1557 but already in existence in the fifteenth century to oversee the production of hand-written books, would help regulate who could print what when printing eventually came under its umbrella.

By the early 1500s, the London book trade was setting the stage for what would become a publishing powerhouse in later centuries. It was local but also international, connected by trade routes that brought in books and ideas from France, the Low Countries and beyond. Some of the early printers, like Wynkyn de Worde, brought their foreign know-how to the new trade. The stalls around St Paul’s would continue to be a hub for centuries, long after the old cathedral itself was gone. In fact, it’s reckoned that one reason why the building burned so ferociously during the Great Fire of 1666 was that the printers and stationers stored their stocks of paper and books in St Faith’s Chapel in the cathedral’s undercroft – a disaster just waiting to happen.

The people who browsed there – the scholars, preachers, merchants, citizens and maybe a curious apprentice or two – were part of a quiet revolution, one that transformed how knowledge spread and who had access to it.

So next time you think about medieval London, picture not just mud and markets but a vibrant little world of booksellers shouting above the crowd, customers thumbing through the latest printed pamphlets and the great gothic walls of St Paul’s towering above it all. The presses may have been small but their impact was monumental.

About the book:

My new Sebastian Foxley novel, The Colour of Darkness, transports readers to midsummer 1480, in medieval London where our hero has to solve a number of serious crimes, involving Master Caxton’s printing business, ‘suspect’ books and witchcraft. London is ready for a joyous festivity but, for some, there is nothing to celebrate when Death stalks the city’s sweltering streets. As livelihoods are brought to ruin and trust withers in the heat, our hero and artist-cum-sleuth discovers trouble has come to his own doorstep. Plague rears its hideous head; fire, theft and disease imperil the citizens.

Meanwhile, a beautiful young woman enchants the men of London and the mob shrieks that witchcraft is to blame when waxen dolls, spiked with pins, are discovered. With such horrors in his possession and discovering that guilt lies too close at hand, can Seb unravel the mysteries and save those he loves before it’s too late?

Join Seb Foxley in this intriguing and danger-riddled new adventure, The Colour of Darkness, out now from MadeGlobal.

Buy The Colour of Darkness

About the Author:

Toni studies, teaches and writes about medieval history. She is a successful author writing the popular Sebastian Foxley medieval murder series and several non-fiction volumes, including her collection of How to Survive in books. She has created several online courses for http://www.MedievalCourses.com, she teaches history to adults and is an experienced speaker giving talks to groups and societies. Toni enjoys attending history events as a costumed interpreter and is a member of the Research Committee of the Richard III Society.

Toni earned her Masters Degree by Research from the University of Kent in 2009 through study of a medieval medical manuscript held at the Wellcome Library in London. Her first-class honours degree, Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing and her Diploma in European Humanities are from the Open University. Toni also holds a Cert. Ed (in Post-Compulsory Education and Training) from the University of Greenwich.

Find Toni Mount’s books here

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My books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Podcast:

Have a listen to the A Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Bernard Cornwell and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

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Guest Post: Othon and the Templars by John Marshall

23/07/202525/07/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

Today, it is a pleasure to welcome John Marshall to History…the Interesting Bits with an article about a very intriguing chap, Othon de Grandson. Othon was a very good friend of Edward I and one who could arguably challenge William Marshal for the title, Greatest Knight. John’s new book is a biography of this remarkable man.

So, over to John…

Othon and the Templars

A question I asked myself in writing Othon de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown was exactly what was the Savoyard knight’s relationship with the Knights Templar? The relationship of Edward’s friend and envoy with the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon is a long one and indeed began over a century before he was born.

Othon’s ancestor Barthélémy de Jura, treasurer of Reims, then Bishop of Laon in Picardy, was there at the very beginning of the crusader order. Barthélémy was at the 1128 Council of Troyes, chaired by Bernard of Clairvaulx which ratified the rule of the the Templars. He was a kinsman, through his mother, of Bernard of Clairvaulx, and would later retire as a monk to the Cistercian abbey he helped found at Foigny. Another ancestor was another Barthélémy who took up the cross and joined the Second Crusade. He is reported to have departed this life in Jerusalem in 1158.

So, when Othon de Grandson accompanied his liege the Lord Edward on the ninth crusade in 1271 his family was no stranger to crusading.

But the story of Othon de Grandson’s close association with the Templars begins in earnest with his flight from Acre accompanying Templar knight Jacques de Molay in 1291. Grandson had likely been sent to Acre in 1290 as preparation for a crusade by King Edward I that never came to pass. They were all overtaken by Al Ashraf Khalil, the sultan of Egypt who successfully led a Mamluk assault on the last crusader outpost in Outremer. King Henry II of Cyprus, the gravely wounded Master of the Hospitallers Jean de Villiers, the soon-to-be Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay and Othon de Grandson washed up on the shore of Cyprus as refugees from Acre. The Templars were in need of a new Grand Master, and it is said that Othon de Grandson was “involved” in the election of Jacques de Molay.

*The former Templar Commanderie at Épailly in Burgundy which passed to Othon on the Templars suppression.*

The idea of being ‘involved’ came from a declaration given later during the suppression of the order; a Templar, Hugh de Fauro, gave testimony that Jacques de Molay had sworn before the Master of the Hospital and ‘coram domino Odone de Grandisono milite’ that is ‘before the knight Sir Othon de Grandson.’ We then hear from Hethum of Corycus that Grandson and Jacques de Molay, had had a hand in affairs and the better reordering of the kingdom of Cillician Armenia to meet the Mamluk threat and preserve it as a base for ongoing crusading ventures. Grandson’s relationship with Molay and the Templars does seem to stem from this time at Acre, on Cyprus and in Armenian Cilicia between 1291 and 1294.

We then meet the financial entanglement of grandson with the Templars. Evidence of this comes not only from payments from the Templars to Grandson but also grants in the other direction. When both Molay and Grandson were back in the west, on 14 July 1296, Othon would grant the Templars 200 Livres from his salt revenues at Salins-les-Bains in the Franche Comté, a source of revenue he had used to similarly grant the monks of Saint-Jean Baptiste in Grandson before he had left for the

Holy Land. The first grant was in essence for prayers of safe return; the second grant looks like thanks for a safe return. The great salt works of Salins belonged to the Count of Burgundy; they were also known as the Seigneurs de Salins, and the works and its grander enlightenment era equivalent today enjoy UNESCO-listed status. The grant to the Templars was in consideration of the great help Othon had received from ‘mes chiers amis en dieu freres Jaques de Molai’, that is, ‘my dear friend in God brother Jacques de Molay’ and he referred to the help which ‘li freres du celle meismes Relegion ont fait a mes accessors, e a moi deca mer et de la mer en la sainte terre e ne cesse encore de faire’ or ‘the brethren of that same order have given to my ancestors and to myself in the West and in the East in the Holy Land, and still continue to give’. His reference to his anccessurs is likely to mean Barthélémy de Grandson who had, as we saw, died in 1158 in Jerusalem.

