Last week was a pretty miserable one for me, between spending one night in the emergency room with a relative, having to replace the water heater for the second time in two years, and not having the fun of attending the Historical Novel Society conference, so I sorely needed some cheering up yesterday with a productive trip to the library. And it was productive! Not only did I find almost everything on Margaret of Anjou that I came for, the library staff very kindly intercepted one journal for me just before it went into processing to go into storage. God only knows how long it would have taken to retrieve from the black hole of processing it if I'd come a day later.
As you might have gathered, I've pretty much honed in for Margaret of Anjou for my next novel. She's gotten a lot of bad press, much of it undeserved (for instance, contrary to accounts by Shakespeare and by some recent historical novelists, the latter of whom should certainly know better, she wasn't even at the Battle of Wakefield, where the Duke of York was killed). So now it's just a matter of getting started.
On a historical fiction note, if you're a Jean Plaidy fan or want to know more about her novels, do check out Historical Tapestry, which is in the midst of a "Jean Plaidy Season." There's been some great posts there lately, including a priceless one by Daphne about some cover art. Check out the one for The Goldsmith's Wife (Jane Shore) in particular! I'll be doing a guest post there next week sometime.
Oh, and I'd like to welcome Joan Szechtman to blogdom with Random Thoughts of an Accidental Author! Joan is a fellow member of the Richard III Society. It can get lonely blogging about the fifteenth century, so I'm glad to have another fellow traveler (albeit one who likes Richard III rather better than I do) out here!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
A Despenser at Dunstable, 1334
One of the fun things about using a lesser-known historical figure as a subject of a novel is that when you run into something about him--anything--you're absolutely delighted. So a while back when I saw in Collectanea topographica & genealogica, Vol. IV (on Google Books) that the hero of my soon-to-be-reissued second novel, Hugh and Bess, was recorded as being at a tournament at Dunstable in 1334, I was thrilled, even though the tidbit never made it into the novel.
After resisting the forces of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer at Caerphilly Castle until the spring of 1327, Hugh le Despenser had been imprisoned and had only emerged in July 1331, when he was about 23. Hugh was granted permission in April 1332 to go on pilgrimage to Santiago. In July 1333, he was among the English troops who won a great victory over the Scots at Halidon Hill. Hugh's performance there had evidently pleased Edward III, who as a reward for his services extended some grants of land from an indefinite duration to him to hold until he inherited his mother’s lands.
Nonetheless, as the son and grandson of two of the most hated men in England, both of who had been gruesomely executed in 1326, Hugh must have still been somewhat of a social outcast. For him, then, being allowed to participate in the Dunstable tournament, held in January 1334, must have meant a great deal. It might have even been his first tournament: Edward II had discouraged them, and when Isabella and Mortimer held them in the early years of Edward III's reign, Hugh was a prisoner. The fact that Hugh's father had tourneyed at Dunstable in 1309, when the present Hugh was just a baby, must have also made the occasion a poignant one.
Besides Hugh, the Dunstable tournament included about 135 knights, including a mysterious chap named "Sir Lionel," who turned out to be Edward III himself. Another knight who was present, William de Montacute, would have a special connection with Hugh a few years later: Hugh would marry his daughter Elizabeth in 1341.
After resisting the forces of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer at Caerphilly Castle until the spring of 1327, Hugh le Despenser had been imprisoned and had only emerged in July 1331, when he was about 23. Hugh was granted permission in April 1332 to go on pilgrimage to Santiago. In July 1333, he was among the English troops who won a great victory over the Scots at Halidon Hill. Hugh's performance there had evidently pleased Edward III, who as a reward for his services extended some grants of land from an indefinite duration to him to hold until he inherited his mother’s lands.
Nonetheless, as the son and grandson of two of the most hated men in England, both of who had been gruesomely executed in 1326, Hugh must have still been somewhat of a social outcast. For him, then, being allowed to participate in the Dunstable tournament, held in January 1334, must have meant a great deal. It might have even been his first tournament: Edward II had discouraged them, and when Isabella and Mortimer held them in the early years of Edward III's reign, Hugh was a prisoner. The fact that Hugh's father had tourneyed at Dunstable in 1309, when the present Hugh was just a baby, must have also made the occasion a poignant one.
Besides Hugh, the Dunstable tournament included about 135 knights, including a mysterious chap named "Sir Lionel," who turned out to be Edward III himself. Another knight who was present, William de Montacute, would have a special connection with Hugh a few years later: Hugh would marry his daughter Elizabeth in 1341.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Richard Grey, Elizabeth Woodville's Second Son
Richard Grey was the younger of Elizabeth Woodville’s two sons by her first husband, Sir John Grey, who died at the second battle of St. Albans on February 17, 1461. Richard’s birth date is unknown, although his older brother, Thomas Grey, was probably born around 1455, according to the inquisition postmortem of his uncle Richard Woodville.
On May 14, 1475, Richard was made a Knight of the Bath, alongside his older brother and his royal half-brothers as well as his uncle Edward Woodville. Another new Knight of the Bath was Thomas Vaughan, chamberlain to Edward, Prince of Wales. Not only would Richard Grey and Thomas Vaughan be knighted together, they would also be executed together just eight years later.
In the same year of his knighting, Richard began to take on responsibilities. He was named to commissions of the peace in Herefordshire on July 4, 1475, November 10, 1475, and June 7, 1476. Rosemary Horrox suggests that he became associated with the Prince of Wales’ household at Ludlow during this period. Also in 1476, Richard was nominated as a Knight of the Garter (interestingly, by Lord William Hastings), but lost out to his older brother, Thomas.
Richard was prominent at the tournament that followed the marriage of his young half-brother, the Duke of York, to Anne Mowbray in 1478. He and his retinue were garbed in blue and tawny; his three horses sported crimson cloth of gold and tissue.
Grey was made constable of Chester Castle on February 10, 1479. Sometime in 1479, Richard was appointed to a commission of oyer and terminer in Wales to investigate crimes committed by John Herbert. In the 1480’s Richard continued to serve on commissions for the king. He was appointed to commissions of oyer and terminer on July 24, 1482, August 24, 1482, and on March 18, 1483, and to commissions of the peace in Berkshire (February 13, 1483), Buckinghamshire (February 13, 1483), Essex (February 12, 1483), Herefordshire (November 28, 1481), Northamptonshire (February 13, 1483), and Oxfordshire (February 18, 1483). On December 7, 1481, he was appointed to inquire into escapes of felons within the county of Southampton. Grey was made the constable and steward of Wallingford on September 3, 1482.
Grey acquired a number of lands during the last year or so of his life. On April 24, 1482, he was granted Kidwelly in tail male. Edward IV expanded his stepson’s landholdings at the Parliament of 1483, where he and his male heirs were granted the manors of Rochford, Leigh, Paglesham and Foulness in Essex; the manors of Thorpe Waterville, Aldwinkle, Achurch, Chelveston and Caldecote in Northampton; the manor of Ardington in Berkshire; and the manor of Barford St Martin in Wiltshire. Elizabeth Woodville paid the king 2,000 marks for this grant, which was part of a larger transaction involving the lands of the Lancastrian Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter. Exeter and his former wife Anne, sister of Edward IV, were dead, as was their only daughter, but Anne by her second husband, Thomas St. Leger, had another daughter, who had been made the Exeter heiress and who was intended to marry a son of Thomas Grey, though the arrangement was canceled when Richard III came to the throne. The lands Richard Grey acquired were valued at 500 marks a year.
As in the case of his uncles Richard and Edward, there is no trace of a marriage being sought for Richard Grey. Perhaps the granting of the lands to him in 1483 would have been followed in due course by a bride being found for him; after all, Grey was probably still only in his twenties.
In 1473, Edward IV had issued a series of ordinances for the Prince of Wales’ household in which he minutely prescribed the day-to-day details of the prince’s upbringing. On February 25, 1483, the king amended these ordinances, evidently, as Nicholas Orme points out, because the twelve-year-old prince was proving to have a will of his own. Edward was ordered by his father to “observe and kepe theis articles before written touching his person” and to “ne take upon him to give, write, sende or commande any thinge without thavise of the said bishop [John Alcock, then the Bishop of Worcester], lord Richard [Grey] and Erle Rivieres [Anthony Woodville].” Alcock, Grey, and Rivers were instructed that if Edward engaged in any “unprincely demeaning” or behaved contrary to the ordinances, they were to “forthwith shewe it in good manner unto him selfe to bee refourmed, and if he will not amend therby then the said bishop, lord Richard and Erle Rivieres, or one of them, shewe it unto us and to our moost dere wief the quene or unto one of us in all goodlie haste, as they will aunsuere it at theire peril and avoid our grievous displeasour.” Plainly, Richard Grey had acquired increasing importance in his half-brother’s household.
Richard Grey’s reputation has suffered much from Mancini’s comment, likely based on propaganda being put forth by Richard, Duke of Gloucester in 1483, that “although [Edward IV] had many promoters and companions of his vices, the more important and especial were three of the . . . relatives of the queen, her two sons and one of her brothers.” Richard Grey, however, could have hardly been a promoter and companion of Edward IV’s vices in the early years of his reign, when Grey was just a child. From the late 1470’s on, Grey appears to have spent much of his time in the household of the Prince of Wales at Ludlow, again not affording him much opportunity to promote Edward IV’s vices--assuming that Edward needed encouragement, which seems most unlikely. It is also notable that Edward IV, who in his ordinances proscribed unsuitable persons from coming into his heir’s presence, deemed Richard Grey morally fit to participate in the prince’s upbringing. Crowland, in contrast to Mancini, calls Grey “a very honourable knight.”
For Richard Grey, the future must have looked bright in the spring of 1483: he had been appointed to several commissions, he had a leading role in the household of his half-brother, and he had become prosperous through the acquisition of his new manors. Sadly, great changes were coming. Edward IV died on April 9, 1483. Just three weeks later, on April 30, 1483, Richard Grey, his uncle Anthony Woodville, and Thomas Vaughan, Edward V’s elderly chamberlain, were taken prisoner by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who claimed that the men were conspiring to murder him. If Gloucester offered any proof of his allegations, it has not survived, and as we shall see, contemporaries doubted the men’s guilt.
Grey’s movements in the days before he was imprisoned are unclear. He is not named among those attending Edward IV’s funeral, but Mancini claims that he had been in London shortly before rejoining Edward V. According to Crowland, as their parties traveled toward London, Grey and Anthony Woodville met Gloucester and the Duke of Buckingham at Northampton and, after a night of pleasant conversation, journeyed to Stony Stratford where Edward V was lodged. Just outside the latter town, Grey and Woodville were arrested by Gloucester’s men. Mancini, however, has only Anthony meeting Gloucester, and has him being arrested before setting out to meet the king at his lodgings; in this version, Gloucester and Buckingham arrive at the town where Edward V is staying and then arrest Grey. Notably, none of the men arrested seems to have taken any precautions whatsoever against being captured by Gloucester, as surely they would have had they been plotting against him.
The captive Grey was taken to Middleham Castle, one of Gloucester’s strongholds, where he arrived on May 3, along with some servants and horses, and remained until Midsummer Day, when he was moved to Pontefract Castle. Gloucester’s young son, Edward, was also at Middleham at the time, but it seems unlikely that Richard Grey had more than superficial contact with the boy.
Soon after he arrived in London with Edward V, Mancini reports, Gloucester attempted to have the council agree to the execution of the three prisoners. “But this he was quite unable to achieve, because there appeared no certain case as regards the ambushes, and even had the crime been manifest, it would not have been treason, for at the time of the alleged ambushes he was neither regent nor did he hold any other public office.” This gained the men a reprieve, but only a short one. Meanwhile, Gloucester began granting out various Woodville estates, including Grey’s manor of Thorpe Waterville, which went to Francis Lovell before May 21, 1483, when the tenants were notified of the transfer.
On June 25, 1483, Grey, Rivers, and Vaughan were executed at Pontefract Castle on orders of Gloucester, who had the crown well within his grasp and thus no longer needed to bother with the council’s approval. The next day, Gloucester became King Richard III.
Crowland, who refers to the deaths of Grey and the others as “the second shedding of innocent blood” (William Hastings having been the first victim), writes that the men “were beheaded without any form of trial,” although John Rous claims that the Earl of Northumberland acted as their judge. If the men did indeed receive a trial, its outcome must have been a foregone conclusion, for on June 23, Anthony Woodville, who was being held at Sheriff Hutton, made his will. The only thing in doubt seems to have been where he was to be executed, since at the beginning of the will he asked to be buried at St. Stephens College at Westminster if he died “beyond Trent,” while in a postscript he asked to be buried with Richard Grey at Pontefract before an image of the Virgin Mary. Whether this request was honored is unknown, but in September, Richard III was presented with an expense account indicating that 46 shillings and 4 pence had been spent for Grey’s burial.
Sources:
C. A. J. Armstrong, ed., The Usurpation of Richard III. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969 (2d. ed.).
David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower. Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2004.
Calendar of Patent Rolls.
Letter to the Gentleman’s Magazine, pp. 377-79, October 1844.
Rosemary Horrox, ‘Grey, Sir Richard (d. 1483)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11557, accessed 6 June 2009]
Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study in Service. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
D.E. Lowe, “The Council of the Prince of Wales and the Decline of the Herbert Family during the Second Reign of Edward IV (1471-1483).” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, vol. 27, 1976-78, pp.278-297.
D. E. Lowe, “Patronage and Politics: Edward IV, the Wydevilles, and the Council of the Prince of Wales, 1471–83.” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 1977.
