My dear friend and fellow author, Tony Riches, has a new book out! Tony is one of those authors who actively encourages his fellow author. He was one of the first people to offer to review my book, Heroines of the Medieval World, even before I had finished writing it. Even today, as I was congratulating him on the release of his new book, Tony was sharing posts on social media, celebrating the paperback publication of my own Heroines of the Tudor World. He will never know how much his support and encouragement has meant to me me over the last 10 years. Which is why it so great for me to be able to give a little of that back, by inviting Tony to talk about his new book. And it is the start of what promises to be a fabulous new series.
For the last few years, Tony has been concentrating on the Tudors with books such as Drake – Tudor Corsair and his fabulous Brandon Trilogy. Tony’s recent 6-part Elizabethan Series highlighted the likes of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex and Bess Throckmorton. An accomplished historical fiction writer, Tony has a way of bringing the past to life, recreating the lives and experiences of the people of the past with his extensive research ensuring authenticity.
WithQueen Anna, the first book in his new Stuart Queens Trilogy, Tony is continuing his established ability to retell the history in a thoroughly entertaining and engaging manner.
So, what is the story behind Queen Anna? Over to Tony….
Anna of Denmark
Sketch for a portrait of the architect Inigo Jones, created by Anthony van Dyck around 1632. (Wikimedia Commons)
While researching my new book, ‘Queen Anna’, about the life of Anna of Denmark, I realised the significance of her unlikely relationship with Inigo Jones, the son of clothworker from Smithfield, London. Together, they led an artistic renaissance that transformed the ‘masque’ into an important diplomatic spectacle, laid the foundations of British classical architecture, and influenced the public perception of the Stuart dynasty.
Anna arrived in England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 as queen consort of King James VI and I, she brought with her a bold, artistic sensibility that redefined the Jacobean court. Anna employed Inigo Jones as her stage designer, and found he was a visionary artist and aspiring architect who would become her ultimate creative partner.
Stagecraft and Spectacular Masques
Queen Anna was passionate about the court masque, extravagant theatrical spectacles combining poetry, music, dancing, and elaborate set design. Collaborating with playwright Ben Jonson, who probably recommended Inigo Jones as a set designer, Queen Anna transformed these performances into dazzling displays of royal majesty.
For landmark productions like The Masque of Blackness (1605) and The Masque of Queens (1609), Anna commissioned the works and took centre stage as a performer, ordering the late queen’s priceless gowns to be adapted as costumes. Inigo Jones brought her theatrical visions to life using innovative stagecraft he’d discovered while working in Italy.
He designed exotic, glittering costumes and introduced innovative, movable scenery, perspective stage sets, and hidden machinery that amazed the court. Through these masques, Anna asserted her independence and cultural authority, and Inigo Jones established himself as the master of illusion in England.
Redefining Royal Spaces: Denmark House
Masque costume “A Star” by Inigo Jones (Wikimedia Commons)
As their creative alliance deepened, Queen Anna entrusted self-trained architect Inigo Jones with grander architectural commissions. In the 1610s, Anna made Somerset House on the Strand her primary London residence and renamed it Denmark House to honour her Danish heritage.
She appointed Inigo Jones, by then appointed the Surveyor of the King’s Works, to modernise and remodel the aging Tudor mansion. Jones introduced classical renaissance ideas, remodelling the courtly apartments, designing a grand new cabinet room, and creating a sophisticated, continental venue where Anna hosted foreign ambassadors, literary figures, and intellectuals.
The Masterpiece: The Queen’s House at Greenwich
Anna’s most enduring legacy with Inigo Jones came in 1616, when she commissioned him to design a private pavilion at Greenwich. The site presented an unusual challenge, as the main road between Deptford and Woolwich cut directly through the royal grounds.
Inigo Jones devised an elegant, symmetrical ‘H’-shaped villa that bridged over the bustling road, connecting the royal gardens to the palace grounds. Inspired by the Italian Palladian style Jones had studied abroad, the Queen’s House featured white stonework and harmonious proportions.
Their Legacy
The Queen’s House at Greenwich (Wikimedia Commons)
Queen Anna never saw her Greenwich palace completed. She fell ill and passed away in March 1619, leaving the building half-finished. Construction stalled for over a decade until work resumed under Queen Henrietta Maria, who saw Jones’s grand design realised in the 1630s.
The partnership between Anna of Denmark and Inigo Jones transformed English art and architecture. Anna provided the dynamic patronage, European ambition, and financial
backing, while Inigo Jones supplied the artistic and architectural genius. Together, they pushed Jacobean court culture into a brilliant new era and began a renaissance which endures to this day.
About the Book:
A crown won in the eye of a storm. A queen who refuses to be broken…
Princess Anna of Denmark sails for Scotland to marry King James VI, but storms ravage her fleet, igniting a deadly obsession with witchcraft in her new home. Arriving in a strange and paranoid court, Anna finds her new husband’s bed is a treacherous place.
Surrounded by whispering courtiers and shifting alliances, Anna refuses to remain a passive pawn. When the court takes her children to raise them away from her, the young queen draws her line in the sand. From the windswept castles of Scotland to the glittering, dangerous English court, Anna is restored to her rightful place in history.
Buy Queen Anna
About the Author:
Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of historical fiction. He lives with his wife in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the lives of the early Tudors. As well as his Elizabethan series, Tony’s historical fiction novels include the best-selling Tudor trilogy and his Elizabethan series. For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and his blog, The Writing Desk and find him on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter @tonyriches.
Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop or the Contact Me page.
New releases in 2026:
New Hardbacks
‘My daughter wanted me to treat her more like a princess. So, I married her to a stranger to strengthen the alliance with Poland!’
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest and Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets tell the stories of England’s royal daughters from 1066 to the rise of the Tudors, from the last Anglo-Saxon princesses to the fall of the House of York.
Were they really pampered pawns sent off to marriages on the Continent, out of sight and out of mind?
Perhaps, there was different story, where a foreign marriage does not mean eternal exile, but a purpose in life, where a princess is a diplomat, an ambassador for England in her new country.
Where she is the bond between allies – most of the time.
Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking...
Heidi Malagisi: ‘This is another excellent book by Sharon Bennett Connolly. Extremely well researched and relatively easy to follow along, which is a great thing because there are so many Matildas and Eleanors in this book.‘
Tony Riches: “I challenge anyone with an interest in medieval Britain to not find something they will learn from this book.”
Anna Belfrage: “I just love how [Sharon] presents this huge cast of real life people in a casual, chatty tone that has me expecting the various female protagonists to suddenly pop their head up and add their own commentary.“
OUT NOW! The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women? Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play during the Norman Conquest – wives, lovers, sisters, mothers, leaders. These are lives full of drama, pathos and sometimes mystery: Edith and Gytha searching the battlefield of Hastings for the body of Harold, his lover and mother united in their grief for the fallen king. Who was Ælfgyva, the lady of the Bayeux Tapestry, portrayed with a naked man at her feet?
Janina Ramirez said it’s ‘Excellent’!
COMING 15 July 2026: Heroines of the Tudor World focuses on the women who lived through the Renaissance and Reformation, examining the threats and challenges they faced and how they overcame them. 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.
Derek Birks: ‘An excellent account of the changing roles of women in Tudor society.’
Annie Whitehead: ‘What a treat this book was to read. Bennett Connolly has an easy, conversation style of writing which welcomes you from the opening pages and draws you into her story.‘
Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:
Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)
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.
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
Dr Ashley Firth is a woman after my own heart. Her first book, Trailblazing Medieval Women, is hitting the shops as I type and includes some of my favourite women, giving readers an insight into how women navigated the patriarchal society of the medieval era. Ashley’s work will, no doubt, intersect with my own work and it will be interesting to read Ashley’s take on these amaaaazzzzzzzzing women.
Today, Ashley gives us a tantalising taste of some of the incredible women who made an impact on medieval history.
Oh, how I am looking forward to reading this book!
Think Medieval Women Had No Power? Think Again
Wife and mother are often assumed to have been the primary roles of medieval women. Confined to the household and subject to the authority of their husbands, it can seem difficult to imagine how women could overcome the limitations placed upon them and exert any real power. Medieval texts and theories reinforced this perception, portraying women as intellectually inferior and governed by bodily desires, thereby justifying their subordination. By perpetuating such myths, men kept the monopoly and controlled the lives of the women over whom they were placed. By virtue of his sex, the lowliest male peasant was set above the queen in this gender dynamic, yet theory does not always reflect reality, and the reality is far more complex.
Marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville(Wikimedia Commons)
Not all women were content with the traditional vocations for women centred around the family and the household, and some rejected them entirely. Many took on roles traditionally assigned to men and led armies and perhaps even fought on the battlefield. Some women found a conduit for their voices by putting pen to paper and telling us in their own words about their experiences while simultaneously influencing the cultural milieu of their day. Women could exert significant political and social influence through traditionally assigned gender roles. As wives and mothers, they could persuade their male relatives and even become the loudest voices at the royal court by virtue of their position.
Queens and royal women are some of the most visible women in medieval society, and for whom we have the best documentation of their experiences. During the Wars of the Roses, women were highly influential and played a significant role in shaping the outcome of this bloody civil war. Margaret of Anjou, wife of the weak and mentally unstable King Henry VI, was forced to assume power and authority when her husband was incapable. The incarceration of her husband and defeat in battle did not deter Margaret from fighting for the throne of Henry and their only son, Edward. Margaret refused to remain silent and instead was a prominent voice at court, making a series of successful alliances in her efforts to restore her deposed husband to the throne. Like her successor, Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret was criticised by her contemporaries for her behaviour and sexual slander was used to discredit both women, who proved to be a powerful influence over their respective husbands.
Elizabeth Woodville’s power, however, could not save her young sons, cruelly snatched from her grasp and no doubt met a grisly end, forever known as the Princes in the Tower. Elizabeth was more successful in securing the fate of her eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, working secretly with the incomparable Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, to secure a prestigious marriage for her daughter and ensure her daughter followed her as a queen of England. Margaret is often accused of overshadowing the more reserved Elizabeth of York, but there is no reason to doubt Elizabeth was privately steering the course of Henry’s kingship just as much as her mother-in-law was. As the mother of Henry VIII, it is worth pondering if the Reformation would have even occurred if not for the death of the incredibly devout Elizabeth in 1503, just six years before the beginning of her son’s turbulent reign.
The monument of Aethelflaed, Tamworth Castle. (Author’s own image).
Another way women could exert power and influence was in the arena of war. Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred the Great, ruled the kingdom of Mercia throughout her husband’s illness and then as a ruler in her own right after he died in 911. Alongside her brother, Edward the Elder, Aethelflaed halted the attacks of the Vikings and even reclaimed much territory lost to them in the previous generations. Aethelflaed can be found directly participating in warfare, fulfilling the role of a commander.
Later examples of the involvement of women in warfare can be found on the Continent. Matilda of Tuscany raised and led armies in her struggle to secure her inheritance. The mighty Holy Roman Emperor proved no match for Matilda, and he was forced to relinquish his claims to Matilda’s Italian domains in the late eleventh century. Sikelgaita, the wife of the Southern Italian Norman ruler, Robert Guiscard, earned a reputation equally formidable as that of her husband. No mere passive consort to a powerful Norman baron, Sikelgaita lent authority to her husband’s power in the region through her lineage. Guiscard trusted Sikelgaita as a military commander and is perhaps best remembered for her orders to the fleeing soldiers of her husband’s army, whereby she challenged them to fight and ‘be men’. Born in the early fifteenth century, Joan of Arc is one of the most famous examples of a medieval woman participating in warfare. From humble origins, Joan followed what she believed to be spiritual voices, which led her all the way to the French court. Joan proved to be a valuableasset to the French Dauphin, achieving a series of military victories over the English and even securing his coronation before finding herself discarded by the monarch once her usefulness had run its course. Some women found power and even fame through their military activities and accomplishments, with women such as Joan of Arc continuing to intrigue modern audiences.
Christine de Pizan lectures a group of men (Wikimedia Commons)
By putting pen to paper, some medieval women challenged the prevailing opinion on the intellectual inabilities of women and found power through their words. Anna Comnena, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus, is credited as the first female Byzantine author. With access to eyewitnesses for the key events in her father’s reign, her female perspective on the workings of the Byzantine court in the eleventh century remains a valuable source for historians. Anna’s own bid for the throne after her father’s death was an abject failure, but she found more success with her penmanship in her later life. Christine de Pizan is the first recorded female author to make a living solely from her writings. A remarkable achievement considering most medieval male authors supplemented their income with an additional occupation. Christine’s works were commissioned by members of the French royal family, and she offered commentary and advice during the Hundred Years’ War. Her voice seems to us the loudest in her writings on the defence of the female sex and her challenges to the traditional view of the position of women in society.
A contemporary of Christine’s, Margery Kempe, a fifteenth-century English self-proclaimed mystic, in many ways represents the repressed voice of the majority of women. Margery’s book offers an insight into her strife as she struggles to commit her story to writing. Challenged by the authorities and by the Church during a time of growing anxiety about religious dissidence, Margery shows us both the vulnerability of women in medieval society, but also the power they could attain. Writing was one of the ways in which medieval women could significantly influence medieval culture and society. Their experiences as female authors in themselves challenged the theoretical discourse of their contemporaries, and their writings offer us a fresh female perspective on contemporary events.
