Thirteenth Century – History… the interesting bits!

Guest Post: Finding Isabelle, a Mother and a Queen by Terri Lewis

18/10/202515/10/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

When writing non-fiction biographies, you can tell the life of a person. You can say what happened to them, how they affected events and how they were perceived by others. But there are gaps. If you do not have the evidence, you cannot just make it up. If you are looking for reasons, you can offer different scenarios. It is hard to get to the heart of a person, though. You cannot put words in their mouths, or attribute feelings and emotions. Fiction can go where non fiction cannot tread. It can give you a vivid retelling of a fabulous story. It is not always historically accurate, there are some things we cannot know, but fiction can fill in the gaps. It can bring the past to life and give you a sense of the era that no other medium can.

And that is what Terri Lewis has achieved with remarkable skill in her novel if Isabelle d’Angoulême, Behold the Bird in Flight. And it is a pleasure to welcome Terri to History…the Interesting Bits to talk a little about her research behind her novel.

Finding Isabelle, a Mother and a Queen

by Terri Lewis

History...the Interesting Bits — *A birthing stool*

I was in high school when I first asked my history teacher, “Where are the women?” An unsatisfactory answer gave impetus to what became a need to find forgotten women. Eventually I became obsessed with Isabelle d’Angoulême, King John’s second wife, and decided to resurrect her by writing a novel.

There are a few documented facts about her life: Historians think she was about twelve years old when John abducted her from her French fiancé, took her to England, and crowned her queen. The chronicles, when they bothered to mention her, were not kind; Matthew Paris called her a “Jezebel” and “slut” who kept John in bed until noon, an assessment most likely reflecting John’s reputation, not the reality of his wife. Isabelle apparently didn’t receive the normal queen’s gold—a percentage of John’s income—or the rents from lands given to her at the time of their marriage; John kept the monies for himself. In “history,” I found only men – fighting, amassing money and enemies, riding off to conquer unknown lands, signing writs, allowing fairs, courting and dancing and always fighting. Isabelle’s life, like the lives of most medieval women, was mainly blank.

But. . . she bore John five children.

My research on medieval childbirth uncovered dire statistics: 20% to 33% of medieval women died from childbearing. The mortality rate per single birth was only slightly higher than in modern times, but multiple pregnancies compounded the risk. Birth control was forbidden by the all-powerful Church so basically a fertile woman had children until menopause or until she died. Because kings had to have sons, as did counts and dukes and other lords—a child to inherit land and carry on the family name. Daughters were less important. An only-child daughter could inherit a kingdom , but not for herself, for her husband. Girls who had brothers would serve as bargaining chips in marriages that formed diplomatic alliances or enlarged territory for their fathers.

In another statistic, infants were uncertain to live to inheritance. Nicholas Orme wrote, “It has been suggested that 25% of [medieval children] may have died in their first year, half as many (12.5%) between one and four, and a quarter as many (6%) between five and nine.” Danger was everywhere. A cut could become infected and penicillin was years in the future. Children fell into wells and down stone stairs, or into the fire that burned in the middle of the great hall, the main source of heat. Many died of illnesses for which bleeding or herbal concoctions were the only cure. Multiple pregnancies mitigated this danger. I note that Isabelle, in addition to the five children with John, had nine more children with her second husband. But two of her own daughters died in childbirth.

Isabelle wouldn’t have gone to a hospital. She’d have had a lying-in chamber removed from the main keep and furnished with a birthing stool, a midwife with practical experience but not a doctor because childbirth was a woman’s domain and doctors were men, and a room full of ladies-in-waiting who watched and prayed with her. If the birth was difficult, window shutters would be opened to release the new soul into life. If that failed, an arrow could be shot heavenward to waken God to the peril and ask for his help.

Since history decreed that Isabelle would live through childbirth, I decided to have her observe the suffering of her best friend. That scene became an important milestone in Isabelle’s growing up.

What kind of mother would Isabelle have been? I’d never read about a medieval mother. Women in 1200 who appeared in the chronicles were queens, royalty, or religious. Motherhood was important only for the child, preferable a boy, a gift to the father. The woman was just a bearing body.

I decided that Isabelle learned from her own mother, Alice de Courtney, the granddaughter of Louis le Gros of France. Alice would have been familiar with expectations for noble daughters. And she was married three times. I tried to imagine the experience of being handed to various husbands like a package—the decisions being made by fathers and kings. Perhaps she had grounded herself in her new household with a new husband by following the rules. The first “courtesy book” setting forth standards of behavior— Liber Urbani or the book of civilized man— appeared in England late in the 12th century. Written in Latin, the long poem contained general advice such as honor your parents, hold your tongue, don’t mount your horse in the great hall, and such gems as “when you pick up food with a spoon, do not shovel it on board with your thumb.”

I needed to imagine a relationship between Isabelle and her mother. When I was twelve, my mother was the center of everything; I’d come home from school and stand in the kitchen to tell stories about my friends or things the teacher said. But Isi’s mother wouldn’t be in the kitchen. She was a countess; she’d have cooks and laundresses and maids. I couldn’t imagine that she was anything to Isabelle but a rule-maker. And Isabelle’s position required rules. When she was of age, she would be married – handed off in essence – to another count. The marriage would presumably involve a castle and her husband would go off to war or crusade or to visit a king, and Isabelle would be required to manage the vast operation of the castle while he was gone. Even when he was home, she would oversee household tasks, her belt laden with keys to various chests of fabric or spices, to rooms holding barrels of wine and other supplies. So I made her mother strict, set Isabelle chafing against her, then allowed her to escape, grow up a bit, marry John, and have her children.

Two boys first. Then three girls. Today one can find numerous mothers writing how overpowering love when their baby was laid on their breast changed their lives. But as queen of an itinerant court, Isabelle lived on the road with John who visited barons, trying to bring them to heel. So breastfeeding was impractical. It also acted as a form of contraception and Isabelle’s job was to conceive as often as possible and give John heirs. This meant that her babies would be handed over at birth to a wet-nurse, a hired woman who’d breast feed them as if her own. So the first attachment of mother to child was cut off and understandably, wet nurses often developed close relationships with their charges, particularly as children were generally breastfed for longer than they are today – boys often up to the age of two.

At age seven, the boys would have sent to other noble castles for education. Perhaps the idea was that those other educators would have less attachment to the children and thus they would supply a strict upbringing without coddling. Isabelle’s girls would have remained with her as the kingdom fell deeper into chaos. The Barons were revolting, the Pope had excommunicated John, the French were threatening to invade and conquer. With a growing sense that the throne would be gone before her ten-year-old son Henry could assume it, Isabelle would have known the French would kill him along with the rest of her children, leaving no pretenders. How best to save them? I’ll leave that inside the novel and just say she managed as best she could. History has condemned her ultimate decision, but I understand how she came to it.

About the book:

Romantic and stubborn, eleven-year-old Isi plans to marry for love and be mistress of her own castle. But life in 1198 is full of threat and a series of tragic events teaches her growing up is hard. When Isi falls for Hugh, a French nobleman, he consents to marry her, but only for her dowry. She longs for more. Hoping a jealous man will fall in love, she flirts with a king. The flirtation backfires: King John abducts and marries her. Now trapped in cold, warring England with a malicious husband, Isi must hide her yearning for Hugh and find her own power. If she fails, she won’t live to return to her beloved. Inspired by real historical figures—Isabelle d’Angoulême, Hugh de Lusignan, and King John of Magna Carta fame—Behold the Bird in Flight is set in a period that valued women only for their dowries and childbearing. Isabelle’s story has been mainly erased by men, but the medieval chronicles suggest a woman who developed her own power and wielded it. And as the woman behind the throne, who’s to say she didn’t influence history?

About the Author:

Terri Lewis fell in love with medieval history in college. Not the dates or wars, but the mysterious daily lives of the people. Finally two sentences in a book bought at Windsor Castle led her to write her debut novel, Behold the Bird in Flight, A Novel of an Abducted Queen.

Published in Denver Quarterly, Blue Mesa Review, and Chicago Quarterly Review among others, and accepted to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, she has worked with Laura van den Berg, Jill McCorkle, and Rebecca Makkai. Shortlisted for LitMag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, she won the 2025 Miami University Press Novella Prize. She reviews for The Washington Independent Review of Books.

Before she was an author, she had career as a ballet dancer in Denver and Germany, ran a dance company in Arkansas, earned a B.A. in history and education, and an M.A. in theater, not necessarily in that order. She lives with her husband and two lively dogs in Denver, Colorado.

Where to find Terri:

Website: Substack: Instagram: terri.lewis1: Facebook: terri lewis author

Buy the book at Amazon.com (in $), Amazon.co.uk (in £), and Amazon.Fr (in €)

My Books:

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

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 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.

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 Elizabeth Chadwick, 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 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.

Ermengarde de Beaumont, Queen of Scots

04/10/202503/10/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly4 Comments

Unusually for a king in medieval times, by 1185 William the Lion, King of Scots had been on the throne for 20 years, was past 40 and was still unmarried, despite having several illegitimate children. Until he married, William’s heir was his younger brother, David. Ironically, William’s mother, Ada de Warenne, who had been so keen to find a bride for her oldest son Malcolm IV that she was not above putting suitable girls in his bed, does not seem to have had the same sense of urgency with William. There’s no evidence that she pressured him to marry as she had his older brother. Though, I suppose, at least William had shown an interest in women and had the bastards to prove it.

And William was looking for a bride. Henry II, always happy to remind William that he was the Scots king’s overlord, exercised his right to choose William’s wife.

In May 1186, during a council at Woodstock, King Henry suggested Ermengarde de Beaumont as a bride for William. Ermengarde was the daughter of Richard, Vicomte de Beaumont-sur- Sarthe, who was himself the son of Constance, one of the many illegitimate daughters of King Henry I of England. With such diluted royal blood, she was hardly a prestigious match for the king of Scots. William felt slighted but he reluctantly accepted the marriage after consulting his advisers, the offer sweetened by a generous payment for the wedding celebrations and the return of two forfeited Scottish castles, as a wedding present.