W. C. Metcalfe, A Book of Knights Banneret, Knights of the Bath and Knights Bachelor (1885).
Arlene Okerlund, Elizabeth: England’s Slandered Queen. Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2006.
Nicholas Orme, “The Education of Edward V,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 1984.
Lynda Pidgeon, “Antony Wydeville, Lord Scales and Rivers: Family, Friends and Affinity. Part 2.” The Ricardian (2006).
A. J. Pollard, The Worlds of Richard III. Stroud: Tempus, 2001.
Nicholas Pronay and John Cox, eds., The Crowland Chronicle Continuations, 1459–1486. London: Richard III and Yorkist History Trust: 1986.
T. B. Pugh, ‘Grey, Thomas, first marquess of Dorset (c.1455–1501)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11560, accessed 6 June 2009]
Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, “The Royal Burials of the House of York at Windsor,” The Ricardian (December 1998).
On May 14, 1475, Richard was made a Knight of the Bath, alongside his older brother and his royal half-brothers as well as his uncle Edward Woodville. Another new Knight of the Bath was Thomas Vaughan, chamberlain to Edward, Prince of Wales. Not only would Richard Grey and Thomas Vaughan be knighted together, they would also be executed together just eight years later.
In the same year of his knighting, Richard began to take on responsibilities. He was named to commissions of the peace in Herefordshire on July 4, 1475, November 10, 1475, and June 7, 1476. Rosemary Horrox suggests that he became associated with the Prince of Wales’ household at Ludlow during this period. Also in 1476, Richard was nominated as a Knight of the Garter (interestingly, by Lord William Hastings), but lost out to his older brother, Thomas.
Richard was prominent at the tournament that followed the marriage of his young half-brother, the Duke of York, to Anne Mowbray in 1478. He and his retinue were garbed in blue and tawny; his three horses sported crimson cloth of gold and tissue.
Grey was made constable of Chester Castle on February 10, 1479. Sometime in 1479, Richard was appointed to a commission of oyer and terminer in Wales to investigate crimes committed by John Herbert. In the 1480’s Richard continued to serve on commissions for the king. He was appointed to commissions of oyer and terminer on July 24, 1482, August 24, 1482, and on March 18, 1483, and to commissions of the peace in Berkshire (February 13, 1483), Buckinghamshire (February 13, 1483), Essex (February 12, 1483), Herefordshire (November 28, 1481), Northamptonshire (February 13, 1483), and Oxfordshire (February 18, 1483). On December 7, 1481, he was appointed to inquire into escapes of felons within the county of Southampton. Grey was made the constable and steward of Wallingford on September 3, 1482.
Grey acquired a number of lands during the last year or so of his life. On April 24, 1482, he was granted Kidwelly in tail male. Edward IV expanded his stepson’s landholdings at the Parliament of 1483, where he and his male heirs were granted the manors of Rochford, Leigh, Paglesham and Foulness in Essex; the manors of Thorpe Waterville, Aldwinkle, Achurch, Chelveston and Caldecote in Northampton; the manor of Ardington in Berkshire; and the manor of Barford St Martin in Wiltshire. Elizabeth Woodville paid the king 2,000 marks for this grant, which was part of a larger transaction involving the lands of the Lancastrian Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter. Exeter and his former wife Anne, sister of Edward IV, were dead, as was their only daughter, but Anne by her second husband, Thomas St. Leger, had another daughter, who had been made the Exeter heiress and who was intended to marry a son of Thomas Grey, though the arrangement was canceled when Richard III came to the throne. The lands Richard Grey acquired were valued at 500 marks a year.
As in the case of his uncles Richard and Edward, there is no trace of a marriage being sought for Richard Grey. Perhaps the granting of the lands to him in 1483 would have been followed in due course by a bride being found for him; after all, Grey was probably still only in his twenties.
In 1473, Edward IV had issued a series of ordinances for the Prince of Wales’ household in which he minutely prescribed the day-to-day details of the prince’s upbringing. On February 25, 1483, the king amended these ordinances, evidently, as Nicholas Orme points out, because the twelve-year-old prince was proving to have a will of his own. Edward was ordered by his father to “observe and kepe theis articles before written touching his person” and to “ne take upon him to give, write, sende or commande any thinge without thavise of the said bishop [John Alcock, then the Bishop of Worcester], lord Richard [Grey] and Erle Rivieres [Anthony Woodville].” Alcock, Grey, and Rivers were instructed that if Edward engaged in any “unprincely demeaning” or behaved contrary to the ordinances, they were to “forthwith shewe it in good manner unto him selfe to bee refourmed, and if he will not amend therby then the said bishop, lord Richard and Erle Rivieres, or one of them, shewe it unto us and to our moost dere wief the quene or unto one of us in all goodlie haste, as they will aunsuere it at theire peril and avoid our grievous displeasour.” Plainly, Richard Grey had acquired increasing importance in his half-brother’s household.
Richard Grey’s reputation has suffered much from Mancini’s comment, likely based on propaganda being put forth by Richard, Duke of Gloucester in 1483, that “although [Edward IV] had many promoters and companions of his vices, the more important and especial were three of the . . . relatives of the queen, her two sons and one of her brothers.” Richard Grey, however, could have hardly been a promoter and companion of Edward IV’s vices in the early years of his reign, when Grey was just a child. From the late 1470’s on, Grey appears to have spent much of his time in the household of the Prince of Wales at Ludlow, again not affording him much opportunity to promote Edward IV’s vices--assuming that Edward needed encouragement, which seems most unlikely. It is also notable that Edward IV, who in his ordinances proscribed unsuitable persons from coming into his heir’s presence, deemed Richard Grey morally fit to participate in the prince’s upbringing. Crowland, in contrast to Mancini, calls Grey “a very honourable knight.”
For Richard Grey, the future must have looked bright in the spring of 1483: he had been appointed to several commissions, he had a leading role in the household of his half-brother, and he had become prosperous through the acquisition of his new manors. Sadly, great changes were coming. Edward IV died on April 9, 1483. Just three weeks later, on April 30, 1483, Richard Grey, his uncle Anthony Woodville, and Thomas Vaughan, Edward V’s elderly chamberlain, were taken prisoner by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who claimed that the men were conspiring to murder him. If Gloucester offered any proof of his allegations, it has not survived, and as we shall see, contemporaries doubted the men’s guilt.
Grey’s movements in the days before he was imprisoned are unclear. He is not named among those attending Edward IV’s funeral, but Mancini claims that he had been in London shortly before rejoining Edward V. According to Crowland, as their parties traveled toward London, Grey and Anthony Woodville met Gloucester and the Duke of Buckingham at Northampton and, after a night of pleasant conversation, journeyed to Stony Stratford where Edward V was lodged. Just outside the latter town, Grey and Woodville were arrested by Gloucester’s men. Mancini, however, has only Anthony meeting Gloucester, and has him being arrested before setting out to meet the king at his lodgings; in this version, Gloucester and Buckingham arrive at the town where Edward V is staying and then arrest Grey. Notably, none of the men arrested seems to have taken any precautions whatsoever against being captured by Gloucester, as surely they would have had they been plotting against him.
The captive Grey was taken to Middleham Castle, one of Gloucester’s strongholds, where he arrived on May 3, along with some servants and horses, and remained until Midsummer Day, when he was moved to Pontefract Castle. Gloucester’s young son, Edward, was also at Middleham at the time, but it seems unlikely that Richard Grey had more than superficial contact with the boy.
Soon after he arrived in London with Edward V, Mancini reports, Gloucester attempted to have the council agree to the execution of the three prisoners. “But this he was quite unable to achieve, because there appeared no certain case as regards the ambushes, and even had the crime been manifest, it would not have been treason, for at the time of the alleged ambushes he was neither regent nor did he hold any other public office.” This gained the men a reprieve, but only a short one. Meanwhile, Gloucester began granting out various Woodville estates, including Grey’s manor of Thorpe Waterville, which went to Francis Lovell before May 21, 1483, when the tenants were notified of the transfer.
On June 25, 1483, Grey, Rivers, and Vaughan were executed at Pontefract Castle on orders of Gloucester, who had the crown well within his grasp and thus no longer needed to bother with the council’s approval. The next day, Gloucester became King Richard III.
Crowland, who refers to the deaths of Grey and the others as “the second shedding of innocent blood” (William Hastings having been the first victim), writes that the men “were beheaded without any form of trial,” although John Rous claims that the Earl of Northumberland acted as their judge. If the men did indeed receive a trial, its outcome must have been a foregone conclusion, for on June 23, Anthony Woodville, who was being held at Sheriff Hutton, made his will. The only thing in doubt seems to have been where he was to be executed, since at the beginning of the will he asked to be buried at St. Stephens College at Westminster if he died “beyond Trent,” while in a postscript he asked to be buried with Richard Grey at Pontefract before an image of the Virgin Mary. Whether this request was honored is unknown, but in September, Richard III was presented with an expense account indicating that 46 shillings and 4 pence had been spent for Grey’s burial.
Sources:
C. A. J. Armstrong, ed., The Usurpation of Richard III. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969 (2d. ed.).
David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower. Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2004.
Calendar of Patent Rolls.
Letter to the Gentleman’s Magazine, pp. 377-79, October 1844.
Rosemary Horrox, ‘Grey, Sir Richard (d. 1483)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11557, accessed 6 June 2009]
Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study in Service. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
D.E. Lowe, “The Council of the Prince of Wales and the Decline of the Herbert Family during the Second Reign of Edward IV (1471-1483).” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, vol. 27, 1976-78, pp.278-297.
D. E. Lowe, “Patronage and Politics: Edward IV, the Wydevilles, and the Council of the Prince of Wales, 1471–83.” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 1977.
W. C. Metcalfe, A Book of Knights Banneret, Knights of the Bath and Knights Bachelor (1885).
Arlene Okerlund, Elizabeth: England’s Slandered Queen. Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2006.
Nicholas Orme, “The Education of Edward V,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 1984.
Lynda Pidgeon, “Antony Wydeville, Lord Scales and Rivers: Family, Friends and Affinity. Part 2.” The Ricardian (2006).
A. J. Pollard, The Worlds of Richard III. Stroud: Tempus, 2001.
Nicholas Pronay and John Cox, eds., The Crowland Chronicle Continuations, 1459–1486. London: Richard III and Yorkist History Trust: 1986.
T. B. Pugh, ‘Grey, Thomas, first marquess of Dorset (c.1455–1501)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11560, accessed 6 June 2009]
Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, “The Royal Burials of the House of York at Windsor,” The Ricardian (December 1998).
Saturday, June 06, 2009
The Stolen Crown, and a Handy Website
Last night at about 1:00 a.m., I put the finishing touches to my Buckingham novel, now called The Stolen Crown. If all goes well, look for it in 2010 sometime!
I'm now pondering what to write about next. I think it's going to be about a Margaret: either Margaret of Anjou, Margaret Beaufort, or Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. The first and third Margarets are the ones who appeal to me most as subjects. Doing a novel about Margaret of Anjou would let me write about the early period of the Wars of the Roses from a Lancastrian standpoint, which isn't done all that often and would allow me to work in some people who particularly intrigue me, such as Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter and the Beaufort clan. Margaret Pole also has a fascinating and tragic story, and would let me work in five of Henry VIII's wives plus the portly man himself. The nice thing about all three women is that their lives are well documented and that I already have a lot of the research material at hand.
Speaking of research, I've gone gaga today for this site that someone on the Historical Novel Society Yahoo group pointed out. It's from the British Library, and allows free downloads of a number of doctoral theses. The ones I've really been longing to read aren't available yet, but there's always hope! In the meantime, I managed to console myself with about a dozen others. Have fun browsing!
I'm now pondering what to write about next. I think it's going to be about a Margaret: either Margaret of Anjou, Margaret Beaufort, or Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. The first and third Margarets are the ones who appeal to me most as subjects. Doing a novel about Margaret of Anjou would let me write about the early period of the Wars of the Roses from a Lancastrian standpoint, which isn't done all that often and would allow me to work in some people who particularly intrigue me, such as Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter and the Beaufort clan. Margaret Pole also has a fascinating and tragic story, and would let me work in five of Henry VIII's wives plus the portly man himself. The nice thing about all three women is that their lives are well documented and that I already have a lot of the research material at hand.
Speaking of research, I've gone gaga today for this site that someone on the Historical Novel Society Yahoo group pointed out. It's from the British Library, and allows free downloads of a number of doctoral theses. The ones I've really been longing to read aren't available yet, but there's always hope! In the meantime, I managed to console myself with about a dozen others. Have fun browsing!
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Grave Matters
Here are a couple of more pictures from my trip to Pere Lachaise Cemetery this April. Good medievalist that I am, I took a picture of Abelard and Heloise's tomb, but unfortunately, it was surrounded by scaffolding. (You can see a better picture here.)
I'm afraid I didn't catch the name of this gentleman, but he certainly looks like a morning person:
And here is the grave of Victor Noir, a French journalist who was shot by Pierre Bonaparte while trying to arrange the terms of a duel. (Some guys will do anything to avoid sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper.) Yes, a certain area is rather prominent, and it's been made more so by women who rub it for fertility.
