It is a pleasure to welcome author Tony Riches to History…the Interesting Bits today. Tony is a fabulous storyteller who has just released the final book in his Tudor Adventurers series.
We have had Sir Francis Drake, the Earl of Essex and now we have the remarkable story of Sir Walter Raleigh. Tony is here to tell us a little bit about his research in Raleigh: Tudor Adventurer.
Researching the life of Sir Walter Raleigh
Tudor adventurer, courtier, explorer and poet, Sir Walter Raleigh has been called the last true Elizabethan.
My books aim to be as factually accurate as possible, with the creative use of fiction reserved for breathing life into my characters, and adding a sense of the places where they lived. I like to spend the summer months visiting actual locations and tracking down primary sources. In the research for my new book, Raleigh – Tudor Adventurer, I also studied Raleigh’s surviving letters and papers.
Public Domain letter from Sir Walter Raleigh to Lady Elizabeth (Bess) Raleigh, endorsed: “Sir W. Rawley to his wiefe.”
Raleigh was a prodigious letter writer, but his personal archive was scattered widely, with many of his papers thought to be lost. Fortunately, the late Tudor historians, Joyce Youings and Agnes Latham discovered over two hundred of Raleigh’s letters, and Agnes Latham also collected Raleigh’s poetry, adding her invaluable commentary.
As well as offering me an authentic sense of Raleigh’s ‘voice’, these letters were a great help in sorting out the often confusing timeline of events. I was of aware of Raleigh’s tendency to exaggerate, flatter and posture in his writing, but there is no better way to develop an understanding of his motives. Here is an example of a surviving letter from Raleigh to his wife, Bess, which shows how difficult they can be to transcribe.
The next main source of information on Raleigh’s life was the fascinating Folgerpedia resource, ‘The Elizabethan Court Day by Day,’ created by Marion E. Colthorpe. This searchable archive provided me with access to a wealth of invaluable details, and clues for deeper research. The archive began as an investigation into the people and places visited by Queen Elizabeth I on her ‘progresses’, and the entertainments presented before her. It gradually expanded to trace the whereabouts of the queen on every day throughout her long reign, what she was doing, often what she was saying, and who her companions were.
Raleigh’s cell in the Tower of London (author’s photo)
Finally, my travels have taken me to rural Devon and Dorset, and in Raleigh’s footsteps across the sea to Ireland, where I visited the city of Cork and the harbour of Youghal, where he was briefly Mayor and had a house named ‘Myrtle Grove. I also visited the Tower of London and the cell where Raleigh was imprisoned.
My research has revealed Sir Walter Raleigh’s strengths and weaknesses, as a courtier and failed politician, soldier and poet, a man ready to speak up for the poor and to honour his debts. My hope is that my new book, Raleigh – Tudor Adventurer, will help readers see beyond the myths and half-truths, and have a better understanding of the man who has been called the last true Elizabethan.
Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of Tudor historical fiction. He lives with his wife in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the lives of the early Tudors. As well as his new Elizabethan series, Tony’s historical fiction novels include the best-selling Tudor trilogy and his Brandon trilogy, (about Charles Brandon and his wives). For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and his blog, The Writing Desk and find him on Facebook and Twitter @tonyriches
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My Books
Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available, please get in touch by completing the contact me form.
Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, 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. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US,Bookshop.org and Book Depository.
Ireland 1652: In the desperate, final days of the English invasion . . .
A fey young woman, Áine Callaghan, is the sole survivor of an attack by English marauders. When Irish soldier Niall O’Coneill discovers his own kin slaughtered in the same massacre, he vows to hunt down the men responsible. He takes Áine under his protection and together they reach the safety of an encampment held by the Irish forces in Tipperary.
Hardly a safe haven, the camp is rife with danger and intrigue. Áine is a stranger with the old stories stirring on her tongue and rumours follow her everywhere. The English cut off support to the brigade, and a traitor undermines the Irish cause, turning Niall from hunter to hunted.
When someone from Áine’s past arrives, her secrets boil to the surface—and she must slay her demons once and for all.
As the web of violence and treachery grows, Áine and Niall find solace in each other’s arms—but can their love survive long-buried secrets and the darkness of vengeance?
Thank you so much to Cryssa Bazos for disrupting my work this week! Instead of working for 3 hours and then reading for an hour over lunch, I’ve been working for 1 hour and reading for 3! But it’s ok, I’ve finished Rebel’s Knot now so I can get on with my life. What a bloody amazing book – again!
I do not usually read stories set in the 17th century, they’re a little out of my comfort zone. However, novels by Cryssa Bazos have definitely earned an exemption. This is Cryssa’s third book set in the civil wars that tore Britain apart during the reign of Charles I. The first was set in England whilst the second followed the exploits of those unfortunates who were forced into indentured servitude in the colonies. This third instalment follows the fortunes of the Irish Catholics who continued to hold on to their resistance to Oliver Cromwell an the Parliamentarians.
Pursuing a form of guerrilla warfare against a much stringer and better equipped English army, the Irish brigades sheltered in Ireland’s forests and depended on the goodwill of the Irish people to survive. Rebel’s Knot tells the story of one such brigade, the harsh conditions they were forced to live under and the political divisions that threatened to destroy their cause.
Áine still clutched the poker, her back pressed against the stone fireplace. She had never been more alarmed in her life to see a man materialise in her path. From experience, she gave them all distance. Niall O’Coneill had appeared, sprung from legend—a blazing warrior brandishing a gleaming sword, accompanied by a kingly wolfhound. He looked capable of hewing a giant in half. Were it not for his mud-splattered mantle, stubbled beard and dark shadows beneath his eyes, she’d believe him to be a figment of her fanciful imagination.
And then reality slammed her with the tide of his rage. With a fearsome bellow, he heaved the edge of the worktable, and it crashed onto its side. Áine muffled a scream. Her shoulder scraped against the rough stone—she was pinned between the fireplace and the raging man. The old terror gripped her.
With his back turned to her, his shoulders rose and fell with each breath. Áine marshalled her scattered wits, determined to fly. Now was her chance, while this man and his wolfhound paid her no attention.
But then he faced her. Áine sucked in her breath, her stomach knotting. She was ten feet from the door—from safety—but with every heartbeat of hesitation, that distance stretched to impossible.
He took a step forward, and she flinched, braced for the force of a blow. She squeezed her eyes shut. Please, not fists.
“I’m sorry.”
This hadn’t come from Áine, though those same words had been running through her mind—a reflex she thought she had smothered. No, he had spoken those words.
Áine’s eyes flew open. He stood a few feet away—jaw tense, hands balled into fists. “I’m sorry,”he repeated tersely. “My anger is not with you.”
She released the breath she had been holding and gave him an answering nod. Few had ever apologised to her. A part of her feared it might be a ruse.
The man ran a shaky hand through his dark hair and looked around the kitchen, a frown worrying his brow. “Gather what you will, Áine Callaghan. Supplies, any food. Especially food. We leave shortly.”
“And where are we to be going?” Áine asked sharply.
“Away from here.” He seemed deep in thought, his mind visibly whirring.