We have, of course, no record of Ermengarde’s thoughts on the marriage, nor of whether she was aware of the fact it was seen as an insult to the Scots king. The wedding was celebrated at Woodstock, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 5 September 1186,

‘with great magnificence, on the nones of September [5th Sept.] (being the sixth day of the week [Friday], the moon being in her eighteenth day), in the royal chapel in the park at Woodstock, in the presence of the king himself.’¹

Following the ceremony, King Henry hosted 4 days of festivities. Although we do not know Ermengarde’s birth date, at the time of the marriage, she was described as ‘a girl’, suggesting that she may have only just reached the age of 12, the minimum legal age girls could marry. It has been suggested that Ermengarde’s tender age may also have been the reason for William’s reluctance to marry her.

We do not know the year of birth of Ermengarde’s first child, a daughter named Margaret, but it was sometime between 1187 and 1195. Another daughter, Isabella, was born a year or two later. If Ermengarde gave birth to Margaret the year after her marriage, it seems highly likely that she was at least fourteen or fifteen years old at the time of her wedding. However, a later birthdate, in the 1190s would suggest that Ermengarde was younger at the time of her marriage and was given time to mature before bearing children. The king’s growing need for an heir would, perhaps, indicate that Ermengarde was old enough to bear children at the time of their marriage, and that describing the bride as ‘a girl’ was alluding to her youth, but not her actual age. Unfortunately, the vagaries of chroniclers means that we cannot say for certain

In the spring of 1195 King William fell gravely ill at Clackmannan, causing a succession crisis, the sum of his legitimate children being one, possibly two, daughters at this time – and no son. The Scottish barons deliberated a number of options, such as recognising William’s oldest legitimate daughter, Margaret, as his heir. They also considered marrying Margaret to Otto, Duke of Saxony, grandson of Henry II, and allowing Otto to succeed to the throne. The earl of Dunbar led a faction who claimed that both solutions were contrary to the custom of the land, so long as the king had a brother who could succeed him. Traditionally, the Scots throne had passed to the oldest, legitimate, male member of the royal family, rather than by primogeniture.

This must have been a worrying time for Ermengarde, not only for the health of her husband, but for her own status in Scotland, should her daughter be disinherited. Not to mention the concern that Margaret, then aged only 8 at the most, might be married at such a young age to secure the succession. In the event, the discussion was moot as the king recovered from his illness and three years later the queen gave birth to Alexander, the much-desired son and heir.

Chronicler John of Fordun described the relief and celebration felt throughout the country at the birth of the heir to the Scots throne:

‘Now this most fortunate king of Scotland, William, had, nearly twelve years ago, with great splendour and rejoicings, taken to wife Ermyngarde, daughter of the Viscount of Beaumont… By her he had a son, named Alexander, — to the great gladness of his people, and the refreshment of the whole kingdom of the Scots, as the after course of these annals will show forth. He was born at Haddington, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day, in the year 1198. In every place in the whole country, the common folk used to forsake their menial work on this day, wherein they first heard tidings of his birth, and spend it in joy; while priests and churchmen donned the alb, and walked in procession, with loud voice glorifying God in hymns and canticles, and humbly praising Him.’

Although she does not act as a witness on any of King William’s extant charters, Queen Ermengarde appears to have played an active role in Scotland, with William allowing her an increasingly influential part in public affairs. One disgruntled canon, in 1207, complained that Walter, a royal chaplain, had obtained the bishopric of Glasgow by not only bribing the king’s chamberlain, but also Queen Ermengarde. The queen may also have offered patronage to relatives, including one Richard de Beaumont, perhaps a brother or cousin, who received substantial lands in Crail. As the king’s health declined in old age – he was already 46 when he married Ermengarde – the queen took on more responsibilities, especially where her children were concerned.

Relations with England had changed in 1199, with the accession of King John, the youngest son of Henry II. During the reign of King Richard, William had agreed with the justiciar, William Longchamp, and supported Arthur of Brittany as the king’s heir. However, it was John who succeeded Richard and he may well have remembered William’s stance. Soon after John’s accession, King William asked for the return of Northumberland. The two kings met at Lincoln in 1200, with William doing homage for his English lands but getting no satisfaction in his claim to Northumberland. In subsequent meetings, John continued to prevaricate, leaving the dispute unresolved.

In the meantime, the death of the bishop of Durham meant John took over the vacant see and set about building a castle at Tweedmouth. The Scots, saw this as a direct threat to Berwick and destroyed the building works. Matters reached a crisis point in 1209.

After many threats, and with both sides building up their armies, the two kings met at Norham, Northumberland, in the last week of July and first week of August 1209. The Scots were in a desperate position, with an ailing and ageing king, and a 10-year-old boy as heir, whilst the English, with their Welsh allies and foreign mercenaries, had an army big enough to force a Scottish submission. Queen Ermengarde appears to have acted as a mediator between the two kings, although the subsequent treaty, agreed at Norham on 7 August, was humiliating for the Scots it did, at least, prevent a war. The Scots agreed to pay 15,000 marks for peace and to surrender hostages, including the king’s two oldest legitimate daughters, Margaret and Isabella. As a sweetener, John promised to marry the Margaret to one of his sons; although Henry was only 2 years old at the time and Richard was just 8 months, whilst the girls were already in their mid teens, at least. It was agreed that Isabella would be married to an English noble of suitable rank, an earl at least.

The king’s daughters and the other Scottish hostages were handed into the custody of England’s justiciar, at Carlisle on 16 August.

How the girls, or their parents, thought about this turn of events, we know not. Given John’s proven record of prevarication and perfidy, King William may have hoped that the promised marriages would occur in good time but may also have expected that John would find a way out of the pledges he had made. William and John met again at Durham in February 1212, a meeting in which ‘The queen of Scotland was present and acted as mediator, an extraordinary woman, gifted with a charming and witty eloquence.’³ The queen’s efforts bore fruit and peace between the two countries was renewed, as ‘There in the presence of the nobles of both kingdoms and the revered lady the queen of the Scots a formula for achieving peace and love, to be observed between the kingdoms and their kings for ever, was worked out anew and confirmed by charters given by both parties.’⁴

It was also agreed that the Scottish prince, Alexander, should be given an English wife. With at least one of the prince’s older sisters already intended for a son of King John, marrying Alexander to one of John’s daughters would further bind the Scots to the Plantagenet cause. Prince Alexander, now aged 14, would be knighted by King John, the ceremony taking place at Clerkenwell on 4 March 1212.

Ermengarde may have taken a more prominent role in the negotiations of 1212 as King William’s health began to fail. Their son, Alexander, was still only a teenager and so it would have fallen to the queen to take the lead in the talks. William was a physically active king almost to the very last moment. In January and February 1213, when both the Scots and English kings were close to the border, a meeting was proposed, but William resisted and could not be persuaded to meet with John. In his 70th year, he was probably already very ill.

As William’s health failed, Queen Ermengarde appears to have taken on more responsibilities and exerted her influence on the court. The king rallied in 1214, so that he was well enough to travel to Elgin in the summer, where he came to an accord with John, the new earl of Caithness, and received the earl’s unnamed daughter as a hostage. The journey took its toll on the king, and he suffered some sort of collapse. He was taken, in easy stages, to the royal castle at Stirling, where he saw his lords for the last time. With the queen in attendance, William urged his barons and bishops to accept Alexander, now 16 years old, as king. King William I, later known as William the Lion, died on 4 December 1214, aged about seventy-one, having reigned for a total of forty-nine years, almost to the day.

On the morning after her husband’s death, Queen Ermengarde was ‘in a state of extreme mourning and worn out with grief.’⁵ The prelates and nobles attempted to rouse the queen from her melancholy by asking that she arrange the late king’s funeral, but the queen would not be moved. They left Ermengarde with her grief and took the young king to Scone, where he was crowned as King Alexander II on 6 December. King William was then buried at Arbroath on 10 December. The new king and his mother then presided over the royal Christmas feast at Forfar but returned to Stirling in January 1215, before visiting Arbroath, to see the tomb of King William.

Queen Ermengarde had been much younger than her husband, possibly by as much as thirty years. She would, therefore, continue to live for many years into her son’s reign.

King Alexander II sided with the English barons in their struggle against the tyranny of King John, making an alliance with the northern barons, who agreed to press for a decision on the future of Alexander’s sisters, and a resolution of the lordship of the northern counties. He raided the northern English earldoms, exploiting the unrest in England to renew Scottish claims to these counties, besieging Norham in October 1215 and receiving the homage of the leading men of Northumberland. And when a French force joined the fight on the side of the rebels, the papal legate pronounced a sentence of excommunication on the rebels and their French and Scottish allies; it even extended to Queen Ermengarde. Scotland put under interdict. Following John’s death in October 1216 and the defeat of the French rebel army at Lincoln in May 1217, Alexander’s position in England became precarious.

The Scots king surrendered Carlisle Castle at Berwick on 1 December 1217 and submitted to England’s boy-king Henry III at Northampton later in the same month. Alexander’s sentence of excommunication was lifted by the archbishop of York, while the bishop of Durham absolved his mother, Queen Ermengarde.

With King Alexander’s submission, there followed an unprecedented almost 80 years of unbroken peace between England and Scotland, sealed by his marriage – in York – with Joan, Henry III’s sister in June 1221. Another marriage soon followed, when, in London on 30 October, Alexander’s oldest sister, Margaret, was married to Hubert de Burgh.

Queen Ermengarde must have felt relief that her son had found a bride, and hoped that an heir would soon follow. She may also have been satisfied that her eldest daughter, Margaret, once thought of as the heir to the Scots throne, was also finally settled in matrimony. Though there was complaint from some sides that Margaret had been pressed into a disparaging marriage when she had been promised a prince as a bridegroom. Hubert de Burgh was King Henry III’s justiciar, but was of minor nobility. He only receive his earldom of Kent after his marriage to Margaret. As for Margaret’s sister Isabella, she returned to Scotland, still unmarried. She eventually married Roger Bigod, the young Earl of Norfolk, in 1225. The wedding took place at Alnwick, in Northumberland, which may mean that Queen Ermengarde was able to attend.

Queen Ermengarde devoted her later years to founding an abbey at Balmerino, with the help of Alexander. A parish in the district of Cupar in county of Fife, it was an area she regularly visited for the benefit of her health. The dowager queen raised the money to found the Cistercian abbey, paying 1,000 merks to purchase the land and acting as overseer to the building project. The abbey was built in red stone, quarried locally. Dedicated to Saint Edward the Confessor, Balmerino was populated by monks from Melrose Abbey. Queen Ermengarde appears to have had a particular veneration for the sainted English king as the only other religious gift we can attribute to her was to the hospital of St Edward at Berwick.