I'm afraid I didn't catch the name of this gentleman, but he certainly looks like a morning person:
And here is the grave of Victor Noir, a French journalist who was shot by Pierre Bonaparte while trying to arrange the terms of a duel. (Some guys will do anything to avoid sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper.) Yes, a certain area is rather prominent, and it's been made more so by women who rub it for fertility.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Search Terms
It's June, and that means that it's time for May search terms!
what would happen if a divorce happened in the elizabethan era
Quite possibly, a divorce.
wife in shorts
Just ask her nicely, and I'm sure she'll oblige.
historical fiction with explicit sex
Let's get down to business, shall we?
english kings fake pregnancy
So that's where Henry VIII got that 54-inch waistline from!
take the veil convent -tibet
Nothing like getting away from it all.
edward ii anus latin
isabella from latin adultery
That's one way of making high school Latin more interesting.
search
And you shall find, but it'll take you a heck of a long time to do it that way.
snippets what do you call things with no words
There's an advanced seminar in philosophy waiting to answer this one, I'm sure.
what if a duke and duchess marries
They have little duchies.
edward ii who did the packing when he moved
Actually, it's a little-known fact that Edward II made Isabella do all of the packing when he moved. Gaveston, and later Hugh le Despenser the younger, just sat and twiddled their thumbs while poor Isabella did all of the work. So here you have it, folks--the real reason Edward II was deposed. If only he'd hired professional movers.
what would happen if a divorce happened in the elizabethan era
Quite possibly, a divorce.
wife in shorts
Just ask her nicely, and I'm sure she'll oblige.
historical fiction with explicit sex
Let's get down to business, shall we?
english kings fake pregnancy
So that's where Henry VIII got that 54-inch waistline from!
take the veil convent -tibet
Nothing like getting away from it all.
edward ii anus latin
isabella from latin adultery
That's one way of making high school Latin more interesting.
search
And you shall find, but it'll take you a heck of a long time to do it that way.
snippets what do you call things with no words
There's an advanced seminar in philosophy waiting to answer this one, I'm sure.
what if a duke and duchess marries
They have little duchies.
edward ii who did the packing when he moved
Actually, it's a little-known fact that Edward II made Isabella do all of the packing when he moved. Gaveston, and later Hugh le Despenser the younger, just sat and twiddled their thumbs while poor Isabella did all of the work. So here you have it, folks--the real reason Edward II was deposed. If only he'd hired professional movers.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Meme Time! What Would Your Characters Do?
Thanks to Gabriele, instead of spending lunchtime patiently fact-checking and proofreading the final draft of the Buckingham novel, I'm doing this meme. Pick 10 characters at random, then answer how they will react in various given situations. So here goes, courtesy of my Buckingham novel:
1. Katherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham
2. Anne Neville, Duchess of Gloucester, later Queen of England
3. Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England
4. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
5. Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham
6. William, Lord Hastings
7. Edward IV
8. Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells
9. George, Duke of Clarence
10.Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III
4 invites 3 and 8 to dinner at their house. What happens?
Warwick says to Elizabeth Woodville, "Hey, sorry that I offed your father and your brother, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, you know?" Warwick then says to Stillington, "Hey, you haven't performed any secret marriages I might want to know about, have you?" An uneasy silence descends, broken only by the arrival of a lot of meat, which fortunately keeps everyone occupied for the rest of the evening.
9 tries to get 5 to go to a strip club. What happens?
Harry agrees to George's invitation, but he really wishes that Richard was the one who was taking him. Actually, he really wishes that Richard was the one stripping. Oh, my.
You need to stay at a friend's house for a night. Who do you choose: 1 or 6?
Depended on whether I wanted to sleep in a comfy bed (Katherine) or get lucky (Hastings). Come to think of it, with Hastings I'd have a chance to do both. So, sorry, Kate--I'll have to go with Hastings. (Can you say "cougar"?)
2 and 7 are making out. 10 walks in. What is their reaction?
Having caught his wife and his brother Edward making out, Richard cries, "Ned! This is all the doing of the vile Woodvilles, isn't it? How they have corrupted you!" Then after a beat, he asks, "This does mean you're going to give me a larger share of the Warwick lands, right?"
3 falls in love with 6. 8 is jealous. What happens?
Elizabeth Woodville in love with William Hastings, and Stillington jealous! Well, Elizabeth and William poison Edward IV, in hopes of marrying, but before they can do so, jealous Stillington persuades Gloucester to cut William's head off for treason. There might be a journal article here, "The Events of 1483: A New Explanation," come to think of it . . .
4 jumps you in a dark alleyway. Who comes to your rescue: 10, 2, or 7?
Well, after Warwick jumps me, I'm not sure that his daughter Anne would be of much help, and Richard is probably too busy plotting to seize the throne to really care. So Edward IV comes to my rescue, probably in the hopes of getting lucky.
1 decides to start a cooking show. Fifteen minutes later, what is happening?
Kate very sensibly decides to call in a guest hostess, Anne, Duchess of Gloucester, who demonstrates the recipes she learned while George was hiding her in the cookshop.
3 has to marry either 8, 4, or 9. Whom do they choose?
Elizabeth Woodville has to marry Stillington, Warwick, or Clarence? She marries Stillington secretly, and they have a son, named Perkin Warbeck.
7 kidnaps 2 and demands something from 5 for 2's release. What is it?
Edward IV kidnaps Anne and tells Buckingham that he'll release her if he just shuts up about wanting his Bohun lands and some more responsibility.
Everyone gangs up on 3. Does 3 have a chance in hell?
Oh, yes! Elizabeth will just make everyone kneel before her.
Everyone is invited to 2 and 10's wedding except for 8. How do they react?
Stillington doesn't get invited to Richard and Anne's wedding? He starts a rumor that the Woodvilles intercepted his wedding invitation.
Why is 6 afraid of 7?
Hastings afraid of Edward IV? Sounds like Jane Shore was a little indiscreet about the day Jane Shore paid a visit to Hastings at the mint "just to see how the coinage is made."
1 arrives late for 2 and 10's wedding. What happens, and why were they late?
Kate is late to Richard and Anne's wedding? Well, in my novel, Kate is busy primping in hopes of getting lucky with her husband Harry and loses track of the time. Were I writing the Ricardian Novel to End All Ricardian Novels, though, Kate would be delayed by her inability to find the toad needed to cast a spell on the happy couple.
5 and 9 get roaring drunk and end up at your house. What happens?
Buckingham and Clarence get roaring drunk? Aside from ending up at my house, this actually does happen in my Buckingham novel, so I'm going to make you wait until around 2010 to find out. I'm so mean.
9 murders 2's best friend. What does 2 do to get back at them?
Clarence murders Anne's best friend? Well, Anne tells her brother-in-law Edward IV, "You know, I'm really getting tired of Clarence, aren't you? Have you ever thought of drowning him in a vat of malmsey?"
6 and 1 are in mortal peril and only one of them can survive. Does 6 save themself or 1?
Hastings and Katherine in mortal peril? Hey, Hastings is a gentleman, and he would of course save the lady. But he might try to get lucky first.
8 and 3 go camping. For some reason they forgot to bring along any food. What do they do?
Ah, Elizabeth Woodville and Stillington on a camping trip. But they did remember to bring servants, who make a quick run to the store! So pretty soon, they're happily toasting marshmallows together, never fear.
5 is in a crash and is critically injured. What does 9 do?
Clarence, seeing Harry's misfortune, calls for wine and gives a little to the injured Harry until help arrives. Then he drinks the rest himself, telling himself that he deserves a little something to calm his nerves.
1. Katherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham
2. Anne Neville, Duchess of Gloucester, later Queen of England
3. Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England
4. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
5. Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham
6. William, Lord Hastings
7. Edward IV
8. Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells
9. George, Duke of Clarence
10.Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III
4 invites 3 and 8 to dinner at their house. What happens?
Warwick says to Elizabeth Woodville, "Hey, sorry that I offed your father and your brother, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, you know?" Warwick then says to Stillington, "Hey, you haven't performed any secret marriages I might want to know about, have you?" An uneasy silence descends, broken only by the arrival of a lot of meat, which fortunately keeps everyone occupied for the rest of the evening.
9 tries to get 5 to go to a strip club. What happens?
Harry agrees to George's invitation, but he really wishes that Richard was the one who was taking him. Actually, he really wishes that Richard was the one stripping. Oh, my.
You need to stay at a friend's house for a night. Who do you choose: 1 or 6?
Depended on whether I wanted to sleep in a comfy bed (Katherine) or get lucky (Hastings). Come to think of it, with Hastings I'd have a chance to do both. So, sorry, Kate--I'll have to go with Hastings. (Can you say "cougar"?)
2 and 7 are making out. 10 walks in. What is their reaction?
Having caught his wife and his brother Edward making out, Richard cries, "Ned! This is all the doing of the vile Woodvilles, isn't it? How they have corrupted you!" Then after a beat, he asks, "This does mean you're going to give me a larger share of the Warwick lands, right?"
3 falls in love with 6. 8 is jealous. What happens?
Elizabeth Woodville in love with William Hastings, and Stillington jealous! Well, Elizabeth and William poison Edward IV, in hopes of marrying, but before they can do so, jealous Stillington persuades Gloucester to cut William's head off for treason. There might be a journal article here, "The Events of 1483: A New Explanation," come to think of it . . .
4 jumps you in a dark alleyway. Who comes to your rescue: 10, 2, or 7?
Well, after Warwick jumps me, I'm not sure that his daughter Anne would be of much help, and Richard is probably too busy plotting to seize the throne to really care. So Edward IV comes to my rescue, probably in the hopes of getting lucky.
1 decides to start a cooking show. Fifteen minutes later, what is happening?
Kate very sensibly decides to call in a guest hostess, Anne, Duchess of Gloucester, who demonstrates the recipes she learned while George was hiding her in the cookshop.
3 has to marry either 8, 4, or 9. Whom do they choose?
Elizabeth Woodville has to marry Stillington, Warwick, or Clarence? She marries Stillington secretly, and they have a son, named Perkin Warbeck.
7 kidnaps 2 and demands something from 5 for 2's release. What is it?
Edward IV kidnaps Anne and tells Buckingham that he'll release her if he just shuts up about wanting his Bohun lands and some more responsibility.
Everyone gangs up on 3. Does 3 have a chance in hell?
Oh, yes! Elizabeth will just make everyone kneel before her.
Everyone is invited to 2 and 10's wedding except for 8. How do they react?
Stillington doesn't get invited to Richard and Anne's wedding? He starts a rumor that the Woodvilles intercepted his wedding invitation.
Why is 6 afraid of 7?
Hastings afraid of Edward IV? Sounds like Jane Shore was a little indiscreet about the day Jane Shore paid a visit to Hastings at the mint "just to see how the coinage is made."
1 arrives late for 2 and 10's wedding. What happens, and why were they late?
Kate is late to Richard and Anne's wedding? Well, in my novel, Kate is busy primping in hopes of getting lucky with her husband Harry and loses track of the time. Were I writing the Ricardian Novel to End All Ricardian Novels, though, Kate would be delayed by her inability to find the toad needed to cast a spell on the happy couple.
5 and 9 get roaring drunk and end up at your house. What happens?
Buckingham and Clarence get roaring drunk? Aside from ending up at my house, this actually does happen in my Buckingham novel, so I'm going to make you wait until around 2010 to find out. I'm so mean.
9 murders 2's best friend. What does 2 do to get back at them?
Clarence murders Anne's best friend? Well, Anne tells her brother-in-law Edward IV, "You know, I'm really getting tired of Clarence, aren't you? Have you ever thought of drowning him in a vat of malmsey?"
6 and 1 are in mortal peril and only one of them can survive. Does 6 save themself or 1?
Hastings and Katherine in mortal peril? Hey, Hastings is a gentleman, and he would of course save the lady. But he might try to get lucky first.
8 and 3 go camping. For some reason they forgot to bring along any food. What do they do?
Ah, Elizabeth Woodville and Stillington on a camping trip. But they did remember to bring servants, who make a quick run to the store! So pretty soon, they're happily toasting marshmallows together, never fear.
5 is in a crash and is critically injured. What does 9 do?
Clarence, seeing Harry's misfortune, calls for wine and gives a little to the injured Harry until help arrives. Then he drinks the rest himself, telling himself that he deserves a little something to calm his nerves.
Some Recent Historical Fiction Reads
Here are reviews of mine that appeared in the February 2009 Historical Novels Review:
A Constant Heart
Siri Mitchell, Bethany House, 2008, $13.99 pb, 384pp, 9780764204319
Facing an arranged marriage to the Earl of Lytham, a stranger, seventeen-year-old Marget is reassured somewhat when her betrothed sends her an astrolabe and a romantic sonnet. Yet when Marget meets her husband at last, the earl, still embittered from his first marriage to a beautiful, unfaithful wife, is barely civil to his new countess. Life is no better at Queen Elizabeth’s court, where the newcomer Marget is shunned.
Determined to win the affection of her husband by proving herself useful to him in his frantic quest for royal favor, Marget becomes friends with Lady de Winter, who advises Marget that in order to make her way at court, Marget must obscure her natural beauty with layers of white paint. Slowly, Marget finds acceptance among the queen’s ladies—but is Lady de Winter acting in her best interests?
Mitchell vividly depicts the atmosphere of Elizabeth’s court, as poisoned by jealousy, back-biting, and intrigue as are the women who damage their looks and their health with lead paint. Her newlyweds, struggling to build a successful relationship with each other and to maintain their integrity in a setting that is hardly conducive to such goals, provide an interesting—and fresh--perspective on a familiar period.
----------
Bedlam South
Mark Grisham and David Donaldson, State Street Press, 2008, $24.95 hb, 324pp, 9780764204319
In 1863, Alabama native Dr. Joseph Bryarly reluctantly accepts an invitation from a family friend, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, to leave his post at London’s notorious Bethlem Royal Hospital to become Chief Superintendent of Wingate Asylum in Richmond, Virginia. Meanwhile, young Zeke Gibson gleefully joins the Army of Northern Virginia, where he is reunited with his older brother, Billy, a corporal. The Battle of Gettysburg, however, soon sends the Gibson brothers in separate directions, while nightmare-plagued Joseph finds that he has exchanged the living hell of London’s Bedlam for that of Richmond’s Bedlam South.