The heroes of Rebel’s Knot are a young woman, Aine, who has demons in her own past, and Niall, a born soldier who is driven to his limits when his loyalty is questioned. That Aine and Niall come up against a number of enemies, both known and unknown, leaves the reader on the edge of their seats, never quite knowing who is on the heroes’ side – and who isn’t. To prove his own innocence, he must find the real traitor.
The characters are wonderful, vivid creations who draw you in to their story. Cryssa Bazos recreates rural Ireland in great deal, drawing not only on the landscape, but also on the atmosphere and the beauty that is uniquely Ireland. Allusions to the Irish legends of the past serve to draw the reader in even deeper. What a masterpiece!
Rebel’s Knot is a wonderfully fast-paced novel that draws you in. Cleverly written, it leaves you guessing, almost to the very last page, as to the outcome of all the various strands and intrigues. The love story of Aine and Niall is offset by the violence engendered by war and the distrust borne out of the presence of a traitor.
Well, at least now I’ve finished it I can actually get back to work. I love it when a book grabs you like that! If you’re not reading it, you’re thinking about reading it!
It was a pleasure to read!
Rebel’s Knot by Cryssa Bazos is now available from Amazon.
From the author:
I am a historical fiction writer and 17th Century enthusiast, with a particular interest in the English Civil War (ECW) and romantic fiction. I blog about English history and storytelling at my site, the 17th Century Enthusiast, and I’m involved with the English Historical Fiction Authors blog site and a member of the Romantic Novelist Association (RNA) and the Historical Novel Society (HNS).
My absolute favourite books are romantic adventures, steeped in history, that take me to another time and place. I hope you enjoy my stories.
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My Books
Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available, please get in touch by completing the contact me form.
Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, 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. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US and Book Depository.
Today it is a pleasure to welcome historian Toni Mount to History…the Interesting Bits, with an article on the Frost Fairs on the River Thames.
Frost Fairs
Anyone who was in the UK, Ireland or much of Europe in February and March 2018 will probably remember the weather phenomenon of anticyclone Hartmut, better known as ‘The Beast from the East’. The Beast began its onslaught on 22nd February, bringing heavy snowfall and unusually low temperatures which lasted into the first week of March. Across Europe, it caused 95 deaths, seventeen of them in the UK. The deepest snowfall in England was 22 inches [57 cm] in Gloucestershire. The lowest temperature, measured in the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland was -14℃ [7℉] with winds up to 70 mph [110 km/hr]. Two weeks of such intense cold weather is unusual in the UK today, though who knows what may lie ahead in the future with the effects of climate change. However, climate change is nothing new. The lifetime of Isaac Newton, from 1642 to 1727, saw far worse winter weather during ‘The Little Ice-Age’, as it is known, and the period from December 1683 to March 1684 saw an unprecedented cold spell in England.
Engraving of the Frost Fair on the Thames in London, 1683-84 [British Museum Collection]
Thermometers were a recent invention and a universal scale of temperature readings had yet to be established but descriptions of the thickness of ice formed on ponds in a single night suggest the long spell of exceptional freezing weather was worse than any winter before and has still to be surpassed. December 1683 began with a hard frost, followed by a bitter east wind laden with snow. In London, the snow melted on the 7th but a sharp frost on the 12th was succeeded by a week of heavy snowfall and a north-easterly wind. Places other than London suffered similarly. Bristol suffered badly on the 19th; Durham on Christmas Eve and Oxford had its worst snow on Christmas Day, although London only saw snow showers that day.
The previous October 1683 had seen temperatures more than 4°F below the average, so the ground was already colder than normal when the bad weather began in December. Daily thermometer readings – however inaccurate – were recorded by Dr John Downes in London. According to him, the greatest cold occurred on 15th-16th January when ‘the spirit fell within the ball’ of his thermometer so gave no reading. His thermometer probably hung indoors, close to a window was the usual position for such instruments, suggesting a likely reading of 25°F indoors when he took note of it, mid‐morning. This would probably indicate a temperature of below 10°F outdoors. It was almost as cold in the first days of February.
In Durham, farther north in Teesdale, a fellow scientist, Mr Sanderson, made occasional records of the thickness of ice formed ‘where John Aislaby gets his water, on 12th-13th February, ice formed two inches thick overnight’. He then adds ‘it was in my gazette [newspaper] that at the Downs [part of the English Channel off the coast of Kent] the water was frozen a mile into the Sea, which was never known before’. This occurred during the latter part of January. From other sources we learn that, for fourteen days, in the English Channel, packet‐boats with the mail could not leave the Belgian coast and that ‘the sea was frozen for two leagues off Caen [in Normandy, France]’. Near Manchester, Sanderson noted, ‘it did freeze ice more than half a yard thick, and some ice continued till 25th March’.
Undeterred by the cold, the people of Leeds in Yorkshire held a frost fair on the frozen River Aire. According to Ralph Thoresby, an ox-roast was set up there and various sporting activities organised. January saw no improvement and in the south, by the end of the month, the Thames estuary was frozen a mile out to sea and wagons were hauling goods downriver from London as far as Gravesend in Kent.
In London, John Evelyn’s diary provides a wealth of information, noting that brewers and other tradesmen reliant on a water supply were out of work because all the pipes were frozen. He was greatly concerned that:
The fowls, fish and birds and all our plants and greens universally perishing. Many parks of deer are destroyed and all sorts of fuel so dear that there were great contributions to keep the poor alive. … London, by reason of the excessive coldness of the air hindering the ascent of the smoke, was so filled with the fuliginous steam of sea-coal that one could hardly see across the streetes… and no one could scarcely breathe.
Evelyn also tells us that ‘every moment was full of disastrous accidents’ and trees were being cracked asunder by the frost as if by a lightning strike. Despite these gloomy realities, Londoners made the best of the weather conditions. A broadsheet of the time calls it ‘Great Britain’s Wonder or London’s Admiration: a prodigious frost which began about the beginning of December and continued till the fourth day of February following’. The Thames had frozen over before but never had the freeze lasted so long. The river ice was more than a foot thick [30cms] enabling it to be crossed by coach, carriage, sledge or on foot. Enterprising boatmen, robbed of their livelihood otherwise, put wheels under their boats to ferry passengers across the river. By 1st January, a fair and marketplace had been set up on the ice.
King Charles II and members of the royal court visited the makeshift town, enjoying eating meat from an ox-roast, taking part in a fox-hunt on ice and having souvenir cards printed in a booth where a printer had set up his press. The cards proved popular, the printer reckoning to make at least £5 per day at sixpence a time. In other words, he was printing around 200 cards every day and making an excellent income from his ingenuity. Food stalls sold everything from pancakes to roast beef and there were numerous taverns, goldsmiths’ shops, a toy shop, coffee-houses, a lottery booth, a music booth and even a brothel: all doing a brisk trade on ice. A circus was put on by Mr Chipperfield: the first known performance of a family business that still continues today, if in a very different health-and-safety, animal-welfare conscious, twenty-first-century format. No such niceties concerned the entrepreneurs who arranged the bull- and bear-baiting spectacles either.