The queen had lived long enough to see three of her four children settled in marriage, and may have met her first grandchild, a daughter born to Princess Margaret in 1227, also named Margaret. In the same year, Henry III’s brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, arrived in Scotland to speak with Queen Ermengarde. The object of the discussions was his possible marriage to the queen’s youngest daughter, Marjory. The earl’s proposals were attractive to neither the Scots nor his brother and negotiations came to naught, but the fact that it was Ermengarde that Richard approached, rather than the king, clearly demonstrates the queen’s continuing influence on her family. Her youngest daughter was not married until August 1235, when she married Gilbert Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, at Berwick.

The queen did not live to see the wedding as in February 1233 Ermengarde de Beaumont died. She was buried before the high altar of the abbey to which she had dedicated her years of widowhood, Balmerino. Although the surviving records hint at the queen enjoying substantial authority in Scotland, especially where her family were concerned, we have few specifics. That she was entrusted with negotiating with the English emissaries, in 1209 and again in 1212, suggests that she possessed impressive diplomatic skills, and that King William had considerable confidence in his wife’s abilities. Furthermore, the queen’s evident grief at her husband’s death attests to a deep affection within the union, an affection that not only defined the marriage, but also the whole family, with the queen continuing to exert her influence on the relationships of her children in the years after her husband’s death.

Having served Scotland as queen for 28 years and as its dowager queen for a further 19 years, Ermengarde de Beaumont defined the role of Queen of Scots for subsequent royal consorts. Her memory cast a long shadow.

Images:

Notes:

1. Mediaeval chronicles of Scotland, translated by Joseph Stephenson; 2. John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation; 3. Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, V 4; 4. ibid; 5. Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens 1034–1714

Bibliography:

Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, V 4; Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history, edited by W. F. Skene; fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTLAND; John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, edited by W. F. Skene, Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas; Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens 1034–1714; Mediaeval chronicles of Scotland: the chronicles of Melrose and Holyrood, translated by Joseph Stephenson; Richard Oram, editor, The Kings and Queens of Scotland; The annals of Roger de Hoveden. Comprising the history of England and of other countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, edited by Henry T. Riley; David Ross, Scotland, History of a Nation; W.W. Scott, Ermengarde [Ermengarde de Beaumont], oxforddnb.com; W.W. Scott, William I [known as William the Lion] (c. 1142–1214), oxforddnb.com

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:

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: Elizabeth Chadwick

30/08/202530/07/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly2 Comments

Throughout my writing career, I have been very lucky to have enjoyed the friendship of Elizabeth Chadwick. A truly generous person, Elizabeth and I shared a stage at the Newark Book Festival in July 2018. I had only published my first book, Heroines of the Medieval World the previous September, and I was a nervous wreck. Elizabeth was the star of the show, I was the newcomer, and she could have easily dominated the conversation – no one would have blamed her. Everyone was there to see her, not me. But Elizabeth was calm, encouraging and made sure I had my say. I will never forget that.

So, it is an honour and a pleasure to welcome Elizabeth to History … the Interesting Bits as part of my Wordly Women series, to discuss her writing career and her love of history – and William Marshal, of course!

Sharon: Hi, Elizabeth. So, what got you into writing?

Elizabeth: I came into the world as a storyteller. I can remember very clearly telling myself stories with beginnings, middles and ends at the age of three. Throughout my childhood I made up stories, inspired from illustrations I liked in books. I’d invent whole tales around pieces of artwork, say from the wonderful pages of Ladybird books. Even at a young age I was asking myself ‘What if this happened?’ Who, where, what why? I learned the art of story telling just by having fun – and reading a lot obviously. I didn’t write anything down until my mid-teens by which time I decided that I wanted to bring some posterity to my verbal stories and so began writing them down. I was fifteen when I wrote my first historical novel, purely for fun, and enjoyed the experience so much that I decided that I wanted to do this for my career. Eight unpublished novels later I finally got there.

Sharon: Tell us about your books.

Elizabeth: I write historical fiction set in the Middle Ages, mostly covering England and France with a bit of the Middle East thrown in. I began writing my stories with imaginary protagonists but then moved on to biographical fiction. They are character-driven stories of the life and times of the people, focussing on their family lives interwoven with political and emotional drama. I research the period meticulously and blend fact and fiction with an emphasis on telling an engrossing story without depriving the facts of their integrity. I have award winning novels and New York Times bestsellers among my published novels to date.

Sharon: What attracts you to the medieval period?

Elizabeth: It was actually chance that brought me to the Middle Ages. As I’ve mentioned above, I told myself stories throughout my childhood. I enjoyed historical TV dramas and became quite hooked on The Six Wives of Henry VIII starring Keith Michell. That led me to write down my first ever story over the summer holidays when I was fourteen. I enjoyed the exercise, but ran out of steam, however, I’d laid the groundwork. I became very enamoured of a knight in a children’s TV program put out by the BBC and dubbed from the French. It was called Desert Crusader, In French it was Thibaud ou les Croisades. My weekly doses of Desert Crusader led me to take up my pen again, and this time I didn’t run out of steam. This time I wrote a whole novel. It started out as a piece of fan fiction I guess, but within two chapters had taken on a life of its own – rather like me making up brand new stories to the Ladybird books of my childhood. Once I had the basic visual inspiration I was off. Since I knew nothing about the Holy Land and very little about the Middle Ages I had to begin researching because I wanted my story to have veracity and feel real. However if I hadn’t fallen for actor Andre Lawrence as Thibaud, ‘Le Chevalier Blanc’ I might never have taken to the Medieval period the way I did. Such are moments of chance in our lives.

Sharon: Who is your favourite medieval character and why?

Elizabeth: It would have to be the great William Marshal. You don’t get many of his kind to the pound. He had an amazing life and great integrity. He rose from the ranks of the ordinary jobbing nobility and a life in the military, and by using his charisma, intelligence, physical abilities and sheer personality, came to the attention of the Angevin royal family. Having saved the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, he was taken into royal service. He was a champion of the tourneys, a far-travelled pilgrim, a counsellor of kings. He had his ups and downs and he wasn’t perfect by any manner of means, but the Angevins trusted him enough to give him a fantastic marriage to a great heiress (and they appear to have been very compatible despite a more than 20 year age gap). He became earl of Pembroke under King John and involved in the development of Magna Carta. When King John died, William took over the rule of England on behalf of John’s 9 year old son Henry III. He dealt with the volatile political situation in a way that showed he had a firm grasp of the politics and a practical knowledge of what to do. And at the battle of Lincoln in 1217, aged approx. 71, he saw off the French and got the country back on an even keel.

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

Elizabeth: I don’t have a least favourite. Even the villains are interesting. I have some very least favourite modern politicians, but that’s because they’re in my face and I am having to deal with emotions engendered as consequences of their actions rather than being more objective. I do find it fascinating how people almost come to blows over Richard III and Henry VII and hold such passionate loyalties over a pair of men who are now bones. The War of the Roses is fought over and over and over again all day online! Having said that, I do admit I have a huge fondness for William Marshal which is certainly not dispassionate. I don’t however, get in a lather about King John!

Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?

Elizabeth: I’ve been studying the Middle Ages since I was fifteen years old and I am a few decades older now, so I have a good grounding in the general research of the period. I don’t have to start from scratch. I research using academic and specialist books of which I have a wide-ranging library – in several rooms of my house! I research online these days – when I began my career that wasn’t an option, but now it is, and it’s more a case of limiting the information and knowing which are the bona fide sites. While there’s a great deal of marvellous research resources out there, it has to be said that sadly copious amounts of rubbish exist too and one has to become an expert at sifting. I might do bits of experimental living history. I used to re-enact before I ran out of time and I still have all the kit and friends in the business toward whom I can direct questions. I also have friends in the academic community who are very helpful.

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

Elizabeth: I think that would have to be the great William Marshal who attended a tournament with his lord the Young King, eldest son of Henry II. During the tournament they captured another knight for ransom and brought him back to their own camp sitting on his horse with a lead rein. However, on the way there they had to pass some buildings and the captured knight lifted himself off his horse and shimmied up a gutter pipe and clambered onto a house gallery (upstairs veranda sort of thing). Meanwhile, William Marshal was riding along, holding the reins of a riderless horse and not realising his captive had absconded until the Young King, doubled up with laughter, let him know – he’d been in on the joke for a while!

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

Elizabeth: There are quite a few, but here’s a typical one. It would be in a work I was reading on criminal cases in Medieval Coventry. Someone stole a horse and was put in the stocks for it by the bailiff. But it was a very, very cold night and the criminal got frost bite which resulted in his lower legs perishing and then dropping off! He died, and the bailiff was arrested for murder – pretty gruesome!

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

Elizabeth: Arthurian might be interesting, although I’d need to do a lot of reading up because history has changed a lot since I became a fan of that era via various novels. When I first began writing as a teen, I almost wrote a Regency novel, but Medieval pipped Regency at the post. It might still be interesting to do, but again, I’d need to get stuck into the research so probably not.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Elizabeth: I’ve just completed The Uncrowned Queen, the second part of Joan of Kent’s amazing story and I am now working on an untitled novel about Katherine Swynford and her two husbands – Hugh Swynford and John of Gaunt. I am finding it fascinating, especially the way research has moved on and changed datelines, nuances and our understanding of the period and the protagonists. It goes to show that so much of the time what we think we know is actually what we don’t know. Actually, if we are prepared to swallow long-cherished beliefs and re-learn, it’s immensely exciting and rewarding!

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

Elizabeth: Being your own boss to an extent. As long as I put in the word count, I can get up as I please and go to bed as I please. Equal with that are the many good friends I have made over my career, both the readers and the historians – and I’ve learned a lot of cool things too!

About the Author:

Elizabeth Chadwick is a UK million selling historical novelist whose works are based in the medieval period. She won a Betty Trask award for her first published novel The Wild Hunt and the RNA prize for Historical fiction in 2011 with To Defy A King. Her novel The Greatest Knight is a New York Times bestseller and has been optioned for film and TV together with several others in the same series. Specialising in the Middle Ages, with a particular interest in the life and times of William Marshal and the Angevin court, she occasionally lectures on the academic circuit and gives talks on historical tours. Elizabeth is also a member of The Royal Historical Society. When not writing, Elizabeth enjoys chatting to readers on all sorts of subjects but with a strong emphasis on reading and medieval history.