Co-written by childhood friends who utilized the novel to blend their interests in psychology and the Civil War, Bedlam South has all of the elements of a wartime epic as it moves with ease between battlefields, the asylum, gracious and humble homes, prisons, bordellos, and city streets, with episodes that show its men and women at their worst--and at their best. It’s a fast-paced and well-plotted story, with a varied and large cast of characters, sympathetic and complex protagonists, a couple of romances, and some staggering coincidences. I recommend it highly.
________________
The Ancient Ocean Blues
Jack Mitchell, Tundra Books, 2008, $9.95/C$11.99 pb, 188pp, 9780887768323
Though young Marcus Oppius Sabinus is less than thrilled when his cousin Gaius sends him on a spy mission, Marcus does find this preferable to helping Gaius in his everyday business of buying elections through bribery. Soon, therefore, he’s traveling to Athens, in the company of a Greek publisher and Marcus’s fiancée, Paulla (who stows away in hopes of improving her acquaintance with the heroic Aulus Lucinus Spurinna, not for the pleasure of Marcus’s company). Needless to say, smooth sailing does not lie ahead.
Narrated in a breezy, humorous style by Marcus, this was a fun read in which the carefully researched history went down painlessly and where the historical figures (including Gaius Oppius) easily mixed with the fictitious ones, several of whom first appeared in Mitchell’s previous novel, The Roman Conspiracy. I especially enjoyed Paulla, a connoisseur of romances who turns out to be anything but a starry-eyed romantic. Young adults, even those not normally interested in the ancient world, will find this an engaging read.
_____
Coming soon, search terms!
A Constant Heart
Siri Mitchell, Bethany House, 2008, $13.99 pb, 384pp, 9780764204319
Facing an arranged marriage to the Earl of Lytham, a stranger, seventeen-year-old Marget is reassured somewhat when her betrothed sends her an astrolabe and a romantic sonnet. Yet when Marget meets her husband at last, the earl, still embittered from his first marriage to a beautiful, unfaithful wife, is barely civil to his new countess. Life is no better at Queen Elizabeth’s court, where the newcomer Marget is shunned.
Determined to win the affection of her husband by proving herself useful to him in his frantic quest for royal favor, Marget becomes friends with Lady de Winter, who advises Marget that in order to make her way at court, Marget must obscure her natural beauty with layers of white paint. Slowly, Marget finds acceptance among the queen’s ladies—but is Lady de Winter acting in her best interests?
Mitchell vividly depicts the atmosphere of Elizabeth’s court, as poisoned by jealousy, back-biting, and intrigue as are the women who damage their looks and their health with lead paint. Her newlyweds, struggling to build a successful relationship with each other and to maintain their integrity in a setting that is hardly conducive to such goals, provide an interesting—and fresh--perspective on a familiar period.
----------
Bedlam South
Mark Grisham and David Donaldson, State Street Press, 2008, $24.95 hb, 324pp, 9780764204319
In 1863, Alabama native Dr. Joseph Bryarly reluctantly accepts an invitation from a family friend, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, to leave his post at London’s notorious Bethlem Royal Hospital to become Chief Superintendent of Wingate Asylum in Richmond, Virginia. Meanwhile, young Zeke Gibson gleefully joins the Army of Northern Virginia, where he is reunited with his older brother, Billy, a corporal. The Battle of Gettysburg, however, soon sends the Gibson brothers in separate directions, while nightmare-plagued Joseph finds that he has exchanged the living hell of London’s Bedlam for that of Richmond’s Bedlam South.
Co-written by childhood friends who utilized the novel to blend their interests in psychology and the Civil War, Bedlam South has all of the elements of a wartime epic as it moves with ease between battlefields, the asylum, gracious and humble homes, prisons, bordellos, and city streets, with episodes that show its men and women at their worst--and at their best. It’s a fast-paced and well-plotted story, with a varied and large cast of characters, sympathetic and complex protagonists, a couple of romances, and some staggering coincidences. I recommend it highly.
________________
The Ancient Ocean Blues
Jack Mitchell, Tundra Books, 2008, $9.95/C$11.99 pb, 188pp, 9780887768323
Though young Marcus Oppius Sabinus is less than thrilled when his cousin Gaius sends him on a spy mission, Marcus does find this preferable to helping Gaius in his everyday business of buying elections through bribery. Soon, therefore, he’s traveling to Athens, in the company of a Greek publisher and Marcus’s fiancée, Paulla (who stows away in hopes of improving her acquaintance with the heroic Aulus Lucinus Spurinna, not for the pleasure of Marcus’s company). Needless to say, smooth sailing does not lie ahead.
Narrated in a breezy, humorous style by Marcus, this was a fun read in which the carefully researched history went down painlessly and where the historical figures (including Gaius Oppius) easily mixed with the fictitious ones, several of whom first appeared in Mitchell’s previous novel, The Roman Conspiracy. I especially enjoyed Paulla, a connoisseur of romances who turns out to be anything but a starry-eyed romantic. Young adults, even those not normally interested in the ancient world, will find this an engaging read.
_____
Coming soon, search terms!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Winner of Mistress of the Sun . . .
Is Rachel! I've sent you an email. Thanks to everyone who entered!
Monday, May 25, 2009
In Memory of a Fallen Soldier: Edward le Despenser
Edward le Despenser was the second son of Hugh le Despenser the younger and Eleanor de Clare. He was born before November 23, 1315, when Edward II issued a license for John de Cromwell and his wife, Idonia, to grant certain lands to Robert Baldock, who was to regrant them with a life estate to Idonia, with remainder interests for Hugh, his father, and Edward.
Edward’s whereabouts following the destruction of his father and grandfather at the hands of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer are unknown, but he was probably among the children who were imprisoned with Eleanor de Clare in the Tower from November 1326 to February 1328. Though Edward’s exact age is unknown, he was evidently too young to be considered a threat to the regime, unlike his eldest brother, Hugh, who was around 18 in 1326 and who was imprisoned until 1331.
In November 1334, Edward came into the life estates he had been granted in 1315. His lands included Essendine in Rutland. As Jane Austen noted, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife,” and Edward proved the wisdom of this remark by finding a wife just a few months later, for he married Anne Ferrers at Groby on April 20, 1335. Anne was the sister of Henry, Lord Ferrers, who was married to Isabella de Verdon. Isabella was a daughter of Elizabeth de Burgh, Eleanor de Clare’s younger sister.
Edward’s short marriage was a fruitful one, producing four sons, Edward, Hugh, Thomas, and Henry. Edward, the eldest, who ultimately inherited the Despenser estates when his uncle Hugh died without heirs in 1349, was born at Essendine on March 24, 1336.
Like his brothers Hugh and Gilbert, Edward served in Edward III’s military campaigns. In 1338, he had a protection to serve in France with his brother-in-law Henry Ferrers. In 1342, he accompanied his brother Hugh overseas. Hugh’s forces, originally headed for Gascony, were diverted to Brest to assist the forces of the Countess of Montfort, whose side in the Breton civil war Edward III was backing. Hugh’s forces later joined the Earl of Northampton at Morlaix, where the English, badly outnumbered, achieved a victory of sorts over French troops on September 30, 1342. Unfortunately, it was Edward’s last battle: as the chronicler Murimuth notes, he was the highest-ranking English casualty there.
Though Edward was probably only in his late twenties when he died in battle, he nonetheless managed to leave a worthy legacy behind him in the shape of his four sons, two of whom, Edward and Henry, were among the most colorful characters of the late fourteenth century. Each deserves a post to himself, but the younger Edward in his short life (he died at age thirty-nine) acquired a reputation as a model of chivalry; he is the “kneeling knight” depicted at Tewkesbury Abbey. Henry, who entered the Church but never lost his taste for military activity, became known as the “Fighting Bishop of Norwich.” Thomas, who fought at Rheims, died in 1381. Hugh, who died in 1374, was survived by a son, naturally named Hugh. The younger Hugh was governor to the fourteen-year-old Henry V, but died in 1401 before he had been at his post for very long.
Through his eldest son, Edward also can claim among his direct descendants Anne, queen to Richard III.
Sources:
Christopher Allmand, Henry V
Calendar of Patent Rolls
Complete Peerage
Martyn John Lawrence, Power, Ambition and Political Rehabilitation: The Despensers, c.1281–1400 (unpublished dissertation, University of York).
Edward’s whereabouts following the destruction of his father and grandfather at the hands of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer are unknown, but he was probably among the children who were imprisoned with Eleanor de Clare in the Tower from November 1326 to February 1328. Though Edward’s exact age is unknown, he was evidently too young to be considered a threat to the regime, unlike his eldest brother, Hugh, who was around 18 in 1326 and who was imprisoned until 1331.
In November 1334, Edward came into the life estates he had been granted in 1315. His lands included Essendine in Rutland. As Jane Austen noted, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife,” and Edward proved the wisdom of this remark by finding a wife just a few months later, for he married Anne Ferrers at Groby on April 20, 1335. Anne was the sister of Henry, Lord Ferrers, who was married to Isabella de Verdon. Isabella was a daughter of Elizabeth de Burgh, Eleanor de Clare’s younger sister.
Edward’s short marriage was a fruitful one, producing four sons, Edward, Hugh, Thomas, and Henry. Edward, the eldest, who ultimately inherited the Despenser estates when his uncle Hugh died without heirs in 1349, was born at Essendine on March 24, 1336.
Like his brothers Hugh and Gilbert, Edward served in Edward III’s military campaigns. In 1338, he had a protection to serve in France with his brother-in-law Henry Ferrers. In 1342, he accompanied his brother Hugh overseas. Hugh’s forces, originally headed for Gascony, were diverted to Brest to assist the forces of the Countess of Montfort, whose side in the Breton civil war Edward III was backing. Hugh’s forces later joined the Earl of Northampton at Morlaix, where the English, badly outnumbered, achieved a victory of sorts over French troops on September 30, 1342. Unfortunately, it was Edward’s last battle: as the chronicler Murimuth notes, he was the highest-ranking English casualty there.
Though Edward was probably only in his late twenties when he died in battle, he nonetheless managed to leave a worthy legacy behind him in the shape of his four sons, two of whom, Edward and Henry, were among the most colorful characters of the late fourteenth century. Each deserves a post to himself, but the younger Edward in his short life (he died at age thirty-nine) acquired a reputation as a model of chivalry; he is the “kneeling knight” depicted at Tewkesbury Abbey. Henry, who entered the Church but never lost his taste for military activity, became known as the “Fighting Bishop of Norwich.” Thomas, who fought at Rheims, died in 1381. Hugh, who died in 1374, was survived by a son, naturally named Hugh. The younger Hugh was governor to the fourteen-year-old Henry V, but died in 1401 before he had been at his post for very long.
Through his eldest son, Edward also can claim among his direct descendants Anne, queen to Richard III.
Sources:
Christopher Allmand, Henry V
Calendar of Patent Rolls
Complete Peerage
Martyn John Lawrence, Power, Ambition and Political Rehabilitation: The Despensers, c.1281–1400 (unpublished dissertation, University of York).
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Review: Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon
On April 14, 1865, an engaged couple, Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris, accepted the Lincolns' last-minute invitation to join them in their box at Ford's Theatre. For the nation, the impact of that night's tragedy would be felt at once; for Henry and Clara, the denouement of their own private tragedy occurred years later.
Henry and Clara follows the titular couple from their childhood in Albany, New York, where Henry's widowed, ambitious mother sets her cap at Clara's widowed father, Ira Harris, whom Pauline Rathbone sees as a promising politician. A marriage soon follows, and young Henry and Clara find themselves stepbrother and stepsister. Though neither child cares much for the other's parent, Henry and Clara soon gravitate toward each other, and as they mature their feelings grow into romantic love. Before they can marry, though, they must overcome the opposition of their parents, and the outbreak of the Civil War throws yet another obstacle into their path.
There is another difficulty, one the determined and devoted Clara doesn't much want to acknowledge: Henry. For Clara, the mercurial Henry is Byronic, but the horrors of war soon disclose how fragile Henry's psyche truly is. Nonetheless, Clara, deeply in love and not willing to give up easily, presses on with her marriage plans, even after the Lincoln assassination strips yet another layer of sanity from Henry.
Though the story Henry and Clara tells is a tragic one, Mallon's wry narrative voice and his sharp eye prevent it from being a gloomy one. His characterizations are superb, with Clara, the main viewpoint character, being a particular success. Even as Clara becomes more isolated and her situation more grim, she never turns into the pathetic victim she might have become with a less skilled author.
If there's a rough patch in the novel, it's at the beginning, where the immersion into Albany politics may be too much for some readers. Persevere, though, and you'll be well rewarded. This was one of the best historical novels I've read.
Henry and Clara follows the titular couple from their childhood in Albany, New York, where Henry's widowed, ambitious mother sets her cap at Clara's widowed father, Ira Harris, whom Pauline Rathbone sees as a promising politician. A marriage soon follows, and young Henry and Clara find themselves stepbrother and stepsister. Though neither child cares much for the other's parent, Henry and Clara soon gravitate toward each other, and as they mature their feelings grow into romantic love. Before they can marry, though, they must overcome the opposition of their parents, and the outbreak of the Civil War throws yet another obstacle into their path.