The reverse Templar ongoing and enormous financial commitment to Grandson is confirmed to us in a papal confirmation of 17 August 1308 by Pope Clement V. Upon suppression of the order Grandson was keen, obviously, that Templar payments continue, since they were the tremendous annual sum of 2,000 Livres Tournois, equating to £500 at the time, and over £350,000 in today’s money. The pension arrangement was made by a Grand Master, named as Jacques de Molay, and variously dated to 1277, 1287 or 1296–97. French Templar historian Alain Demurger wrote: ‘Fault lay with the editor of Clement V’s records … The editor put the date 1277, while M. L. Bulst-Thiele transcribed it as 1297, whereas the original, very clearly and without abbreviations or deletions says 1287.’ In his notes to this assertion, he cites the Vatican Archives date as ‘Anno millesimo duecentesimo octuagesimo septimo’ or ‘In the year one thousand two hundred and eighty-seven.’

Now of course Molay did not succeed Beaujeu until 1292, which renders the dating of the award problematic. Demurger suggested that it was not Molay who made the award despite specific reference to him ‘Jacobus de Mollay’, but his predecessor Beaujeu – in short, that the date was correct but the master’s name incorrect. Alan Forey argued the contrary, writing that it was: ‘more likely that the grant was made by James of Molay and that the date was wrongly copied’. Given, Molay’s 1292 election as Grand Master this would suggest 1296–97 – in short, the date was incorrect, but the master’s name correct. Demurger acknowledged in his notes that ‘a new problem arose … Grandson and the Temple were already connected in 1287: where, how and for what reason?’ Indeed, Demurger’s dating would create such questions, while Forey’s dating would place them squarely in the context of the Fall of Acre and his time in the east with Molay. This ‘compensare’ was given by the The Templars for ‘operibus virtuosis’ or ‘virtuous actions’ rendered by Othon in support of the order, but surely more likely post-Fall of Acre than before.

*Templar Commanderie at Épailly in Burgundy*

In confirmation of the pension, Clement V granted Othon three former Templar houses in France as a part of the continuing settlement, those at Thors, Épailly and Coulours, an act unlikely to have been undertaken at the time in favour of a knight of the order. And so, the ‘virtuous works’ referred to by Pope Clement would appear to date from Grandson’s time in Acre in 1291. So, the date of 1277 attached to the payments by the transcription of them is certainly mistaken, and for the 1287 dating of the original 1308 manuscript we should read 1296–97. Demurger gives 1296 clearly as the date for Molay meeting with Grandson in Paris and the Salins grant. Othon de Grandson’s intimate links with the Templars continue to intrigue, but in Cyprus and Armenia 1292-4, as at Acre in 1291, and here with his pension payments they point to a significant and close ally in matters Outremer rather than a member of the order itself, of which there is no mention.

Grandson, was a close friend of the Templars, having fought alongside them at Acre in 1291, been there in Cyprus as a part of Molay’s election as Grand Master, and in receipt of a handsome annual pension from the order. So, at Philippe ke Bel’s suppression of the order and Molay’s arrest and the rumours swirling around France, the scandal would have touched directly upon him. But at no point can we find Grandson implicated in events, other than petitioning Pope Clement for the maintenance of his pension. But nowhere too can we find him leaping to the defence of Molay, his former friend and ally, at least not in a way that has left any trace. As Demurger said in conversation with the author of this book, Grandson did not try to defend Molay. A character flaw? Demurger went to affirm that one cannot speculate about possible motives, Grandson was by now seventy years of age, had discretion become the greater part of valour?

It is because of his avoidance of implication in the suppression of the Templars, that despite his Templar connections, we can be as certain as certain can be that Othon de Grandson was a friend, ally, indeed fellow traveller of the Templars, but not actually a member of the doomed order, As Alain Demurger said unequivocally to the question, was Grandson a Templar? – Non. What were the enormous payments from the Templars to Othon de Grandson for? What were the “operibus virtuosis”? It’s only speculation but what did Grandson have that might be valuable to the Order? – access better than anyone to Edward I’s ear and access to the English court.

About the Book:

There were once two little boys – they met when they were both quite young; one was born in what’s now Switzerland, by Lake de Neuchâtel, his name Othon de Grandson, and the other was born in London, his name Prince Edward, son of King Henry the third of that name. Othon was probably born in 1238, and Edward, we know, in June 1239. These two little boys grew up and had adventures together. They took the cross together, the ninth crusade in 1271 and 1272. Othon reputedly sucking poison from Edward when the latter was attacked by an assassin. In 1277 and 1278, they fought the First Welsh War against the House of Gwynedd, Othon doing much to negotiate the Treaty of Aberconwy in 1278, which ended hostilities. When war broke out again in 1282 they fought the Second Welsh War together. Othon led Edward’s army across the Bridge of Boats from Anglesey and was the first to sight the future sites of castles at Caernarfon and Harlech. Edward made his friend the first Justiciar (Viceroy) of North Wales. When Edward and Othon went to Gascony in 1287, Othon stayed in Zaragoza as a hostage for Edward’s good intentions between Gascony and Castille. Later, in 1291, when Acre was threatened by the Mamluks, Edward sent Othon as head of the English delegation of knights. When Acre finally fell to the Mamluks bringing the Crusades to a close, who was the last knight onto the boats? Othon de Grandson, helping his old friend, the wounded Jean de Grailly onto the boat. When Othon returned from the East, he found England at war with Scotland and France; he would spend his last years in Edward’s service building alliances and negotiating peace before retiring to his home in what is now Switzerland after the king’s death in 1307. Grandson lived in the time of Marco Polo, Giotto, Dante, Robert the Bruce, and the last Templars. He was right there at the centre of the action in two crusades: war with Wales, Scotland, and France, the Sicilian Vespers, and suppression of the Templars; he walked with a succession of kings and popes, a knight of great renown. This is his story.

Othon de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown is available now from Amazon.