Queen Emma and her sons being received by Duke Richard II of Normandy (Wikimedia Commons)
The medieval period is filled with examples of extraordinary women who moved beyond the confines of being a consort and exerted significant political influence. Emma of Normandy, the only woman to be crowned Queen of England twice, undoubtedly shaped the course of English history. Married to King Aethelred the ‘Unready’ in the early eleventh century, her husband’s reign was dominated by his struggles against Viking incursions. After his death, his successor, the Viking King Cnut, seized the throne and sought Emma as a bride to legitimise his kingship and to offer her invaluable political experience to his new regime. She worked tirelessly to secure the succession of her son, Harthancut, whom she ruled alongside. The abandonment of her eldest children in her homeland of Normandy paved the way for the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Empress Matilda was another royal woman who fought to secure the succession of her son. The heiress was passed over as the successor of her father, and her cousin, Stephen, seized the English throne. A brutal civil war ensued, known as the Anarchy. Although never achieving the coronation for herself, Matilda nevertheless ensured the succession of her son, Henry II. In 1152, Eleanor, the wealthy Duchess of Aquitaine, a title she held in her own right, married Henry II, just weeks after her annulment from her first husband, King Louis VII, making her the only woman to be crowned both queen of England and of France. Eleanor was a successful politician, acting independently of Henry throughout her tenure as consort. Eleanor continued to be an imposing presence at court in the successive reigns of her sons, Richard the Lionheart and King John and often acted for them both as regent.
Isabella of France(Wikimedia Commons)
Isabella of France successfully launched an invasion of England and overthrew her husband, King Edward II, in 1326, demonstrating just how powerful medieval women could be.
The innumerable examples of women in power force us to reconsider the roles and experiences of medieval women. Power could be achieved in a variety of ways and with varying degrees of success. What these examples of trailblazing women have sought to highlight is the varied experiences and opportunities open to women, and to illustrate that theory does not always equate to practice.
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About the Book:
“The greatest glory for a woman is not to be spoken of at all, either for good or ill,” declared Pericles. For centuries, this sentiment echoed through the corridors of history, shaping a narrative that often confined women to silence, invisibility and the margins of power. But history is far richer and more complex than we’ve been led to believe.
This book reveals the lives of remarkable, trailblazing medieval women who refused to be written out of history. In a world dominated by men, they defied convention, challenged gender expectations, and carved out legacies as rulers, consorts, warriors, authors, and visionaries. From Anglo-Saxon female rulership to the political intrigue of the Wars of the Roses, these women stepped beyond the roles assigned to them and transformed the world around them, as well as the course of history.
Through meticulous research, this book brings their voices to the fore, revealing the impact they had not only in their own time but on the generations that followed. These are not just tales of exception, but of courage, intellect, and influence—testaments to the fact that women have always shaped history.
Their names deserve to be remembered. Their stories deserve to be told.
Ashley Sarah Firth holds a BA (Hons), MA, and PhD in medieval history from the University of Huddersfield. Her research focuses on the history of women, medieval gender and the Crusades. Formerly a university lecturer, she taught a wide range of topics from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Stuart era. Now a full-time historian, author and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, Ashley is dedicated to bringing the stories of the past, especially those of overlooked women, to life for a wider audience. She lives in Manchester with her husband, their two children, and three dogs, where her love of history continues to inspire her writing and research.
Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop or the Contact Me page.
New releases in 2026:
New Hardbacks
Out now: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest
‘My daughter wanted me to treat her more like a princess. So, I married her to a stranger to strengthen the alliance with Poland!’
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest and Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets tell the stories of England’s royal daughters from 1066 to the rise of the Tudors, from the last Anglo-Saxon princesses to the fall of the House of York.
Were they really pampered pawns sent off to marriages on the Continent, out of sight and out of mind?
Perhaps, there was different story, where a foreign marriage does not mean eternal exile, but a purpose in life, where a princess is a diplomat, an ambassador for England in her new country.
Where she is the bond between allies – most of the time.
Heidi Malagisi: ‘This is another excellent book by Sharon Bennett Connolly. Extremely well researched and relatively easy to follow along, which is a great thing because there are so many Matildas and Eleanors in this book.‘
Tony Riches: “I challenge anyone with an interest in medieval Britain to not find something they will learn from this book.”
Anna Belfrage: “I just love how [Sharon] presents this huge cast of real life people in a casual, chatty tone that has me expecting the various female protagonists to suddenly pop their head up and add their own commentary.“
OUT NOW! The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women? Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play during the Norman Conquest – wives, lovers, sisters, mothers, leaders. These are lives full of drama, pathos and sometimes mystery: Edith and Gytha searching the battlefield of Hastings for the body of Harold, his lover and mother united in their grief for the fallen king. Who was Ælfgyva, the lady of the Bayeux Tapestry, portrayed with a naked man at her feet?
Janina Ramirez said it’s ‘Excellent’!
COMING 15 July 2026: Heroines of the Tudor World focuses on the women who lived through the Renaissance and Reformation, examining the threats and challenges they faced and how they overcame them. 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.
Derek Birks: ‘An excellent account of the changing roles of women in Tudor society.’
Annie Whitehead: ‘What a treat this book was to read. Bennett Connolly has an easy, conversation style of writing which welcomes you from the opening pages and draws you into her story.‘
Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:
Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)
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.
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
She should have stayed in the shadows—but Leonor de Guzmán yearned for the sun
Castile in the 1330s is a place of constant turmoil. King Alfonso must contend with the incursions from the Muslim Marinids eager to reclaim Al-Andalus while struggling with repeated rebellions against his firm rule.
When Alfonso needs respite, he finds it in the arms of his Leonor—the most beautiful woman in the realm. But while he may love Leonor over all others, his lawful wife, Maria of Portugal, is tired of being constantly displaced by the fair Leonor. Leonor loves her man. She gives him healthy sons, a place to be himself. But she is only a mistress, even if Alfonso treats her like a queen. Leonor’s enemies watch and hate.
Flying too close to the sun comes at a high price. How much will Leonor’s love cost her?
Based on the true story of Alfonso XI and his complicated relationships to wife and life-long mistress.
Anna Belfrage does it again! She does have a knack of making history come to life!
Queen of Shadows tells the story of Leonor de Guzman through the eyes of the fictional character, Alma. Leonor de Guzmán y Ponce de León was the long-term mistress of Alfonso XI, King of Castile. She and Alfonso had 10 children together, the eldest surviving son, Enrique of Trastamara, being a year older than his legitimate half-brother Pedro the Cruel (or the Just), King of Castile.
King Alfonso was married to Maria of Portugal, but in love with Leonor. I always find it heartbreaking how women blame ‘the other woman’ rather than the man, who is betraying and hurting both his wife and his lover. Queen of Shadows does not shy away from portraying that betrayal and hurt – or the rivalry of the two women, one with a nursery full of illegitimate children and the other with one precious son who is the legitimate heir.
This fabulous novel explores the story of Castile at a crucial time, when the Reconquista is gathering pace and the Castilian king is fighting to recover lands lost to the Muslim invaders. Alfonso’s relationship with his own barons is tested by objections to his personal life. His alliance with Portugal is, likewise, put under immense strain.
All the ingredients for an intense drama, a story of love, hate and conflict. And the fate of kingdoms.
Doña Leonor took to her bed. Over the coming days, the house was sunk in gloom. Doña Leonor refusing to see anyone but Teresa.
“So sad,” Blanca said to Alma.
“Si.” Sad for all three of them. While Alma had never met Queen Maria, her mother had, saying she was a fine lady, soft-spoken and kind.
“Ah, well. The heart wants what the heart wants.” Blanca gave Alma a patronising smile. “You don’t understand yet, but one day you will.” She went back to her sewing. “She was devastated when he wed her.” Blanca spat out the pronoun. “But back then, theirs was nothing but a game of stolen kissed and caresses. It was worse when he felt pressured to lay with his wife, our lady recently delivered of their first son, little Pedro.”
Blanca stabbed the needle through the material. “Doña Leonor was utterly distraught, so pale, so silent. It was as if all life had drained out of her, and she walked these passages like a veritable ghost.” Blanca crossed herself. “Not that I believe in such.”
Alma did.
“And then, from somewhere came this anger, this strength, and she told her servants to never let the king over the threshold. She did not want to see him ever again.”
Alma gaped. “She did?”
“oh yes.” Blanca chuckled. She was so angry, screeching that he should stay with his wife and reconcile himself to a loveless marriage.”
“Is it truly loveless?”
“Rumour has it they disliked each other on sight.”
“Ah.”
“The king, however, wasn’t having it. When our lady, just to taunt him, made it known she would consider proposals of marriage, he alighted from the marital bed and stormed over.” Blanca shook her head. “Like an avenging angel he was, threatening the guards with death unless they let him – their king – through. And then he slammed open the door to the solar. ‘What is this?’ he yelled. ‘Are you considering wedding someone else?’ ‘Why not?’ she replied. ‘You have.’ ‘I had no choice,’ he roared.” Blanca shuddered. “He truly did roar. And then…” She waggled her brows.
“Yes?”
“They reconciled. And the next morning, it was as if all those heavy clouds hanging over our lady’s head had dispersed, and she was back to being happy and in love. It was so beautiful.” Blanca set a hand to her heart. “Verily like one of those romances, where the gallant knight wins the heart of his damsel.”
Except this gallant knight was wed elsewhere, and that, Alma knew, was a grievous, grievous sin.
Anna Belfrage tells the story through Alma, a midwife by training who becomes one of Leonor’s most trusted confidants. Through her service and marriage to Rodrigo – one of King Alfonso’s trusted knights – Alma gains money and influence. And sometimes the wrong kind of attention. Alma is the ruse through which the author shows you the Castilian court in all its glory – and all its backstabbing, machinations and treasonous intrigues.
Though fiction, Queen of Shadows fills some gaps in my own historical knowledge – and has sent me down more than one rabbit hole while I have been reading it. Some of it seems too fantastical to be true – but it is. Anna Belfrage has merely turned the facts into a story and filled in the gaps with the human interactions that we lack in history books.
The book sets the scene for the momentous struggle that engulfs Castile in the next generation, when legitimate son, Pedro and illegitimate son, Enrique of Trastamara, fight to the death for the crown. Enrique will emerge victorious as Enrique (Henry) II, King of Castile, killing his half-brother with his own hands. His grandson will marry Catherine of Lancaster, the legitimate daughter of John of Gaunt and Constance of Castile – and the granddaughter of Pedro the Cruel, thus uniting the two warring houses.
Queen of Shadows shows us how one generation can destroy the next with their actions and prejudices; the rivalry of Pedro and Enrique is firmly rooted in the rivalry of their mothers. And their father’s inability to appreciate the disaster he is causing by loving one woman when married to – and humiliating – another. The king gets what he wants but no one is happy with the situation – not even him!
The human story at the heart of Queen of Shadows is heartwarming but tragic. And shows how little control women have had over their lives in years past, even queens. It also provides a sharp contrast between duty and passion in the lives of the two women involved, Leonor de Guzman and Queen Maria. Leonor was loved but had to stay out of the limelight, whereas Queen Maria’s marriage was loveless, but she was the one on public display, with the son who would be king. What a situation!
Beautifully told and full of drama. Anna Belfrage has woven a story that is impossible to put down, that will raw you into this tale of love, betrayal and regret. I will leave it to you, the reader, to discover whether there will be a happy ending.
Had Anna Belfrage 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.
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My Books
New releases in 2026:
New Hardbacks
Out now: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest
‘My daughter wanted me to treat her more like a princess. So, I married her to a stranger to strengthen the alliance with Poland!’
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest and Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets tell the stories of England’s royal daughters from 1066 to the rise of the Tudors, from the last Anglo-Saxon princesses to the fall of the House of York.
Were they really pampered pawns sent off to marriages on the Continent, out of sight and out of mind?
Perhaps, there was different story, where a foreign marriage does not mean eternal exile, but a purpose in life, where a princess is a diplomat, an ambassador for England in her new country.
Where she is the bond between allies – most of the time.
Tony Riches: “I challenge anyone with an interest in medieval Britain to not find something they will learn from this book.”
Anna Belfrage: “I just love how [Sharon] presents this huge cast of real life people in a casual, chatty tone that has me expecting the various female protagonists to suddenly pop their head up and add their own commentary.“
OUT NOW! The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women? Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play during the Norman Conquest – wives, lovers, sisters, mothers, leaders. These are lives full of drama, pathos and sometimes mystery: Edith and Gytha searching the battlefield of Hastings for the body of Harold, his lover and mother united in their grief for the fallen king. Who was Ælfgyva, the lady of the Bayeux Tapestry, portrayed with a naked man at her feet?
Janina Ramirez said it’s ‘Excellent’!
COMING 15 July 2026: Heroines of the Tudor World focuses on the women who lived through the Renaissance and Reformation, examining the threats and challenges they faced and how they overcame them. 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.
Derek Birks: ‘An excellent account of the changing roles of women in Tudor society.’