There is another difficulty, one the determined and devoted Clara doesn't much want to acknowledge: Henry. For Clara, the mercurial Henry is Byronic, but the horrors of war soon disclose how fragile Henry's psyche truly is. Nonetheless, Clara, deeply in love and not willing to give up easily, presses on with her marriage plans, even after the Lincoln assassination strips yet another layer of sanity from Henry.
Though the story Henry and Clara tells is a tragic one, Mallon's wry narrative voice and his sharp eye prevent it from being a gloomy one. His characterizations are superb, with Clara, the main viewpoint character, being a particular success. Even as Clara becomes more isolated and her situation more grim, she never turns into the pathetic victim she might have become with a less skilled author.
If there's a rough patch in the novel, it's at the beginning, where the immersion into Albany politics may be too much for some readers. Persevere, though, and you'll be well rewarded. This was one of the best historical novels I've read.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Three Cheers for the BBC!
I have a Google alert set up for "Edward II," and though I get some things of interest that way, I also get a lot of worthless alerts, mostly to shopping sites. So when I saw my alert today, I thought at first it was another shopping alert. Then I looked closer and gave a great big whoop, for I see that the BBC has reissued the 1970 telecast of "Edward II" on DVD! Finally!
This telecast starred Ian McKellen as Edward II, and is an excellent adaptation of the Marlowe play. My university library of choice has an old VHS copy, which couldn't be taken off premises, so I had to watch it sitting in a carrel, wondering if some undergraduate would come up behind me during the poker scene and say, "Ewwww!" Needless to say, I'm delighted about finally being able to buy a copy of my own. I'm also delighted that the play, which is seldom produced in the US outside of major cities, will get a wider audience. (The Derek Jarman film, while interesting and well-acted, loses Marlowe's play in its emphasis on twentieth-century sexual politics.) It's the Marlowe play that got me interested in Edward II and got me to writing my own novel, so I owe this playwright a big thanks!
This telecast starred Ian McKellen as Edward II, and is an excellent adaptation of the Marlowe play. My university library of choice has an old VHS copy, which couldn't be taken off premises, so I had to watch it sitting in a carrel, wondering if some undergraduate would come up behind me during the poker scene and say, "Ewwww!" Needless to say, I'm delighted about finally being able to buy a copy of my own. I'm also delighted that the play, which is seldom produced in the US outside of major cities, will get a wider audience. (The Derek Jarman film, while interesting and well-acted, loses Marlowe's play in its emphasis on twentieth-century sexual politics.) It's the Marlowe play that got me interested in Edward II and got me to writing my own novel, so I owe this playwright a big thanks!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Q &A with Sandra Gulland--and a Giveaway!
As part of her blog tour to celebrate the paperback release of Mistress of the Sun, the story of Louise de la Vallière, I'd like to welcome Sandra Gulland to my corner of the blogsphere! I read Sandra's Josephine Bonaparte trilogy when I was just beginning to write historical fiction. Not only did I learn quite a bit about Josephine from it, I also learned a great deal about the craft of writing. So I'm particularly pleased she's stopping by here.
SH: What drew you to the character of Louise in particular? In general, are there qualities that tend to draw you to a historical character?
SG: What initially drew me to Louise was her extraordinary horsemanship. She could stand a cantering horse. She could out-ride and out-hunt the Sun King, who was himself an amazing athlete. I wondered how this came about. Certainly, it wasn't typical of women in the 17th century (much less today). Clearly, she had spent a lot of time with the guys in the stables and out in the fields.
I have to care deeply about my main character, so the most important quality, for me, has to do with having a sympathetic nature. The other essential is that there be something unexplained, something that provokes my curiosity. With Josephine, it was the fact that her remarkable future had been foretold. For Louise de la Vallière, it was her horsemanship.
SH: I’ve seen several different covers for Mistress of the Sun. Do you have a favorite? Why?
SG: I'm crazy in love with the cover of the Canadian hardcover edition, the one with the big eyes. I think it captures Petite's innocent, yet almost hypnotic and somewhat mystical allure. Poetically, I think it gets to the heart of what the novel is about. Plus, it's so gorgeous, simply lush. It communicates that the novel is historical, without confining it only to readers of historical fiction. It has a literary appeal, as well as romantic: a great combination, in my mind. I don't think I will ever love a cover as much as I love this one.
SH: Is there a character you’d like to write about, but don’t think you ever will? Why?
SG: I'm tempted by Joan of Arc — but she's so intimidating. Plus, there would have to be a question about her I wanted to solve.
I'm also, curiously, tempted by Saint Vincent de Paul. Now that would be a challenge! I've read biographies about him, but the one story that intrigues me is that he was, apparently, very popular as a confessor to the society ladies because he would forgive every sin. Imagine the story possibilities that might open up!
SH: Other than historical fiction, is there a genre you enjoy reading in particular? As a reader, do you have any “guilty pleasures”?
SG: I like literary fiction, especially literary historical fiction. In the historical vein, I've found it difficult, lately, to read works set close to the period I'm working in. Some recent works I've read and admired (Blonde, by Oates, for example) were set in the last century.
I did read a "guilty pleasure" book recently: Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. (Hasn't everyone read this book?) I thought it well done, but I was quite happy to return to my non-vampire world.
___
Thanks for the interview, Sandra! Now, here's your chance to win a paperback copy of Mistress of the Sun. Just leave a comment here by midnight May 25 (US EST) telling me which of Sandra's covers below is your favorite. (The winner will get the book with the second cover--the US paperback.)
Me? My favorite's the first one. I'd love to wear a dress like that, and my cats would love to shed on it.
SH: What drew you to the character of Louise in particular? In general, are there qualities that tend to draw you to a historical character?
SG: What initially drew me to Louise was her extraordinary horsemanship. She could stand a cantering horse. She could out-ride and out-hunt the Sun King, who was himself an amazing athlete. I wondered how this came about. Certainly, it wasn't typical of women in the 17th century (much less today). Clearly, she had spent a lot of time with the guys in the stables and out in the fields.
I have to care deeply about my main character, so the most important quality, for me, has to do with having a sympathetic nature. The other essential is that there be something unexplained, something that provokes my curiosity. With Josephine, it was the fact that her remarkable future had been foretold. For Louise de la Vallière, it was her horsemanship.
SH: I’ve seen several different covers for Mistress of the Sun. Do you have a favorite? Why?
SG: I'm crazy in love with the cover of the Canadian hardcover edition, the one with the big eyes. I think it captures Petite's innocent, yet almost hypnotic and somewhat mystical allure. Poetically, I think it gets to the heart of what the novel is about. Plus, it's so gorgeous, simply lush. It communicates that the novel is historical, without confining it only to readers of historical fiction. It has a literary appeal, as well as romantic: a great combination, in my mind. I don't think I will ever love a cover as much as I love this one.
SH: Is there a character you’d like to write about, but don’t think you ever will? Why?
SG: I'm tempted by Joan of Arc — but she's so intimidating. Plus, there would have to be a question about her I wanted to solve.
I'm also, curiously, tempted by Saint Vincent de Paul. Now that would be a challenge! I've read biographies about him, but the one story that intrigues me is that he was, apparently, very popular as a confessor to the society ladies because he would forgive every sin. Imagine the story possibilities that might open up!
SH: Other than historical fiction, is there a genre you enjoy reading in particular? As a reader, do you have any “guilty pleasures”?
SG: I like literary fiction, especially literary historical fiction. In the historical vein, I've found it difficult, lately, to read works set close to the period I'm working in. Some recent works I've read and admired (Blonde, by Oates, for example) were set in the last century.
I did read a "guilty pleasure" book recently: Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. (Hasn't everyone read this book?) I thought it well done, but I was quite happy to return to my non-vampire world.
___
Thanks for the interview, Sandra! Now, here's your chance to win a paperback copy of Mistress of the Sun. Just leave a comment here by midnight May 25 (US EST) telling me which of Sandra's covers below is your favorite. (The winner will get the book with the second cover--the US paperback.)
Me? My favorite's the first one. I'd love to wear a dress like that, and my cats would love to shed on it.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
That's One Way of Looking at It
While double-checking the facts for my Buckingham novel (it will be getting another title), I came across this little gem of a letter in the Calendar of State Papers, Milan (online here). The "enclosed copy" refers to an account of the Battle of St. Albans:
22. The Bishop of Novara, Milanese Ambassador at Rome, to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan.
From England we have the news which you will see by the enclosed copy. Although it is not good for those who are dead, yet it cannot fail to favour our proceedings, because it will make the French a little more cautious, as during these differences between the English, they had become great and daily became greater.
Rome, the 4th July, 1455.
[Italian.]
22. The Bishop of Novara, Milanese Ambassador at Rome, to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan.
From England we have the news which you will see by the enclosed copy. Although it is not good for those who are dead, yet it cannot fail to favour our proceedings, because it will make the French a little more cautious, as during these differences between the English, they had become great and daily became greater.
Rome, the 4th July, 1455.
[Italian.]
Sunday, May 17, 2009
A Woodville Meets a Boleyn
One of the fascinating things about doing historical research is seeing how people's paths cross. The William Boleyn who was appointed to a commission with Anthony Woodville in November 1482 was the grandfather of none other than Anne Boleyn:
Nov. 12. Commission to the king's kinsman Anthony, earl Ryvers, Henry Heydon, Westminster. William Boleyn, Richard Suthwell, John Fyncham, Henry Spylman and James Hoberd, certain dissentions having arisen between William Lumnour on the one part and Thomas Brygge of Manyngton, co. Norfolk, 'gentilman,' and Margaret his wife on the other, to summon the parties and other persons and examine them and put their examinations in writing and to enquire by inquest into certain felonies, murders, trespasses and offences committed by the said Thomas and Margaret Brygge late the wife of William Lumnour and to certify thereon to the king and council in the quinzaine of Midsummer next.
[Patent Rolls, 1476-1485]
It's probably safe to say that if this commission actually had a chance to meet, its members would have never predicted that Anthony would be dead in less than eight months and that William's as-yet-unborn granddaughter would end up as queen of England!
Nov. 12. Commission to the king's kinsman Anthony, earl Ryvers, Henry Heydon, Westminster. William Boleyn, Richard Suthwell, John Fyncham, Henry Spylman and James Hoberd, certain dissentions having arisen between William Lumnour on the one part and Thomas Brygge of Manyngton, co. Norfolk, 'gentilman,' and Margaret his wife on the other, to summon the parties and other persons and examine them and put their examinations in writing and to enquire by inquest into certain felonies, murders, trespasses and offences committed by the said Thomas and Margaret Brygge late the wife of William Lumnour and to certify thereon to the king and council in the quinzaine of Midsummer next.
[Patent Rolls, 1476-1485]
It's probably safe to say that if this commission actually had a chance to meet, its members would have never predicted that Anthony would be dead in less than eight months and that William's as-yet-unborn granddaughter would end up as queen of England!
Friday, May 15, 2009
A New Richard III Novel: This Time
One of my friends from the Richard III Society, Joan Szechtman, has written a novel about Richard III, which is due out shortly from Basset Books. It's called This Time, and it has a twist: instead of dying on Bosworth Field, Richard is brought by a team of Americans into present-day Portland, Oregon.
Normally, I don't go for time-travel, but this was an enjoyable read, not the least for Richard's various fish-out-of-water experiences as he copes with modern-day technology and modern-day mores, especially when he meets Sarah, a Jewish divorcee. Joan writes in an engaging style, with excellent dialogue, and her solution to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, though very different from my own, is quite plausible. Richard is sympathetic without being too good to be true, and the modern-day characters are vivid and likable.
This Time, scheduled for release on June 1, is the first book in a three-book series. Ordering information (along with photographs and an assortment of Richard-related links), is on Joan's website.
Normally, I don't go for time-travel, but this was an enjoyable read, not the least for Richard's various fish-out-of-water experiences as he copes with modern-day technology and modern-day mores, especially when he meets Sarah, a Jewish divorcee. Joan writes in an engaging style, with excellent dialogue, and her solution to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, though very different from my own, is quite plausible. Richard is sympathetic without being too good to be true, and the modern-day characters are vivid and likable.
This Time, scheduled for release on June 1, is the first book in a three-book series. Ordering information (along with photographs and an assortment of Richard-related links), is on Joan's website.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Dorset the Evil Guardian?
While doing some research for a blog post last night, I looked up the entry for Thomas Grey, first Marquess of Dorset, in W. E. Hampton's Memorials of the Wars of the Roses. This book, put out by the Richard III Society in 1979, contains descriptions of memorials and tombs connected to various Wars of the Roses personages, with a potted biography of each one. Though most of the biographies are fairly straightforward, Hampton's account of Dorset, Elizabeth Woodville's eldest son by her first marriage, is a rather different affair.
After a more or less factual recounting of Dorset's life, Hampton suddenly changes tack and launches into an account of Dorset's supposed sexual exploits with his female wards, the daughters of John Neville, Marquess Montagu. He writes that Dorset appears to have fathered a bastard daughter on Elizabeth Neville, Lady Scrope of Masham, though Hampton rather damages his case by noting that the father could have been Dorset's son instead. (Dorset senior, Dorset junior, what's the difference?) Hampton then moves to the case of Anne Neville, married to Sir William Stonor. "The marriage took place at the end of 1481, and almost immediately afterwards she rode to join the Marquis in Taunton Castle. She wrote from there to Stonor in February, 1482, having, as she says, been with the Marquess longer than anticipated. In August she presented Stonor with a son . . ."