About the Author:

Having moved to Switzerland, and qualified as a historian (Masters, Northumbria University, 2016), the author came across the story of the Savoyards in England and engaged in this important history research project. He founded the Association pour l’histoire médiévale Anglo Savoyards. Writer of Welsh Castle Builders: The Savoyard Style and Peter of Savoy: The Little Charlemagne both available from Pen and Sword Books Ltd. Member of the Henry III Roundtable with Darren Baker, Huw Ridgeway and Michael Ray.

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Podcast:

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Wordly Women: Patricia Bracewell

19/07/202511/06/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

Today in my Wordly Women, author spotlight series, I have a chat with Patricia Bracewell. Patricia is one of those people I can spend a day with, just discussing history from dawn to dusk. Indeed, we have done on a couple of occasions, both in person and online.

So, it was wonderful to get the chance to talk with Patricia about her writing, and her love of the 11th century.

Over to Patricia…

Sharon: What got you into writing?

Patricia: Blame Louisa May Alcott because at the age of 10 my hero was Jo March. I decided that when I grew up I would write a novel like Little Women or The Secret Garden, books that I loved. At university I majored in Literature, but there was no course titled How to Write a Best Selling Novel. It was only after college, while I was teaching high school and then raising a family, that I took writing classes that helped me focus on what I really wanted to do. My first efforts at publication were personal essays and short stories, but what they really taught me was that the novel was the genre that really spoke to me, and I threw myself into that.

Sharon: Tell us about your books.

Patricia: I have written three historical novels about Emma of Normandy, who was a queen of England in the 11^th century, before the Norman Conquest. Emma was the consort of two kings of England, and that is only one of the things that make her so fascinating. Each of my books, Shadow on the Crown, The Price of Blood, and The Steel Beneath the Silk is a stand-alone, but together they form a trilogy that covers the years of Emma’s first marriage and lead up to the very dramatic events that resulted in her second marriage. It was a time when England was under constant assault by Viking armies, and while the history of the time tells us about the battles and the men who fought them, the women who lived through that time are ignored. In my books I wanted to explore what Emma’s life, and the lives of the women around her, might have been like. As it turned out, my novels are nothing like Little Women.

Sharon: What attracts you to the 11^th century?

Patricia: That was Queen Emma. Before I discovered her I knew very little about the history of that period, other than the names of a few kings and a vague understanding of what happened in 1066. In college I had read Beowulf and some Old English poetry, and I took an English History course, but that just skimmed over the Anglo-Saxon period. Once I began researching the 11^th century, though, that Anglo-Saxon world felt familiar because I had read Tolkien’s trilogy numerous times throughout my life, and I could see that he had drawn on Anglo-Saxon history to create his Middle Earth. He certainly based the Riders of Rohan and their hall at Meduseld on the Anglo-Saxons, and I suspect, too, that there’s a lot of Emma’s first husband, King Æthelred, in Tolkien’s character of King Théodan. And too, that elegiac tone that permeates The Lord of the Rings, also permeates the poetry of the Anglo-Saxons as well as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entries that I was using as the basis for my novels. So, in a way, although Emma brought me into the 11^th century, it was Tolkien who introduced me to Anglo-Saxon England at a very young age, and it’s that world of heroism, loyalty, and yearning for the past that I continue to find so appealing.

Sharon: Who is your favourite medieval person and why?

Patricia: My favorite medieval person, aside from Queen Emma, is Alfred the Great. From what I know of him at a millennium’s distance I believe that he was a good man and an intelligent ruler. He must have been courageous, a king who protected his kingdom and his people to the best of his ability in the face of overwhelming foes and physical pain. He strikes me as a brilliant, forward-thinking ruler, very much ahead of his time in many ways.

Sharon: Who is your least favourite medieval person and why?

Patricia: I have to give that distinction to King Æthelred who sat on the English throne for 38 long years. I made him a villain in my novels, a character haunted by guilt and paranoia, and I suppose that has influenced my opinion of him. But he was obviously ruthless and vengeful and, I suspect, a coward. He ordered the murder of several of his powerful nobles—not their executions, but their murders. In a world where it was so important to be cleansed of your sins before death, he gave those men no chance to repent. He also ordered the St. Brice’s Day Massacre of Danes, setting fire to a church where men, women and children had sought refuge. In 1014 he led his army against his own people in Mercia who had aided the Danes the year before, and when his son Edmund Ironside begged for his help in 1016 to lead an army against the Danish invasion Æthelred refused for fear that someone would kill him. Yes, it was a brutal time, and men were cruel, but I’ve found few redeeming qualities in old Æthelred.

Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?

Patricia: I live in the U.S. so I’ve done ‘boots on the ground’ research in England, Normandy and Denmark, including a 2-week summer course on the Anglo-Saxon period at Cambridge University. I spent a very long day in the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, as well as attending a re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings. But the really in-depth research began, for me, with digging into history books that covered the 11^th century in England, Normandy and Denmark to give me a broad understanding of the period. After that I focused mostly on the Anglo-Saxons, the events taking place in the years I was covering in each novel, and on the historical figures who would be the characters in my novels. I spent hours in the library stacks at the Univ. of California at Berkeley, reading everything about the period that I could get my hands on, as well as building my own research library at home. Every time I started writing a new book I had to go back into research mode to really grasp the events, the people, and the places that I was going to be writing about.

Sharon: Tell us your ‘favourite’ 11^th century story you have come across in your research.

*Genealogical table of Cnut, Harold I and Harthacnut*

Patricia: It’s the story of Thorkell’s beard. Thorkell the Tall was a powerful Viking warlord during the Danish conquest of England. When Cnut became king in 1017, he made Thorkell the Earl of East Anglia, but 4 years later Cnut outlawed him, and Thorkell had to flee to Denmark. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle doesn’t say why Thorkell was banished. But the Ramsey Chronicle relates that Thorkell’s wife was implicated in the murder of his son. Thorkell and his wife were each called to swear to their innocence on holy relics, and Thorkell did this. Then he swore by his beard that his wife, too, was innocent, but at that point his beard fell off! He was convicted of perjury and his wife of murder, and they were banished. Assuming that there is some truth to this story, did Thorkell really lose his beard? And if not, then how was perjury proved? It’s quite a juicy tale.

Sharon: Tell us your least ‘favourite’ 11^th century story you have come across in your research.