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:

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 Elizabeth Chadwick and 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.

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: Catherine Hanley

10/05/202510/05/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

I am very happy today to welcome historian Catherine Hanley to History…the Interesting Bits in a new instalment of my Author Spotlight series, Wordly Women. Catherine is the author of Matilda, 1217 and her latest book, Lionessheart, about Joanna, the sister of Richard the Lionheart. Catherine also writes a historical fiction A Medieval Mystery series under the name C.B. Hanley, following the adventures of Edwin Weaver, bailiff of Conisbrough Castle and its lord, William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Warenne and Surrey. It is a fabulous series that I can highly recommend!

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

Catherine: Oddly, that question is kind of the wrong way round for me. When I did my PhD I was reading and writing all day every day for years; after it was finished and I got a full-time job that didn’t involve writing, I missed it so much that I just had to take it up on top of work. As the cliché goes, I write because I simply can’t *not* write. Eventually, over the years, it came to replace the day job rather than being an add-on.

Sharon: You write both fiction and non-fiction – is one harder than the other?

Catherine: On a day when I’m writing fiction, I’d say non-fiction was easier, and vice versa …

Sharon: Tell us about your books.

Catherine: My non-fiction mainly explores different facets of war and politics in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries – sometimes via biographies of individuals, and sometimes in the form of more wide-ranging surveys.

My fiction is a series of murder mysteries set during the early thirteenth century, during and just after the French invasion that followed the Magna Carta wars. My main characters are fictional, but the stories are set against a factual backdrop, with some real people in the background. It all started because, during some academic research, I discovered that a certain high-profile individual had changed sides twice during that war, but nobody knew why. So I decided to make up a (plausible!) story about why this had happened, and then once I’d started I just kept going.

Sharon: What attracts you to the 13th century?

Catherine: It is the best century, and I will be taking no further questions and entering into no arguments on this subject. (Sharon: no argument from me! I totally agree with this analysis!)

Sharon: Who is your favourite 13th century personality and why?

Catherine: OK, so this is very niche, but it’s Philip of Dreux, a member of a cadet branch of the Capetian royal house, who was the bishop of Beauvais in France. He was a younger son, so he’d been ‘donated’ to the Church by his family early in life. Unfortunately for him this had been done purely on the basis of birth order rather than aptitude or inclination, and he was one of the most bellicose men you could imagine. He fought in the Third Crusade, during which he travelled to Cyprus to tell Richard the Lionheart to his face that he should stop ‘arrogantly persecuting innocent Christians when close by there were still so many thousands of Saracens whom he should be attacking’, which went down about as well as you might expect. He was still going decades later, and fought in battle of Bouvines when aged in his sixties; there he battered the much younger earl of Salisbury to the ground with a mace ‘that he happened to have in his hand’, which is one of the best primary-source lines you’ll ever read.

If I ever decide to write a new series of novels when my current one is finished, the bishop of Beauvais and his mace are going to have starring roles …

Sharon: Who is your least favourite 13th century personality and why?

Catherine: It’s unfortunate for the purposes of this question that Richard the Lionheart died in 1199, thus making him a personality of the twelfth century, so I can’t nominate him! I also think that William Marshal has been vastly overrated.

Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?

Catherine: I read A LOT, making sure that I’m consulting a wide range of primary sources rather than merely relying on what other people have said in secondary sources.

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

Catherine: Basically the entire career of Philip Augustus of France, but I can’t give you too many spoilers on that just now …

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

Catherine: It’s always difficult reading about the many atrocities that took place in the past. One that got to me quite recently was the sad tale of Owain ap Dafydd, the son of Welsh prince Dafydd ap Gruffudd. Dafydd was captured by Edward I and then hanged, drawn and quartered, and his two sons were sentenced to harsh imprisonment. The elder of them died not long afterwards, but Owain, who was 7 when he was incarcerated, lived on for more than 40 years. He was kept in solitary confinement (and, as an adult, actually in a cage), and this stunted his mental as well as his physical development. A sad letter was later sent on his behalf asking if he could please have more adequate food and clothing, and whether he might be allowed out of his cell occasionally ‘to play’. He was at that point 37.

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

Catherine: Not really. There’s still so much to be discovered and said about the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that I can happily spend the rest of my career there, although I do venture occasionally into the fourteenth. The thought of writing about anything post-medieval gives me a nosebleed.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Catherine: *Takes a deep breath* As ever, I have several projects on the go, all at different stages. In non-fiction, I’m at page-proof stage for Nemesis: Medieval England’s Greatest Enemy (about the French king Philip Augustus), for publication in September 2025; almost at manuscript delivery stage for Women in Medieval Families (for 2026 publication) and in the early stages of a whopping volume called The English at War in the Middle Ages for 2027.

In fiction, A Pale Horse, number 9 in my series of medieval mysteries, is due out in June 2025, and I’m having some initial thoughts about book 10.

That’s probably enough to be getting on with!

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

Catherine: Being able to sit in a roomful of books by myself all day and lose myself in the Middle Ages. It’s such a privilege that I can still hardly believe it’s happening.

About the Author:

Dr Catherine Hanley holds a PhD in Medieval Studies and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. After producing several scholarly publications she decided to write something more interesting, and she now splits her time between writing popular history and historical fiction.

Catherine: I have no social media (anyone who wants to contact me may do so by writing in ink on parchment and then sending it via a messenger on a fast horse).

Bookshop link: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/catherinehanley

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:

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.

And we will be chatting with Catherine Hanley about Joanna Plantagenet, Lionessheart, in a couple of months!

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: Their Castilian Orphan by Anna Belfrage

22/03/202411/06/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly1 Comment

It is 1294 and Eustace de Lamont is back in England after five years in exile. He will stop at nothing to ruin Robert FitzStephan and his wife, Noor d’Outremer.

Robert’s half brother, Eustace de Lamont, has not mellowed during his absence. He is more ruthless than ever, and this time he targets Robert’s and Noor’s foster son, Lionel.

Lionel is serving King Edward as a page when Eustace appears at court. Not only does Lionel become the horrified witness to Eustace’s violent streak, Eustace also starts voicing his suspicions about Lionel’s parentage. The truth about Lionel’s heritage is explosive—should King Edward find out, all would be lost for Robert and Noor.

In October of 1294, Wales rises in rebellion. Robert must leave his family unprotected to fight the Welsh rebels on the king’s behalf, comforted only by the fact that Eustace too is called to fight.

Except that Eustace has no intention of allowing his duty to his king—or a mere rebellion—come between him and his desire to destroy Robert FitzStephan . . .

Bring tissues!

Whenever I hear there is a new Anna Belfrage novel coming, I know I am in for an emotional ride.

Anna Belfrage is back with the fourth and final instalment of her The Castilian Saga series, Their Castilian Orphan, and it is another tearjerker. Action-packed, Their Castilian Orphan has a riveting storyline set in England in the 1290s and Edward I’s campaign into Wales.

The two heroes, Robert FitzStephan and his wife, Noor d’Outremer, great-niece of Queen Eleanor of Castile, are faced with the dangers inherent in serving the king on campaign whilst having to fend off the nefarious machinations of Robert’s hate-filled half-brother Eustace de Lamont. And the spite of Eustace’s impressionable young wife. But Robert is not Eustace’s only target and he misses no opportunity to make life uncomfortable for their foster son, Lionel, who is beginning to suspect that his past is not the one he has been told…

Robert and Noor have certainly had their ups and downs. It has not been easy, serving Edward I and his formidable queen, Eleanor of Castile. They have their scars, both mental and physical. Robert has also had to deal with the stigma of illegitimacy and the malice of his jealous brother. Eustace might be legitimate, and a baron, but Robert is the better soldier who has earned the respect of his peers because of his abilities. That irks Eustace – especially when everyone is keen to compare the brothers and find Eustace wanting.

Intrigue, sibling rivalry and war, combined with Anna Belfrage’s engaging writing style means that Their Castilian Orphan has all the ingredients for an absolutely fabulous reading adventure.

He was halfway down the long flight of stairs leading to the hall when he heard someone call his name.

“Lionel!”

Mama came flying towards him, and moments later he was enveloped in her arms, his face squished against her bosom. She released him and clasped him by the shoulders. “Look at you – you’ve grown! You’re so tall!”

Nay, he wasn’t, but Mama was short. If he stood on his toes, the top of his head reached her brow.

“Lionel, lad.” Papa greeted him as effusively as Mama had done.

“How is your back?” Mama asked.

Lionel groaned. “It was nothing.” Of course, Roger Mortimer had to tell them!

“You did not send us word,” Mama said, her mouth wobbling for an instant. “We didn’t know, were not offered the opportunity to care for you.”

Lionel shuffled on his feet. “I…” A movement on the far side of the bailey offered an opportunity to change the subject. “Eustace de Lamont id back!” he blurted, pointing at the man in question.

“Aye, we know,” Papa said, sounding grim.

“I saw him -“

“Hush,” Papa said firmly. “We talk of such matters when we are alone.”

“He has wed,” Lionel said, pulling a face. “Soaking Sally says she may be comely but has the personality of an aggravated viper.”

“Well, they should suit, then,” Mama said. “Hopefully they bite each other to death.”

Lionel blinked. Never had he heard Mama sound so vicious. And then he saw how Papa settled his arm round her, whispering something in her ear, and her stance softened.

Lionel moved closer to her. Of course. Mama was afraid. With Eustace de Lamont back, she feared for her husband. Last time had left Papa with a nasty scar to his thigh and a slight limp. Next time… No, there could not be a next time because Mama was right: Eustace de Lamont was a serpent in human disguise.

Five years of exile and dire warnings from the king to stay away from Robert and his family fall on deaf ears when Eustace returns from his exile. With Robert drawn into Edward I’s wars, this time in Wales, and their foster son, Lionel, in service to the king as a page, the family are once again at the heart of events. And a focus for Eustace’s murderous intentions. He is determined to destroy Robert and take all that he has. And he knows how to strike at their heart, by targeting Lionel and the young man’s Welsh lineage, making Lionel question his place in is family.