John Evelyn wrote that:
Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple… to and fro, as in the streets; sleds, sliding with skeetes [skates], a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes [short dramatic sketches], cooks, tippling [drinking] and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or a carnival on water.
Others noted sporting activities, including football and skittles being played. The ice began to thaw a little on 4th-5th February and the booths began to be dismantled but it froze again so that Evelyn could still cross in his coach to Lambeth Palace to dine with the Archbishop of Canterbury. On other occasions, he walked upriver on the ice from his home in Deptford.
In Newton’s long lifetime the Thames would freeze over again in 1709 but the ice did not last so long as to allow another frost fair that year. However, the winter of 1715-16 was sufficiently severe and long-lasting that the river was frozen for almost three months and a fair was set up once more. On this occasion, there was far more snow than in 1683-84, ‘vast quantities fallen at different times in the season’, so that London was described at the time as being ‘almost impassable’.
Below, is an excerpt from a poem written in 1684:
BEHOLD the Wonder of this present Age,
A Famous RIVER now becomes a Stage.
Question not what I now declare to you,
The Thames is now both Fair and Market, too.
And many Thousands dayly do resort,
There to behold the Pastime and the Sport
Early and Late, used by young and old,
And valu’d not the fierceness of the Cold….
Back in history, the Thames had been frozen before. For example, in the reign of King Stephen, in 1150, ‘after a very wet summer there was in December so great a frost that horses and carriages crossed it [the Thames] upon the ice as safely as upon the dry ground, and that the frost lasted till the following month of March’. Again, in 1281, the Thames was frozen over and when the ice broke up at last, it carried away five of the stone arches of London Bridge, causing it to partially collapse and making this entrance into the city impassable until it was repaired. In 1434, ‘the Thames was so strongly frozen over, that merchandise and provisions brought into the mouth of the river were obliged to be unladen, and brought by land to the city’. In 1515, too, carriages passed over on the ice from Lambeth to Westminster and once more, when the ice melted a number of arches of London Bridge were ‘borne downe and carried away with the streame’. On the 21st of December 1564, during a lengthy hard frost, football and ‘shooting at marks’ were played on the Thames. Courtiers came from Whitehall Palace to mix with common citizens and watch the fun. Tradition says that Queen Elizabeth I herself walked upon the ice but all was gone by 5th January. However, Londoners had the chance to play all manner of sports and visit trading stalls on the river again in 1620, in the reign of James I.
The River Thames last iced over completely, enough to hold a Frost Fair on its frozen waters, in 1814 but, since then, the building of the Victoria and Albert Embankments has made it faster-flowing and less likely to ice up. However, it partially froze in the harsh winters of 1947 and 1963.
Who can say whether or not even more extreme weather events may happen in the future as a result of climate change? Only time may tell if another Frost Fair, like those experienced by Isaac Newton and his colleagues, will ever be held again on the Thames.
The World of Isaac Newton by Toni Mount
For nine decades Isaac Newton strode the world of science and discovery, religion and thought – from 17th century Lincolnshire farm-boy to one of the most influential scientists of all time – his discoveries have relevance for us today and for our future. This fascinating new biography looks at his world, his times, the people he influenced and the breakthroughs in science and thought that would change the world.
About the Author
Toni Mount’s first career was in science, leading to many years in a second profession in teaching. Her love of history led to a third career as a writer with her first book, released by Amberley Publishing in 2014, Everyday Life in Medieval London. She continues to teach history to adults both in person and online and has now written many successful non-fiction and fiction books. This latest study allows her to return to her first love, science, and the chance to bring a fresh look at one of the world’s most famous characters.
Popular history writer Terry Deary takes us on a light-hearted and often humorous romp through the centuries with Mr & Mrs Peasant, recounting foul and dastardly deeds committed by the underclasses, as well as the punishments meted out by those on the right side’ of the law.
Discover tales of arsonists and axe-wielders, grave robbers and garroters, poisoners and prostitutes. Delve into the dark histories of beggars, swindlers, forgers, sheep rustlers and a whole host of other felons from the lower ranks of society who have veered off the straight and narrow. There are stories of highwaymen and hooligans, violent gangs, clashing clans and the witch trials that shocked a nation. Learn too about the impoverished workers who raised a riot opposing crippling taxes and draconian laws, as well as the strikers and machine-smashers who thumped out their grievances against new technologies that threatened their livelihoods.
Britain has never been short of those who have been prepared to flout the law of the land for the common good, or for their own despicable purposes. The upper classes have lorded and hoarded their wealth for centuries of British history, often to the disadvantage of the impoverished. Frustration in the face of this has resulted in revolt. Read all about it here!
This entertaining book is packed full of revolting acts and acts of revolt, revealing how ordinary folk – from nasty Normans to present-day lawbreakers – have left an extraordinary trail of criminality behind them. The often gruesome penalties exacted in retribution reveal a great deal about some of the most fascinating eras of British history.
It has been a strange week for us all, I’m sure. And on Tuesday evening we got a message from my son’s school saying it was closed until further notice, so Wednesday morning was my first day of home schooling. School have been amazing and set tons of work to keep the child occupied. However, on Wednesday, there was no English so I had to set some myself; which was basically for said child to write a review of Terry Deary’s The Peasants’ Revolting CRIMES. I received this book as a review copy from the publishers, Pen & Sword, but the child got to read it first, and loved it. He’s a die-hard fan of Horrible Histories, so this book was right up his street.
So, it’s over to Lewis:
I liked, no I LOVED Terry Deary’s The Peasants’ Revolting CRIMES. I would recommend it for people who are age 13+ (due to minor swearing content) and you will not need to know your history because this book educates you in the revolting and hard life of the peasant.
Opening with ‘Norman Nastiness’, the book gives you a vivid taste of peasant crimes right up until the ‘Georgian Jokers and Victorian Villains’ and beyond.
The last witch
After seeing a smiling ‘medium’ at a psychic fair, a friend of mine punched her. When I asked him why he would do such a thing, he replied, ‘My father always taught me to strike a happy medium’,
In 1944, Helen Duncan was a Scottish spiritual medium, working in Portsmouth. She began broadcasting information from the port’s gullible sailors wjhho came ot consult her. D-Day was approaching and she was a security risk. She had to be stopped.
Duncan was originally charged under the Vagrancy Act 1824, relating to fortune telling, astrology and spiritualism. Then there was a change of plan. The paranoid government’s legal experts sent her to be tried by jury at the Old Bailey for contravening section 4 of the Witchcraft Act 1735, which carried the heavier penalty of a prison sentence.
Winston Churchill even described the whole episode as ‘obsolete tomfoolery’ but Helen went to prison for nine months.
The 1753 Act was later repealed and replaced with the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951.
So, no more witch trials.
You could call it hex-it
In this book, you will explore various ages of history, from the Middle Ages to the Stuarts, to the vicious, unforgiving Victorian era and the modern era. You will hear various quotes from all sorts of people, from William Shakespeare, to Martin Luther King and many, many others as you explore the book.