Patricia: Queen Emma and the Ploughshares appears in the Annals of Winchester, written by Richard of Devizes in the late 12^th century, a century after Emma’s death. In the story, the Norman Archbishop of Canterbury tells Emma’s son, King Edward that she is utterly evil. He claims that she agreed to the murder of her other son, Alfred, that she plotted to poison Edward, and that she was sleeping with the Bishop of Winchester. Emma protests her innocence and to prove it she agrees to walk barefoot across 9 burning hot plough shares without being injured. The night before the ordeal St. Swithin appears to her in a dream to tell her she’ll be fine, and sure enough, she survives it untouched. The entire story is bogus, of course, and the worst of it is that what is remembered are the crimes that Emma was falsely accused of, and not the point of the story, which is that her innocence was proven through saintly intervention. The only thing I like about this story is the ending, where a bunch of bishops beat a remorseful King Edward with rods and Emma gets to slap him 3 times.

Sharon: Are there any other eras you would like to write about?

Patricia: Not just eras, but genre, too. I’d love to write a high medieval fantasy, although it’s not something I’ll be tackling any time soon!

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Patricia: I am still deeply ensconced in the 11th century and the life of Queen Emma. My original intent was to write a trilogy about the queen, and I accomplished that. But there is more to Emma’s story and I really want to tell it, so I’m in the thick of that right now.

Sharon: And finally, what is the best thing about being a writer?

Patricia: It’s the people who have, in one way or another, entered my life. Readers who reach out to me, other writers who I have come to know as colleagues and friends, scholars like you, Sharon, who have given me advice and have been so helpful and encouraging. Because of my books, my world has expanded exponentially. It’s a gift that I treasure.

About the Author:

Patricia Bracewell taught high school English before embarking on her writing career. Her historical novel, Shadow on the Crown, was published in 2013 in the U.S. and Britain, and has been translated into Italian, German, Portuguese and Russian. Its sequel, The Price of Blood, continues the gripping tale of the 11th century queen of England, Emma of Normandy. Her third novel, The Steel Beneath the Silk, continuing the story of England’s only twice-crowned queen was published in 2021. Patricia’s research has taken her to France, Denmark and Britain, including a summer course on Anglo-Saxon history at Downing College, Cambridge, as well as academic conferences on medieval studies in the U.S. and the U.K. She has served as Writer-in-Residence at Gladstone’s Library in Wales, has been a panelist at Historical Novel Society conferences in the U.S. and Britain, was a guest on BBC Radio 4s Great Lives, and has spoken to numerous book groups and school groups about her novels and the history that infuses them. She lives in California and is currently working on her fourth historical novel about Emma of Normandy.

Where to find Patricia:

Social Media: Bluesky; Instagram.

Website: www.PatriciaBracewell.com

Buy Links: All books are available as ebooks, audiobooks and paperbacks; KOBO: APPLE: AMAZON U.S.: AMAZON U.K.

My books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Podcast:

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Bitter Enemies: The Empress and the Queen

12/07/202514/07/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly5 Comments

The time commonly referred to as the Anarchy is one of the most violent and unstable periods of English history. Lasting almost the entirety of the reign of King Stephen, it truly was a Cousin’s War. The two main protagonists, King Stephen and Empress Matilda, were first cousins, both being grandchildren of William the Conqueror and his queen, Matilda of Flanders. What is perhaps less well known is that Empress Matilda was also first cousin to Stephen’s wife and queen, Matilda of Boulogne. The two Matilda’s were both granddaughters of Margaret of Wessex, Queen of Scots as the wife of Malcolm III Canmore. And later St Margaret. It is through Margaret that the namesake cousins could claim descent from Alfred the Great.

The origins to the Anarchy can be traced back to one dramatic and tragic event: the sinking of the White Ship in 1120. This saw the drowning of the only legitimate son and heir of King Henry I, William Ætheling (or Adelin). The young man was 17 years old at the time, recently married, and his father’s pride and joy. His death gave rise to a constitutional crisis which the widowed Henry I sought to resolve by his speedy marriage to the teenage Adeliza of Louvain, in the hope of begetting yet more sons. Although he was getting on in years at roughly fifty-two, and had only two legitimate children, his brood of more than twenty illegitimate, but acknowledged, offspring gave him cause for optimism.

However, as the years progressed and no children were born, Henry had to look to other ways of resolving the succession crisis. In the years since the death of his son, the king had taken his nephew Stephen of Blois under his wing, showering him with gifts and land, and arranging the young man’s marriage. Stephen was the son of Henry’s highly capable sister Adela of Normandy, Countess of Blois and Stephen, Count of Blois, who had been killed on Crusade. The younger Stephen was created Count of Mortain and married to Matilda of Boulogne, the only child and heiress of Eustace of Boulogne and Mary of Scotland. It is possible that Henry was showing Stephen such favouritism in anticipation of not producing an heir by his new wife and was grooming Stephen to succeed him.

However, the death of his daughter’s husband, Emperor Henry V, in faraway Germany offered Henry an alternative to his nephew. Better still, here was an opportunity to put his own blood on the throne. Shortly after the German emperor’s death in 1125, Henry recalled Empress Matilda to England. She had been sent to Germany at the age of seven, to be raised at the court of the emperor in anticipation of their marriage when she came of age. Matilda had married Henry in 1114, a month before her twelfth birthday. Although she and Henry were married for eleven years, they remained childless. When Henry died in 1125, Henry I of England therefore saw an opportunity to resolve his succession problem by recalling Matilda and making her his heir.

There was one problem with this plan: Matilda was a woman. Henry knew his barons would not be happy with the idea of being ruled by a woman, but by a process of coercion and persuasion he managed to get all his barons to swear to accept her as their next monarch. Following Matilda’s arrival in England in 1126, Henry proceeded to extract oaths of allegiance to her from all the bishops and magnates present at his Christmas court. Notably, this included Stephen of Blois, Count of Mortain, King Henry’s nephew and the empress’s cousin. One of the concessions made to the barons was that they would have a say in Matilda’s choice of husband. After all, as a woman, Matilda would need a husband to rule in her name. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported:

David the king of Scots was there, and all the head [men], clerical and lay, that were in England; and there he [Henry] had archbishops, and bishops, and abbots, and earls, and all those thegns who were there, swear England and Normandy after his day into the hand of his daughter Æthelic [Matilda], who was earlier wife of the emperor of Saxony; and afterwards sent her to Normandy (and with her travelled her brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and Brian, son of the earl Alan Fergant), and had her wedded to the son of the Earl of Anjou, [who] was called Geoffrey Martel [Plantagenet]. Despite the fact that it offended all the French and English, the king did it in order to have peace from the Earl of Anjou and in order to have help against William his nephew.¹

In trying to resolve the issue of who would rule after him, Henry had inadvertently created a problem that ensured the succession would be anything but smooth. He had created two rivals for the throne. His daughter had the claim that she was Henry’s successor by blood, but she was a woman. Though his blood claim was weaker, Stephen was Henry’s closest living male relative, and in the days when a king not only had to rule but had to lead his men into battle, the prospect of a female ruler struck fear into the hearts of the barons.