Their Castilian Orphan interweaves the fictional story with the historical fact, transporting the reader to the last decade of the 13th century, to an aging king, duped by the French, with peace at home threatened by the Welsh, who are chafing against the harsh English yoke.

I love the way Anna Belfrage melds the domestic lives and worries of Robert and Noor with the concerns of England as a nation. Life and duty are inseparable. Anna makes you love her characters, draws you into their lives, makes you a part or their family.

Engaging, absorbing, fascinating, exciting. And emotional. Anna Belfrage will take the reader through the full range of emotions before they get to the end of the book.

To buy the book:

Their Castilian Orphan is now available from Amazon

About the author:

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a professional time-traveller. No luck there, so instead she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests; history and writing. These days, Anna combines an exciting day-job with a large family and her writing endeavours. Plus she always finds the time to try out new recipes, chase down obscure rose bushes and initiate a home renovation scheme or two.

Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga , set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy.

Anna has also published The Wanderer, a fast-paced contemporary romantic suspense trilogy with paranormal and time-slip ingredients. Her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk is a story of loyalty and love set against the complications of Edward I’s invasion of Wales in the late 13th century.

Her most recent release, The Whirlpools of Time , is a time travel romance set against the backdrop of brewing rebellion in the Scottish highlands.

All of Anna’s books have been awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is also the proud recipient of several Reader’s Favorite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.

If you want to know more about Anna, why not visit her website, https://www.annabelfrage.com

My Books:

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

Out Now! Women of the Anarchy

Two cousins. On the one side is Empress Matilda, or Maud. The sole surviving legitimate child of Henry I, she is fighting for her birthright and that of her children. On the other side is her cousin, Queen Matilda, supporting her husband, King Stephen, and fighting to see her own son inherit the English crown. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how these women, unable to wield a sword, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It show 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.

Coming on 15 June 2024: Heroines of the Tudor World

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. These are the women who made a difference, who influenced countries, kings and the Reformation. In the era dominated by the Renaissance and Reformation, Heroines of the Tudor World examines the threats and challenges faced by the women of the era, and how they overcame them. From writers to regents, from nuns to queens, Heroines of the Tudor World shines the spotlight on the women helped to shape Early Modern Europe.

Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

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 or direct from 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.

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. It is is available from 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 or direct from 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.

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 and Instagram.

Le Charte aux Lacs d’Amour

09/12/202320/04/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly2 Comments

When writing medieval non-fiction, you don’t get to tell many love stories. Most marriages were arranged between families for mutual gain or assistance. As a consequence, you don’t really expect to come across many tales of love – and actual love tokens are rare indeed. But in researching the story of Nicholaa de la Haye, I came across just that: a rather unique love token.

Unfortunately, the love token did not belong to Nicholaa, the defender of Lincoln Castle and first ever female sheriff in England, it belonged to one of her sisters. Nicholaa was the eldest of three sisters and while she inherited Lincoln Castle and her family’s English lands, her sisters, Julia (or Gila) and Isabel, married and settled in Normandy. The story of the love token is Julia’s.

Julia, whose name appears as Gille in French but appears on charters in the Latin, Gila, was married to Richard du Hommet, who died around 1199/1200. Richard was the eldest son and heir of William du Hommet (or Hummez), constable of Normandy, who died around 1204 and his wife, Lucy. According to a charter dated 1232, recording donations to the monks of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Lucy was the granddaughter and heir of Adam de Bruys. As constable, William du Hommet appeared as a witness to a charter of 1 March 1190 in which King Richard I ‘confirms to the archbishop and church of Rouen and all the bishops and mother churches of Normandy, concerning those who break the trêve de Dieu (a truce organised by the church).’

As with most medieval women, we know very little of Julia’s actual dates, so we have to generalise or make educated guesses. Julia was probably born sometime in the late 1150s, and would have grown up on her family’s lands in Lincolnshire. She will have probably married Richard du Hommet some time in the 1170s, when she was in her mid-to-late teens. She died in the 1190s and her husband remarried before his own death at the turn of the century. Julia and Richard had at least three sons and two or more daughters; two of these sons were the last two constables of Normandy from the Hommet family, succeeding their grandfather in the role. Richard du Hommet had certainly married Julia by the mid-1170s at the latest, when his grandfather, another Richard du Hommet, was still constable of Normandy, and while the younger Richard was still underage. The couple’s first child was born around 1180.

Richard du Hommet predeceased his father by four or five years, so never became constable of Normandy in his own right, though he does appear to have assisted his father in his duties. In June 1190, Richard appears as a witness, alongside his father, to a charter of Richard I in which he ‘confirms to St Martin’s, Troarn and the monks there serving God the vill and island of Reimberhome etc., with the right of presentation to the church of St Mary there, as given, with his assent, by John son of William count of Ponthieu, etc.’ Father and son are recorded as ‘Willelmo de Humeto constabulario; Richardo de Humeto’ in the witness list.

Richard and Julia are also the subjects of a unique charter, issued by King Richard I in June 1190. The charter was preserved by the Abbey of Aunai, which had been founded by the du Hommet family. It conferred the manors of Varreville and Pouppeville upon the couple, naming both ‘Ricardo de Humetis’ and ‘Gila, uxor sue’ (his wife) in the grant.

And it has very famous laces by which the seal was attached.

These laces are made of silk and each one is 50cm in length; one of the laces is green, now turning yellow, and the other is blue, speckled with brown. An Old French poem was embroidered on the laces:

“Jo sui druerie. Ne me dunez mie ; ki nostre amur deseivre la mort pu”,

(In French, ‘Je suis gage d’amour. Ne me donnez pas. Que celui qui sépare notre amour puisse recevoir la mort’ and in English, ‘I am a pledge of love. Do not give me away. May death come to whoever separates our love’).

For this reason, the charter is known as the charte aux lacs d’amour (the charter with the laces of love). And while the idea of a love poem being attached to a charter issued in relation to a royal land grant is charming, the reasons behind it remain elusive. At first glance, the grant appears to have no special significance that would justify such a declaration of love, nor such careful detail and precision work being undertaken on its creation.

I can’t help thinking that Richard I – the Lionheart – who was a fan of the troubadour tradition and courtly love, would have heartily approved of turning the charter into a token of enduring love.

Unfortunately, while the laces are still attached to the document, the words, which were still visible in the nineteenth century, have now faded away. At least someone thought to record them before they faded from existence.

Under Henry I, the lands of Varreville and Pouppeville had been in the hands of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, and had returned to the crown on his death. King Henry II had granted the same lands to Richard de la Haye, but they had reverted to the crown on his death in 1169, and were accounted for in the Exchequer accounts of 1180. So, it seems that in granting Varreville and Pouppeville to Julia and Richard du Hommet, Richard I was returning them to their former, rightful owners. This may explain why Julia is specifically mentioned in the charter and the grant stipulates that the lands pass to Richard’s children by Julia, rather than Richard’s children by any wife.

According to Léopold De Lisle, in his study of the charter, the two manors formed Julia’s dowry, though she and her husband were unable to take possession of the lands immediately after the marriage. In the charter King Richard ‘gives, renderes and confirms to Richard du Hommet, and to Gila [Julia] his wife, and to their heirs, Pouppeville and Varreville with all their dependencies, for them to hold from the king with their barony, by right of the said Gila [Julia].’ De Lisle goes on to suggest that the laces used, with the accompanying love poem, were once a love token, perhaps given by Julia to Richard on their wedding day, and that Richard du Hommet persuaded the king to attach them to the charter that gave him possession of Julia’s lands, as a symbol of their union.

If so, the fact that they have survived the centuries is particularly poignant.

When Julia died in the 1190s, she was buried in Blanchelande Abbey, a religious community of the Premonstratensian order, known as the White Canons, in Neufmesnil. The abbey had been founded by Julia’s parents, and it was where her father, Richard de la Haye, had been interred after his death in 1169. On her death, Julia’s mother, Matilda de Vernon, with the approval of her son-in-law, Richard du Hommet, made a donation to the abbey in her daughter’s name. After a short period as a widower, Richard du Hommet married for a second time, to Alienor, widow of Robert de la Haie, who may well have been a distant cousin of Julia (I did not have time to delve into the familial relationship, unfortunately).

The enduring love of Richard and Julia is forever entwined in the laces attached to the land charter. Even if we can no longer see the words, we know they were there and survived seven centuries before they faded away…

This article first appeared on ElizabethChadwick.com

Images:

Les archives du Calvados

Sources:

Les archives du Calvados; Leopold Deslisle, “Notice sur les attaches d’un sceau de Richard Coeur-de-Lion”; Richard of Devizes, The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes; Roger of Howden (Hoveden), The Annals of Roger of Howden; The Plantagenet Chronicles edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Brassey’s Battles by John Laffin; 1215 The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham; The Life and times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Plantagenets, the Kings Who Made England by Dan Jones; England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings by Robert Bartlett; lincolnshirelife.co.uk; catherinehanley.co.uk; magnacarta800th.com; lothene.org; lincolncastle.com; The Sheriff: The Man and His Office by Irene Gladwin; Louise Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth Century Lincolnshire; Richard Huscraft, Tales from the Long Twelfth Century; J.W.F. Hill, Medieval Lincoln; swaton.org.uk; oxforddnb.com; Ingulph, Ingulph’ Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland; Stephen Church, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant; Marc Morris, King John; Pipe Rolls; Red Book of the Exchequer

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Warenne Family Ties

02/12/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly6 Comments

Seal of John de Warenne, 6th earl of Warenne and Surrey

In the reign of Edward I, when asked Quo Warranto – by what warrant he held his lands – John de Warenne, the 6th earl of Surrey, is said to have drawn a rusty sword, claiming “My ancestors came with William the Bastard, and conquered their lands with the sword, and I will defend them with the sword against anyone wishing to seize them”

When I started writing Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey, I expected to find a healthy – or, rather, unhealthy – level of sibling rivalry. After all, this family was related to both the Norman and Plantagenet royal families, neither of whom are renowned for any sort of brotherly love.

You only have to look at the warring antics of Robert Curthose, William II and Henry I, to imagine the level of sibling rivalry involved in Norman times. The three brothers fought over who should have Normandy and England after their father’s death, to the extent that Robert Curthose ended up the prisoner of his little brother, Henry I, for the last 30 years of his life. The Plantagenets were little better, with Prince – later King – John trying to steal his brother’s throne while Richard I was imprisoned in Germany.