Annie Whitehead: ‘What a treat this book was to read. Bennett Connolly has an easy, conversation style of writing which welcomes you from the opening pages and draws you into her story.‘
Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:
Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)
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.
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
Simon de Montfort was a third son, whose prospects would have appeared bleak during his younger years; a younger son could expect to inherit little and had to make his own way in the world. An opportunity arose for him through his father’s claim to the earldom of Leicester, via his mother, Amicia de Beaumont. The continuing hostilities between England and France in the early years of the 13th century meant that Simon’s father was never able to take possession of this inheritance. When the senior Simon de Montfort had died in 1218, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Amaury, who then transferred his claims to the earldom of Leicester to his younger brother, Simon, who in turn then departed for England to claim his inheritance and make his fortune.
Simon was able to gain control of his family’s portion of the Leicester lands, although he was not able to obtain the earldom that went with them. In 1231, he did homage to Henry III for those lands, and he continued to rise through the ranks of the court throughout the 1230s. From 1234 he attended meetings of the great council, pursued diplomacy with Scotland and Wales, and acted as steward – a post traditionally held by the earls of Leicester – at Henry III’s wedding to Eleanor of Provence in 1234, although the earldom had still not been conferred on him.
Simon did make enemies, however; his closeness to Henry and the fact he was a foreigner did not endear him to his fellow nobles.
At some point after the mid-1230s, possibly at the wedding of Henry and Eleanor of Provence, Simon met the king’s youngest sister, Eleanor, and the couple fell in love. Eleanor was the widow of William Marshal, second Earl of Pembroke and had taken a vow of chastity on Marshal’s death in 1231. With the king’s permission, they married in January 1238, in a secret ceremony in Henry’s private chapel; Matthew Paris called it a ‘matrimonium clandestinum’, a clandestine marriage. Due to Eleanor’s vow of chastity, and the fact that Simon was a foreigner and a minor noble, and Eleanor a princess, secrecy was essential. Simon and Eleanor’s first child, a son named Henry, was born in November 1238; ten months after the wedding. And in the spring of 1239, Simon was confirmed as Earl of Leicester.
The marriage was to be the spark that would end Henry and Simon’s friendship, and in August 1239, at the churching of Eleanor of Provence, following the birth of Lord Edward, the king’s eldest son and heir, Henry turned on his brother-in-law. He accused Simon of seducing his sister and defiling her before their marriage; apparently Simon and Eleanor had intimated that Eleanor was pregnant in order to persuade Henry to sanction their marriage. Little Henry de Montfort’s arrival a full 10 months after the wedding being evidence that someone had played the king for a fool. Henry also charged Simon with bribing the Pope and using the crown as surety for his debts without the king’s permission.
Due to Eleanor’s vow of chastity, Simon had been prevailed upon to journey to Rome in March 1238, to seek a papal dispensation for the marriage. He had borrowed a large amount of money during his trip from the queen’s uncle, Thomas of Savoy, Count of Flanders, giving the king’s name as security. The king only discovered this when Thomas could not recover the money from Simon, and so approached Henry and asked for his money back. With further borrowing and accumulated interest, by this point, the initial £200 debt now amounted to £1,400.
Henry flew into a rage.
He forbade Simon and a pregnant Eleanor from attending the queen’s churching ceremony and the stunned couple had to flee London, taking a ship to France; so hasty was their departure that they were forced to leave their son behind, with his wet-nurse. Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln and a friend of Simon’s, intervened on his behalf with the king and Simon was able to return to England in 1240, ostensibly to raise funds to go on Crusade and to collect his eldest son. Simon and Eleanor were only fully restored to favour on Simon’s return from the Barons’ Crusade in 1242. In the same year, Simon campaigned in Poitou, and between 1248 and 1252 he was in Gascony, acting as Henry’s seneschal. In the four years that Simon was abroad, Eleanor visited him in 1249–50, 1251 and 1253. Simon’s financial worries were gathering pace, with his Leicester lands being insufficient to support his growing family and his wife’s Marshal dower only being paid sporadically. To make matters worse, in 1252, Henry called Simon to Westminster to answer charges of brutal high-handedness in Gascony. Henry was thwarted by baronial support for Simon, who countered with arguments that Henry had contravened the terms of his commission and failed to support Simon financially.
Eleanor accompanied Simon on his visits to Paris, during the negotiations with Louis IX over Gascony. The arguments concerning Eleanor’s Marshal dower found their way into the discussions as the treaty included Henry’s sisters renouncing their claims to the former Plantagenet lands in France. Eleanor initially refused to do so until her dower was formally settled, and the French king and queen offered to act as mediators. In the end, a payment of 15,000 marks, due to Henry through the treaty, was set aside to act as a pledge for the future settlement of Eleanor’s dower.
The barons confronting Henry III at the Oxford Parliament
Growing baronial tensions led to Henry III agreeing to the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Adopted during the Parliament at Oxford, the Provisions were a series of reforms aimed at making the royal court more efficient, with a council of 15 chosen to advise and supervise the king. The reforms created and regulated the officers of state, such as reviving the office of Justiciar, and limited the terms in office. They also stipulated that parliaments were to be held 3 times a year. However, in May 1261 papal bulls, issued by Alexander IV, arrived in England, absolving the king, queen and the realm of their oaths to adhere to the Provisions. Henry published the bulls at Winchester in early June. By the end of the year, resistance had collapsed and the king’s opponents were pardoned for their actions, and Simon de Montfort took his wife and children and left for the Continent.
Simon returned to England in April 1263. As relations between the king and the barons caused tensions, Simon emerged as the leader in the baronial opposition to Henry III’s ‘naïve foreign policies and his disastrous handling of domestic affairs’.1
Meeting at Oxford, the rebel barons insisted on the enforcement of the Provisions of Oxford of 1258. Many of the barons had grievances to work through. There were violent clashes when Montfort’s army attacked royalists and occupied the Welsh Marches. In May 1263 Montfort summoned his supporters to Worcester and told them to come armed for war. The king was in dire straits; his Savoyard allies were pursued and violated. The queen’s barge was attacked, pelted with mud, rotten eggs and stones, as it approached London Bridge, and the king was isolated in the Tower of London, surrounded by a hostile mob. Eleanor of Provence was eventually able to reunite with the king in the Tower, but the experience had shaken her.
On 15 July, Simon de Montfort’s army entered London, with Montfort appearing at the Tower the next day to ask for Henry’s submission; Henry had little choice but to agree. The king then rode with Simon to Windsor, where Lord Edward, who had been sympathetic to Simon but was now firmly on the side of his father, was continuing his resistance. The young prince relinquished the castle, if a little ungraciously, without a fight.
Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and the king’s brother-in-law, now had control of the ministries of state and the royal castles of England.
Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester
But attempts to control the king failed. Simon became the baronial leader as they rose up in revolt and the Second Barons’ War broke out. Rochester Castle was besieged by Simon de Montfort between 19 and 26 April 1264, but Montfort was forced to withdraw to London when the royalist army arrived to relieve the castle. The king proceeded to secure the submission of the Channel ports. Simon de Montfort, with reinforcements from his son Henry and the London irregulars, marched out of London and headed south, hoping to bring the king’s forces to battle.
The two armies came face to face at Lewes in Sussex; Edward’s troops were billeted in the castle while Henry’s forces were camped further south, around St Pancras Priory. On 13 May 1264, Simon de Montfort and his men formally withdrew their homage to the king, and on the morning of 14 May, the two armies arrayed themselves for battle, with Henry having the larger force, but Simon having the higher ground. Eager for battle, Edward took the field in advance of Henry and charged the left of the baronial line, comprised of the raw troops recruited in London, before the rest of the royal army was ready.
Inevitably, in the face of such a ferocious attack, the Londoners broke and fled, Edward and his cavalry hot on their heels. Henry was left with no option but to hurry to the attack, climbing the hill to engage Simon’s centre. The royal left, led by the king’s brother, Richard of Cornwall, engaged Simon de Montfort’s right but, faced with stiff opposition, were pushed back down the hill. Despite attacking uphill, Henry’s division held its own in the centre, until Simon sent in his reserve to tip the balance in the barons’ favour. Simon’s troops pursued the royalist forces into the town of Lewes, with Henry only just able to disentangle himself from the street fighting and seek shelter in the priory. By the time Edward and his cavalry returned to the field, the battle was lost. Edward tried to rally his forces for a fresh offensive, but his leading barons thwarted his efforts by riding from the field.
Eleanor de Montfort and children
Instead of pulling back and regrouping, Edward chose to fight his way to his father, who had set up a defensive perimeter at the priory. Father and son were trapped; the next day they agreed to surrender.
The king was now firmly in Simon de Montfort’s control, little more than a figurehead with Edward held hostage for his father’s good behaviour. The heir to the throne was held under guard, first residing with Eleanor and later with her son, Henry de Montfort. Simon de Montfort was now the effective ruler of England, with Eleanor acting in support of her husband, hosting his allies at her castles at Wallingford and Odiham, corresponding with them and sending gifts.2
The king was forced to pardon the rebel barons and reinstate the Provisions of Oxford. De Montfort established a government based on the Provisions of Oxford and in 1265 called the Great Parliament, at which towns were asked to send their own representatives for the first time, in addition to the usual attendance of the barons and knights of the shires. This act earned for Simon recognition as the founder of the House of Commons.
Henry III from the Gallery of Kings, Lincoln Cathedral
Simon’s victory was short-lived. Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Provence, was already in France trying to gain support for his husband’s cause. She met with the lords who had escaped the battlefield at Lewes and learned of the disastrous battle. After advising the queen to gather a force for invasion, the exiled lords appealed to the King of France for aid for their cause. They returned to England at Whitsuntide in 1265, under the leadership of William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, and John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, ‘with a power of crossebowes and other men of warre’.3 He landed with a force of 120 men, both cavalry and infantry.
While King Henry was in the custody of Simon, Edward was under the supervision of his aunt, Eleanor. On 28 May, at Hereford, Edward escaped his captors, slipping his guard while out riding, and rendezvoused with William de Valence. Under Edward’s leadership, they attacked several towns in the Welsh Marches and on the night of 1–2 August, having ridden through the night from Worcester, launched a surprise attack on Kenilworth Castle, Simon de Montfort’s home. They captured a good number of Simon’s noble commanders, men and equipment, but the earl’s son, the younger Simon de Montfort, managed to escape with a sizeable force.
Edward faced Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham on 4 August 1265. The battle effectively ended Simon de Montfort’s rebellion, with only small pockets of resistance holding out afterwards.
On the morning of the battle, Edward appeared on the high ground, north of the town of Evesham. Mistaken in the belief that the royal army was a contingent of reinforcements being brought up by the younger Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester was taken by surprise. Still in Simon de Montfort’s custody, Henry had been brought to the battlefield. As soon as the king saw Edward, he abandoned Simon de Montfort, fighting meanwhile breaking out on all sides. Henry, who was wearing borrowed armour, was almost killed by Edward’s forces during the fighting before they recognised the king and escorted him to safety.
Medieval manuscript showing Simon’s mutilated body after the Battle of Evesham
The battle was a slaughter. Edward had decided that Simon de Montfort had to die and assigned men to the job of seeking out the rebel leader, dispatching him, and gruesomely mutilating him afterwards. Simon’s oldest son, Henry, was also killed in the fighting.
Eleanor had been staying at Odiham but had left for Dover as the tide turned against her family. It was at Dover Castle that Eleanor heard the news of her husband’s death and defeat. She withdrew into seclusion for ten days, to mourn her husband and son, but when she reappeared she was ready to take charge again. Rather than running for the Continent, she settled down to defend the castle. Her son, Simon, was holding Eleanor’s brother, Richard, at Kenilworth and only released him on condition that he would protect Eleanor’s interests; Henry, however, was in no mood to be compassionate towards his sister.
He wanted to disinherit and banish Eleanor.
The younger Simon then fled north, continuing the insurgence in the Isle of Axeholme in Lincolnshire, which had been a hotbed for rebellion during the First Barons’ War against King John. Edward took Dover in October 1265, allowing Eleanor a dignified retreat into exile, taking her daughter, Eleanor, with her.
Eleanor retired to the Domincan convent of Montargis, founded by her sister-in-law, Amicia de Montfort. In 1267 she was granted an annual payment of £500 from the English Exchequer, providing she remained in exile, thanks to the intervention of Louis IX, King of France. Edward I confirmed this soon after his accession; he had met his aunt on his way home from crusade in 1273 and loaning her £200, he wrote to his chancellor, saying that he had admitted her to his ‘grace and peace.’4 Edward and Eleanor were eventually reconciled, with the help of Marguerite, Queen of France and sister of Edward’s mother, Eleanor of Provence, who wrote to the new English king:
Seal of Eleanor, Countess of Pembroke and Leicester
‘To the very high and very noble prince, our very dear nephew, Edward, by the grace of God king of England, Marguerite, by the same grace queen of France, greetings and true love. Dear nephew, the countess of Leicester entreated us and asks that we entreat you to have pity on her and her will, and asked us also that we entreat for Amaury, her son the cleric, that you have pity on him and do right by him and render him your favour. And since we promised her that we would do it, we entreat for … things, and we entreat you also that you would act and command that the need that involves the will of said lady … and delivered as right, usage and custom of the country might give. And … as to the cleric, that there be honour and good, so much that God, and I, may be grateful to you, and that you cannot be blamed. And of these things … your will …, if it please you, the Monday before the feast of St Denis.’5
Eleanor had been a strong-willed, independent woman. Her seal depicted her as countess on one side and sister of the king on the other.She was involved in the governance of her estates and in disputes with lords over customs and property. She held wardships in her English manors and issued charters in her own name. She was a benevolent mistress, procuring grants and pardons for the men and women in her service. She supported Simon in his rebellion and was entrusted with the custody of her nephews, Edward and Henry (the son of Richard of Cornwall) after the Battle of Lewes. After Simon de Montfort’s defeat and death at Evesham, Eleanor continued to support her surviving sons, providing money for them to pay their soldiers and sending two of them to France with 11,000 marks in their possession. She negotiated the surrender of Dover Castle to Lord Edward, her safe passage to France and the safety of her people left behind in England.