By this, Hampton apparently is implying that while Anne was staying with Dorset, he took the opportunity to father a child upon her, which was passed off as Stonor's. Aside from the fact that there's no apparent reason that Anne couldn't have been pregnant with Stonor's child before she went to visit her guardian, the actual letter by Anne hardly implies such debauchery. Here it is, from the Stonor Letters and Papers (thanks to the Internet Archive):
306. DAME ANNE STONOR TO
SIR WILLIAM STONOR
27 FEBRUARY [1482]
Syr, I recomaund me unto you in my most h[ert]y wise, right joyfull to here of yowre helthe: liketh you to knowe, at the writyng of this bill I was in good helthe, thynkyng long sith I saw you, and if I had knowen that I shold hav ben this long tyme from you I wold have be moche lother then I was to have comyn into this ferre Countrey. But I trust it shall not be long or I shall see you here, and else I wold be sorye on good feith. Syr, I am moche byholdyng to my lady, for she maketh right
moche of me, and to all the company, officers and other. I have early trust uppon your comyng unto the tyme of thassise, and else I wold have send Herry Tye to you long or this tyme. I have deiyvered a bill to Herry Tye of suche gownes as I wold have for this Ester. And I beseche oure blessed lord preserve you. From the Castell of Taunton the xxvij day of Februarer.
Your new wyf Anne Stonor.
Nowhere does this quite sweet letter mention Dorset, though the reference to "my lady" probably refers to Dorset's wife, Cicely Bonville. Would Cicely be making "right moche" of a young lady who was carrying on an affair with her husband? Would a young lady who was being sexually exploited natter on happily about her Easter gowns?
But it gets worse. Next, we're told that "His [Dorset's] treatment of Clarence's son, young Warwick (before 1483) may have caused the boy to be mentally retarded."
There are two rather big problems with this statement. First, as Hazel Pierce, the biographer of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, points out, the evidence that the Earl of Warwick (Margaret's younger brother, Edward, who was executed by Henry VII on probably trumped-up charges) was mentally retarded rests on a single statement by Edward Hall that Warwick had been imprisoned for so long "'out of al company of men, and sight of beates, in so much that he coulde not descerne a Goose from a Capon.'" (An online version of Hall renders this passage as, "And Earl Edward, who had been imprisoned since childhood, so far removed from the sight of man and beast that he could not easily tell a chicken from a goose, although he had deserved no punishment by his own wrongdoing and had been brought to this by another man’s fault.") Read reasonably, this statement does not imply that Warwick was mentally deficient, simply that long imprisonment had left him ignorant and naive. Pierce also notes that in a later petition to Henry VIII excusing her brother's alleged treasonous behavior, Margaret described her brother only as unworldly and inexperienced, though it would have been to her advantage to describe him as mentally deficient had he been so. Henry VII himself never described Warwick as being mentally retarded ("idiot" is presumably the word that would have been used at the time), and neither did Richard III, though doing so would have been to both men's advantage given the potential threat to the crown the boy presented to them.
Assuming for the sake of argument, however, that Warwick was indeed mentally retarded, how on earth can Hampton assume that Dorset was responsible? If Warwick was retarded from birth (in February 1475), Dorset can hardly be blamed; if Warwick was normal at birth and was later damaged by childhood neglect or abuse, Dorset is only one of several possible culprits who had charge of Warwick before Henry VII took him over in 1485. Dorset did not obtain the wardship of Warwick until September 1480, over two years after Warwick's father, the Duke of Clarence, was executed; in the interim, Warwick was a ward of Edward IV. After Richard III took the throne, Warwick was put in the care of Queen Anne, though he spent most of Richard III's reign at far-off Sheriff Hutton. There is not a shred of evidence, however, that any of these people or their servants neglected or mistreated the boy before his long imprisonment at the hands of Henry VII began--and that includes Dorset. Indeed, Dorset in particular had an excellent incentive to treat Warwick well: he had many daughters, and might well have planned to marry one of them to Warwick.
Having thoroughly slandered Dorset, Hampton fortunately passes over Elizabeth Woodville's tomb in silence, but a trip to Salisbury Cathedral gives rise to the comment that Bishop Lionel Woodville, by a concubine "had a son, Stephen Gardiner, who became Bishop of Winchester." Evidently, Lionel Woodville had access to one of the earliest sperm banks in history: Lionel died in 1484, whereas modern historians put Stephen Gardiner's date of birth as being in the late 1490's.
After a more or less factual recounting of Dorset's life, Hampton suddenly changes tack and launches into an account of Dorset's supposed sexual exploits with his female wards, the daughters of John Neville, Marquess Montagu. He writes that Dorset appears to have fathered a bastard daughter on Elizabeth Neville, Lady Scrope of Masham, though Hampton rather damages his case by noting that the father could have been Dorset's son instead. (Dorset senior, Dorset junior, what's the difference?) Hampton then moves to the case of Anne Neville, married to Sir William Stonor. "The marriage took place at the end of 1481, and almost immediately afterwards she rode to join the Marquis in Taunton Castle. She wrote from there to Stonor in February, 1482, having, as she says, been with the Marquess longer than anticipated. In August she presented Stonor with a son . . ."
By this, Hampton apparently is implying that while Anne was staying with Dorset, he took the opportunity to father a child upon her, which was passed off as Stonor's. Aside from the fact that there's no apparent reason that Anne couldn't have been pregnant with Stonor's child before she went to visit her guardian, the actual letter by Anne hardly implies such debauchery. Here it is, from the Stonor Letters and Papers (thanks to the Internet Archive):
306. DAME ANNE STONOR TO
SIR WILLIAM STONOR
27 FEBRUARY [1482]
Syr, I recomaund me unto you in my most h[ert]y wise, right joyfull to here of yowre helthe: liketh you to knowe, at the writyng of this bill I was in good helthe, thynkyng long sith I saw you, and if I had knowen that I shold hav ben this long tyme from you I wold have be moche lother then I was to have comyn into this ferre Countrey. But I trust it shall not be long or I shall see you here, and else I wold be sorye on good feith. Syr, I am moche byholdyng to my lady, for she maketh right
moche of me, and to all the company, officers and other. I have early trust uppon your comyng unto the tyme of thassise, and else I wold have send Herry Tye to you long or this tyme. I have deiyvered a bill to Herry Tye of suche gownes as I wold have for this Ester. And I beseche oure blessed lord preserve you. From the Castell of Taunton the xxvij day of Februarer.
Your new wyf Anne Stonor.
Nowhere does this quite sweet letter mention Dorset, though the reference to "my lady" probably refers to Dorset's wife, Cicely Bonville. Would Cicely be making "right moche" of a young lady who was carrying on an affair with her husband? Would a young lady who was being sexually exploited natter on happily about her Easter gowns?
But it gets worse. Next, we're told that "His [Dorset's] treatment of Clarence's son, young Warwick (before 1483) may have caused the boy to be mentally retarded."
There are two rather big problems with this statement. First, as Hazel Pierce, the biographer of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, points out, the evidence that the Earl of Warwick (Margaret's younger brother, Edward, who was executed by Henry VII on probably trumped-up charges) was mentally retarded rests on a single statement by Edward Hall that Warwick had been imprisoned for so long "'out of al company of men, and sight of beates, in so much that he coulde not descerne a Goose from a Capon.'" (An online version of Hall renders this passage as, "And Earl Edward, who had been imprisoned since childhood, so far removed from the sight of man and beast that he could not easily tell a chicken from a goose, although he had deserved no punishment by his own wrongdoing and had been brought to this by another man’s fault.") Read reasonably, this statement does not imply that Warwick was mentally deficient, simply that long imprisonment had left him ignorant and naive. Pierce also notes that in a later petition to Henry VIII excusing her brother's alleged treasonous behavior, Margaret described her brother only as unworldly and inexperienced, though it would have been to her advantage to describe him as mentally deficient had he been so. Henry VII himself never described Warwick as being mentally retarded ("idiot" is presumably the word that would have been used at the time), and neither did Richard III, though doing so would have been to both men's advantage given the potential threat to the crown the boy presented to them.
Assuming for the sake of argument, however, that Warwick was indeed mentally retarded, how on earth can Hampton assume that Dorset was responsible? If Warwick was retarded from birth (in February 1475), Dorset can hardly be blamed; if Warwick was normal at birth and was later damaged by childhood neglect or abuse, Dorset is only one of several possible culprits who had charge of Warwick before Henry VII took him over in 1485. Dorset did not obtain the wardship of Warwick until September 1480, over two years after Warwick's father, the Duke of Clarence, was executed; in the interim, Warwick was a ward of Edward IV. After Richard III took the throne, Warwick was put in the care of Queen Anne, though he spent most of Richard III's reign at far-off Sheriff Hutton. There is not a shred of evidence, however, that any of these people or their servants neglected or mistreated the boy before his long imprisonment at the hands of Henry VII began--and that includes Dorset. Indeed, Dorset in particular had an excellent incentive to treat Warwick well: he had many daughters, and might well have planned to marry one of them to Warwick.
Having thoroughly slandered Dorset, Hampton fortunately passes over Elizabeth Woodville's tomb in silence, but a trip to Salisbury Cathedral gives rise to the comment that Bishop Lionel Woodville, by a concubine "had a son, Stephen Gardiner, who became Bishop of Winchester." Evidently, Lionel Woodville had access to one of the earliest sperm banks in history: Lionel died in 1484, whereas modern historians put Stephen Gardiner's date of birth as being in the late 1490's.
Friday, May 08, 2009
I'm Not Cheap
While checking my Amazon ranking (it's a compulsion, and will someday be duly recognized as such in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), I noticed that a merchant was attempting to sell the Lulu version of Hugh and Bess for a whopping $364. The name of the seller: cheapbargainbook. (Two other sellers are trying for a more modest $90 or so.)
Somehow I doubt anyone will be paying this (especially since the Sourcebooks edition, which has been revised slightly, is coming out on August 1), but if you do, you deserve a little something extra, maybe a DNA sample or something. (I'd offer to be an egg donor, but I'm way too old.) Just shoot me an e-mail with proof of purchase and I'll arrange it.
Somehow I doubt anyone will be paying this (especially since the Sourcebooks edition, which has been revised slightly, is coming out on August 1), but if you do, you deserve a little something extra, maybe a DNA sample or something. (I'd offer to be an egg donor, but I'm way too old.) Just shoot me an e-mail with proof of purchase and I'll arrange it.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
A Letter From Henry, Duke of Buckingham
Much to the frustration of the historical novelist who chooses Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, as a main character, few of his records survive. Many records were destroyed in 1483, where the Vaughan family raided Brecon Castle after Henry left it for his ill-fated rebellion against Richard III, and more were destroyed by Welsh rebels after Henry VII came to the throne in 1485.
Here, however, is a transcription of one letter by Henry that's held at the Staffordshire Record Office. No smoking guns here, folks (no "My well beloved Richard. I have taken care of the business in the Tower that you asked me to. Repairs will be needed to the staircase now. Now do I get my Bohun lands?") Rather, this is simply a letter to an unknown recipient who apparently had claimed an interest in some of Henry's lands:
____________
Welbeloved in oure hartie maner we grete you wele And
wheras you make clayme to our Manors of Penshurst and
Yensfeld with other landes comprised in your bill which we
with our counsaile at your instance have herd and examined
We do you to wite that seing our father whom god assayle
long before the bargein made betwene us and Syr Will[ia]m
Sutton had the said Manors by letters patentes of King
Henry conteyning clause of warrantye We ar not advised
to make you enny further aunswere untill the king and
his counsaile be made prevye to the title that in case it be
found for you we maye have satisfacc[i]on in value of his
graces lands otherwhere And in the mean tyme we requyre
you to quiet your self ffrom London the xxti daie of Julye
Bukyngh[a]m
______________
Penshurst and Yensfield had been granted to Henry's grandfather, Humphrey Stafford, first Duke of Buckingham, by Henry VI in 1447, after the death of their previous owner, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, so it's not clear to me on what grounds the recipient made his claim. Evidently, Henry himself was not impressed. In 1519, however, Henry's son Edward Stafford, the third Duke of Buckingham, wrote a letter to Sir Edward Chamberlain in which he acknowledged Chamberlain's claim to Penshurst and other manors in Kent and stated that his council had agreed to offer Chamberlain some recompense. Perhaps the Chamberlain claim is related to the one made against Henry years before.
One interesting point about Henry's letter is its signature, shown in the first picture below. Compare it to the second signature, taken from the famous fragment that contains the signatures and mottoes of Edward V, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry. In the "three signatures" document, Harry seems to have added his first name "Harre" almost as an afterthought.
Here, however, is a transcription of one letter by Henry that's held at the Staffordshire Record Office. No smoking guns here, folks (no "My well beloved Richard. I have taken care of the business in the Tower that you asked me to. Repairs will be needed to the staircase now. Now do I get my Bohun lands?") Rather, this is simply a letter to an unknown recipient who apparently had claimed an interest in some of Henry's lands:
____________
Welbeloved in oure hartie maner we grete you wele And
wheras you make clayme to our Manors of Penshurst and
Yensfeld with other landes comprised in your bill which we
with our counsaile at your instance have herd and examined
We do you to wite that seing our father whom god assayle
long before the bargein made betwene us and Syr Will[ia]m
Sutton had the said Manors by letters patentes of King
Henry conteyning clause of warrantye We ar not advised
to make you enny further aunswere untill the king and
his counsaile be made prevye to the title that in case it be
found for you we maye have satisfacc[i]on in value of his
graces lands otherwhere And in the mean tyme we requyre
you to quiet your self ffrom London the xxti daie of Julye
Bukyngh[a]m
______________
Penshurst and Yensfield had been granted to Henry's grandfather, Humphrey Stafford, first Duke of Buckingham, by Henry VI in 1447, after the death of their previous owner, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, so it's not clear to me on what grounds the recipient made his claim. Evidently, Henry himself was not impressed. In 1519, however, Henry's son Edward Stafford, the third Duke of Buckingham, wrote a letter to Sir Edward Chamberlain in which he acknowledged Chamberlain's claim to Penshurst and other manors in Kent and stated that his council had agreed to offer Chamberlain some recompense. Perhaps the Chamberlain claim is related to the one made against Henry years before.