William de Warenne, 1st Earl Warenne, Trinity Church, Southover.

With these examples in mind, I was surprised to discover that the Warennes were a rather functional bunch as far as family goes. They went out of their way to help and support each other, even to the extent of half-siblings and in-laws. William de Warenne, the first earl of Warenne and Surrey (often referred to, simply, as Earl Warenne), pursued a private feud with English freedom fighter, Hereward the Wake, after he murdered William’s brother-in-law, Frederic.

The Warenne (Hyde) Chronicle claims that Hereward, ‘Among his other crimes, by trickery he killed Frederick, brother[-in-law] of Earl William of Warenne, a man distinguished by lineage and possessions, who one night was surrounded in his own house.’ Following Frederic’s murder, according to the Chronicle, ‘such discord arose between Hereward and William that it could not be settled by any reparation nor in any court.’ According to the Gesta Herewardi, Frederic was planning to capture or kill Hereward, who struck first by killing Frederic.

William de Warenne was determined to get his revenge; he attempted to ambush Hereward at a place called Earith. One of William’s men tried unsuccessfully to bribe Hereward’s men to betray him. William was unhorsed when Hereward fired an arrow at him; it rebounded from William’s mailcoat, but the force of the shot saw William fall from his horse and rendered unconscious as he hit the ground. The ambush having failed, William de Warenne then appears in the Gesta Herewardi with an angry outburst against the Norman knight Deda, who had given a eulogistic account of the rebels on the Isle of Ely. According to the Liber Eliensis, William ‘flared up with weighty indignation, and alleged that he [Deda] had been inveigled by a bribe and was lying.’

St Pancras Priory, Lewes, the Warenne family mausoleum

William de Warenne, the second Earl Warenne, continued the tradition of looking out for family, when his younger brother, Rainald, was captured by King Henry I. In 1105 Rainald de Warenne was among the supporters of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy and Henry I’s oldest brother, who captured and imprisoned Robert fitz Hamon, a friend of King Henry, intending to ransom him. Henry saw fitz Hamon’s capture as an opportunity to deal decisively with Normandy, though he claimed he was invading not out of ambition, but to protect the church and the poor people of Normandy.

Henry invaded in the spring of 1106. Rainald de Warenne was captured by Henry’s forces during a skirmish at the fortified Abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dive. The abbot there had been plotting with Duke Robert to trap Henry, offering to hand over the castle to the English king, while sequestering Rainald de Warenne, Robert de Stuteville and their men within, ready to seize Henry as soon as he entered. Suspecting treachery, Henry arrived at daybreak with a force of 700 men-at-arms and took the garrison completely by surprise, capturing the duke’s men and burning the castle to the ground.

The sources vary, but Rainald was released either shortly before or shortly after the battle of Tinchebrai – the final, decisive battle between the royal Norman brother. Orderic Vitalis claims that William de Warenne served as one of King Henry’s chief commanders at Tinchebrai and that Rainald was released shortly before the battle. Grateful for his brother’s release, Earl William urged his men to fight the king’s cause with the utmost determination.

According to the Warenne (Hyde) Chronicle, however, Rainald was not released until after the battle, when he was ‘reluctantly handed back to his brother, who pleaded for him to Henry.’ Whichever is correct, the result was the same, Rainald was now free, thanks to the insistence and loyalty of his older brother.

Warenne shield of blue and gold check, Trinity Church, Southover.

In the next generation, the children and stepchildren of William de Warenne, the 2nd Earl Warenne, got on remarkably well together. William had married Isabel de Vermandois, the widow of the recently deceased Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester. Isabel was already the mother of 9 children, including the famous twins Robert and Waleran de Beaumont, when she married William, with whom the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon claims she was having an affair, even before her husband died.

With William, Isabel had a further 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. Earl Warenne was at King Henry I’s deathbed, alongside his son, also named William de Warenne (the future 3rd Earl Warenne), and stepsons, Waleran and Robert de Beaumont. When the 2nd Earl Warenne died, it was Waleran de Beaumont who became the head of the combined, and rather large, Beaumont/Warenne family. Indeed, Waleran and William de Warenne, 3rd Earl Warenne, having grown tired of the Anarchy – the war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda which lasted from 1135 to 1154 – departed on Crusade together in 1147. Unfortunately, William de Warenne was killed at the Battle of Mount Cadmus in January 1148, and Waleran returned home alone.

A touching story from just before his departure on crusade relates to the 3rd Earl Warenne and his two younger brothers, Reginald and Ralph de Warenne. The earl held a dedication ceremony for the new church at St Pancras Priory, Lewes, the mausoleum of the Warenne family, founded by the 1st earl and his wife, Gundrada. In the accompanying charter, the earl endowed the priory, in which his father and grandparents were buried, and where his mother would soon be laid to rest, with the tenth penny of his rents and ‘giving it seisin thereof by hair from his own head and that of Ralph de Warenne his brother, cut with a knife by Henry, bishop of Winchester, before the altar.’

It is not hard to imagine how moving a ceremony this must have been, two brothers kneeling before the altar to have their hair cut by the bishop of Winchester, Henry of Blois, the brother of King Stephen. The scene is made all the more poignant in hindsight, knowing that the third earl never returned from the crusade on which he was about to embark.

And when the 3rd Earl Warenne failed to return from the Holy Land, it was down to his younger brother, Reginald, to look after the family interests and those of his brother’s sole surviving heir, William’s daughter, Isabel de Warenne, the 4th Countess of Warenne and Surrey. Isabel, though still only a child, had been married to King Stephen’s youngest son, William of Blois, probably before her father’s departure to the Holy Land. Isabel’s second husband, Hamelin, the illegitimate half-brother of Henry II, built the great keep at Conisbrough Castle.

Hamelin and Isabel’s son, William de Warenne, the 5th earl, looked out for the interests of his niece, Alice de Lusignan, in her struggles with the crown, both under King John and Henry III, to secure her inheritance of Tickhill Castle in Yorkshire.

Such examples of the earls taking care of their family, and working in alliance with their in-laws, was to be a feature of every generation down to the 7th and last earl, John II de Warenne, who was given the custody and care of his cousin, Edward Balliol, the son of John Balliol, the deposed King of Scots, around 1307. The Warenne earls, to a man, looked after their relations, both near and far. In the story of a family, it is quite fitting – and highly unusual – that the Warenne earls appear to have always put family first.

Images:

Sources:

Robert Bartlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; Dan Jones, The Plantagenets; Donald Matthew, King Stephen; Medieval Lands Project on the Earls of Surrey, Conisbrough Castle; Farrer, William and Charles Travis Clay, editors, Early Yorkshire Charters, Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne; Morris, Marc King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta; Church, Stephen, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant; doncasterhistory.co.uk; A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 2 edited by William Page; W.H. Blaauw, On the Early History of Lewes Priory, and its Seals, with extracts from a MS. Chronicle, Sussex Archaeological Collections; Rev. John Watson, Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey, and Their Descendants to the Present Time, Volume I; Odo of Deuil, De Profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem; magnacharta.com; Cokayne, G.E., The Complete Peerage, Vol. XII; Henry of Huntingdon, The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon; Elisabeth van Houts and Rosalind C. Love, The Warenne (Hyde) Chronicle.

My Books

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Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

On the one side is Empress Matilda, or Maud. The sole surviving legitimate child of Henry I, she is fighting for her birthright and that of her children. On the other side is her cousin, Queen Matilda, supporting her husband, King Stephen, and fighting to see her own son inherit the English crown. Both women are granddaughters of St Margaret, Queen of Scotland and descendants of Alfred the Great of Wessex. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how these women, unable to wield a sword, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It show how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other.

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Coming on 15 June 2024: Heroines of the Tudor World

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. These are the women who made a difference, who influenced countries, kings and the Reformation. In the era dominated by the Renaissance and Reformation, Heroines of the Tudor World examines the threats and challenges faced by the women of the era, and how they overcame them. Some famous, some infamous, some less well known, including Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth Barton, Catherine de Medici, Bess of Hardwick and Elizabeth I. From writers to regents, from nuns to queens, Heroines of the Tudor World shines the spotlight on the women helped to shape Early Modern Europe.

Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady. Nicholaa de la Haye was the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. Nicholaa de la Haye is one woman in English history whose story needs to be told… King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from 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, 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 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.

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.

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

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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 and Instagram.

10 Facts about Nicholaa de la Haye that you may not know…

22/07/202318/10/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly10 Comments

King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye — *Tomb effigy of Nicholaa de la Haye, St Michael’s Church, Swaton*

As you may have noticed, Nicholaa de la Haye is a favourite of mine. She is the subject of my 5th book, King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye. She was one of King John’s most stalwart supporters. She held Lincoln Castle against all-comers during the First Barons’ War which followed the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215. Her career is the more remarkable because Nicholaa was a woman in command of a castle in her own right. And she masterminded its defence against the might of the rebel barons and their French allies, even though the city of Lincoln was also against her.

So, who was she?

10 Things about Nicholaa de la Haye that you may not know…

1. Nicholaa had both English and Norman ancestry. Unlike many Normans, Nicholaa could trace her Lincolnshire roots, through her paternal grandmother, Muriel, to before the Norman Conquest; her grandmother’s grandfather was Colswein of Lincoln, an Englishman who had found favour with William the Conqueror in the years after the Conquest. Nicholaa’s father was Richard de la Haye, whose family originated from La Haye-du-Puits in Normandy, and was distantly related, through marriage, to William the Conqueror. Nicholaa’s mother was Matilda de Vernon, a niece of Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, the first magnate to rebel against King Stephen when he stole the throne from Empress Matilda.

2. Nicholaa was hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle. Just like her father and grandfather before her, Nicholaa held Lincoln Castle for the king. A charter dated between 1155 and 1158, issued by Henry II, confirmed the succession of Richard de la Haye to his father in all of his father’s lands in Lincolnshire, including the constableship of Lincoln Castle.