In her French exile, Eleanor had the company of her only daughter, Eleanor de Montfort, who was probably born in 1258, at Kenilworth Castle. On her father’s death, Eleanor had fled into exile in France with her mother and brothers. Her brothers continued to Italy, where Guy and Simon would seek knightly employment, while Amaury studied medicine and theology at the university in Padua. The two Eleanors remained settled at the abbey at Montargis, until the elder Eleanor’s death there before 3 June 1275, with her daughter Eleanor and her son Amaury by her side. Eleanor, Countess of Pembroke and Leicester and a princess of England, was buried at the abbey which had been her home for the last ten years of her life.
Notes:
1. Louise Wilkinson (ed. and trans.), The Household Roll of Eleanor de Montfort; 2. ibid; 3. Holinshed quoted in Darren Baker, The Two Eleanors of Henry III: The Lives of Eleanor of Provence and Eleanor de Montfort; 4. Darren Baker, With All For All: The Life of Simon de Montfort; Royal Letters, Tower Collection #1125, quoted in Epistolae, ‘Eleanor of England’.
Sources:
Louise Wilkinson (ed. and trans.), The Household Roll of Eleanor de Montfort; Epistolae; Darren Baker, The Two Eleanors of Henry III: The Lives of Eleanor of Provence and Eleanor de Montfort; 4. Darren Baker, With All For All: The Life of Simon de Montfort; Rich Price, King John’s Letters Facebook group; Robert Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225; Dan Jones The Plantagenets; the Kings who Made England; The Plantagenet Chronicle Edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Maurice Ashley The Life and Times of King John; Roy Strong, The Story of Britain; Oxford Companion to British History; Mike Ashley British Kings & Queens; David Williamson Brewer’s British Royalty; Ralph of Diceto, Images of History; Marc Morris, King John; Oxforddnb.com; Thomas Asbridge, The Greatest Knight; finerollshenry3.org.uk; Elizabeth Norton, She Wolves: The Notorious Queens of England; Moniek Bloks (ed.) ‘Eleanor of Leicester: A Broken Vow of Chastity’ (article), historyofroyalwomen.com; David Carpenter, Henry III: The Rise to Power and Personal Rule 1207-125; Mary Anne Everett Green, Lives of the Princesses of England from the Norman Conquest; Matthew Lewis, Henry III: the Son of Magna Carta; Anne Crawford (ed. and trans.), Letters of Medieval Women
Out now: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest
‘My daughter wanted me to treat her more like a princess. So, I married her to a stranger to strengthen the alliance with Poland!’
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest and Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets tell the stories of England’s royal daughters from 1066 to the rise of the Tudors, from the last Anglo-Saxon princesses to the fall of the House of York.
Were they really pampered pawns sent off to marriages on the Continent, out of sight and out of mind?
Perhaps, there was different story, where a foreign marriage does not mean eternal exile, but a purpose in life, where a princess is a diplomat, an ambassador for England in her new country.
Where she is the bond between allies – most of the time.
OUT NOW! The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women? Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play during the Norman Conquest – wives, lovers, sisters, mothers, leaders. These are lives full of drama, pathos and sometimes mystery: Edith and Gytha searching the battlefield of Hastings for the body of Harold, his lover and mother united in their grief for the fallen king. Who was Ælfgyva, the lady of the Bayeux Tapestry, portrayed with a naked man at her feet?
Janina Ramirez said it’s ‘Excellent’!
COMING 15 July 2026: Heroines of the Tudor World focuses on the women who lived through the Renaissance and Reformation, examining the threats and challenges they faced and how they overcame them. 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.
Derek Birks: ‘An excellent account of the changing roles of women in Tudor society.’
Annie Whitehead: ‘What a treat this book was to read. Bennett Connolly has an easy, conversation style of writing which welcomes you from the opening pages and draws you into her story.‘
Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:
Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)
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.
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
In 1217, England was suffering the triple calamity of civil war, foreign invasion and a child king on the throne. The barons who had rebelled against King John in 1215 had appealed to the French king for support. That support had come in the form of Prince Louis, the future King Louis VIII of France, whose wife, Blanche of Castile, had her own claim to the English throne as a granddaughter of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
By the time of King John’s death, in the night of 18/19 October 1216, England was in a desperate state, with Louis controlling most of the country and having been proclaimed king in London, though he was not yet crowned. Only three royal castles held out against the French onslaught: Dover, Windsor and Lincoln. At the time, the defence of Lincoln Castle was being led by one of the most remarkable people of medieval history: Nicholaa de la Haye.
Almost forgotten by history, Nicholaa was not some fresh-faced beauty in need of rescue, when the French came knocking at the door. She was a mature woman in her 60s and the highly experienced castellan of Lincoln Castle. A formidable matriarch if ever there was one. And she already had one successful defence of Lincoln Castle under her belt, in 1191.
Nicholaa was probably born sometime in the early 1150s. She was the eldest daughter of Richard de la Haye, a minor Lincolnshire lord and hereditary castellan of Lincoln Castle, and his wife, Matilda de Vernon, niece of Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon. When her father died in 1169, Nicholaa inherited his lands in Lincolnshire and Normandy – and his position as castellan of Lincoln Castle, a post she would hold for over 50 years, with a brief gap in the 1190s when Nicholaa and her husband were out of royal favour. Nicholaa was married twice, her husbands each successively holding the position of castellan at Lincoln by right of his wife, Nicholaa.
Nicholaa’s first husband, William Fitz Erneis, died in 1178. The couple had one child, a daughter named Matilda. Nicholaa had married again, before 1185, to Gerard de Canville, or Camville, whose brother, Richard, had accompanied Richard I on the Third Crusade. Nicholaa and Gerard had at least two children, sons named Richard and Thomas and possibly a daughter named Nicola. Nothing is known of Thomas beyond his name, but Richard married and fathered at least one child, a daughter named Idonea who married the oldest son of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury. A son named Richard is mentioned but must have died young . Another daughter named Eustachia, is recorded as being in the custody of the earl of Salisbury in 1219; it may be that Eustachia died shortly afterwards or retired to a convent as it appears that Idonea was Nicholaa’s sole heir.
The Lucy Tower, Lincoln Castle
Nicholaa de la Haye first comes to the attention of chroniclers in 1191, when Prince John led a revolt against the rule of Richard I’s justiciar, William Longchamp. Many barons bridled under the harsh rule of Longchamp. John had set up his court at Nottingham Castle and Gerard de Camville, a supporter of John, joined him there, leaving Nicholaa in command of Lincoln. William Longchamp had headed north to halt John’s coup and laid siege to Lincoln Castle, intending to oust Nicholaa and install one of his own supporters, William de Stuteville.
The formidable Nicholaa refused to yield, successfully holding out for 40 days before Longchamp gave up the siege following the fall of the castles of Tickhill and Nottingham. In 1194, on King Richard’s return to England, Camville was stripped of his positions as Sheriff of Lincolnshire and castellan of the castle; the castle was only returned to Nicholaa and Gerard on John’s accession to the throne in 1199. His lands were also declared forfeit, but he was able to buy them back after paying a fine of 2,000 marks.
Nicholaa was widowed for a second time when Gerard de Camville died in December 1214. It seems, however, that, rather than passing control of the castle to her son, Richard, it remained in Nicholaa’s more than capable hands. It is thought that Richard Camville joined the rebellion against King John at some point, so leaving Nicholaa in charge was probably the sensible decision. Nicholaa had herself officially declared femme sole, so that she was legally responsible for her own lands and property.
Lincoln Castle’s East Gate
On one of King John’s visits to inspect the castle’s defences, in either 1215 or 1216, there was a rather dramatic display of fealty from Nicholaa:
‘And it once happened that after the war King John came to Lincoln and the said 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.”’1
Nicholaa’s greatest hour came shortly after the death of King John, but as a result of the late king’s tyrannical actions. As we all know, King John’s reign was not exactly smooth sailing. He lost his French lands and was held to account by the barons of England for numerous examples of maladministration, corruption and outright murder! In June 1215 he had been forced to put his seal to Magna Carta in order to avoid war with his barons. However, within a matter of weeks, John had appealed to Pope Innocent III and the charter had been declared null and void; the barons were up in arms.
The rebel barons invited the king of France to take the throne of England; Philip II was not really interested but his son, Louis (the future Louis VIII), was. He had a claim to the English throne through his wife, Blanche of Castle, niece of King John, and so accepted the offer and launched an invasion. Landing on the Isle of Thanet in May 1216, Louis was proclaimed king of England in London in June. He was never crowned.
By the summer of 1216, rebel forces led by Gilbert de Gant had seized the city of Lincoln and laid siege to the castle. Nicholaa arranged a truce and ‘freed herself from this siege with a money payment.’2 King John came north – chasing the rebels into the marshes of the Isle of Axholme, devastating the area with ‘fire and sword’.3
King John from the Gallery of Kings, Lincoln Cathedral
As Louis consolidated his position in the south, John made an inspection of Lincoln Castle in September 1216. Moving south, just two weeks later, the king’s baggage train was lost as he crossed the Wash estuary and within a few more days, John lay desperately at the bishop of Lincoln’s castle at Newark. On 18 October 1216, just hours before his death, John appointed Nicholaa de la Haye as Sheriff of Lincolnshire in her own right. She is the first woman on record to be given the position; the second would be her granddaughter’s mother-in-law Ela, Countess of Salisbury. When the king died that night, as a storm raged overhead, half of his kingdom was in the hands of a foreign invader and his throne was now occupied by his 9-year-old son, Henry III. The elder statesman and notable soldier, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was appointed regent for young Henry and set out to save the country.
Meanwhile, the English rebels, who had been driven from Lincoln in the summer of 1216, returned and took the city, once again laying siege to the castle. Reinforcements were sent north by Louis, under the Comte de Perche, arriving in March 1217 with siege machinery that were set to bombard and weaken the castle’s walls. Although in her 60s, Nicholaa de la Haye took charge of the defences and refused to be daunted by her position, with her newly-appointed deputy, Geoffrey de Serland, commanding the garrison as ‘the barons then made fierce assaults upon the castle, whilst the besieged returned their showers of stones and missiles with stones and deadly weapons with great courage.’4
With William Marshal declaring it would be ‘dishonourable not to help so brave a lady,’ the loyal English forces mustered at Newark on 17 May, with the intention of marching to Nicholaa’s relief.5 The English commanders included William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, his son, young William Marshal, and nephew John Marshal, in addition to Ranulph, Earl of Chester, William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, and Faulke de Bréauté.
They led 406 knights, 317 crossbowmen and a large number of sergeants-at-arms, foot soldiers and camp followers. The enemy forces in Lincoln were led by Thomas, Comte de Perche, himself a grandson of Henry II’s daughter Matilda and therefore a cousin of King Henry III. The commanders of the English rebels in the city included Robert FitzWalter and Saer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester. They led approximately 600 knights and several thousand infantry.
From Newark, Marshal’s forces marched on Lincoln using a roundabout route, keeping close to the river, they marched past the city and were camping at or near Torksey by the 19 May. They came upon the city from the north in the early morning of 20 May. Before battle, William Marshal made a rousing speech, telling his men: ‘Now listen, my lords! There is honour and glory to be won here…’6
On seeing the arrival of the English forces, Nicholaa sent her deputy, Geoffrey de Serland, to meet with the regent. Serland returned with Peter des Roches, entering the castle by a postern gate, who told Nicholaa of Marshal’s plans for the battle, and then sneaked into the city via another postern gate to do a little reconnaissance. Des Roches discovered a barricaded gate in the city wall, which could be cleared in a matter of hours.
Marshal split his forces, sending Faulke de Bréauté into the castle with his crossbowmen. He entered through a postern gate and positioning his men on the walls to rain a fire of bolts on the besiegers. The earl of Chester was directed to attack the North Gate as William Marshal’s men attacked the newly cleared gate in the north western part of the city wall. According to the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréschal (History of William the Marshal), Marshal was so eager to advance that he almost forgot to don his helmet and had to be reminded.
The Battle of Lincoln from Matthew Paris’s Chronica Majora
It is not hard to imagine Nicholaa standing on the castle’s battlements, watching the initial charge, relieved that help had arrived, but desperate for victory.