Empress Matilda’s actual abilities mattered less than the fact of her gender. Raised at the German imperial court, Matilda was an experienced politician who had acted as regent for her first husband on several occasions. She was confident. She knew, beyond doubt, that she was capable of ruling in her own right. This confidence was her strength but also her weakness; the barons would surely baulk at the idea of a woman who was unwilling to take instruction from them. In contrast, King Stephen was a magnate who was experienced in war and had enjoyed the favour of King Henry I.

Stephen’s wife, Matilda of Boulogne, was a stalwart supporter of her husband. She was arguably more capable than Stephen and often took the initiative in diplomatic negotiations. Acting as Stephen’s queen, she offered a stark contrast to the independence and authority of Empress Matilda that so infuriated the barons. Matilda of Boulogne was a little more subtle than her imperious counterpart, only ever acting in her husband’s name, not her own. Even later, when she held the command of Stephen’s forces during his captivity in 1141, she claimed to act only on behalf of her husband and sons.

Matilda of Boulogne was an example of how a woman was expected to act and comport herself: strong and confident, but subject to her husband’s will. On this last, Empress Matilda failed in the eyes of the barons; she was acting for herself. In the event, the barons of England and Normandy despised her second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, so they would have been even less receptive to Matilda had her husband tried to assert his authority. It was a conundrum that Matilda was never able to resolve, though she would not give up trying.

And the empress was, ultimately, the winner. With Stephen’s death in 1154, the last flickers of conflict also died. The empress’s oldest son succeeded as Henry II, peacefully and largely unopposed, despite the continued presence of Stephen’s son, William of Blois. Support for William was non-existent, and the war-weary barons were more than happy with the settlement. For Empress Matilda, it must have been a bittersweet moment. She had spent most of the past nineteen years fighting for her birthright and that of her son. While she had never worn the crown, Henry now did. The line of succession had finally passed into the hands of the descendants of Henry I.

Her bloodline had prevailed, but King Stephen had denied Empress Matilda her inheritance, her titles and her due. The irony of this struggle is that, in order to claim the throne, Stephen overruled the same laws of inheritance that saw him become Count of Boulogne. While it was difficult for a woman to manage her own lands and titles, they descended through her to her husband or son. So, as the county of Boulogne was inherited by Queen Matilda, so Stephen held those titles by right of his wife. And this was the dilemma for the Anglo-Norman nobility, and the reason they largely chose to support Stephen: they were suspicious and distrusting of the husband chosen for Empress Matilda. Just like Stephen, Geoffrey of Anjou had every right to claim Matilda’s lands as his own. Not the Geoffrey showed any interest in England; his sights were firmly set on Normandy, which he had conquered by 1144 and handed to his son, Henry in 1150.

The similarities between Empress and Queen are more noticeable than their differences. Both women demonstrated a level of piety which can only have come from their family connection, namely their mutual descent from Margaret of Wessex, Queen of Scots and later saint. Each Matilda was willing to do whatever it took to protect the interests of her children. Queen Matilda appealed to the empress to protect her son Eustace’s inheritance, while the empress invaded England. It is easy to see the empress’s struggle as an expression of her personal ambition to recover the inheritance stolen from her.

Yet it is necessary to look deeper and acknowledge that she was also motivated to see her son achieve his birthright. When Stephen usurped her throne, he stole it not just from Matilda but also from Henry. Calling himself Henry Fitz Empress when he joined his mother’s struggle, Henry was the grandson and eventual heir of Henry I. He had been raised to believe that England and Normandy were his destiny, and with the knowledge that his mother was absent for much of his formative years because she was fighting for his inheritance as much as hers.

Both empress and queen were adept at negotiating to achieve their aims, demonstrating impressive diplomatic skills in the most difficult of circumstances. Neither was prepared to sit on the sidelines and let others fight their battles for them. Although they could not wield a sword, nor participate in warfare, neither did they sit and wait in the safety of their ivory towers. They travelled with the armies and participated in councils of war, advising, directing and commanding their forces.

Empress Matilda and Queen Matilda had so much more in common than a name. Indeed, there was more to uniting them than pitting them against one another, be it family ties, abilities or aspirations for their children. What really differentiated them was the way they went about achieving their aims.

Dynastic ambition was a fine line for a woman to walk…

The story of Empress Matilda and Queen Matilda of Boulogne is examined in greater detail in my book, Women of the Anarchy.

Notes:

1. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited by Michael Swanton

Sources:

Gesta Stephani, translated by K. R. Potter; Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People 1000-1154; Marjorie Chibnall, The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English; Teresa Cole, The Anarchy: The Darkest Days of Medieval England; Catherine Hanley, Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior; Helen Castor, She-Wolves: The Women who Ruled England before Elizabeth; Robert Bartlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; J. Sharpe (trans.), The History of the Kings of England and of his Own Times by William Malmesbury; Orderici Vitalis, Historiae ecclesiasticae libri tredecem, translated by Auguste Le Prévost; Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I; Edmund King, King Stephen; Donald Matthew, King Stephen; Matthew Lewis, Stephen and Matilda’s Civil War: Cousins of Anarchy.

Images:

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Wordly Women: Gemma Hollman

05/07/202503/06/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

Today I am continuing my Wordly Women series with a historian who, just like me, concentrates on bringing the women to the fore. Gemma Hollman has written about Royal Witches, queens and mistresses. Her last book, Women in the Middle Ages: Illuminating the World of Peasants, Nuns, and Queens came out at the end of 2024, and is gorgeous! It was lovely to get the chance to have a chat with Gemma about her writing journey.

Sharon: So, Gemma, what got you into writing?

Gemma: It’s kind of a mix of completely by accident, and something I’ve always enjoyed doing. Whilst at school and university I would write bits of fiction for fun, never for anyone to look at, so I’ve always had a bit of a writing bug. But when I finished university, it felt so weird to go from four years of researching and writing history to quitting cold turkey. At this time, it seemed like everyone was making blogs, including loads of my friends, so I decided to join the trend and establish my blog, Just History Posts.