I particularly like the funny jokes like “Bring a man a fire and he will be warm for a day. Give a man a fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life” and “Will Shakespeare. Great writer, dodgy historian”. There are various other jokes, which are scattered throughout the book.
There was nothing to dislike about this book, despite its gory and bloody moments. It will tickle your funny bone for hours on end, so much so you will never put it down!
In conclusion, this is a great book for children and adults alike. It is not only comedy but it also used 100% historically accurate. You should order it now. What are you waiting for?
Huge thanks to Lewis for a fabulous, entertaining review!
The Peasants’ Revolting CRIMES by Terry Deary is available from Pen & Sword and Amazon.
About the author:
Terry Deary is the esteemed author of the immensely popular Horrible Histories series. This is his first title for Pen and Sword Books, to be followed next year by The Peasants’ Revolting Lives.
Sir Francis Berkeley strives to protect his wife and family from the brutal effects of the English Civil War. But aside from the struggle between king and parliament, the allegiances of family, friendship and honour entangle him at every turn and prove to be just as bloody. As a witness to treason on the field of Edgehill, Francis is drawn into a fast-moving world of espionage and politics. Against a backdrop of some of the major battles and sieges, Francis’s fight to reunite his family opens up very different conflicts with which to contend. Everything is at stake when the war comes to a little church one December morning. Can the family survive the parliamentarian onslaught as well as their own feud?
I have to admit, the English Civil War is not one of my more familiar periods of history. So a book on it – be it fact or fiction – has to be really good to hold my attention. Allegiance of Blood by Mark Turnbull is one such book. It is a wonderful novel based around the struggles between the English Parliament and King Charles I and the divisions this caused with the country – and even within families. It centres on the story of one royalist, Sir Francis Berkeley, and his experiences following the battle of Edgehill on October 1642.
Allegiance of Blood beautifully weaves together the personal life and tragedies of the hero, Berkeley, with the greater drama that is overtaking England and the embattled King Charles I. Fast-paced and full of action, the story highlights the many conspiracies and conflicted loyalties that plagued the soldiers on both sides of the war; where brothers fought brothers, friends found themselves on opposing sides and families were torn by politics and ideologies.
The story is augmented by Francis’s proximity to the great and the good. Taken under the wing of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the dashing cavalier general, and given promotion and responsibility, Francis fights to further the royalist cause, even against his own family and friends.
“After years of watching others, I see I have been spied upon myself.” Harbottle paled with realisation. “A secret that will die with you.” He squeezed the trigger, only for a flash of yellow and a hiss to taunt him upon its smoking misfire.
Francis seized his sword and sliced at Harbottle’s leg; a streak of crimson filled the gash. Before the blood had time to soak into his breeches, Francis punched the man in the face and then in the stomach. Harbottle, winded and with a broken nose, careered backwards into a shelf of pewter plates that jangled across the floor around them.
“You betrayed every man who lost his life that day.” Francis caught his breath and grabbed the remaining letters. “Cowardly son of a whore.” Clutching them in his other fist he held them up in vindication of all the lost souls of Edgehill who’d been sold out by this self-centred dog. It took all of his restraint not to skewer Harbottle on the end of his sword that instant.
“I’m no such thing.” Harbottle panted, claiming that swimming against the popular tide took much more courage. “My family’s future will not be dictated by attachment to one of two corrupt factions.”
“Perhaps you’ll soon come to realise the futility of your two-faced strategy.”
“Your battlefield memories are little more than the ramblings of a lunatic,” Harbottle replied.
“I suspect these letters contain more than mere ramblings.” Francis warned that Harbottle would soon be swinging from a noose. “A constricted throat will put an end to your betrayal of the King.”
With the appearance of his subordinates, revealing that the street was rapidly being cleared of rebels, Francis’s prediction took a step closer to reality. Every passing day of peace negotiations had seen royal dominance loosened bit by bit, because every fresh day brought Parliament’s field army closer to London in its bid to defend the city. Brentford’s fall evened out the balance of power, but what remained to be seen was whether Francis could tip the scales against Harbottle and prove the man’s duplicity.
After a slight tendency to over-description in the early chapters, Allegiance of Blood proves to be a wonderful novel, exciting, entertaining and addictive. It draws you in, taking you through all the motions as you experience love, battle, betrayal and grief. The imagery is sublime.
The history is impeccable and Mark’s extensive research shines through, but does not overshadow the story. The characters are a wonderful, disparate group, from the Puritan brother-in-law, drunken father-in-law, to a loving wife. And then there’s Francis himself, a loyal royalist who is often caught between his unwavering allegiance to the crown and family and friendship loyalties which serve to test that allegiance.
Mark Turnbull skilfully brings together all the aspects of war; family and friendships riven apart, betrayal, espionage, sieges and pitched battles – and a family secret! He weaves a wonderful, sweeping story, which draws the reader into the essence of the wars between parliament and king.
Allegiance of Blood by Mark Turnbull is available in paperback and ebook from Amazon UK.
About the author:
After a visit to Helmsley Castle at the age of 10, Mark Turnbull bought a pack of ‘top trump’ cards featuring the monarchs of England. The card portraying King Charles I fascinated him. Van Dyck’s regal portrait of the King and the fact that he was executed by his own people were the beginnings of Mark’s passionate interest in the English Civil War that has lasted ever since. In the absence of time travel, he thoroughly enjoys bringing this period to life through writing. He has written articles for magazines, local newspapers and online educational sites. He has also re-enacted battles with The Sealed Knot and for several years edited the Historical Novel Society’s online newsletter.
From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Æthelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, 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 UK, Amberley Publishing,Book Depository and Amazon US.
Telling the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich, Heroines of the Medieval World, is available now on kindle and in paperback in the UK from from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon, in the US from Amazon and worldwide from Book Depository.
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ONE OF THE MOST TURBULENT REIGNS IN HISTORY PAVED THE WAY FOR THE FIRST MODERN REVOLUTION.
AFTER THE TUDORS CAME THE STUARTS . . .
If you enjoy S. J. Parris and Andrew Taylor, then this is the series you need to read next.
August 25, 1689
The English Army is besieging Carrickfergus in Ireland. Brilliant but unusual gunner Holcroft Blood of the Royal Train of Artillery is ready to unleash his cannons on the rebellious forces of deposed Catholic monarch James II. But this is more than war for Captain Blood, a lust for private vengeance burns within him.
French intelligence agent Henri d’Erloncourt has come across the seas to foment rebellion against William of Orange, the newly installed Dutch ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland. But Henri’s true mission is not to aid the suffering of the Irish but to serve the interests of his master, Louis le Grand.
Michael ‘Galloping’ Hogan, brigand, boozer and despoiler of Protestant farms, strives to defend his native land – and make a little profit on the side. But when he takes the Frenchman’s gold, he suspects deep in his freedom-loving heart, that he has merely swapped one foreign overlord for another.
July 1, 1690
On the banks of the River Boyne, on a fateful, scorching hot day, two armies clash in bloody battle – Protestant against Catholic – in an epic struggle for mastery of Ireland. And, when the slaughter is over and the smoke finally clears, for these three men, nothing will ever be the same again . . .