The battle lasted a matter of hours. The fiercest fighting took place in the ground between the castle and cathedral; with the enemy’s commander, the Comte de Perche, killed in front of the cathedral itself. And with the death of their leader, the French and rebel barons lost heart and started pulling back. The rebel leaders, Saer de Quincy and Robert FiztWalter were both taken prisoner, as were many others. In total, about half of the enemy knights surrendered. The fleeing rebels were chased through the city streets. The city itself, which had supported the rebels and welcomed the French, was sacked and looted by the victorious army.
The Battle of Lincoln turned the tide of the war. By the summer, following a second defeat at sea off Sandwich in Kent, the French were forced to seek peace and eventually returned home. Magna Carta was reissued and Henry III’s regents could set about healing the country.
In a magnificent demonstration of ingratitude, within four days of the Battle of Lincoln, Nicholaa was relieved of her position as sheriff of Lincolnshire; the post was given to the king’s uncle William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, who took control of the city and seized the castle. As the father-ion-law of Nicholaa’s granddaughter and heir, Salisbury most likely thought he had more right to hold Lincoln Castle than Nicholaa did. Nicholaa disagreed. Not one to give up easily, she travelled to court to remind the king’s regents of her services, and request her rights be restored to her. Eventually a compromise was reached whereby Salisbury remained as sheriff of the county, while Nicholaa held the city and her beloved castle.
Tomb effigy of Nicholaa de la Haye
A staunchly independent woman, Nicholaa issued some 25 surviving charters in her own name. She made grants to various religious houses, including Lincoln Cathedral, and even secured a royal grant for a weekly market on one of her properties. A most able adversary for some of the greatest military minds of the time, and a loyal supporter of King John, Nicholaa de la Haye was unique among her peers.
Nicholaa died at her manor of Swaton on on 20 November, 1230 and was buried in St Michael’s Church there.
The chroniclers were full of praise for Nicholaa, though they seemed to have difficulty in finding the right adjectives to describe her. Richard of Devizes said of her 1191 defence of Lincoln Castle, against William Longchamp, that she did it ‘without thinking of anything womanly’. The Dunstable annals refer to her as a ‘noble woman’, saying she acted ‘manfully’. And William Marshal called her ‘brave’.
Nicholaa’s stoic defence of Lincoln Castle gave Marshal the time to organise his forces, march to her aid and set the scene for one definitive battle that would prove to be the beginning of the end of the war. Within 3 months, the French invaders would be agreeing to peace and sailing for home. One cannot fail to feel admiration for a woman who managed to hold her own in a man’s world, who fought for her castle and her home in a time when women had so little say over their own lives – and at such an advanced age. Her bravery and tenacity saved Henry III’s throne. Not surprisingly, King Henry referred to her as ‘our beloved Nicholaa de la Haye’.
Nicholaa de la Haye was the woman who saved England.
1. Irene Gladwin, The Sheriff; The Man and His Office; 2. The Barnwell Annalist quotes in The Plantagenet Chronicles, edited by Elizabeth Hallam; 3. ibid; 4. Roger of Wendover, Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History; 5. Histoire de Guillaume le Maréschal translated by Stewart Gregory; 6. ibid
Sources:
Irene Gladwin, The Sheriff; The Man and His Office; The Plantagenet Chronicles, edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Roger of Wendover, Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History; Histoire de Guillaume le Maréschal translated by Stewart Gregory; J.W.F. Hill, Medieval Lincoln, Louise Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth Century Lincolnshire; David Stocker; Daniel Power; Richard Huscroft, Tales from the Long Twelfth Century: The Rise and Fall of the Angevin Empire; magnacarta800th.com; Oxforddnb.com; Danny Danziger & John Gillingham, 1215 The Year of Magna Carta; Robert Bartlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; Marc Morris, King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta; History of William Marshal, edited by David Crouch and Anthony J. Holden; finerollshenry3.co.uk; Ralph of Coggeshall, The English Chronicle.
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them.
Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest is now available from Pen & Sword and Amazon.
Coming 30 August 2026: Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets
Princesses of the Later Middle Ages examines the lives and experiences of England’s princesses, from the treasured daughters of Henry III to the children of Edward IV, whose lives were turned upside down when they were declared illegitimate.
What we see is a very different story, where a foreign marriage does not mean eternal exile, but a purpose in life, where a princess is a diplomat, an ambassador for England in her new country. She is the bond between allies – most of the time.
Princesses of the Later Middle Ages shines a light on the lives and experiences of these remarkable women.
Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets is now available for pre-order through Pen & Sword and other booksellers.
Sharon is also the author of:
Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)
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.
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
One of the primary duties of a king is to marry and produce heirs; at least one son, preferably two (just in case anything happened to the first). This guarantees the succession and offers stability to a country. Even daughters were useful to a king, their marriages cementing alliances with friends and enemies alike. Although he only had one legitimate son, William the Ӕtheling, and one legitimate daughter, Empress Matilda, Henry I had more than 20 illegitimate children by a succession of mistresses, including at least 10 daughters.
The king recognised his illegitimate children and the taint of bastardy, especially for his daughters, did not unduly affect their marriage prospects. They were used to strengthen and cement alliances just as legitimate princesses would have been. However, they did not pass on any claim to the English throne, thus being no threat to the king’s heirs, William and Matilda.
One of the most colourful of Henry I’s illegitimate daughters is Juliane (or Juliana), possibly the king’s daughter by his mistress, Ansfride. Ansfride was the widow of Anskill, a knight who was a tenant of Abingdon Abbey who had died following his imprisonment by King William II. It is thought that Ansfride had at least three children by Henry, including Richard of Lincoln, who had perished in the White Ship disaster. Little is known of another son, Foulques, who may have died young or become a monk.
The fact Richard and Juliane were close in age, and that Richard would later intercede for Juliane with their father, suggests they may have shared a mother. Although the argument is not infallible, Henry was known to be promiscuous and may have had more than one mistress at the same time.
Juliane was probably born in the late 1080s or early 1090s. Shortly after her father’s accession to the throne in 1100, Juliane was married to Eustace de Pacy, also known as Eustace de Breteuil, the illegitimate son of William de Breteuil. Orderic Vitalis recorded the marriages of both Juliane and her half-sister Matilda, saying of Eustace ‘The king gave him his daughter Juliana in marriage, and promised effective help against Gael and all his other enemies. At that time too the king married another of his daughters to Rotrou, count of Mortagne and she bore her husband a daughter called Philippa.’1
Chateau d’Ivry la Bataille, Normandy (wiki)
The death of Eustace’s father caused conflict between William de Breteuil’s possible heirs. Eustace’s main rivals were his cousins William de Gael and Reginald de Grancey. De Gael died shortly afterwards, leaving Reginald and Eustace to fight it out, each drawing in neighbouring lords and magnates as allies, devastating and destabilising the region. When Eustace approached Henry I for aid, the marriage was arranged between Eustace and Juliane. The Normans, according to Vitalis ‘accepted Eustace, his son by a concubine, because they chose to be ruled by a fellow countryman who was a bastard rather than by a legitimate Breton or Burgundian.’2
Henry I’s direct involvement thus brought the conflict quickly to an end, securing Eustace’s position and, by extension, his loyalty. The king then took the opportunity to impose his own garrison on the strategically important castle at Ivry, giving him a direct military presence in the region, in addition to the family connections fostered through his daughter, Juliane.
Eustace and Juliane had at least three children. Their son, William, succeeded his father as Seigneur de Pacy and tried unsuccessfully to recover Breteuil, which had been given to Ralph de Gael, the son of William de Gael. Although we do not have their names, Juliane and Eustace also had 2 daughters, whose gruesome fate is often laid at Henry I’s door (more on that shortly). It was over Henry’s control of Ivry that the king and his son-in-law came into conflict in 1119. According to Orderic Vitalis, Eustace had made many appeals to King Henry over the years, asking for the stronghold’s restoration to his domains. Eustace was ‘urged by his compatriots and kinsmen’ to press the king for the restoration of Ivry.
Henry I, Lincoln Cathedral Gallery of Kings
Henry prevaricated, saying that he would return Ivry at a future date and giving Eustace the son of Ralph Harenc, the castle’s custodian, as a hostage. In return, Eustace’s two daughters were sent to King Henry as hostages. An exchange of hostages as guarantees of good behaviour, or an adherence to an agreement, were commonplace in Norman times. And surely, Juliane and Eustace would have been reassured that their daughters were safe and well cared for in their grandfather’s custody.
For some unknown reason, and supposedly at the urging of his ally Amaury de Montfort, Eustace mutilated the boy, blinding him before sending him back to his father. Eustace may have believed that his familial relationship with King Henry would shield him from any reprisals. If he did, he was soon to be disabused of such confidence. Harenc went straight to the king and told him of the injuries Eustace had inflicted upon his son. Deeply moved by his vassal’s experience, the king handed over his two granddaughters:
‘Ralph Harenc took Eustace’s daughters with the permission of the angry king and avenged his son by cruelly putting out their eyes and cutting off the tips of their nostrils. So innocent childhood, alas! suffered for the sins of the fathers, and the feelings of both parents were roused by the suffering and maiming of their offspring.’3
The king also consoled Harenc with gifts and the return of the castle at Ivry. As you would expect, when Juliane and Eustace were informed of their daughters’ fate, they ‘were in great distress.’4 Eustace then fortified his castles at Lire, Glos, Pont Saint-Pierre and Pacy, and ‘sent his wife Juliana, who was the king’s daughter by a concubine, to Breteuil, and provided her with the knights necessary to defend the fortress.’5
Not wanting to anger King Henry, the burgesses of Breteuil sent messages to the king, informing him of Juliane’s occupation of the fortress. Henry I immediately rode to the town, where the gates were readily opened for him. He then ‘laid siege to the castle in which his defiant daughter had shut herself up.’6
14th century depiction of a woman with a crossbow
Apparently, Juliane appealed to her father. Asking for a meeting, though, according to Orderic Vitalis, it was with evil intent. Juliane ‘hoped to murder him. She had a crossbow ready drawn for the purpose and shot a bolt at her father.’7 If you hadn’t yet worked it out, Juliane’s relationship with her father, by this point, was at an all-time low. There must have been hurt on both sides. Juliane’s two daughters had been maimed and permanently disfigured, if not by Henry’s orders, then at least by his acquiescence. Ralph Harenc would not have undertaken such a horrific action if he was not assured of the king’s support. Henry, on the other hand, now had his own grievance in his daughter’s attempt to kill him. In no mood to attempt appeasement or reconciliation,
‘The king immediately had the castle drawbridge destroyed, so that no one could enter or leave. Juliana, seeing that she was completely surrounded and that no one was at hand to help her, surrendered the castle to the king, but could find no means of persuading him to allow her to leave freely. Indeed by the king’s command she was forced to leap down from the walls, with no bridge or support, and fell shamefully, with bare buttocks, into the depths of the moat. This happened at the beginning of Lent, in the third week of February, when the castle moat was full to overflowing with winter rains, and the frozen waters naturally struck numbing cold into the tender flesh of the woman when she fell. The unlucky Amazon got out of the predicament shamefully as best she could and, withdrawing to her husband who was then at Pacy.’8
King Henry rewarded the burgesses of Breteuil with gifts and, not long after, gave the town to Ralph de Gael. Ralph had been one of the claimants of Breteuil on the death of Eustace’s father, William. He was the second son of William’s sister, Emma, and had been, according to Vitalis, William’s preferred heir at the time of his death. Ralph de Gael was given the entire lordship, save for Pacy which was still being held by Eustace. Eventually, Juliane and Eustace were reconciled with Henry I, possibly through the intervention of Juliane’s brother, Richard of Lincoln. Richard certainly spoke up for his sister in the king’s presence and ‘pleaded his sister’s cause.’9 He may well have been working behind the scenes to persuade their father to accept his sister’s submission, when it came. Friends of the couple also spoke up for them.
Rebellion against the king was not as fatalistic an action as it would be in the later medieval period. Nobles tended to keep their heads, at the expense of a forfeiture of lands. Which meant that submitting to the king meant a loss of pride and income but was not accompanied by a danger to life itself, not even if you had attempted to murder your royal father!
As always in the case of Eustace and Juliane, Vitalis credits their advisers in helping them make their decisions. And it is these counsellors, according to Vitalis, who persuaded Eustace and Juliane to approach the king whilst he was besieging Évreux. The couple
The arms of the town of Breteuil
‘hurried to the siege, entered the king’s tent barefoot, and fell at his feet. The king said to them in astonishment, “Why have you dared to approach me without my safe-conduct, after provoking me by so many wrongs?” To which Eustace replied, “You are my natural lord. Therefore I come to you without fear as to my lord, to offer my service loyally to you, and to make full restitution for my misdeeds, as you in your just compassion judge to be right.”’10
Appeased, the king was moved to mercy and ordered that Juliane should return to Pacy, whilst Eustace was to accompany the king to Rouen to ‘hear what is my pleasure.’11 Eustace must have accompanied his father-in-law with trepidation, waiting to hear how much his rebellion will cost him. And Juliane, awaiting news at Pacy, must have been no less anxious as to her husband’s fate and that of their lands. The king had already given Breteuil to Eustace’s cousin but offered Eustace ‘an annual rent of three hundred marks of silver in England.’12 Eustace was not to lose any more land and retained Pacy as his own fief, that would descend to his son.