3. Nicholaa was the oldest of three sisters. Her sister Gila (or Julia) married Richard du Hommet, the grandson and son of successive constables of Normandy. In 1191 a charter was issued to Gila and Richard, known as the charte aux lacs d’amour (the charter of the laces of love), which had laces attached to the seal on which was written a love poem: ‘I am a pledge of love. Do not give me away. May whoever separates our love receive death’. Nicholaa’s other sister, Isabel de la Haye married William de Rollos, who was probably from Bourne, in Lincolnshire. The Rollos family returned to Normandy during the reign of King John.

4. Nicholaa’s first husband was William Fitz Erneis, who may have been a younger son of Robert Fitz Erneis, a minor Lincolnshire lord. Nicholaa and William had one surviving child, a daughter named Matilda, before William died in 1178. Nicholaa would later pay a fine of 300 marks to King Richard I so that she could marry her daughter to whomever she wished except, of course, to an enemy of the king. Nicholaa was still accounting for this debt until 1212. In 1201, she still owed 40 marks and a palfrey (a horse).

5. Before 1185, Nicholaa had remarried, this time to Gerard de Camville, son of Richard de Camville, lord of Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire. A family with an impressive record of royal service, Richard had died in Italy in 1176 while escorting the king’s daughter, Joanna, to her wedding with King William of Sicily. Gerard’s half-brother, also called Richard, accompanied Richard the Lionheart on Crusade; this Richard de Camville was made governor of Cyprus before dying at Acre in 1191. Gerard himself served the kings Henry II, Richard the Lionheart and John. He was Constable of Lincoln Castle by right of his wife and sheriff of Lincolnshire on two occasions.

6. Nicholaa first comes to the attention of the chroniclers in 1191, when Prince John led the opposition to, William Longchamp, the man left in charge of England during Richard the Lionheart’s absence on crusade. Longchamp wanted Lincoln Castle for one of his friends and determined to take it. Gerard sought the help of Prince John swearing fealty to him at Nottingham, leaving to Nicholaa to hold the castle. William Longchamp hired a force of mercenaries and laid siege to the castle in Gerard’s absence. The formidable Nicholaa refused to yield, holding out for 40 days before Longchamp gave up and went home. Amusingly, Richard of Devizes said of this defence of Lincoln Castle, that she did it ‘without thinking of anything womanly’.

7. By the time the king arrived home in 1194, John had fled to France, leaving his supporters to face the music. On 31 March 1194, on the first day of his council at Nottingham, King Richard dispossessed Gerard de Camville of the castle and shrievalty of Lincoln. And on 2 April, Gerard was charged with harbouring outlaws (wonder if they mean Robin Hood?), treason for failing to answer the king’s justices’ summons over the harbouring of the said outlaws, and for taking up arms and aiding John in taking the castles of Tickhill and Nottingham. The outcome of the proceedings is not recorded, but given that Gerard was fined 2,000 marks to recover the king’s good will and his lands, we can assume that the judges did not find in his favour.

8. When Richard the Lionheart died on 6 April 1199 and was succeeded by his brother, John, Nicholaa and Gerard de Camville were restored to favour and to Lincoln Castle. Gerard was also appointed sheriff of Lincolnshire and served in that office for the next six years, becoming ‘a greater man than ever.’ In November 1200, Nicholaa and Gerard welcomed the kings of England and Scotland to Lincoln, where King William the Lion paid homage to King John outside the city walls.

9. Gerard died in December 1214, leaving Nicholaa in command of Lincoln Castle. In 1216, she was besieged by a force of rebel barons who had taken up arms against King John in the aftermath of the issuing of Magna Carta. Nicholaa paid them off – they stopped attacking the castle but remained in the city. In the same year, Nicholaa met King John at the East Gate of Lincoln Castle, with the castle’s keys in her hand, offering to resign her position as constable, citing her weariness and great age (she was in her 60s). John refused, telling her to remain in post until he ordered otherwise.

10. On 18 October 1216, at Newark Castle, in one of his final acts and just hours before his death, King John appointed Nicholaa de la Haye as sheriff of Lincolnshire. She was the first woman in English history to be appointed to the office of sheriff in her own right – but she would not be the last.

11. (Oops!) For 7 months, from October 1216 to May 1217, Lincoln Castle was once again under siege by a force of English rebel barons and their French allies under the command of the Comte de Perche. Nicholaa directed the castle’s defence until royalist forces could come to her aid. On 20 May 1217, William Marshal and the royalist army came to her relief, fighting the Battle of Lincoln through the city’s streets.

12. (double oops!) There was a rise in the number of baby girls named Nicholaa, in Lincolnshire, in the 13th century.

13. Have a listen to the A Slice of Medieval episode dedicated to Nicholaa de la Haye, where Derek Birks and I discuss the ins and outs – and highs and lows – of Nicholaa’s career.

Sources:

Richard of Devizes, The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes; Roger of Howden (Hoveden), The Annals of Roger of Howden; The Plantagenet Chronicles edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Brassey’s Battles by John Laffin; 1215 The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham; The Life and times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Plantagenets, the Kings Who Made England by Dan Jones; England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings by Robert Bartlett; lincolnshirelife.co.uk; catherinehanley.co.uk; magnacarta800th.com; lothene.org; lincolncastle.com; The Sheriff: The Man and His Office by Irene Gladwin; Louise Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth Century Lincolnshire; Richard Huscraft, Tales from the Long Twelfth Century; J.W.F. Hill, Medieval Lincoln; swaton.org.uk; oxforddnb.com; Ingulph, Ingulph’ Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland; Stephen Church, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant; Marc Morris, King John; Pipe Rolls; Red Book of the Exchequer

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.

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.

Two new books in one month!

01/06/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly2 Comments

King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye

Well, it has been quite a journey, but my biography of Nicholaa de la Haye is now out in the world. My journey with Nicholaa started off with a blog post in 2015, shortly after a day trip to Lincoln Castle with my son. From that day on, I devoured everything I could find on Nicholaa. Nicholaa was one of the inspirations for my first book, Heroines of the Medieval World; I wanted to tell the stories of the most incredible women in medieval history and Nicholaa was certainly in my Top 10. And from that book, I started thinking that there was more scope to examine the women related to the Magna Carta story, especially Nicholaa and her contemporary, Matilda de Braose. The conflicting lives and experiences of these two women inspired Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; while Matilda became King John’s bitter enemy and ultimate victim, Nicholaa was a loyal ally, trusted to hold Lincoln Castle against the rebel barons and was the first woman to be appointed as a county sheriff.

As I was researching Nicholaa’s story for Ladies of Magna Carta, I got very excited as I realised that I may have enough material for a full biography. I contacted my editor, expected her to shut me down and say ‘no thanks, no one will be interested.’ But, instead, she said ‘go for it!’ And the project was born.

In a time when men fought and women stayed home, Nicholaa de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against all-comers. Not once, but three times, earning herself the ironic praise that she acted ‘manfully’. Nicholaa gained prominence in the First Baron’s War, the civil war that followed the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215. Although recently widowed, and in her 60s, in 1217 Nicholaa endured a siege that lasted over three months, resisting the English rebel barons and their French allies. The siege ended in the battle known as the Lincoln Fair, when 70-year-old William Marshal, the Greatest Knight in Christendom, spurred on by the chivalrous need to rescue a lady in distress, came to Nicholaa’s aid. Nicholaa de la Haye was a staunch supporter of King John, remaining loyal to the very end, even after most of his knights and barons had deserted him. A truly remarkable lady, Nicholaa was the first woman to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. Nicholaa de la Haye is one woman in English history whose story needs to be told…

And early reviews are fantastic!

“Whilst I have read many wonderful new releases so far this year, and I look forward to reading and reviewing many more, I have to say this has been my favourite so far. Not only is Nicholaa’s story fascinating, the way Sharon presents her impeccable scholarship is second-to-none.
I hold this book up as the gold standard for how history should be written. Sharon does not just tell the narrative history, but actually presents the primary sources, showing not just what we know of Nicholaa’s life, but how we know it. It is wonderful to be able to read the sources and see how Sharon pieced together Nicholaa’s life and family. Where sources raise more questions than they answer, Sharon does not just run with a chosen narrative version, but admits to the ambiguities and gaps in the historical record, and where relevant, offers multiple theories as to what really happened.
I must thank Sharon Bennett Connolly of History the Interesting Bits for bringing this fascinating woman out of the shadows, and for doing so in such an illuminating way.” Jessica Carey-Bunning

“Connolly’s devotion to uncovering Nicholaa de la Haye’s life and her time in power as the constable of Lincoln in her own right is reflected throughout the book, and Connolly’s clear familiarity with the time period and the de la Haye family makes this book an incredibly fascinating read. Her prose and detail provides the reader with a complete understanding of the complicated late twelfth and early thirteenth century politics in London and the power struggles between various nobles and the sons of Henry II, and Connolly explains this wonderfully.” Lily Amidon

“An engrossing account of a little-known historical figure and the pivotal role she played in late 12th/early 13th century history and politics. This is one of those rare books that is scrupulously researched and scholarly but also grips like a novel. Setting the character of Nicolaa de la Haye in her historical context, “King John’s Right Hand Lady” casts light on the remarkable story of the woman who was England’s first female sheriff, and in doing so casts a fascinating light on the character of Nicolaa herself as well as the age she lived in. highly recommended.” Nicola Cornick

“History lovers will enjoy learning about this unique lady whom history nearly forgot. History academics will relish the depth of research, end notes, appendices, and comprehensive biography.” Christy Howl

“A strong, independent woman who lived a thrilling life and was willing to defend her home of Lincoln Castle even at the age of sixty, Nicholaa de la Haye was an unsung heroine of the thirteenth century. Connolly’s passion for telling Nicholaa’s tale of trials and tribulations exudes on every page. “King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye” by Sharon Bennett Connolly is the perfect book for anyone who wants a story about the Plantagenets, King John, and the first female sheriff of England. A true triumph in exploring the life of a more hidden figure from the thirteenth century.” Heidi Malagisi

I am immensely grateful to everyone at Lindum Books and the Lincoln Museum, in Lincoln, who hosted the launch of King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye, to a sell-out crowd at the Lincoln Museum, on 20 May 2023, the 806th anniversary of the 1217 Battle of Lincoln, in which Nicholaa played a pivotal role as Constable of Lincoln Castle. And thanks to the incredible audience, who laughed at my jokes in all the right places.

To Buy King John’s Right Hand Lady:

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available as a hardback and Kindle from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon (UK and US).