The sign of a really good book is always that you find yourself absorbed in it, desperate to finish it but bereft when you do. Blood’s Campaign is a really, really, really good book!
I was extremely excited to be offered this book to review by NetGalley. The first 2 books in the series, Blood’s Game and Blood’s Revolution, were both fantastic and refreshingly unique stories, introducing a hero who was sympathetic and quirky in a very distinct way.
Blood’s Campaign, the third in the series following the exploits of Holcroft Blood, it takes us to Ireland and the campaign that led to the Battle of the Boyne and the end of James VII and II’s hopes to regain the throne from his daughter and her husband, the joint monarchs, William III and Mary II. Angus Donald combines the story of the campaign with Blood’s own personal mission to find and destroy the French spy, codenamed Narrey – Holcroft’s one-time friend, Henri d’Erloncourt.
In today’s society, Holcroft Blood would be on the Autistic Spectrum. In the 17th Century, there was no such diagnosis. He was simply seen as a peculiar character. Holcroft is well aware of his failings, of his inability to understand jokes and to read some people; this, and his black-and-white outlook on life can lead to distractions which in themselves could lead him into trouble, especially with women. He feels more comfortable when order is enforced, which makes the army the ideal home for Holcroft.
He clambered up the pile of rubble by the corner of the farmhouse and pulled out his telescope. ‘You take over, Enoch,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘Nothing fancy, go for the highest rate of fire. I’ll spot for you from here.’
He trained the telescope on the roof of Joymount House. The twenty-four-pounders were being moved again. No need to aim at the breach any more. Then to his joy he caught a glimpse of Narrey standing alone by the easel, tapping his chin with the wooden end of the paintbrush, on the right-hand roof before he moved out of sight towards the rear.
Please, God, let him stay where he is, please, God, let him remain up there.
He looked behind him to see what stage the reloading process had reached. Nearly there.
‘Tend the match,’ Jackson was saying to the matrosse now holding the linstock. ‘Have a care. Give fire! May the Lord guide our efforts.’
It was a beautiful shot. The mortar coughed, spitting the missile in a high, elegant arc, a parabola, far over the burnt-out farmhouse, soaring over the town walls and dropping down, down until the hollow iron sphere exploded with a colossal bang exactly over the centre of the battery atop Joymount House.
‘Dead on, Enoch,’ shouted Holcroft. ‘Full on target. More of that, please.’At that moment, a musket cracked and a ball pinged from a piece of broken rubble beside his cheek, spattering him painfully with grains of brick dust. The Irish musketeers on the walls had, at last, taken notice of the mortar’s position.
Holcroft Blood’s penchant for mathematics makes him the perfect gunner and he feels at home calculating angles and distances and the flight of a cannonball – the science of gunnery offers him a home in a world that he often finds hard to understand. However, his mathematical mind also means he has a knack for codes – a skill which has drawn him into the world of espionage before, and which he uses again in an attempt to corner his implacable enemy, Narrey.
Holcroft not only has to negotiate the machinations of his enemies, but the enmity of his commanding officer, and his own feelings, in order to track down his enemy and fulfill his duties within the army. The story of the campaign which led to the Battle of the Boyne and beyond is laid out beautifully by Angus Donald – as is the gorgeous Irish landscape.
The author’s research is impeccable and thorough, not only with the battle itself, but also with his knowledge of provisions, troop movements, training and 17th century society in both Ireland and England. His knowledge of the campaign, gunnery and the minutiae of army life help to bring to life the Stuart world in vivid and colourful detail.
Blood’s Campaign is exciting from the first page to the last. A totally absorbing story, it will keep you reading ‘just another chapter’ long into the night. You don’t just read this book – you devour it.
Blood’s Campaign is definitely in my 10 best books of 2019. It takes you on a wonderful adventure and leaves you wanting more!
Angus Donald was educated at Marlborough College and Edinburgh University. He has worked as a fruit-picker in Greece, a waiter in New York and as an anthropologist studying magic and witchcraft in Indonesia. For many years he was a journalist in Hong Kong, India, Afghanistan and London. He is married to Mary, with whom he has two children, and he now writes full time from a medieval farmhouse in Kent.
He is the author of the bestselling Outlaw Chronicles, a series of eight books set in the 12th/13th centuries and featuring a gangster-ish Robin Hood and his loyal lieutenant Sir Alan Dale. His new Holcroft Blood series stars a mildly autistic artillery officer who was the son of notorious 17th-century Crown Jewel thief Colonel Thomas Blood. The series begins with Blood’s Game, followed by Blood’s Revolution and Blood’s Campaign (out November 2019). The author has also written an epic Asian fantasy novel Gates of Stone under the pseudonym Angus Macallan. He is always happy to chat to readers on Facebook, Twitter and via his website http://www.angusdonaldbooks.com
From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Æthelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, 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 UK, Amberley Publishing,Book Depository and Amazon US.
Telling the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich, Heroines of the Medieval World, is available now on kindle and in paperback in the UK from from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon, in the US from Amazon and worldwide from Book Depository.
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Today marks the 375th anniversary of the Battle of Tippermuir and it is a pleasure to welcome author Mark Turnbull to History…the Interesting Bits with an article of the English Civil War battle. Over to Mark….
British Civil War cavalry (The English Civil War Society) Montrose only had three horses at the Battle of Tippermuir
Three hundred and seventy-five years ago a son of Scotland secured his first victory in the name of King Charles I. The Battle of Tippermuir produced the famous ‘highland charge’ as well as the legend of the Earl of Montrose, but a matter of days prior, it seemed like none of this could be borne from a few seeds of resistance.
When three Scotsmen crossed the border in August 1644, they did not look back. Carlisle Castle was barely visible; nothing more than a red-stoned pimple on the top of a hill in the distance. William Rollo was a horseman par-excellence, honed through being entirely lame. Colonel William Sibbald rode alongside Rollo, both ignoring the groom trailing behind and leading a spare horse.
The trio left an England riven apart by civil war. King Charles I and his Parliament had been battling it out for two years, but eight months ago, Scotland had stepped from the side-lines and thrown their bonnets into the ring with Parliament. Scotland’s army of covenanters had marched into England and just won a stunning victory outside of York. Sibbald and Rollo intended to assist the King by beginning a guerrilla war in their homeland to draw back the covenanter army.
British Civil War Pikemen. Montrose’s men were poorly armed and he suggested they take stones from the earth and bash the enemies’ brains out.
Sewn into the saddle of the riderless horse was King Charles’s commission and his royal standard; two instruments essential to the plan. The man entrusted with securing the nation and restoring their Scottish-born King’s authority, was none other than the pretended groom himself; James Graham, Earl of Montrose. One fact remained in keeping with his disguise – Montrose only had one measly horse to lead and just Sibbald and Rollo to assist him. However, Montrose was banking on the Earl of Antrim’s promise to assemble an army of twelve thousand Irishmen to serve the King. But this readymade army was delivered with missing components – it turned out to number only sixteen-hundred. Led by Alasdair MacColla, they landed on the west coast and headed east to Aberdeen, but finding no royalist support there, turned south, meeting Montrose, Sibbald and Rollo in Blair Athol.