I loved writing there, and by the second year I was gathering a load of steam. One of my most popular posts was about Joan of Navarre, a fifteenth-century Queen of England who was accused of using witchcraft against the king – and one of the focuses of my Masters dissertation. That, combined with lots of people I knew in real life saying my dissertation would make an amazing book, made me think maybe people would like to learn about these women and their stories which are not that well-known. I pitched the book to The History Press and it eventually turned into my debut non-fiction book, Royal Witches. The rest, as they say, is history.

Sharon: Tell us about your books.

Gemma: Well, I already gave you a little bit of a taster about Royal Witches (the other three women, beyond Joan, are Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Woodville), about fifteenth-century women in the English Royal Family who were all accused of witchcraft. My second book goes back to the previous century and the court of Edward III of England, and is a dual biography of the two women who dominated his court and his heart – his queen, Philippa of Hainault, and his mistress, Alice Perrers. Both women are absolutely fascinating in their own right, but by looking at them together I think you can understand them, Edward, and the fourteenth century a lot better.

My final book came out at the end of last year, and is called Women in the Middle Ages. A slight departure from my first two books, which were both focused biographies, this is a much broader look at women across much of Europe from roughly 1000-1500. The best thing about it, though, is that it is an illustrated history, featuring just shy of 200 images of artwork and artefacts from the medieval period. I explore how these objects can illuminate the real lives of these women in far more detail than written records alone. It is a beautiful, full-colour experience which was so special to pull together.

Sharon: What attracts you to the medieval period?

Gemma: I’ve always loved all periods of history, and studied a huge range of history at university, but I found that I enjoyed writing medieval history much more than I did modern history. I enjoyed acting almost like a detective and trying to extract bits about people’s lives and personalities with such limited sources. And the more I researched and wrote it, the more I fell in love with it. The medieval world was so incredibly different from today in every aspect, that it can sometimes feel like another world. But, at the same time, people themselves are so similar to today. I always love reading stories that connects us through the centuries, feeling that human connection to someone so far removed from myself today. Although it was a time of huge strife, poverty, and difficulty, there is something intrinsically magical about it – it’s no coincidence so much of our fantasy media today has medieval vibes!

Sharon: Who is your favourite 14th century person and why?

Gemma: Oh gosh, that is such a difficult question! Of course there is no one favourite, as that would be impossible, but someone who has grabbed my attention ever since I first learnt about her is Isabella of France, the queen of Edward II of England. She was so self-assured of her lineage, her rights, the respect due to her by virtue of her position, and she was not going to let anyone tell her otherwise. She was loved and sympathised with whilst the neglected spouse, then inspired the entire country to stand with her and overthrow her husband, and went on to pretty much rule England with her lover for several years. Even after her son, Edward III, forcibly took control of the kingdom again, she continued to wield significant influence at court. I think she is just so utterly fascinating – and she of course perfectly sets the scene for the start of my second book, The Queen and the Mistress!

Sharon: Who is your least favourite 14th century and why?

Gemma: Ooh. I don’t know that there’s really anyone I actively dislike, but for playfulness I will put forward Thomas Walsingham, chronicler and monk at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire. His chronicles are invaluable for our knowledge of the late fourteenth century, but he is a bit of a villain in my second book for his treatment of Alice Perrers. As a religious man, Alice’s position as a mistress at the heart of the court was unconscionable (and it didn’t help that she was embroiled in legal conflicts with his abbey for many years). He is responsible for a lot of the negative propaganda against Alice which lasted for centuries, including the baseless accusation that she stole the rings from Edward’s fingers after he died. Even today, the way he spoke about her is the main way people approach her and assume how she really was. Talk about negative PR.

Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?

Gemma: Mostly I already have a theme or a person in mind for what I want to research, and generally I already have an amount of knowledge about the topic. But I always find it most helpful to start with secondary sources, ie by reading a load of books and journal articles on the subject. I write copious notes, start creating timelines where necessary, and jot down the names of other books and sources from the footnotes. I then go to the original sources and make a load of notes on those, too, and I then dive in to writing. I always find once I start writing I then become aware of areas where my notes might be lacking, like missing any information about what someone was doing in a particular year of their life, and so I then go back to the sources and secondary material to fill in these gaps. I also find that it’s only by starting to write do I truly know which direction my piece is going in, and thus am able to tailor my research much more specifically, rather than reading about anything in the hope it might be useful, but finding that I don’t use it at all (as happens with much of my early research).

Sharon: Tell us your ‘favourite’ medieval story you have come across in your research.

Gemma: One of my favourites definitely comes from a story I read in a chronicle at university, and which I recounted in one of my very first blog posts. This is a story from the court of Henry II of England, and is one that very much exemplifies what I said earlier about people never changing. The king’s steward, a man named Thurston, came to him and complained that another man, Adam of Yarmouth, refused to seal a writ for him free of charge (something which was to be expected amongst people working in the government). After some investigation, it was revealed that Adam was upset at Thurstan because at a party Thurstan had been hosting, he refused to allow Adam to eat two cakes! Such a petty squabble had disrupted the king’s business, and he settled the squabble by having Adam seal the writ in return for Thurstan serving him two cakes on bended knee. It sounds like something out of fiction rather than reality!

Sharon: Are there any other eras you would like to write about?

Gemma: I definitely have found my comfort zone in the medieval era, but I do think from time to time about writing about other periods, as I think is only natural. I know of some amazing women from the Georgian and Victorian periods that I’ve been drawn to writing about several times, so maybe that’s something I can set my sights on one day.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Gemma: At the moment, I am in the midst of my fourth book which is set in the court of Richard II. The book is largely a biography about Richard, but it also aims to take a look at his wider court, too, particularly some of the other large and important figures – and, particularly, women. It’s due next year, so wish me luck with getting it done in time!

Sharon: And finally, what is the best thing about being a writer?

Gemma: This question is definitely easy for me – spreading the knowledge I have and seeing people enjoy it and learn something new. Every time I get a review, or speak to a person at a talk I am giving, where the person said they’ve loved what I’ve written/how I’ve spoken, and that they’ve learnt something is just as special as the last. I love writing, and I love that I get to learn so many interesting things myself in the process, but the whole point of me writing is to share all the things I’ve learnt with other people. Each time I hear that I’ve done that, and done it well, makes all of the late nights researching after a full day’s work, or the times I can’t see my friends and family because I have a deadline worth it.