Eustace ‘fortified Pacy with walls and watch-towers, and lived for more than twenty years, enjoying great wealth.’13 Eustace died at Pacy in February 1136. It is not known by how long Juliane survived him, her date of death has gone unrecorded but she ‘abandoned the self-indulgent life she had led for the religious life and, becoming a nun, served the Lord God in the new abbey of Fontevrault.’14 No mention is made of the fate of the couple’s unfortunate daughters; disfigured as they were, it is possible they sought seclusion in an abbey. The poor girls had paid a high price for their parents’ rebellion.
Juliane of Fontevrault was by far the most adventurous and notorious of Henry I’s numerous illegitimate daughters.
Notes:
1. Vitalis, The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis, vol. 6, p. 41; 2. ibid; 3. ibid, p. 213; 4. ibid; 5. ibid; 6. ibid; 7. ibid, pp. 213-215; 8, ibid, p. 215; 9. ibid, p. 279; 10. ibid; 11. ibid; 12. ibid; 13. ibid; 14. ibid
Vitalis, The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis, vol. 6; oxforddnb.com;Donald Matthew, King Stephen; Robert Bartlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; David Williamson, Brewer’s British Royalty; the History Today Companion to British History; Dan Jones, the Plantagenets; englishmonarchs.co.uk; The Oxford Companion to British History Edited by John Cannon; Mike Ashley, The Mammoth Book of British kings & Queens; Alison Weir, Britain’s Royal Families, the Complete Genealogy; medievalilsts.net; The Plantagenet Chronicles Edited by Elizabeth Hallam; The Warenne (Hyde) Chronicle, edited by Elisabeth Van Houts and Rosalind C. Love; Cockayne, G.E., The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant; fmg.ac, Catherine Hanely, Matilda; Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People1000-1154
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them.
Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest is now available from Pen & Sword and Amazon.
Sharon is also the author of:
Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)
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.
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
I have been quiet for a couple of weeks as I was preparing for – and then taking part in – the Plantagenet Heroines Tour organised by Plantagenet Discoveries. The inspiration of the wonderful Maxine Sommer, Plantagenet Discoveries allows guests to follow in the footsteps of some of the greats of medieval history.
The tour lasted 9 days, though I was only with it for the first 7 days, acting as the tour guide and answering any and all questions from the guests – and there were a LOT of questions.
It was my first time as a ‘resident historian’ and I was not quite sure what to expect or how I would handle being ‘always on’ from the moment I awoke to getting back to my room at night. I needn’t have worried. History is my ‘thing’ and talking about it from morning until night was an absolute pleasure, and quite the adrenalin rush.
I met the tour leaders and 6 guests at an informal ‘getting to know you’ gathering in London on the Friday night. All 6 guests were women travelling alone, with one each coming from Ireland and Sweden, 2 from Australia and 2 from the US. All of us had one thing in common – a love of history.
My fist day involved an early rise and breakfast at the hotel in London before meeting out minibus driver for the week, Roger, and setting off at 8.30 am for our first destination: Old Sarum. Arriving on the outskirts of Salisbury at 10.30, we had a good explore of the old ruins. Old Sarum was home to Ela of Salisbury, and prison – even if it was gilded – to Eleanor of Aquitaine. It also gave me the chance to talk about all 3 of Eleanor’s Plantagenet daughters. It is not hard to imagine the magnificence and splendour of the lost castle, especially given the size of the foundations that remain. Even as you can see the ‘new’ cathedral (the foundations were laid in 1220) in the distance, so too can you walk around the floor plan of the old cathedral.
Coombe Abbey
If only these walls could talk, what stories they could tell.
I tried to do them justice. It was my first day and my narrative was a little stilted – I was still trying to find my feet but I was beginning to find my stride, answering questions, offering observations and analysis. Though I did often forget my place – I wasn’t on holiday. But talking history never feels like I’m working.
After lunch at the nearby Harvester – literally, you drove from the Old Sarum car park, turned right and the Harvester was on the left, with a view of Old Sarum from its door – we made our way to Coventry, and Coombe Abbey, our hotel for the night. I was particularly excited to stay at Coombe Abbey. Founded by the de Camville family, Nicholaa de la Haye‘s second husband, Gerard de Camville, is buried there – somewhere. Unfortunately, I did not find his burial place but the abbey itself did not disappoint. We enjoyed a 3-course meal that evening, breakfast and a wander around the grounds in the morning. The abbey retains many of its medieval features, with stone archways, a pulpit and the tomb of a murdered abbot, with a grand staircase and sumptuous bedrooms added to it. I didn’t want to leave!
And I definitely want to go back!
Kenilworth Castle
Sunday was a 2-castle day.
The morning was spent at Kenilworth Castle. Famous for its links to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester – Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite – it was a vast castle belonging to the medieval earls of Leicester. Simon de Montfort and his royal wife, Eleanor of England, lived here. In fact, after Simon’s death, his supporters continued to hold the castle through a 9-month long siege – the longest siege on English soil. John of Gaunt turned Kenilworth from a medieval fortress into a royal palace and it became one of the favourite residences, outside of London, of Margaret of Anjou.
There was much to explore, from the ‘new’ building of Dudley to the old Great Hall of Gaunt. So many stairs!
Discussion ranged from Simon de Montfort (we don’t like him) to Edward I, Henry III, the Battles of Lewes and Evesham and Eleanor’s teenage vow of chastity that lasted until she saw Simon de Montfort and married him. Which inevitably led to a discussion of Sharon Penman novels and the fates of Simon and Eleanor’s daughter, Eleanor de Montfort, and granddaughter, Princess Gwenllian.
The history I told was inspired by the castle itself and the questions of the guests, giving as much information as I could about the women, in particular, who would have known Kenilworth in its glory days.
The vaulted ceiling in the chapel at Conisbrough Castle
Our next stop was Conisbrough Castle. Definitely firmer ground for me. I was in my element. This is MY castle. I have told its story for over 30 years, both as a tour guide and writer. I wrote a book about the family who built it and, as you know, countless articles. So, I did my usual tour, going through the story of Ambrosius Aurelianus, through William de Warenne, the first earl, Hamelin, the man who built the keep, the visits of Henry II, King John and Edward II to the marital woes of John de Warenne, the 7th and last Earl of Warenne and Surrey. And not to forget the links to the house of York, to Richard III being the last to spend money on the castle in 1484.
We stood in the little chapel on the top floor of the keep, contemplating those kings who had knelt on those stones and prayed., You could feel the history around us.
That evening, we arrived at our base for the next 3 days, The Grand Hotel at York. And grand it was, indeed. A 5-star hotel with underfloor heating in the bathroom, it had once been the grand headquarters of LNER – the London and North Eastern Railways.. Once we were unpacked, we were treated to another sumptuous 3-course meal – I had a 50-layer lasagne. Even though I was walking over 10,000 steps a day, there was no way I would lose weight on this holiday – er, work trip!
Monday was spent in County Durham, with connections to the royal House of York everywhere!
Paintings in the chapel of Raby Castle
In the morning, we were treated to a private tour of Raby Castle. the wonderful guide, Marian, answered questions, pointed out the must-see parts of the castle and took us ‘behind the scenes’ to see the room that had once been the bedroom of none other than Cecily Neville, Duchess of York and mother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III. The stunning chapel includes paintings of Cecily and her mother Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford.
After lunch, we had a short visit into Staindrop, to St Mary’s Church, where Joan’s husband, Ralph Neville, is buried alone, though in a triple tomb atop which lay the effigies of Ralph and both his first wife, Margaret Stafford, and Joan herself. And I got to tell the story of Joan, her marriages and children and the influence she had on the events of the 15th century.
It was then just a 15-minute drive up the road to Barnard Castle. But my joke about getting my eyes tested landed flat – only the driver got it.
Barnard Castle has links, of course, to the earls of Warwick and to Richard III but instead I indulged my love of Scottish History by telling our guests about John Balliol, Scotland’s king who was also lord of Barnard Castle. Which story, of course, led into Robert the Bruce, Elizabeth de Burgh, the women of Bruce‘s affinity imprisoned by Edward I as well as David II and Joan Makepeace and Scotland’s Wars of Independence.
York Minster at sunset
I had definitely found my stride.
Dinner that evening was at a pub, the Guy Fawkes, in York and the next day we spent the morning in York Minster, where Edward III married Philippa of Hainault and where their baby son, William of Hatfield is buried. This was followed by a walk down the Shambles and a climb up Clifford’s Tower. The afternoon was free, so I joined a couple of the guests for lunch, followed by a wander around the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall and a visit to Jorvik Viking Centre.
After dinner in a quiet pub that evening, we took a wander to the Minster and saw the sunset on the River Ouse. The Minster bells were peeling. Indeed, the bells of all the churches in York were ringing to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II.
We left York the next morning, heading for Lincoln.
But you cannot take international travelers to Yorkshire without taking them to our very own World Heritage Site, Fountains Abbey. The morning was spent in the peaceful surroundings of the abbey. Definitely a much-needed change of pace for a few hours. Though we did get into a little discussion about whether or not the story of Abelard and Heloise is a love story, or something more sinister…
The view from my room in the White Hart Hotel, Lincoln
We arrived in Lincoln at 3.30 that afternoon and headed straight for the castle. Staying at the White Hart Hotel, situated between castle and cathedral, was perfect – my room even had a stunning view of the cathedral!
Now, we were on my home turf. We had already discussed Nicholaa de la Haye at Coombe Abbey, but now I could show everyone her castle. The staff at the castle were incredibly forthcoming about Magna Carta, the 1217 Battle of Lincoln and their visiting artefact – the Chronica Maiora of Matthew Paris which was opened at the image of the battle.
Another after dinner stroll took us around the cathedral close, a walk we repeated in daylight the following morning, so I could point out the statues of Eleanor of Castile, Edward I and Margaret of France, the gold crown to commemorate Elizabeth II and the two houses associated with Katherine Swynford.
One of the highlights of the whole tour was to be able to take the guests into Lincoln Cathedral and show them the tombs of Katherine and her daughter Joan. There was a graduation event going on, for the University of Lincoln, but that did not particularly hinder our visit. We could not access the nave but we could visit the Angel Choir, the chantry chapels and the shrine of St Hugh, as well as the cloisters, the Chapter House and the cathedral museum – I had to point out Nicholaa’s seal!
My final duty was to join everyone for lunch in the Magna Carta pub, which turned into an impromptu book launch celebration for Princesses of the Early Middle Ages, as I got my first sight of my new book. As the tour continued down to London, to visit Leeds Castle and Canterbury Cathedral on the Saturday, I said my goodbyes with hugs and a few tears – and instructions for each and everyone of them to get in touch the next time they are in England.
I slept for 12 hours that night.
I was exhausted. My throat was raw from all the talking. But I had had a fabulous time. I hope that my snippets of information throughout the tour – including texted instructions of what to look out for in Canterbury Cathedral – made the holiday experience that little bit better for the guests.
Did I enjoy it? Most definitely! Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! Would I recommend the tour to anyone wanting to discover England’s rich history? Oh yes!
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them.
Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest is now available from Pen & Sword and Amazon.
Sharon is the author of:
Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
For a historian who focuses on the lives of medieval women, Women’s History Month is always exciting. And this year, it is even more so as I have a book coming out at the end of the month.
Schools
On Friday 6 March I spent the day at the King’s Leadership Academy in Bolton, Manchester, where they were having a Drop-Down International Women’s Day and had invited me as a guest speaker. I presented two talks, one to the Year 7s on the Women of the Anarchy and the other to the Year 8s on my Ladies of Magna Carta. I love that the school is keen to incorporate the study of Women’s History into their curriculum, especially their Challenges to Kingship module which features my heroine, Matilda de Braose. The students were very impressive – both in their behaviour and in their own knowledge of the period.
Future generations will know that women had just as much input in our history as the men did. I will make sure of it!
I do love speaking in schools. The energy and enthusiasm of the students is always infectious. And even the kids who don’t love History (I know, does not compute – how can you not love History?) seem to enjoy my talks.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate International Women’s Day or Women’s History Month.
I visited a school in February and spoke about the Women of the Anarchy and when the last slide went up (See image), the whole hall cheered. It made my day.
If you are a teacher and looking for a Historian to speak to your students, give me shout through my Contact me page. I don’t charge for schools, just ask that you cover my travel expenses.
Grantham Museum
I will be speaking on Lincolnshire’s Tudor Heroines at Grantham Museum on Friday 13th March at 2pm.
Renaissance women from writers and mistresses to martyrs, duchesses and queens. Featuring the stories of Katherine Willoughby, Bessie Blount, Anne Askew and Katherine Parr, ‘Lincolnshire’s Tudor Heroines’ highlights the changes in society, religion and the royal court in the 16th century.
I am delighted to have been asked to take part in this year’s Online History Festival hosted by British History Events!
The theme and title of this year’s festival (their 6th) is ‘Defining Moments in British History’ – exploring six defining moments that have shaped Britain today. The festival is all online, taking place from the evening of Friday, 20th March until the evening of Sunday, 22nd March 2026.