The English Civil War Society. Montrose unfurled the King’s Royal Standard in August 1644 which saw many clans join him.
On 28 August 1644 Montrose unfurled the King’s standard. In answer, the Scottish Parliament conscripted local Stewarts, Robertsons and Grahams to put the insurgents down. Having discarded his groom’s garb, Montrose emerged from his chrysalis, donned highland dress and broadsword, and encouraged his men to insert strands of oats into their bonnets as a means of signifying their allegiance. Much success was harvested when the clans sent against Montrose actually joined him and boosted his numbers to two thousand. Yet his troops remained untrained, armed only with dirks and swords and with just three horses between them.
Montrose was well aware that their impetus could be scattered by even so much as a biting highland wind. He had to strike now, before his men melted away, and as such, he marched them to Perth, gathering a few hundred more recruits on the way. On 1 September 1644 at Tippermuir, Montrose met a covenanter army hastily sent by the Scottish Parliament under the command of Lord Elcho.
The two sides were relatively equal in numbers, but the covenanters possessed cavalry. Montrose placed McColla and his Irishmen in the centre, and promptly took his own position on the right wing, opposite the only experienced officer in the enemy army. Each of his men had ammunition for only a single gunshot, therefore it was imperative that every last one found their marks. Devastating it was then, when the covenanters sent skirmishers forward with the cry ‘Jesus and no quarter,’ to draw and expend royalist firepower. Nevertheless, the covenanter skirmishers were sent packing and pushed back to their own front lines. Montrose had thinned the troops on his army’s left and right to three-deep, and as a result these longer lines prevented any attempts to outflank him.
Montrose crossed into Scotland in August 1644 disguised as a groom, with only two other men. At one point it’s said that a man bid the groom, “Good Morning, my lord.”
To his troops, Montrose was characteristically honest, suggesting a novel way to counter their shortage of arms and ammunition; pick stones out of the ground, bash the enemy’s brains out and then seize theirs. Without his charisma, these words would have rung hollow, but his men heeded them like the gospels and he led them against the enemy cavalry throwing missiles, roaring and rampaging down the slope. This tirade of aggression and fervour sent the enemy horsemen fleeing from the field. Not used to such unbridled determination, the covenanters clattered through their own infantry and a rot began which ate through their entire resolve.
The furious highland charge proved its efficiency long before the days of Culloden, still one hundred years off. Tippermuir was Montrose’s first battle of many. The start of an immense cat and mouse chase with superior covenanter forces that would make him, in the words of The Montrose Society, one of Scotland’s most noble and militarily gifted leaders. Against all odds, this lifelong admirer of Alexander the Great would come tantalisingly close to securing the whole of Scotland for the King.
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More about Mark: I became hooked on the English Civil War at the age of 10. We’d visited Helmsley Castle and my parents bought me a pack of ‘top trump’ cards featuring the monarchs of England. The minute I saw Van Dyck’s portrait of King Charles I at the hunt, I wanted to know more. The painting, costumes and the King’s image were fascinating and then turning over, I read how he was executed. I’d started trying to write stories at a young age (earliest was my own plot for a children’s television show called Thomas the Tank Engine!) so as my interest grew in the English Civil War, my interest in writing automatically seemed to go hand in hand.
The first civil war book I bought was Christopher Hibbert’s ‘Cavaliers and Roundheads’ and I decided that I also wanted to keep the history and its characters alive in writing, so eventually I began creating my own historical novel. I’ve made sure I have kept true to historical events and characters and ‘Allegiance of Blood’ is due out later this year.
It opens at Edgehill and follows a fictional character, Sir Francis Berkeley, whose life and family are turned upside down by the twists and turns of this momentous period. The story also features many historical characters along the way, allowing the reader a fly-on-the-wall view of the deadly allegiances that threaten Francis.
I’m also writing articles at the moment about various civil war battles, seeing as there are many 375th anniversaries coming up.
From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Æthelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, 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 UK, Amberley Publishing,Book Depository and Amazon US.
Telling the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich, Heroines of the Medieval World, is available now on kindle and in paperback in the UK from from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon, in the US from Amazon and worldwide from Book Depository.
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You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitterand Instagram.
Frances Gorges has already survived the accusation of witchcraft.
But if her torturers at the court of King James knew of her love for Tom Wintour, one of the executed members of the gunpowder plot, it would mean certain death.
Pregnant with Tom’s child, hiding under the reluctant protection of her spiteful and ambitious brother, Frances lives in fear – until she is offered the chance to make a respectable – if loveless – marriage and return to court.
She will not be expected to sleep with her husband. The only price she must pay for safety is to give up the cause for which her lover died.
But old loyalties are hard to deny, and soon Frances is drawn back into the snake-pit scheming of the factions trying to take the throne.
Everywhere she turns, it seems that someone has the power to force her deeper into danger until, all too late, Frances hears the warnings of her own heart.
Compelling, sensual, suspenseful, The Devil’s Slave is a standalone sequel to The King’s Witch and further evidence that one of our finest historians is also a brilliant novelist.
Another stunning instalment of the Frances Gorges story from Tracy Borman. The young woman who barely escaped the fallout of the Gunpowder Plot with her life is once again drawn into the intrigues of the fledgling Stuart court. Skilled with herbs and a secret Catholic make her twice the target for the staunchly protestant witch-hunter King James and his minister, Robert Cecil. Frances’s return to court with her husband and son sees her trying to negotiate her way through the various Catholic plots that surround the crown and court.
Tracy Borman weaves a tale that is fraught with tension, with danger lurking around every corner, or behind every rose bush. At times, it seems that everyone is a chameleon – and no one is as they seem. And, just like the heroine, the reader is drawn into the plots and intrigues of the court. This engaging, entertaining story will keep the reader enthralled until the very last page.
The history and story are effortlessly woven together.
She looked down at her hands as she struggled to maintain her composure. Dorothy reached forward and took them in her own. ‘I understand your fears, Frances,’ she said softly. ‘These are dangerous times for those of us who share the true faith. I know that you wish to protect your son, as I do mine. But you cannot condemn him – and yourself – to life of falsehood, of heresy. To do so would be to damn him in the next life, as well as this one. You cannot think that is what Tom would have wished for his son.’
‘Tom would have wished him to stay alive!’ Frances cried, the tears now streaming down her cheeks. ‘What would you have me do? Parade him as the son of a condemned traitor? Forfeit his safety, his happiness, his life? And all for what? A cause that died with Tom and the rest?’
Dorothy fell silent, but her grip on Frances’s hands tightened. ‘It did not die, Fraces,’ she said. ‘It is stronger now than ever. The death of Tom and his companions has intensified people’s hatred of this heretic king and drawn thousands more to our cause. I don not speak out of blind faith,’ she continued, as if reading Frances’s thoughts. ‘We have learned from the lessons of the past. Cecil’s spies are now outnumbered by those of our cause. How do you suppose I was able to find out about my nephew? The time is almost ripe to act. We have powerful supporters at court, and the King of Spain stands in readiness with a huge army.’