One interesting point about Henry's letter is its signature, shown in the first picture below. Compare it to the second signature, taken from the famous fragment that contains the signatures and mottoes of Edward V, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry. In the "three signatures" document, Harry seems to have added his first name "Harre" almost as an afterthought.
Friday, May 01, 2009
April Showers Bring . . . Search Terms!
Searches people used in April to find my website (for those who have asked, my server keeps track of them):
the life during the reign of edward the first
Ah, those were the days, my friend.
kind edward ii
Alianore will love that one.
hugh despenser the still young
What were his beauty secrets?
why do isabella and edward break up?
They have relationship issues, and he's just not that into her anyway.
fun image of joan of acre england
That Joan was a party gal, all right!
when did elizabeth the 1 have a brother
Not nearly soon enough, in her father's opinion.
what does the duchess father gain from the marriage to the duke
Almost always, a son-in-law.
did richard iii have a motive
You mean people think he did something wrong? That sweet-looking chap?
who is susan higginbotham
It took a lot of bad adolescent poetry before I figured that one out.
hugh despenser bridge
Undoubtedly he charged a hefty toll to get across.
the life during the reign of edward the first
Ah, those were the days, my friend.
kind edward ii
Alianore will love that one.
hugh despenser the still young
What were his beauty secrets?
why do isabella and edward break up?
They have relationship issues, and he's just not that into her anyway.
fun image of joan of acre england
That Joan was a party gal, all right!
when did elizabeth the 1 have a brother
Not nearly soon enough, in her father's opinion.
what does the duchess father gain from the marriage to the duke
Almost always, a son-in-law.
did richard iii have a motive
You mean people think he did something wrong? That sweet-looking chap?
who is susan higginbotham
It took a lot of bad adolescent poetry before I figured that one out.
hugh despenser bridge
Undoubtedly he charged a hefty toll to get across.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham Pay Homage to the Prince of Wales
Last night, when revising My Heart Split with Sorrow, I ran into the annoying scenario of having to rewrite a scene in order to account for one of my historical characters' known whereabouts. Once I realized that I could do so without sacrificing a big chunk of necessary dialogue, I was a happy camper.
Anyway, here's the record in British Library Additional Manuscripts 6113, folio 74de, as transcribed for me, that made me do my rewrite. It's an account of a dinner hosted by Edward, Prince of Wales, on November 9, 1477, and the homage done to him afterward. Ironically, in light of what was to happen in 1483, the first man to pay his respects was Richard, Duke of Gloucester; the second was Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.
1. M[emorandu]m that in the yere of our lorde / ml iiijc lxxvij /
2. on the ixth day of November / The Prince Feasced
3. the greate Parte of all the nobles Temporell /
4. beinge Presente at that generall counsell w[i]t[h]
5. all the Judgges and Barons of the Kinges eschequer
6. where after dynner / his Brother The Duke of
7. Yorke was Sette on the Beddes fote besyde the
8. clothe of Astate / And his uncle The Duke of
9. Gloucester on gorde / And on bothe his knees /
10. Pottynge his handes betwene the Princes handes
11. dyd hym homage for suche landes as he helde
12. of hym / And so kyssed hym / And that don The
13. Prince thanked his sayde uncle / that yt lyked hym
14. to do yt so humbly / And in lyke forme after
15. hym dyd the Duke of Buckingeh[a]m Also /
16. The Duke of Suffolke / The Marquis Dorsette
17. Therle Rivers / The lorde Lisle / Sir [blank] Bryan
18. chefe Judge of the comon Place / And the Officers
19. of Armes had the Rome made by gentlemen usshers
20. Clarencieux Kinge at Armes
21. Norrey Kinge at Armes
22. Chester Harrolde
23. Herforde Harrolde
24. Seales Poursev[a]unte beinge there presente
George, Duke of Clarence, of course, missed this dinner: he was a prisoner in the Tower and would be executed on February 18, 1478.
Incidentally, Paul Murray Kendall writes in Richard the Third that prior to 1483, Richard "had had small opportunity to know Buckingham well." How well Buckingham and Gloucester actually knew each other is unknown, but opportunities certainly weren't lacking: in addition to their being together on this occasion in 1477, the men also attended the young Duke of York's wedding in January 1478, where they were given the job of leading the little bride into the wedding feast. In 1471, they were among the nobles who joined Edward IV's triumphant entry into London following the Battle of Tewkesbury, and in 1474, Richard was one of the men who nominated Henry to the Order of the Garter, after which Richard and Harry seem to have attended at least one Garter feast together. They were each summoned to Edward IV's last Parliament in 1483, where Henry was among the men appointed triers of petitions for England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
Anyway, here's the record in British Library Additional Manuscripts 6113, folio 74de, as transcribed for me, that made me do my rewrite. It's an account of a dinner hosted by Edward, Prince of Wales, on November 9, 1477, and the homage done to him afterward. Ironically, in light of what was to happen in 1483, the first man to pay his respects was Richard, Duke of Gloucester; the second was Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.
1. M[emorandu]m that in the yere of our lorde / ml iiijc lxxvij /
2. on the ixth day of November / The Prince Feasced
3. the greate Parte of all the nobles Temporell /
4. beinge Presente at that generall counsell w[i]t[h]
5. all the Judgges and Barons of the Kinges eschequer
6. where after dynner / his Brother The Duke of
7. Yorke was Sette on the Beddes fote besyde the
8. clothe of Astate / And his uncle The Duke of
9. Gloucester on gorde / And on bothe his knees /
10. Pottynge his handes betwene the Princes handes
11. dyd hym homage for suche landes as he helde
12. of hym / And so kyssed hym / And that don The
13. Prince thanked his sayde uncle / that yt lyked hym
14. to do yt so humbly / And in lyke forme after
15. hym dyd the Duke of Buckingeh[a]m Also /
16. The Duke of Suffolke / The Marquis Dorsette
17. Therle Rivers / The lorde Lisle / Sir [blank] Bryan
18. chefe Judge of the comon Place / And the Officers
19. of Armes had the Rome made by gentlemen usshers
20. Clarencieux Kinge at Armes
21. Norrey Kinge at Armes
22. Chester Harrolde
23. Herforde Harrolde
24. Seales Poursev[a]unte beinge there presente
George, Duke of Clarence, of course, missed this dinner: he was a prisoner in the Tower and would be executed on February 18, 1478.
Incidentally, Paul Murray Kendall writes in Richard the Third that prior to 1483, Richard "had had small opportunity to know Buckingham well." How well Buckingham and Gloucester actually knew each other is unknown, but opportunities certainly weren't lacking: in addition to their being together on this occasion in 1477, the men also attended the young Duke of York's wedding in January 1478, where they were given the job of leading the little bride into the wedding feast. In 1471, they were among the nobles who joined Edward IV's triumphant entry into London following the Battle of Tewkesbury, and in 1474, Richard was one of the men who nominated Henry to the Order of the Garter, after which Richard and Harry seem to have attended at least one Garter feast together. They were each summoned to Edward IV's last Parliament in 1483, where Henry was among the men appointed triers of petitions for England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Richard III, "The Simpsons"-Style
The other night, "The Simpsons" did an episode which featured Homer attempting to build a diorama of Westminster Abbey. Anne of Cleves showed up briefly, which reminded me that some time ago, "The Simpsons" presented its own version of Henry VIII and his wives. Which got me to thinking (always a dangerous thing), isn't it time that "The Simpsons" did a show on Richard III? The Shakespearean Richard III, of course--the nice guy Richard wouldn't work at all for these purposes.
So in order to give the writers of the show a head start, I've already done the casting for them. All I need to do now is wait and collect a portion of the payment when they write the episode.
Richard III: Bart Simpson. Who else?
Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham: Milhouse Van Houten
Edward IV: Homer Simpson
Elizabeth Woodville: Marg Simpson
Elizabeth of York: Lisa Simpson
The Princes in the Tower: Rod and Todd Flanders
Margaret of Anjou: The Crazy Cat Lady
Henry VI: Hans Moleman
George, Duke of Clarence: Barney Gumble
Margaret Beaufort: Agnes Skinner
Henry VII: Principal Seymour Skinner
Bishop Stillington: Reverend Lovejoy
William Hastings: Lenny Leonard
Anthony Woodville: Ned Flanders
James Tyrell: Nelson Muntz
This is proving harder than I thought, for there's a lot to be said for casting Moe as Richard III. However, doing that would make the graphic below impractical:
So if you don't like my casting, eat my shorts.
So in order to give the writers of the show a head start, I've already done the casting for them. All I need to do now is wait and collect a portion of the payment when they write the episode.
Richard III: Bart Simpson. Who else?
Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham: Milhouse Van Houten
Edward IV: Homer Simpson
Elizabeth Woodville: Marg Simpson
Elizabeth of York: Lisa Simpson
The Princes in the Tower: Rod and Todd Flanders
Margaret of Anjou: The Crazy Cat Lady
Henry VI: Hans Moleman
George, Duke of Clarence: Barney Gumble
Margaret Beaufort: Agnes Skinner
Henry VII: Principal Seymour Skinner
Bishop Stillington: Reverend Lovejoy
William Hastings: Lenny Leonard
Anthony Woodville: Ned Flanders
James Tyrell: Nelson Muntz
This is proving harder than I thought, for there's a lot to be said for casting Moe as Richard III. However, doing that would make the graphic below impractical:
So if you don't like my casting, eat my shorts.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Emily Sarah Holt, and the Despensers Meet Jane Austen
As longtime readers of this blog know, I've mentioned Emily Sarah Holt a few times here. Holt, who wrote historical fiction in the nineteenth century, wrote one of the first novels about the Despenser family, In Convent Walls. Her novels aren't for everyone--among other things, they're intensely anti-Catholic, and most of her good characters are incipient Protestants--but they were quite well researched. In Convent Walls centers around the Despenser girls who were forced into convents by Queen Isabella.
Anyway, I paid a pretty penny for my copy of In Convent Walls several years ago, which means, of course, that it's now available as a reprint on Amazon, along with a number of other novels by Holt. (Higginbotham's Rule: When you find and buy an out-of-print book after years of searching, it will soon be reissued at a fraction of the price that you paid for it.) Holt's White Rose of Langley, which features the very same Constance of York you'll recognize from Brian Wainwright's excellent novel, Within the Fetterlock, is also available as a reprint on Amazon and on Kindle, though you can also read it for free online.
Holt wrote several novels set during the Wars of the Roses, including one featuring Anne Neville's stint as a kitchenmaid and one about Perkin Warbeck, but they seem pretty hard to come by. Perhaps some accommodating person might bring them back into print?
Speaking of the Despensers, the late Joan Aiken wrote several Jane Austen sequels before they became as ubiquitous as they are now. One, Jane Fairfax, features this amusing little snippet:
1322? Ah, well. It's still entertaining.
Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that Maurice Druon, author of Les Rois Maudits (The Accursed Kings), died on April 14. I was sad to hear of his death, though I have to admit that I found his depiction of Edward II and Hugh le Despenser to be a tad over-the-top. Still, he seems to have led a fascinating life; there's a good obituary of him here.
Anyway, I paid a pretty penny for my copy of In Convent Walls several years ago, which means, of course, that it's now available as a reprint on Amazon, along with a number of other novels by Holt. (Higginbotham's Rule: When you find and buy an out-of-print book after years of searching, it will soon be reissued at a fraction of the price that you paid for it.) Holt's White Rose of Langley, which features the very same Constance of York you'll recognize from Brian Wainwright's excellent novel, Within the Fetterlock, is also available as a reprint on Amazon and on Kindle, though you can also read it for free online.
Holt wrote several novels set during the Wars of the Roses, including one featuring Anne Neville's stint as a kitchenmaid and one about Perkin Warbeck, but they seem pretty hard to come by. Perhaps some accommodating person might bring them back into print?
Speaking of the Despensers, the late Joan Aiken wrote several Jane Austen sequels before they became as ubiquitous as they are now. One, Jane Fairfax, features this amusing little snippet:
Mrs. Fitzroy had been a Despenser, as she lost no time in informing any new acquaintance considered worthy of the honour; one of her ancestors had been the last Justiciary of England and another had been the Earl of Winchester, executed in 1322 by Queen Isabella. "No doubt she had her reasons," Colonel Campbell was in the habit of darkly muttering to himself when he chanced to hear one of his mother-in-law's not infrequent repetitions of this piece of history.
1322? Ah, well. It's still entertaining.
Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that Maurice Druon, author of Les Rois Maudits (The Accursed Kings), died on April 14. I was sad to hear of his death, though I have to admit that I found his depiction of Edward II and Hugh le Despenser to be a tad over-the-top. Still, he seems to have led a fascinating life; there's a good obituary of him here.
Friday, April 24, 2009
The Company One Keeps
Being a little lazy tonight, instead of revising My Heart Split with Sorrow, I started poking around in the Library of Congress catalog for some familiar names. I liked this list of entries adjacent to Hugh le Despenser the younger:
Despenser, Hugh le, the younger, d 1326.