In my lecture, Magna Carta: From Inception to Legacy, I will explore the reasons for Magna Carta, the civil war that followed its creation and the people who fought for it and used it to assert their own rights. And we will look at how relevant it still is today, even beyond England’s shores.
There will be 6 talks from leading historians (including myself!), a live Q&A with all 6 historians, a live quiz, and a prize draw. Here is the line up!
Julian Humphrys explores ‘The Battle of Hastings: What Happened and What Followed’. Sharon Bennett Connolly (me!) traces ‘Magna Carta: From Inception to Legacy’. Matthew Lewis examines ‘How the Black Death Changed England Forever’. Gareth Russell tackles ‘Crisis of Faith: The Reformation in British History’. Jonathan Healey delves into ‘The British Civil Wars: How They Happened and Why They Matter’. Gareth Streeter looks at ‘The Birth of Britain: How the Glorious Revolution and the Act of Union Forged a Modern Nation’.
And I am really looking forward to the online Q&A and discussion.
Of course, Magna Carta is THE defining moment, but I will let the fellas have their say …
As it’s online, the event is open to everyone, worldwide. And at just £22 to listen to 6 lectures by leading historians – followed by the opportunity to join in the discussion and ask questions, it really is a steal!
Don’t worry if you can’t watch all the talks as they go out – your ticket will give you access to everything in the festival until 31st May 2026.
If you have any questions, please ask. You can also email the event organisers at office@britishhistorytours.com.
We would all love to have you join us!
Coming 30 March: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages
I have just given my final approval for the jacket design, images section and edits for Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest. So, it is off to the printers. And my 9th book will be a reality by the end of the month!
It never gets old, holding your own book in your hands!
It is always a nerve-wracking time, wondering if anyone will like your book – or even read it. But my partner-in-podcasting, Derek Birks, has had a read and said he really enjoyed it – such a relief! And this week we recorded a Book Launch episode which will go live on 25 March – so please look out for it!
I have a few other podcast interviews lined up, with the first already live. A few months ago, I had a fabulous time chatting with Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill, on Medieval Princesses, Power and the Norman Conquest over at Rock, Paper, Swords
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them.
Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest is now available for pre-order from Pen & Sword and Amazon.
I am also in the process of planning an online Book Launch for the week Princesses of the Early Middle Ages is published, with a talk followed by a Q&A, so watch this space…
And one last bit of news….
Coming 15 April: Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest
It has been a long time coming, but publication of the paperback edition of Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest is finally just around the corner. In fact, it comes out next month!
The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women?
Harold II of England had been with Edith Swanneck for twenty years but in 1066, in order to strengthen his hold on the throne, he married Ealdgyth, sister of two earls. William of Normandy’s Duchess, Matilda of Flanders, had supposedly only agreed to marry the Duke after he’d pulled her pigtails and thrown her in the mud. Harald Hardrada had two wives – apparently at the same time. So, who were these women? What was their real story? And what happened to them after 1066?
These are not peripheral figures. Emma of Normandy was a Norman married to both a Saxon and a Dane ‒ and the mother of a king from each. Wife of both King Cnut and Aethelred II, the fact that, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, she had control of the treasury at the end of the reigns of both Cnut and Harthacnut suggests the extent of Emma’s influence over these two kings –and the country itself.
Then there is Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great, and the less well known but still influential Gundrada de Warenne, the wife of one of William the Conqueror’s most loyal knights, and one of the few men who it is known beyond doubt was with the Duke at the Battle of Hastings.
These are lives full of drama, pathos and sometimes mystery: Edith and Gytha searching the battlefield of Hastings for the body of Harold, his lover and mother united in their grief for the fallen king. Who was Ælfgyva, the lady of the Bayeux Tapestry, portrayed with a naked man at her feet?
Silk and the Sword traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play during the Norman Conquest – wives, lovers, sisters, mothers, leaders.
The paperback edition of Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest can be pre-ordered from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.
Scotland’s history is dramatic, violent and bloody and Scotland’s Medieval Queens have seen it all. This is the story of Scotland through their eyes. Available now fromAmazon and Pen and Sword Books. Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.
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 theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
A first edition of The Canterbury Tales, held in Lincoln Cathedral Library
Geoffrey Chaucer is often referred to as the father of English Literature. The author of The Canterbury Tales was patronised by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. after entering the household of Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster and wife of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, as a page, he rose high, to become a clerk, diplomat and courtier. Geoffrey Chaucer had married Philippa de Roelt (or Rouet), sister of Katherine Swynford, the third wife and Duchess of John of Gaunt, and the mother of Gaunt’s legitimised children, the Beauforts, loyal supporters of their Lancastrian half-brother, King Henry IV.
The granddaughter of the famous poet, Alice Chaucer was the only child, and heir, of Geoffrey’s son, Thomas Chaucer. Alice’s mother was Maud (or Matilda) Burghersh, co-heir of the Burghersh estates, which included the manor of Ewelme in Oxfordshire, where Alice was probably born, sometime around 1404. Nothing is known of Alice’s childhood, although, given her later success in estate management and preserving her son’s inheritance, we can assume that she had some level of education.
She is first mentioned in 1414, when she was around ten years old. Alice became the wife of Sir John Phelip, who was some twenty-four years her senior. Poor Alice had little time to get used to married life, and was still not old enough to consummate the marriage when she was widowed. Phelip died of dysentery at the Siege of Harfleur, a prelude to the Battle of Agincourt, on 2 October 1415. In his will, Alice was left a gold cup and all the furniture from one room of Phelip’s house at Grovebury. Still a minor, Alice probably returned home to her family after Phelip’s death, if she had ever left home.
Alice was married again by 1421, this time to Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury. Salisbury’s daughter by his first wife, Eleanor Holland, was also called Alice, and was of a similar age to her new stepmother. Alice Montagu would marry Richard Neville, son of Joan Beaufort and Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland. Through his mother, Richard Neville was a grandson of John of Gaunt and first cousin, once removed, of Alice Chaucer.
Effigy of Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk, from her tomb at Ewelme
Alice’s new husband was a soldier, and fought in the Hundred Years War in France. It was during a visit to France in 1424, to her husband, that Alice was at a banquet in Paris, hosted by Philip the good, Duke of Burgundy. Renowned for her beauty, it appears that Duke Philip was far too attentive to the Earl of Salisbury’s wife, infuriating the earl in his attempts to seduce poor Alice. Relations between the duke and the earl soured significantly, with Salisbury going against the interests of Burgundy in besieging Orléans. The siege was a disaster for Salisbury, the French were rallied by Joan of Arc. During the fighting, Salisbury was struck in the face by a splinter from a French cannon on 27 October 1428. He died a week later, on 3 November. In the same engagement, Salisbury’s good friend, William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, was captured by the French. Suffolk, it seems, was also fond of Alice and it is thought Alice was the mystery woman to whom he wrote love poetry during his two years of captivity.
Salisbury’s death left Alice a widow for a second time, but this time she was a very wealthy one. According to the terms of Salisbury’s will, Alice was left half of his net goods, 100 marks in gold and 3,000 marks in jewellery and plate, plus the revenues of his Norman lands. As a sign of his trust in Alice and her abilities, Salisbury had also named her as the supervisor of the will.A wealthy and beautiful widow, and still in her twenties, it is not surprising that by 1432, and possibly as early as 1430, Alice had made her third and final marriage. Her husband was the same William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, friend of her husband and, apparently, an admirer of Alice. It seems likely that they married shortly after his release from his French imprisonment.
The de la Pole family had risen from being wealthy wool merchants to the nobility, to nobility themselves. William’s grandfather, Michael de la Pole, was a favourite of Richard II, who had been promoted to the peerage as Earl of Suffolk. However, when Richard II’s personal rule was curbed by the Lords Appellant, Suffolk was one of those to take the brunt of the criticism. He fled into exile in 1388 and was sentenced to death in absentia; he died in Paris the following year. His son, another Michael and William’s father, was allied with the Appellant Lords and saw his goods and titles forfeit when Richard II regained control.
Alice’s grandfather, Geoffrey Chaucer
They were restored to him in 1398. Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, had five sons, of whom William was the second oldest. The de la Pole family gave everything fighting in the French wars, the second earl died of dysentery in 1415, during the same siege of Harfleur during which Alice’s first husband died, and his oldest son, another Michael, died in October of the same year, as one of the few noble casualties of the Battle of Agincourt; he was nineteen and had held the title Earl of Suffolk for just one month. William therefore succeeded to the earldom of Suffolk, but would lose his three remaining brothers to the French over the next twenty years: Alexander was killed in 1429, at the Battle of Jargeau, John died a prisoner in France and Thomas died while acting as hostage for William.
William himself spent decades fighting in France, as one of Henry VI’s senior commanders. This military service may well be the reason why, although William and Alice were married in the early 1430s, their only known child, John de la Pole, was not born until 27 September 1442. When still a child, John would be betrothed to his parents’ ward, Margaret Beaufort, sole heiress of Alice’s cousin, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.
William and Alice appear to have had a genuinely close, affectionate and trusting relationship. In his will of 1448, William appoints Alice as his sole executrix, giving her guardianship of their son, John, stating; ‘And last of all, with the blessing of God and of me as heartily as I can give it, my dear and true son, I bequeath between him and his mother love and all good accord and give him to her wholly’.1
The village of Ewelme, with the parish church and almshouses
Although William’s family seat was a house at Wingfield, the couple spent most of their time at Alice’s house at Ewelme, where they enlarged the manor house, even receiving a papal dispensation to have a font installed in the chapel. They also rebuilt the parish church of St Mary the Virgin and established a school to educate local boys, the master of which was to be selected from the University of Oxford. William and Alice also built a series of almshouses, known as God’s House, to house thirteen almsmen and two priests, one of whom was to be the schoolmaster.
William de la Pole was deeply involved in the politics of the time. One of Henry VI’s most trusted advisers, it was William who led the embassy to arrange the king’s marriage to Margaret of Anjou, a cousin of the King of France. In November 1444, Alice accompanied her husband to France, along with the Earls of Shrewsbury and Salisbury, to bring back the king’s bride. Alice was to act as Margaret’s senior lady-in-waiting for the journey home and became her close friend; Queen Margaret would visit Alice at her husband’s manor of Wingfield during a progress through the Midlands in 1452. William, however, was to receive the brunt of the criticism for the marriage, which brought no benefit to England, as Margaret came without a dowry, and a secret clause in the marriage contract returned the conquered counties of Maine and Anjou to France.
Arms of Alice Chaucer
In 1448 William was created Duke of Suffolk by Henry VI. However, while he still had the confidence of the king, the lords turned against him and his downfall soon followed. He had fallen foul of the powerful Duke of York and became the scapegoat for the ineptitude of Henry VI’s policies. On 7 February 1450, the Paston Letters recorded Suffolk’s impeachment, which charged that:
William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, late of Ewelme, in the county of Oxford, falsely and traitorously hath imagined, compassed, purposed forethought, done and committed divers high, great, heinous, and horrible treasons against your most royal person, your commons of your realms of England and France, your duchy of Guienne and Normandy, and your whole inheritance of your county of Anjou and Maine, the estate and dignity of the same, and the universal wele and prosperity of all your true subjects.2
The king tried to stand by Suffolk, and refused to accept the charges of treason; he banished the Duke from the realm for five years. William de la Pole was given six weeks to set his affairs in order before leaving England on 1 May 1450. The Duke wrote a moving letter to his six-year-old son, John, full of fatherly advice and commending him to his mother, saying: ‘Thirdly, in the same wise, I charge you, my dear son, always, as you’re bound by the commandment of God to do, to love, to worship your lady and mother, and also that you obey always her commandments and to believe her councils and advice in all your works, the which dread not, but shall be best and truest to you. And if any other body would stir you to the contrary, to flee the counsel in any wise, for you shall find it nought and evil.’3
19th century illustration depicting Suffolk’s murder
The letter is all the more poignant, as it turned out to be William de la Pole’s last communication with his son. He left England on the ship Nicholas of the Tower, but it was intercepted by unknown persons and on 2 May, 1450, the Duke of Suffolk was forced to endure a mock trial before he was gruesomely beheaded with a rusty sword. His body was left on the beach at Dover and his head stuck on a pole beside it. He was later buried at his family’s manor of Wingfield in Suffolk.
Widowed for a third and final time, Alice devoted her time and energies to protecting her son’s inheritance. On 8 May she secured the keeping of all the lands belonging to her husband. However, she was still an object of derision among the malcontents; she was one of those mentioned by name in a Commons petition to have people removed from court. Henry initially acquiesced, but failed to keep his promise to banish the twenty-nine people named in the petition and Alice remained at court as one of Queen Margaret’s ladies. She was with the queen at her churching on 18 November 1453, following the birth of Edward, prince of Wales. The magnificent ceremony was attended by six duchesses, including Alice, eight countesses and seven baronesses.