I said two new books, didn’t I?

Well, yes, I did. Because on the same day that King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye hit the bookshops, the paperback edition of Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey was also published:

In the reign of Edward I, when asked Quo Warranto? – by what warrant he held his lands – John de Warenne, the 6th earl of Warenne and Surrey, is said to have drawn a rusty sword, claiming ‘My ancestors came with William the Bastard, and conquered their lands with the sword, and I will defend them with the sword against anyone wishing to seize them.’

John’s ancestor, William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, fought for William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. He was rewarded with enough land to make him one of the richest men of all time. In his search for a royal bride, the 2nd earl kidnapped the wife of a fellow baron. The 3rd earl died on crusade, fighting for his royal cousin, Louis VII of France…

For three centuries, the Warennes were at the heart of English politics at the highest level, until one unhappy marriage brought an end to the dynasty. The family moved in the most influential circles, married into royalty and were not immune to scandal.

Defenders of the Norman Crown 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.

Reviews:

“I loved Defenders of the Norman Crown. Sharon Bennett Connolly’s detailed, meticulous research brings together a wealth of sources to give the reader a fascinating view of one of the powerful families on which the Crown depended for centuries. Politics and power, Marriages and mistresses, Lordship and land, Defenders of the Norman Crown has it all. Sharon Bennett Connolly has written a very fine book indeed – I loved it.” Elizabeth Chadwick, author of The Greatest Knight

“I am reading and loving Defenders of the Norman Crown by Sharon Bennett Connolly and it’s stunning. The Warenne family, their sons, daughters and wives making gripping reading and vividly filling in fascinating background shading to the stories of medieval monarchs. Wonderful research and gripping true stories, all well substantiated with relevant sources.” Carol McGrath, author of the She-Wolf Trilogy

“Sharon Bennett Connolly has written an evocative narrative, highlighting the role the Warenne earls of Surrey played in the nation’s history. Her meticulous research is evident in every page, making the book both a reference guide and an immensely enjoyable read.“Kristie Dean, author of On the Trail of Richard III

“A vivid portrayal of a powerful aristocratic family. Sharon Bennett Connolly follows the fortunes of the Warenne earls of Surrey from supporters of William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings to their eventual demise in the reign of Edward III. Connolly writes with verve and enthusiasm, bringing the Warennes to life in all their guises – warriors, landowners and crusaders – and does not neglect the women of the family. A highly readable and well-illustrated survey.” Michael Jones, author of The Black Prince

To Buy Defenders of the Norman Crown

Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey was released in the UK on 31 May and will be out in the US on 6 August. And it is now available for pre-order from Pen & Sword Books, Bookshop.org and Amazon in the UK and US.

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available, please get in touch by completing the contact me form.

Also by me:

Podcast:

Have a listen to my A Slice of Medieval podcast, where Derek Birks and I discuss Nicholaa’s remarkable story:

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

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Alternate Endings: Long Live the King…

13/05/202307/05/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly3 Comments

With the release of King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye, I just wanted to share a short extract from the short story I wrote, which was inspired by Nicholaa‘s relationship with King John. The story culminates at the 1217 Battle of Lincoln but it opens as John has arrived at Newark Castle in October 1216, when he should have died…

Long Live the King…

During one of his visits to Lincoln in 1216, either in February or September, King John made a public demonstration of his support for Nicholaa de la Haye, hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle – and a woman! The dramatic scenes as related in the Hundred Rolls, commissioned by Edward I and written down about 60 years after the event, were played out. Nicholaa is said to have met the king at the eastern gate of the castle. A widow since the death of her husband, Gerard de Camville, in January 1215, Nicholaa met King John at the gates of her mighty fortress, Lincoln Castle.

She offered the keys of the castle to the king, the Hundred Rolls told the story:

‘And once it happened that after the war King John came to Lincoln and the said Lady Nicholaa went out of the eastern gate of the castle carrying the keys of the castle in her hand and met the king and offered the keys to him as her lord and said she was a woman of great age and was unable to bear such fatigue any longer and he besought her saying, “My beloved Nicholaa, I will that you keep the castle as hitherto until I shall order otherwise.” And she retained it as long as King John lived and after his decease she still kept it under King Henry, father of the king that now is.’

When Nicholaa spoke of her ‘great age’ she was not exaggerating. She was probably approaching sixty years of age at the time, a good age for anyone in those days, but John still had great confidence in her. Whether Nicholaa ever intended to resign Lincoln Castle at this point is open to debate. It is just as likely that the event was orchestrated as a public demonstration of John’s continuing trust in Nicholaa’s ability to hold and command the royal stronghold. John had been at war with his barons since the summer of 1215 and the failure of Magna Carta in its aim to ward off war. He had few allies left and those he did have, he needed to hold on to. Nicholaa had held Lincoln Castle for him before, in 1191, when John had led the rebellion against Richard I’s hated justiciar, William Longchamp.

In 1216, she had held it again, against the rebel forces led by her fellow Lincolnshire baron, Gilbert de Gant – that time, she paid Gant to lift the siege of the castle while allowing him to hold the city. King John had then raced to Lincoln, chased the rebels from the city and into the marshes of the Isle of Axholme, with ‘fire and sword,’ before returning to Lincoln and Nicholaa. During the visit to Lincoln, the business of government proceeded apace, with John sending out orders throughout the realm.

There was no rest for the wicked – literally in John’s case – and he was soon back in the field. It was as John was campaigning in the south of Lindsey (Lincolnshire) that ‘grim misfortune struck him, for it was in those parts that the grievous sickness of which he died took hold, gripping him so dreadfully that he was incapable of moving.’ Moving south, just two weeks after leaving Lincoln, the king’s baggage train was lost as he crossed the Wash estuary and within a few more days John was desperately ill.

John was at Lynn when, on the evening of 9 October, John suffered an attack of dysentery. His health deteriorated as he made his way west until he reached Newark on 16 October, from where ‘he could go no further and that was that.’ He died at Newark Castle on the night of 18–19 October 1216 and was buried at Worcester Cathedral, ‘not because he had asked to be buried there but because that place at that time seemed a safe one where his supporters could gather to deliberate on what was to be done next.’

And this is where my short story for Alternate Endings starts:

Newark Castle

23 October 1216

John awoke to hear mumbling around him. He turned his head to the right to see three white-clad monks. Cistercians from Swineshead Abbey, John assumed. He had stayed there briefly a few days after falling ill and could vaguely recall the abbot insisting the monks accompany the king to tend to his spiritual needs. John had scoffed at the idea, but the monks had ignored him and attached themselves to his entourage. Now, the three of them were stood side by side, hovering over the bed, praying. He tried to make sense of the Latin words, but his mind seemed to be shrouded in fog. Even listening took a great deal of effort.

John tried once more. Was that the Pater Noster? Yes, and now they have moved on to more prayers. For his soul? Or his eternal damnation?

He had always had a rather fractious relationship with the Church, so either possibility carried weight. John’s mind wandered back to his childhood at Fontevraud, the great abbey so loved by his mother. He had been sent there with his sister, Joanna, to gain an education. He couldn’t recall enjoying being forced to study, but he remembered fondly running through the fields with Joanna, or riding abroad in their free time. Had his parents really thought him suitable for the church? He tried to laugh, but only a weak groan emitted from his dry, cracked lips.

Instantly, all conversation in the room ceased. The monks looked at him expectantly. What exactly they were expecting, John could not surmise. When he made no further sounds, the three tonsured clerics resumed their prayers.

Other conversations in the room were taken up again. Few seemed too concerned with the state of the patient. With great effort, John rolled his head to the other side. The slight movement caused a wave of pain through his head. He closed his eyes briefly, waiting for the worst of the discomfort to recede. As he opened them again, he perceived William Marshal standing by the window, talking to a knight whose back was turned to him. The knight said something to Marshal, turning briefly to the bed to indicate John. They were talking about him. Not such a surprise, given he was the king and even he could sense the spectre of death lurking about the room.

John was startled when the knight looked straight at him, and the king realised he was staring into the eyes of his cousin and enemy, the Earl of Surrey, William de Warenne. The man had sworn allegiance to Louis of France at Winchester, months ago. So, what was he doing here? Now? Was he here to ensure John breathed his last? To take the news back to Louis, so there would be no room for doubt for the French invader. Or were John’s eyes and mind deceiving him, was he still in a pain induced delirium?

The man turned back to Marshal, his face now obscured, and the shape of his back gave John no clues as to the man’s identity. Maybe he had been wrong? The light in the room was fading. Was the night drawing in? No, he just could not keep his eyes open any longer. Merely observing the room had exhausted him and he drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

What would have happened if King John had not died in October 1216…?

Would England have been lost?

Find out in ‘Long Live the King…‘

I was not sure about trying my hand at fiction, but there are so many ‘What ifs’ in history that it was hard to resist. Having spent the last two years writing Nicholaa de la Haye’s biography – which will be published in May 2023, I thought it would be quite fun to take one event in Nicholaa’s life and see what might change if that event didn’t happen.

About the Book:

Alternate Endings is a compilation of short stories published by the Historical Writers Forum.

We all know the past is the past, but what if you could change history?We asked eight historical authors to set aside the facts and rewrite the history they love. The results couldn’t be more tantalizing.

What if Julius Caesar never conquered Gaul?
What if Arthur Tudor lived and his little brother never became King Henry VIII?
What if Abigail Adams persuaded the Continental Congress in 1776 to give women the right to vote and to own property?

Dive into our collection of eight short stories as we explore the alternate endings of events set in ancient Rome, Britain, the United States, and France.

Alternate Endings is now available worldwide from Amazon.

My Books:

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available, please get in touch by completing the contact me form.

Out now!

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available for pre-order as a hardback and Kindle from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon (UK and US).

In a time when men fought and women stayed home, Nicholaa de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against all-comers. Not once, but three times, earning herself the ironic praise that she acted ‘manfully’. Nicholaa gained prominence in the First Baron’s War, the civil war that followed the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215.

A truly remarkable lady, Nicholaa was the first woman to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. Nicholaa de la Haye is one woman in English history whose story needs to be told…

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

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 and Instagram.

Finding Isabelle, a Mother and a Queen

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10 Things about Nicholaa de la Haye that you may not know…

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King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye

And early reviews are fantastic!

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Long Live the King…

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