Frances’s mind was reeling…
Tracy Borman’s vast knowledge of the Stuart court and the various royal palaces in which The Devil’s Slave is set, serve to add a level of authenticity into the story that is rarely seen in a novel, whilst the subtlety in delivering the facts avoids giving the reader a lecture in Stuart history. The blend of fact and fiction is indistinguishable, leaving the reader with many avenues of research to pursue later, if they are so inclined.
The locations of lavish palaces, manor houses and the Tower of London are recreated in great detail. Tracy Borman uses her extensive knowledge to rebuild the Stuart world for the modern reader. The prose is a pleasure to read and devour, while the plot delves deep into the dark corners of Stuart history.
However, her greatest creations in the book are the characters, whether real or imagined. The personalities of Sir Walter Raleigh and Arbella Stuart, alongside the various members of the royal family, are wonderfully deep, complex individuals who serve to add spice and colour to an already fabulous story. The heroine, Frances Gorges, is a woman with whom many can feel empathy. Drawn into the various intrigues much against her inclination, but with a desire to protect her family, she is forced to navigate her way through the various dangers, always with the knowledge of what faces her should she fail.
The Devil’s Slave, as with The King’s Witch, is a story that is not to be missed. For the reader, it provides a truly enjoyable sojourn in the realm of early Stuart England and must appeal to all with an interest in history, intrigue and adventure. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
The Devil’s Slave by Tracy Borman is available from Amazon.
About the Author:
Tracy Borman is joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces and Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust. She studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PhD in 1997.
Tracy is the author of a number of highly acclaimed books, including Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant, Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England, Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen and Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction. Tracy is also a regular broadcaster and public speaker, giving talks on her books across the UK and abroad. She lives in Surrey with her daughter.
From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Æthelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, 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 UK, Amberley Publishing,Book Depository and Amazon US.
Telling the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, Heroines of the Medieval World, is now available in hardback in the UK from Amazon UK, and in the US from Amazon US. It is available now in paperback in the UK from from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon and worldwide from Book Depository.
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You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter.
Newly returned from years of secret work in Paris, Lieutenant Holcroft Blood, a brilliant but unusual gunnery officer in His Majesty’s Ordnance, must now face King James II’s enemies on the gore-drenched battlefields of the British Isles.
But after the victory at Sedgemoor – and its cruel aftermath, the Bloody Assizes, in which the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion was ruthlessly crushed – many powerful men have grown tired of Catholic James’s brutal, autocratic rule and seek to invite William, the Protestant Prince of Orange, to seize the thrones of the Three Kingdoms.
While revolution brews in the gentlemen’s clubs of London, Holcroft discovers that a sinister French agent, known only by his code name Narrey, has followed him across the Channel and intends to murder him. Worse, Holcroft must decide whether to join the conspirators, including his old friend Jack Churchill, now Lord Marlborough, and support Dutch William’s invasion – or remain loyal to his unpopular king.
Holcroft Blood is my hero!
What a fabulous character Angus Donald has created in this fabulous new series set during the Stuart era. Holcroft is not your typical swashbuckling hero, he is a young man who struggles with personal connections and the nuances of human traits. He is more comfortable with mathematics and his cannons, but he has a remarkable knack for sniffing out trouble and unravelling conspiracies. In Blood’s Game, the first book in this new series, Holcroft was a young boy thrown into the heart of the court as a page to the Duke of Buckingham. Now he is an officer in the Royal Ordnance of the Stuart army and in Blood’s Revolution, his loyalty to his king is tested as the country and society turn against the Catholic king James II (VII in Scotland).
Blood’s Revolution is set some 15 years after the conclusion of the first book, Blood’s Game, which means it can easily be read as a standalone – though for anyone who hasn’t read Blood’s Game I can heartily recommend it!
Opening with Monmouth’s rebellion and the Battle of Sedgemoor, the early action sets the pace for the rest of the book, barely leaving the reader any opportunity to breathe, as Holcroft attempts to unravel the plots against the King and expose the plotters – and the French masterspy backing them. And at the same time, Holcroft has his own personal life to deal with; changing friendships, marriage and an errant brother all serve to upset the young man’s well-ordered life.
Matthew was standing now, red-faced, shaking with anger. ‘I will speak no more to you about Father Palmer nor about any other matter. I would rather hang!’
Holcroft lowered his head, he looked at his big hands, ignoring the threat of the angry boy standing over him and listening only to his words. He was not naturally skilled at this – the passion and poetry that resided in other men’s hearts had always been something of a mystery to him. Yet he knew of his shortcomings and had trained himself, as far as it was possible, to listen to what men said and to test their words for truth or falsehood. To his ear, this was the voice of truth. The outrage was not false, so far as he could tell. This boy believed the Jesuit priest was innocent.
Holcroft looked up.
‘Sit down, and calm yourself. Or I will see that you do hang. I have one more question for you before I go. Sit down, be quiet and listen to me.’ Holcroft waited. Eventually, Matthews subsided and sat back down on the bed.
‘Tell me, John, why did you attempt to steal the keg of gunpowder from the magazine? Tell me truly and I will leave you here in peace, and do all I can for you with Lord Dartmouth at the court martial, as I have sworn on my honour to do.’
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The fiction is seeded with real historical characters, ranging from Holcroft’s friend John Churchill – the future Duke of Marlborough – to the doomed Duke of Monmouth himself. Holcroft’s story itself is woven within the historical narrative, so that it is hard to tell where the facts end and fiction takes over; always a sign of a good book – and an opportunity for research that is hard to ignore. And the author’s note at the end also helps to distinguish between the fact and the fiction.
Angus Donald is a superb storyteller, drawing the reader in to the wonderfully wicked world he has recreated for Holcroft Blood to navigate his way through. It is hard to find a negative. The story is clever, imaginative and addictive. The characters are fascinating, full of life and vigour. The locations, especially 17th century London, are painstakingly recreated and brought to bustling life, the smells, sounds and atmosphere of a London, that is almost-recognisable to the 21st century reader, enhancing the story further.
It is going to be hard for the author to top this story with the next book in the series, but I cannot wait to find out what happens to Holcroft next…..
And at least I now know what to get my dad for Christmas – he’s gonna love this!
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Blood’s Revolution is available from Amazon in the UK from 18 October 2018.
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About the Author:
Angus Donald was educated at Marlborough College and Edinburgh University. He has worked as a fruit-picker in Greece, a waiter in New York and as an anthropologist studying magic and witchcraft in Indonesia. For many years he was a journalist in Hong Kong, India, Afghanistan and London. He is married to Mary, with whom he has two children, and he now writes full time from a medieval farmhouse in Kent.