Alice proved to be a formidable Duchess, pursuing her family’s interests with the utmost vigour. Following her husband’s death, she continued in his claims to some manors in East Anglia, which belonged to John Fastolf. The Pastons, a prominent East Anglian family who wrote a remarkable number of letters during this period, also laid claim to the lands following Fastolf’s death in 1459. The dispute over Caistor Castle continued long into the next decade. In 1469, John Paston wrote to his younger brother, another John, that ‘the Quene hath sent a letter unto my Lady of Suffolk the elder [Alice] desyryng theym to common [speak] with my lordis that all such matters as the Kyng wrote unto them fore mabe kept so that no defaute be founden in them, as ye may understand by youre lettre sent frome the Quene’.4 Suffolk’s claim on the properties had been dubious, but Alice’s litigation was successful, despite the opposition of the Pastons.
Tomb of Alice’s son, John de la Pole and his wife, Elizabeth of York, Wingfield
The mid-15th century was a dangerous time. Powerful lords were squaring up to each other, looking to take advantage of Henry VI’s weak rule. A woman alone, with her son’s inheritance to protect, Alice needed powerful allies. And so, she broke her son’s betrothal to the Lancastrian heiress, Margaret Beaufort, and turned to the House of York. In 1458, Alice negotiated John’s marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville. Her son and grandsons would become stalwarts of the Yorkist cause. Of the eleven children of John and Elizabeth, their eldest son, another John, having been named as his heir by Richard III, was killed fighting Henry VII’s Lancastrian army at the Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses, in 1487. He was succeeded as Duke of Suffolk by his brother, Edmund, who was executed, because of his Yorkist blood, by Henry VIII in 1513.
Alice was favoured by Edward IV, who won the throne for the Yorkists in 1461, gaining exemptions in his Acts of Resumption. She was among the more honoured guests at the sumptuous feast, hosted by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, for the enthronement of his brother, George Neville, as Archbishop of York. The feast was held at the Archbishop’s castle of Cawood in 1465, and Alice was given a place of honour at a high table in a second chamber – a sign of distinction as opposed to a place on a secondary table in the great hall – alongside the Countess of Warwick and the new Archbishop’s sisters, the Countess of Oxford, Lady Hastings and Lady Fitzhugh.
The ruins of Wallingford Castle
A further sign of trust came in 1471; following the Battle of Tewkesbury and the capture of Margaret of Anjou. Edward entrusted the former queen to Alice’s custody. Margaret was held at Wallingford Castle, which was held by Alice and was close to her estate at Ewelme. The Duchess was the queen’s jailer for the last four years of her life. Following Alice’s death, Margaret of Anjou was ransomed by Louis XI of France, and returned to France in 1476.
Through her family inheritance and three marriages, Alice Chaucer had become an incredibly wealthy woman. She held estates in twenty-two counties; in 1454 she received an income of £1300 from three of them alone. Given that her grandfather was Geoffrey Chaucer, it is no surprise that Alice was a patron of the arts, particularly literature, including John Lydgate. An inventory of her goods, taken in 1466 during a move back to Ewelme, included many books.
Alice’s tomb in the church of St Mary the Virgin at Ewelme
Alice died sometime between 20 May and 9 June, 1475, aged around seventy-one. She was laid to rest in the church of St Mary the Virgin, at Ewelme, where her parents were also buried. Her magnificent tomb lies between the nave and the chapel of St John the Baptist, an effigy of Alice lies atop the tomb, with the Duchess wearing a ducal coronet and the Order of the Garter on her arm.
Alice had led a remarkable life, successfully weathering the political turmoil that claimed the life of her third husband. She was a survivor, successfully negotiating the pitfalls and dangers of the medieval world – and particularly the turmoil of the 15th century – forging her own path to see herself and her son safely through.
Notes:
Notes: 1. K.L. Clark, The Nevills of Middleham: England’s Most Powerful Family in the Wars of the Roses; 2. Matthew Lewis, Richard Duke of York, King by Right; 3. Clark, The Nevills of Middleham; 4. David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville, Mother of the Princes in the Tower.
Rowena E. Archer, Chaucer, Alice, Duchess of Suffolk (c.1404–1475) (ODNB); K.L. Clark, The Nevills of Middleham: England’s Most Powerful Family in the Wars of the Roses; Kristie Dean, On the Trail of the Yorks; Matthew Lewis, Richard Duke of York, King by Right; David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville, Mother of the Princes in the Tower; John Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses; Martin J Dougherty, The Wars of the Roses; Susan Higginbotham, The Woodvilles, the Wars of the Roses and England’s Most Infamous Family; Amy Licence, Red Roses, Blanche of Gaunt to Margaret Beaufort; David Santuiste, Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses; Amy Licence, Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou: A Marriage of Unequals
Coming 30 March: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them.
Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest is now available for pre-order from Pen & Sword and Amazon.
Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:
Scotland’s history is dramatic, violent and bloody and Scotland’s Medieval Queens have seen it all. This is the story of Scotland through their eyes. Available now fromAmazon and Pen and Sword Books. Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.
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 theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
Today, it is a pleasure to be chatting with my good friend Charlene Newcomb, just as her latest book, Rogues and Kings hits the shops. Rogues and Kings is a fabulous story, set in 1216, featuring Robin Hood and his gang/friends, King John and the magnificent Nicholaa de la Haye. I highly recommend it and will be writing a review shortly.
But first, Char, let’s have a chat.
Sharon: We’re here today talking medieval historical fiction, but I know you started your publishing career with short stories in the Star Wars universe. How did that come about?
Charlene: Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire, a sequel to the movie Return of the Jedi, inspired me to write my own Star Wars sequel though my writing credentials as of 1993 consisted of an alternative history short story in high school and a few scenes from other attempts at creativity. I was a huge fan of the original Star Wars trilogy. (Shouldn’t that count for something?) I quickly discovered only well known authors were being invited to publish in that universe but ran across a call for short stories in an official Lucasfilm licensed role-playing game magazine. My novel had broken all the rules for submission, but I took one of my original characters—a rebel underground freedom fighter named Alexandra Winger—and created her backstory. “A Glimmer of Hope” was accepted, vetted through West End Games and Lucasfilm, and illustrated and published in the Star Wars Adventure Journal (SWAJ). Alex even has a Wookiepedia entry!
Sharon: How did you get from Star Wars to medieval historical fiction?
Charlene: The publisher of the SWAJ declared bankruptcy so the timing of that—around 1998—along with single parenthood and a demanding career interrupted my writing journey. Several years later a BBC Robin Hood series stirred my interest in Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade. Down the research rabbit hole I went, and my itch to create an original novel-length story surfaced.
I wanted to see the Lionheart through the eyes of the men who served him so I created two original characters: the battle-hardened Stephan l’Aigle and the naive and inexperienced Henry de Grey. Men of the Cross (Battle Scars I) takes the young knights to the Holy Land and then back to England. I introduced some secondary characters in that novel: two teenaged camp followers and a knight named Will who was an expert with bow and had been in love with, and left behind, a girl named Marian. My critique partners could tell I was hinting at a Robin-Hood-type character in Will—they convinced me I should give readers a reimagining of the origins of the legend. Will became Robin and the two teenagers became my Allan a Dale and Little John.
Sharon: Tell us about your books.
The Battle Scars series (3 books) cover events of King Richard I’s reign from 1190-1199: the Third Crusade, Prince John’s attempted coup, and King Richard’s war against Philip of France for his continental holdings. The series ends shortly after Richard’s death in 1199.
The two books In Tales of Robin Hood can be read as stand-alones though they are closely tied. Both Tales take place in 1216 with the premise that Allan a Dale leads ‘the Hood’ in Sherwood Forest and Robin, in his fifties, has assumed a different identity and been in self-exile to finally have a life with Marian in Yorkshire. King John has never forgotten their roles in thwarting his attempt to overthrow Richard. He would hang them all in his thirst for revenge.
Sharon: What attracts you to the 12th-13th centuries?
Robin Hood (Charlene Newcomb)
Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Richard I, John—such rich (and not always so pretty) lives with powerful stories in incredible times: the Anarchy, Thomas Becket’s murder, the Crusades, the rise and fall of the Angevin Empire, Magna Carta. Unlike most school kids, I was a history nerd and soaked it in when Dad made an effort to stop at historic U.S. sites every time we traveled. But the medieval period was an era barely touched on in the world history classes I was required to take.
I loved the idea of Robin Hood as a close companion and loyal knight of Richard I, accompanying the king to the Holy Land, and then later serving as a spy in Prince John’s mesnie. When Richard, John, and their mother Eleanor of Aquitaine are on the page, the actual history at times almost feels like fiction—the dysfunctional family, sons (and wife) in rebellion against Henry II, brother against brother, scheming enemies, a paranoid, distrustful king. To weave Robin, Allan, Little John, and the other Hood (including Henry and Stephan) into that history lets me reveal lines between traitors and heroes.S
Sharon: What don’t people know about Robin Hood?
Forest Charter 1217, reissue 1225 image
Charlene: Modern audiences are familiar with the original legend through movies and television, most of which take place in the late 12th/early 13th century. But many don’t realize there is no evidence to indicate Robin was an actual historical figure. The first written stories about him appear mid-15th century though oral stories were passed around in the latter half of the 1400s. Television and movies generally portray Robin as serving King Richard I and/or fighting against King John (1189-1216), but the oldest ballads don’t name either of them. The Gest of Robyn Hode (late 1400s) notes Robin’s meeting with ‘Edwarde, our comly kynge,’ referring, many believe, to Edward I, II, or III, whose reigns covered the years from 1272-1377.
Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?
Lincoln Castle (Charlene Newcomb)
Pre-14th century history is challenging for the historical fiction writer. Primary sources such as official documents and contemporary chronicles were written in medieval Latin. Fortunately, many of them have been translated and some are available freely online or are discussed by historians in works about the people and events of the era. When my university library didn’t have what I needed, I turned to interlibrary loan. (Thank you, libraries!) Footnotes and bibliographies in these resources provided more threads to follow.
Visiting the places I write about, standing in awe of the Major Oak in Sherwood, walking around the baileys and along the battlements of castles, even seeing the ruins, is inspiring, a blast. Castles and towns like Lincoln, Nottingham, York, and Newark have changed considerably in 800 years which meant more research to get everyday life and the settings right. I’d go back again and again if I lived closer. I will never forget meeting up with writer friends like you, and comparing notes on the history of a place.
Sharon: What are you working on now?
Charlene: I am gathering notes and considering story arcs surrounding two different events that I’d like to feature in short stories: King John’s rescue of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at the siege of Mirebeau in 1202; and the Battle of Lincoln Fair in 1217. (Sharon: I definitely think you should do one on the Battle of Lincoln Fair. I can just imagine Robin and his friends helping Nicholaa out there!)
Sharon: And finally, what is the best thing about being a writer?
Charlene and I at Newark Castle, below the windows to the room in which King John died in 1216
Writing can be a solitary undertaking so hearing from readers and friends that you’ve crafted a story and characters they tell you they love is such a rush. Just as rewarding is when you write ‘the end’ on something that started with a single idea, such as what might be the consequences if the son of Robin Hood served in King John’s household, write down a half dozen bullet points that spawn many more, and suddenly (or rather over the course of many, many months) the pieces gel and become chapters in a tome of nearly 400 pages. What is surprising is when a character takes over the story and blurts out something you weren’t expecting. Your jaw drops and then you sit back and realize, wow, that opens up a whole new dilemma. Run with it! Hopefully the reader experiences that same feeling.
About the Author:
Charlene Newcomb, aka Char, is a retired librarian, a U.S. Navy veteran, mom to 3 amazing humans, and grandma to 3. She writes historical fiction and science fiction. Her award-winning Battle Scars trilogy is set in the 12th century during the reign of Richard the Lionheart. Her writing roots are in science fiction: in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (aka Legends) where she published 10 short stories in the Star Wars Adventure Journal, and an original novel, Echoes of the Storm. Char returned to medieval times with Rogue and her latest novel Rogues & Kings, both in her Tales of Robin Hood series.
Deadly secrets. Hidden identities. A true enemy. Silence is the only shield.
The year is 1216 and civil war rages in England. King John ravages the countryside against rebellious barons and a French invasion. Unbeknownst to him, his newest squire, Richard, is in fact the son of a man the king would hang without a second thought. A man the common folk call Robin Hood.
For years, Robin has lived as a knight in exile. But when his son is ensnared in the treachery of the royal court, Robin is forced out of the shadows, aided by his outlaw friends in the Hood.
There is no question for Richard where his loyalties lie but it’s more than his own life at risk. He has the trust of a dangerous king. Can he serve the Hood better from within John’s inner circle, or will schemes against the crown unravel?
Rob from the rich, give to the poor takes on a whole new meaning.
Rogues & Kings is a sweeping tale of courage and betrayal in a kingdom on the edge of ruin, of a boy coming of age in the midst of war, and of legends being born.
Coming 30 March: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them.
Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest is now available for pre-order from Pen & Sword and Amazon.
Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:
Scotland’s history is dramatic, violent and bloody and Scotland’s Medieval Queens have seen it all. This is the story of Scotland through their eyes. Available now fromAmazon and Pen and Sword Books. Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.
Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org. Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available in paperback and hardback from Pen & Sword, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon, Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.
Alternate Endings: An anthology of historical fiction short stories including Long Live the King… which is my take what might have happened had King John not died in October 1216. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.
Podcast:
Have a listen to theA Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.
History... the interesting bits! 