About the author:

Author bio: Gemma Hollman is a historian and author who specialises in late medieval English history. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she has a particular interest in the plethora of strong, intriguing and complicated women from the medieval period, a time she had always been taught was dominated by men. Gemma also works full-time in the heritage industry whilst running her historical blog, Just History Posts, which explores all periods of history in more depth. Gemma’s first book, Royal Witches, was a bestseller, and two more books have since followed: The Queen and the Mistress, and Women in the Middle Ages.

Where to find Gemma:

Website: https://justhistoryposts.com/; Link for books: https://lnk.bio/GemmaHAuthor; Social media: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/gemmahauthor.bsky.social.

My books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Guest Post: Tudor Princes and Princesses by Aimee Fleming

04/07/202502/07/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

Today, it is a pleasure to welcome Aimee Fleming to History…the Interesting Bits. Aimee’s first book, The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer: The Life and Times of Margaret More Roper was a wonderful biography of Thomas More’s famous scholarly daughter. Aimee is now back with a second book, looking into the lives of the first royal Tudor children, Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. And she has written a little piece as a taster of the treat that is this wonderful book. Over to Aimee…

When Henry VII and Elizabeth of York married in January 1486, it was clear to them that their most important task ahead was to stabilise England, and the best, perhaps easiest way available to them was to produce an heir, and quickly.

However, bearing a child in the fifteenth century was not an easy feat, even for a Queen. Science and medicine were far from helpful, and the practices of the time meant that pregnancy and childbirth were dangerous to everyone involved. Elizabeth had her family around her, her mother who had had twelve children would have been invaluable to her, but the risks to herself, her child, and to her husband’s reign would have been very clear indeed.

In this extract we see how the couple prepared for their new arrival, and what Elizabeth herself was required to do, even before the rigours of birth.

Extract from Chapter 2 of Tudor Princes and Princesses

Following the wedding ceremony in January 1486, the royal couple remained in London and held court over celebrations in their honour, with spectacular banquets and dances. The celebrations were held all over London and further afield. As Bernard André describes:

‘…the most wished day of marriage was celebrated by them

with all religious and glorious magnificence at court, and

by their people, to show their gladness with bonfires,

dancing, songs and banquets throughout all London,

both men and women, rich and poor, beseeching God to

bless the King and Queen and grant them a numerous

progeny.’

This outpouring of support for the marriage of the king and queen was welcomed by all, especially by Henry and Elizabeth themselves, who knew just how important it was that their union, and rule, be accepted. It became apparent that their marriage represented the potential for peace in the form of an heir who would have their claims combined within him. Hall’s Chronicle shows what was expected.

‘By reason of whiche manage peace was thought to discende out of heaue into England, consideryng that the lynes of Lancastre & Yorke, being both noble families equiualet in ryches, fame and honour, were now brought into one knot and connexed together, of whose two bodyes one heyre might succede, which after their lyme should peaceably rule and enioye the whole monarchy and realme of England.’

Confident in their position early on, the king and queen worked to secure the future that so many hoped for and very soon after their wedding took place it was announced that the queen was with child. Whether that be out of duty, mutual respect, or genuine affection and love between them, the conception of a child was joyous news for all involved. Calculating from the date of their wedding, and Arthur’s birth, it is reasonable to assume that they conceived quickly, if not on their wedding night itself. When Henry departed for a progress around Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in the early spring of 1486, he did not take Elizabeth with him, most likely because she was suffering from morning sickness, or other symptoms associated with the early stages of pregnancy. As a first-time mother, it would have been new to Elizabeth, but luckily, she had her experienced mother and mother-in-law both around to support her. While Henry was travelling, he sent regular letters to his new wife, and would send gifts to her while she stayed at the Palace of Placentia.

Elizabeth would have been familiar with the palace, having spent a lot of time there as a young girl. It would become one of the most favoured for the king and queen and would be renamed by Henry as Greenwich Palace. Both names emphasise how the palace was surrounded by green parks and fields, isolated from the hustle and bustle and potential diseases of London itself.

As soon as it could be confirmed that Elizabeth was with child, the wheels began turning to arrange yet more elaborate ceremony, intended to cement Elizabeth as queen, the Tudor dynasty as the ruling family, and rightfully on the throne. This started with Elizabeth’s care while pregnant.

While it was not common for pregnant women to receive medical or ante-natal care in this period, Elizabeth’s health would have been monitored and her diet checked, and healthy habits encouraged by her ladies and physicians. Pregnant women were discouraged from heavy activities or stressful situations, and sometimes forbidden to eat certain foods; for example, if a woman complained of morning sickness, she may be told to limit her intake of fish or milk, both of which modern doctors would recommend she eat.

Pregnancy was dangerous, as was childbirth, for both the mother and the child, so royal women were given the best possible conditions in which to give birth, according to the science of the time.

As a woman’s due date got closer, she would be expected to enter confinement. This was a time where the pregnant woman and her household would isolate themselves in the woman’s bedroom. Windows would be barred and draped, and air flow would be completely stifled as it was believed that illnesses were carried on the air. For a queen, preparations for confinement would be made by the king according to traditions laid out during the reign of Edward IV, Elizabeth’s father. She would have been very familiar with the work that needed to be done, and the fact that the arrangements would be made for her by her husband.

Henry took his role in arranging Elizabeth’s confinement very seriously indeed. He purchased clothes and bedding for the chambers, all made of furs and velvet, and the most luxurious cotton sheets. He arranged for new furniture for her rooms and cushions stuffed with feathers, and even, bewilderingly, two velvet-covered saddles.

However, by far the most important decision that Henry made regarding his wife’s confinement and birth experience was to choose the location, and for Henry there was only one place that it could happen and that was the city of Winchester.

About the Author:

Books by Aimee Fleming:

The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer: The Life and Times of Margaret More Roper

Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

Where to find Aimee:

Website; Facebook; Threads and Instagram: @historyaimee; Substack.

My books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Podcast:

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online store.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

Book Corner: Rise of the First Wessex King by A.J. Proudfoot

02/07/202502/07/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly2 Comments

When the Saxons, invited to settle in Britannia by King Wyrtgeorn, brutally murder the father and brother of Ceredig, the second son of a fifth century Romano-British chieftain, he flees the land of his birth.

While the Saxons expand their control over Britannia, Ceredig grows up in Armorica, learning the ways of the Gewisse, and ultimately taking command of this elite force of warriors, who had remained loyal to his father, Elisedd.

Despite ruling as a chieftain in Armorica, Ceredig remains determined to return to his homeland, avenge his father and brother’s murder, and finally reclaim the lands his father had once ruled in southern Britannia.