He is the author of the bestselling Outlaw Chronicles, a series of eight books set in the 12th/13th centuries and featuring a gangster-ish Robin Hood and his loyal lieutenant Sir Alan Dale. His new Holcroft Blood series stars a mildly autistic artillery officer who was the son of notorious 17th-century Crown Jewel thief Colonel Thomas Blood. The series begins with Blood’s Game and continues with Blood’s Revolution (to be published in October 2018) and Blood’s Campaign (out October 2019). The author has also written an epic Asian fantasy novel Gates of Stone (out February 2019) under the pseudonym Angus Macallan. He is always happy to chat to readers on Facebook, Twitter and via his website http://www.angusdonaldbooks.com
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Coming in November!
Tracing the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066, Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest will be released in the UK on 15 November 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon UK, Amberley Publishing and Book Depository. It is scheduled for release in the US on 1 March 2019 and is available for pre-order from Amazon US.
Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:
Telling the stories of some of the most incredible women from Medieval history, Heroines of the Medieval World, is now available in hardback in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK, in the US from Amazon US and worldwide from Book Depository. It will be released in paperback in the UK from 15 March 2019 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.
You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter.
As she helps to nurse the dying Queen Elizabeth, Frances Gorges longs for the fields and ancient woods of her parents’ Hampshire estate, where she has learned to use the flowers and herbs to become a much-loved healer.
Frances is happy to stay in her beloved countryside when the new King arrives from Scotland, bringing change, fear and suspicion. His court may be shockingly decadent, but James’s religion is Puritan, intolerant of all the old ways; he has already put to death many men for treason and women for witchcraft.
So when her ambitious uncle forcibly brings Frances to court, she is trapped in a claustrophobic world of intrigue and betrayal – and a ready target for the twisted scheming of Lord Cecil, the King’s first minister. Surrounded by mortal dangers, Frances finds happiness only with the precocious young Princess Elizabeth, and Tom Wintour, the one courtier she can trust.
Or can she?
I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Tracy Borman’s first novel, The King’s Witch through NetGalley.
I have often read and enjoyed Tracy Borman’s non-fiction works. Indeed, her book on Matilda of Flanders, queen of William the Conqueror, was very helpful in my research for my own books, Heroines of the Medieval Worldand Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest. However, there is a great difference in writing non-fiction and fiction and not every author can make the jump. As a result I was unsure what tot expect from The King’s Witch but discovered that Tracy Borman has managed to create a masterpiece of literary fiction at the first attempt.
Set in the court of James VI and I shortly after his arrival in England, The King’s Witch weaves a wonderful tale of love, intrigue, betrayal and suspense, set against the backdrop of the king’s obsession with eradicating witchcraft within his realm and the persecution of catholics. The officers of the old regime of Elizabeth I are trying to curry favour with the new king by taking on his obsessions and making them their own, so that those out of favour are hunted on every side.
As curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, Tracy Borman uses the wealth of inside knowledge and information she has acquired to vividly recreate the world of early Stuart Britain in vibrant detail. She breathes life into her characters, both historical and invented, so that it is impossible to tell where the fact ends and the fiction begins. Her expertise is demonstrated not only in court etiquette, dress and manners, but also in the seedier side of Stuart Britain, in the treatment and punishment of prisoners, the oppression of catholic families and priests. The extent of research the author pursued in the writing of the book is demonstrated in the knowledge of herbs and their healing qualities, and how a girl may gain and use the knowledge to help others, if not always successfully.
There was silence for a few moments, then Helena bade her daughter sit with her again, and clasped both of Frances’s hands in her own.
‘My daughter.’ She pronounced the word as ‘dotter’, a rare hint of her native tongue. ‘You are my precious jewel. If only I could keep you as safe as these trifles -‘ she gestured to the coffers surrounding them, each secured with a brightly polished lock, the keys to which were only entrusted to her highest-ranking attendant.
Frances looked up into her mother’s dark brown eyes. She had long since seen her fiftieth year, but with her pale skin, high cheekbones, and small rosebud mouth, she was still beautiful.
‘Lady Mother?’
‘Frances, you must know that the court – the kingdom – is greatly changed,’ Helena began, her voice low. ‘King James has no patience with the traditions upheld by the late queen. Already the court is beset with scandal and vice. It will bring shame upon the kingdom.’ A scornful look crossed her face. ‘Yet neither does he respect our former mistress’s moderation in matters of religion, but insists upon the strict observance of the Protestant faith. He seems determined to bend his subjects to his will.
Helena looked down at her hands for a moment, and when she raised her eyes to Frances again they were clouded with anxiety.
‘He has declared a war on witches, Frances. He says that they are a canker in our midst, and that God has appointed him to destroy them all. He will not leave a stone unturned in his search for the “whores of Satan”, as he calls them. Already Cecil is drafting a new Act against witchcraft. Any practice that is deemed to be sorcery will be punishable by death.’ She paused, eyeing Frances closely. ‘Even the arts of healing are under suspicion. There is to be no mercy.’
Frances looked doubtful. ‘Surely the king does not mean to hunt down the wise women and cunning folk? His officials would have to scour every village in the kingdom, and to what purpose? Their skills have always been used for good, not evil.’
The heroine of the story, Frances Gorges, as lady-in-waiting to King James’ pampered daughter, Elizabeth, has to navigate the Stuart court, despite being suspected as a witch by the king’s chief adviser, Robert Cecil. A skilled healer, Frances’ kind and trusting nature is tested to the extremes. While her skill with herbs and healing leads her into a dark place, her love for one of the men of the court leads her into the heart of a dangerous conspiracy and she doesn’t know who to trust. As the story unfolds, the reader is taken on a journey into the heart of a plot could change the course of history….
Tracy Borman has succeeded wonderfully in attaining that often difficult balance with historical fiction, of keeping to the historical fact while weaving an enchanting story which will keep the reader gripped to the very last page. Her obvious expertise in the era means that she is able to get into the heads of the characters she is depicting, thus relating their thoughts feelings and motivations with an uncanny accuracy which serves to transport the reader back in time, to the court and country of James VI and I. The author accurately depicts the sense of unease and apprehension at the change in regime from Elizabethan to Jacobean, demonstrating the distrust and unfamiliarity that accompanies the Scottish king to his new court; and conflict between those who find favour with the new king and those who hanker after the times and tolerance of the old queen, Elizabeth I.
Tracy Borman’s heroine, Frances Gorges, must traverse this difficult terrain of shifting allegiances and changing favourites, searching for a way to survive the plots and machinations of those who would see her fall. The King’s Witch is an exquisitely crafted novel, recreating the essence of Stuart Britain in wonderful detail.
Tracy Borman is joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces and Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust. She studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PhD in 1997.
Tracy is the author of a number of highly acclaimed books, including Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant, Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England, Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen and Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction. Tracy is also a regular broadcaster and public speaker, giving talks on her books across the UK and abroad. She lives in Surrey with her daughter.
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My books
Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of women, famous, infamous and unknown, who shaped the course of medieval history. It is available in hardback in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. It is now available in Hardback from Amazon US and worldwide from Book Depository.
From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Æthelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, 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. Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest will be released in the UK on 15 November 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amberley Publishing and Book Depository.
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History... the interesting bits! 