After over forty years in exile, Ceredig, his son and a force of Gewisse warriors return to Britannia, joining a large army of Britons who are preparing to take on the Saxons in battle at Badonbyrg.

What happens next will go down in history…

As a debut novel, Rise of the First Wessex King by A.J. Proudfoot is a winner. And as a special treat, alongside my review, I have an interview with the author, who is currently working on book no. 2 in what promises to be a fascinating series. Cerdic, or Ceredig, is the founder of the kingdom of Wessex and a royal house that would reach its zenith under Ceredig’s descendants, King Alfred the Great, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, her brother Edward the Elder and Edward’s son Athelstan, first king of England.

And it all started with Ceredig.

In Rise of the First Wessex King, A.J. Proudfoot recreates Ceredig’s world, post-Roman Britain, breathing life into this 1,500-year-old story. And what a fascinating story it is. Though our knowledge is limited, Proudfoot fills in the gaps to create a lively and energetic retelling of the foundation of the royal house of Wessex. This is the story of the fight of the native Britons against the invading Saxons, of a war that must have felt never-ending, at times. It is a story of conflict and betrayal, but also of family and comradeship, and of a young man who had to patiently wait for the time to be right to achieve his dream of pushing back the Saxons and going home.

The characters, particularly our hero, are wonderfully vivid. And I love how Proudfoot weaves the legends of Arthur and Hengist and Horsa in to the story, bringing a little-known period of history back to life. Who doesn’t like to see a little bit of King Arthur thrown into the mix? The inclusion of Artorius and Ambrosius made me smile – and want to read more!

This is a debut novel, so Proudfoot sometimes fall into the trap of giving summaries, telling, rather than showing the action and debate, but this does not detract from the pace of the book. Overall, it is a fabulous read, imbued with a sense of adventure. It is a great start to what promises to be an impressive series.

Overall, it is a great story, told well!

If you’re looking for a new author to sink your teeth into, I don’t hesitate to recommend A.J. Proudfoot’s Rise of the First Wessex King.

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Interview with A.J. Proudfoot

Sharon: So, Alex, what got you into writing historical fiction?

Alex: This may come as a surprise, but I didn’t originally set out to become an author and write historical fiction novels. I was simply trying to trace the origins of my unusual Proudfoot surname, and was continuing the research into our Proudfoot family history that my parents and aunt had begun many years before.

After several years’ research, I was amazed to find that I had traced my family ancestry back 1500 years to a mysterious chieftain called Cerdic, at the end of the fifth century, who founded the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. There are many interesting ancestors in the Proudfoot family tree, whose lives would make an excellent novel, but when I discovered more about Cerdic’s life, I realised that there was an Arthurian story that was worth writing.

Sharon: What made you want to tell Cerdic’s story?

Alex: I was intrigued why this important figure in early English history has been largely ignored by historical writers, so I undertook my own research into the life of Cerdic, finding crucial inconsistencies in what is written about Cerdic’s Saxon heritage, which I put down to a desire, by early Saxon chroniclers, to establish King Alfred’s Saxon ancestry.

Instead, I found evidence that Cerdic was more likely to be descended from a Romano-British family, who originally hailed from an ancient Welsh kingdom, and was more than likely called Ceredig, given his Brythonic heritage, and to the phonetic similarities. As a result, I felt compelled to use what I had learned to tell the story about my earliest known ancestor and his crucial role in history, based on recorded events in the early Anglo-Saxon era. To paraphrase John Wade, the rest is historical fiction!

Sharon: How do you go about researching a historical character from 1500 years ago?

*Imaginary depiction from John Speed’s 1611 “Saxon Heptarchy”*

Alex: The great difficulty in researching a historical figure from so far back is the lack of contemporary records. My starting point was, naturally, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but it only mentions six events relating to Cerdic’s life, and is written from a Saxon perspective. I read all I could about Cerdic in research papers by modern Anglo-Saxon historians, including JNL Myers and Richard Coates, which is where I found clues to Cerdic’s Romano-British connections. There was also a story about 5th century Bishop Germanus meeting a regional chieftain in southern Britain, called Elasius, whose name is remarkably similar to Elesa, the recorded name of Cerdic’s father in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Eventually, I had built a picture of the young son of a Romano-British chieftain, ruling and defending the southern coastline of Britain against Saxon invaders, who suddenly disappeared from Britain, returning nearly fifty years later to take control over a region in the Upper Thames Valley, before expanding his lands south before becoming king and ruling a kingdom of the Gewisse that would eventually become known as Wessex, named after the West Saxons.

My research raised more questions than answers, so I used what I had learned about events during that period to write a dramatic reconstruction of Cerdic’s life, and the formation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Based on fact, but mostly fiction.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Alex:I am currently working on a sequel to Rise of the First Wessex King, which will follow the lives of Cunorix and his son, Ceawlin, as they try to build on Ceredig’s legacy in ruling the kingdom of the Gewisse, whilst facing threats from the Saxons in the east, and Britons in the west, as well as challenges they could not anticipate.

Sharon: What is the best – and worse – thing about being a writer?

Alex: Personally, the hardest part about writing my historical fiction novels is that the stories are based in the south of England and I live just outside Edinburgh, in Scotland. This meant that I have had to make several research trips down south, visiting locations featured in my novels. Whilst there is very little evidence to reveal what it would be like when the books are set, I have found this a useful exercise in understanding the topography, as well as encouraging the creative writing juices.

The best part of being a writer is that I love history and solving puzzles. This has been useful in writing about a period in history where facts are limited, so deciphering my characters’ motives behind their decisions has been crucial in building the story of their lives.

About the Author

A J (Alex) Proudfoot lives in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh. He started his career as an accountant, working in the brewing, publishing and financial sectors, before qualifying as a chartered marketer, working at the University of Edinburgh for over twenty years. After retiring early in 2018, he has spent his free time researching his Proudfoot family history, back 1500 years to his earliest known ancestor, which led to the publication of his debut historical fiction novel, Rise of the First Wessex King.

Social media links

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ajproudfootwriter

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@ajproudfoot

Book trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gpZMOMzwZs&t

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Inside the Book Trade of Late Medieval London

St Paul’s Cathedral: The Book Trade’s Beating Heart

Who were the Printers?

What was on the shelves?

Not only Men’s work

Censorship and Control

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Othon and the Templars

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Extract from Chapter 2 of Tudor Princes and Princesses

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