Despentes, Virginie, 1969-
Desperado City
Desperado (Motion picture)
Desperadoes (Musical group)
Desperadoes Steel Band
Desperadoes Steel Orchestra
Desperadoes Steelband
D'Esperance, E. (Elizabeth), 1855-1919
D'Esperance, Elizabeth, 1855-1919
Desperate housewives (Television program)
How'd a nice lady like Elizabeth D'Esperance end up in such shady company? And who the heck is she? Well, now we know. On the other hand, Virginie Despentes might be a match for Hugh.
Sadly, searches for Edward II, Piers Gaveston, Roger Mortimer, and Isabella all proved rather unamusing, as did my search for everyone's favorite fifteenth-century king. No doubt certain folk would find this juxtaposition apt, however:
Woodville, Elizabeth, 1437?-1492
Woodville gold mine, Orange Co., Va.
Some ego-searching brought up several Higginbothams, along with a company known as Higginbothams (Private) Ltd., which has produced not only the invaluable "City guide of Hyderabad & Secunderabad" but the "Latest road guide to Tamil Nadu." Now if I find myself in either locale, I certainly know which maps to purchase.
Finally, a few lines down from the numerous entries for Henry VIII, I found this entry:
Henry (Whaleship)
So that's how he traveled after he got out of shape.
Despenser, Hugh le, the younger, d 1326.
Despentes, Virginie, 1969-
Desperado City
Desperado (Motion picture)
Desperadoes (Musical group)
Desperadoes Steel Band
Desperadoes Steel Orchestra
Desperadoes Steelband
D'Esperance, E. (Elizabeth), 1855-1919
D'Esperance, Elizabeth, 1855-1919
Desperate housewives (Television program)
How'd a nice lady like Elizabeth D'Esperance end up in such shady company? And who the heck is she? Well, now we know. On the other hand, Virginie Despentes might be a match for Hugh.
Sadly, searches for Edward II, Piers Gaveston, Roger Mortimer, and Isabella all proved rather unamusing, as did my search for everyone's favorite fifteenth-century king. No doubt certain folk would find this juxtaposition apt, however:
Woodville, Elizabeth, 1437?-1492
Woodville gold mine, Orange Co., Va.
Some ego-searching brought up several Higginbothams, along with a company known as Higginbothams (Private) Ltd., which has produced not only the invaluable "City guide of Hyderabad & Secunderabad" but the "Latest road guide to Tamil Nadu." Now if I find myself in either locale, I certainly know which maps to purchase.
Finally, a few lines down from the numerous entries for Henry VIII, I found this entry:
Henry (Whaleship)
So that's how he traveled after he got out of shape.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Current Reading, Some Link Love, and Dead Existentialists
Over my vacation I got less reading done than I thought I would (which is a good thing; I always pack an excess of books in fear of getting stranded at the airport or shut up in a hotel room on a rainy day), but I did get two books finished: The King's Confidante by Jean Plaidy and The Rose in Spring by Eleanor Fairburn.
The King's Confidante is a reissue of St. Thomas's Eve, first published in 1954. Like Plaidy's other early Tudor novels, it's held up quite well for a book that's over fifty years old. This one focuses on Sir Thomas More and his family, chiefly his daughter Meg. Though part of it centers on More's relationship with Henry VIII (hence the title), most of the book is given over to the family life of the Mores, and particularly More's loving relationship with Meg. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though I don't know enough about More's personal life to make any grand pronouncements about the novel historical accuracy. Incidentally, a recent nonfiction book by John Guy, A Daughter's Love, also deals with More and Meg, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
The Rose in Spring is part of a four-part series about Cecily, Duchess of York. This book covers her life from childhood until 1449, when she and her husband go to Ireland. I rather liked it, especially the depiction of Cecily's relationship with her older sisters, until Jacquetta Woodville came onto the scene. As my skim of the other books in the series indicates, Fairburn takes the usual line of evil Woodvilles and a saintly Richard III, so naturally Jacquetta here is portrayed as a full-fledged witch. That would be bad enough, except that Jacquetta is also depicted as a rather stupid witch. She holds a dinner party for the English nobility in Rouen to celebrate the Greek Festival of the Dead, and she leads the company into a "sinister, dark-shaped room which was decorated with silver stars and planets, wands, cups, pentacles and swords." Jacquetta then proceeds to give a Tarot reading. One might think this lack of subtlety was a tad dangerous. With all this and the promise of a debauched Edward IV jilting that poor sweet Eleanor Talbot in the sequel, I don't know if I'll be in a hurry to read the next books in the series. (For those with stronger stomachs for this kind of thing, the other books are White Rose, Dark Summer, The Rose at Harvest End, and Winter's Rose.)
I'm still reading Margaret George's Memoirs of Cleopatra (it was way too big to tote on the airplane), but for a change of pace I'm also reading Jocelyn Kettle's Memorial to the Duchess, about Alice Chaucer. It's quite interesting. Kettle wrote a couple of other historical novels, but this was her only venture into medieval England that I could find. Anyone know of any other medieval novels by her?
Finally, while I was away, my blog tour was still going on. You can read some more interviews with me at Savvy Verse and Wit (which is giving away four copies of The Traitor's Wife, Diary of an Eccentric (which is giving away one copy of The Traitor's Wife), and Steven Till. There are also reviews at Peeking Between the Pages, Savvy Verse and Wit, My Friend Amy, Medieval Bookworm, Steven Till, and Tome Traveller. There's also a review by a blogger who hated the book, but I'll let y'all hunt for that one. The word "sophomoric" ought to bring it up pretty quickly, which makes me think that I should raise the intellectual tone of this blog a bit. So here goes:
The King's Confidante is a reissue of St. Thomas's Eve, first published in 1954. Like Plaidy's other early Tudor novels, it's held up quite well for a book that's over fifty years old. This one focuses on Sir Thomas More and his family, chiefly his daughter Meg. Though part of it centers on More's relationship with Henry VIII (hence the title), most of the book is given over to the family life of the Mores, and particularly More's loving relationship with Meg. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though I don't know enough about More's personal life to make any grand pronouncements about the novel historical accuracy. Incidentally, a recent nonfiction book by John Guy, A Daughter's Love, also deals with More and Meg, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
The Rose in Spring is part of a four-part series about Cecily, Duchess of York. This book covers her life from childhood until 1449, when she and her husband go to Ireland. I rather liked it, especially the depiction of Cecily's relationship with her older sisters, until Jacquetta Woodville came onto the scene. As my skim of the other books in the series indicates, Fairburn takes the usual line of evil Woodvilles and a saintly Richard III, so naturally Jacquetta here is portrayed as a full-fledged witch. That would be bad enough, except that Jacquetta is also depicted as a rather stupid witch. She holds a dinner party for the English nobility in Rouen to celebrate the Greek Festival of the Dead, and she leads the company into a "sinister, dark-shaped room which was decorated with silver stars and planets, wands, cups, pentacles and swords." Jacquetta then proceeds to give a Tarot reading. One might think this lack of subtlety was a tad dangerous. With all this and the promise of a debauched Edward IV jilting that poor sweet Eleanor Talbot in the sequel, I don't know if I'll be in a hurry to read the next books in the series. (For those with stronger stomachs for this kind of thing, the other books are White Rose, Dark Summer, The Rose at Harvest End, and Winter's Rose.)
I'm still reading Margaret George's Memoirs of Cleopatra (it was way too big to tote on the airplane), but for a change of pace I'm also reading Jocelyn Kettle's Memorial to the Duchess, about Alice Chaucer. It's quite interesting. Kettle wrote a couple of other historical novels, but this was her only venture into medieval England that I could find. Anyone know of any other medieval novels by her?
Finally, while I was away, my blog tour was still going on. You can read some more interviews with me at Savvy Verse and Wit (which is giving away four copies of The Traitor's Wife, Diary of an Eccentric (which is giving away one copy of The Traitor's Wife), and Steven Till. There are also reviews at Peeking Between the Pages, Savvy Verse and Wit, My Friend Amy, Medieval Bookworm, Steven Till, and Tome Traveller. There's also a review by a blogger who hated the book, but I'll let y'all hunt for that one. The word "sophomoric" ought to bring it up pretty quickly, which makes me think that I should raise the intellectual tone of this blog a bit. So here goes:
Sunday, April 19, 2009
I'm B-A-A-C-K!
I spent seven very nice days in Paris. This was my first visit there, and I hope it won't be my last.
Since my family and I were first-time visitors, we spent most of the time doing the usual tourist activities--the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Montmartre, Versailles. We also made it to the Museum of the Middle Ages (the Cluny), where I especially enjoyed getting to see what a portable altar looked like (very small and, thus, very portable), to Père-Lachaise cemetery, the Concierge, and to the Cathedral of Saint-Denis (burial place of most French kings, including Philip the Fair). I'll be posting some more pictures later, but here's a few odds and ends. First, our family, being people of taste and discernment, couldn't resist this souvenir:
I thought the Ricardians who read this blog would like this tough-looking fellow at the Louvre:
I was quite taken with this advertisement featuring a bespectacled bunny:
Paul Delaroche's painting of the Princes in the Tower:
Ouch!
Since my family and I were first-time visitors, we spent most of the time doing the usual tourist activities--the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Montmartre, Versailles. We also made it to the Museum of the Middle Ages (the Cluny), where I especially enjoyed getting to see what a portable altar looked like (very small and, thus, very portable), to Père-Lachaise cemetery, the Concierge, and to the Cathedral of Saint-Denis (burial place of most French kings, including Philip the Fair). I'll be posting some more pictures later, but here's a few odds and ends. First, our family, being people of taste and discernment, couldn't resist this souvenir:
I thought the Ricardians who read this blog would like this tough-looking fellow at the Louvre:
I was quite taken with this advertisement featuring a bespectacled bunny:
Paul Delaroche's painting of the Princes in the Tower:
Ouch!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Guest Q&A with David Jones
As promised, I'm leaving you for the week with a question-and-answer with David Jones, author of Two Brothers: One North, One South, a story of the American Civil War. David has a website here and has recently been interviewed over at Michele Moran's History Buff.
Q. What motivated you to write your novel?
A. The Civil War has always held special meaning for me as my father related interesting stories that he heard from his maternal grandfather, who served in the 10th West Virginia Infantry. However, the real impetus started about twelve years ago when I documented all aspects of my genealogy, including details of the Civil War regiments of my ancestors. My paternal great great grandfather served as quartermaster of the Federal 6th Maryland Infantry and Clifton Prentiss was another officer in the regiment. I discovered that Clifton’s younger brother, William, served in the Confederate Maryland Battalion and was written about by Walt Whitman in Memoranda During The War. I was captivated by the story and launched a three-year research effort that amassed a considerable stack of historical data on the persons and events involved. With the breadth and texture of the tale fully revealed, it was quite evident that this was a story that must be told.
Q. Apparently you could have written Two Brothers as a non-fiction. Why did you write it as an historical fiction?
A. Despite being aware that many Civil War buffs are biased “to the hilt” against historical fiction, I believed that the Prentiss brothers’ story could achieve greater readership as a novel, rather than as a non-fiction. After all, the circumstance of “brother fighting brother” is the quintessential story of the American Civil War. Further, the Prentiss brothers’ story is quite remarkable because they met during the Breakthrough Battle at Petersburg just one week before Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox. These dramatic events were recalled in a number of somewhat contradictory memoirs and eyewitness accounts that do, nevertheless, confirm the substance of the story. Clearly much would be lost if this poignant tale was presented as a stark non-fiction, based entirely on official records and supplied with extensive footnotes.
Q. Did you create many characters and events to benefit the telling of the story?
A. All but two of the characters in Two Brothers were real people and many of their experiences were recorded in post-war memoirs, books, and articles. Some literary license was employed when several anecdotes were stretched to include primary characters. My standards for creating these fictional aspects were 1) it could have happened that way; and 2) there was no evidence that it didn’t happen that way.
Q. Did these standards prevent character development?
A. Probably. I was careful not to indulge in too much character development beyond what was clearly suggested by historical record and genealogical evidence provided by a Prentiss family member. These were real people, living in difficult times not that long ago, and their memory should be respected. I believe that it’s wrong for an historical fiction author to take excessive liberties with the personality and character of historical figures. My hope is that the reader, despite the lack of character development, would become emotionally involved with the characters given their authenticity.
Q. The dialogue sounds very authentic for a mid-nineteenth American setting. Is it based on letters and journals written by the people portrayed?
A. Yes, the dialogue is often based on the words and phrases of the participants that they recorded in letters, memoirs, and journals. In some instances, the dialogue is close to the record of what was actually said in those moments. I wrote in nineteenth century style to harmoniously blend the dialogue and narration as much as possible, although this format creates difficulty for a few readers.
Q. Your book appears to focus more on the Confederate brother William rather than the Union brother Clifton. Is that true, and if so, why?
A. My goal was to be even-handed in the treatment of the Prentiss brothers as I related their wartime experiences and explored their reasons for choosing opposite sides. My own sense of the Civil War is that soldiers of both sides were honorable Americans. Whitman revealed a similar view in “The Wound Dresser” when he declared them all to be “unsurpass’d heroes” and “equally brave.” As research yielded more usable material on William and the 1st and 2nd Maryland Battalions than on Clifton and the 6th Maryland Infantry, it does appear that there is a bias in favor of the South. However, this factor is mitigated by the shift of focus from South to North as the story progresses toward the climax at Petersburg. Also, the viewpoint of the surviving brothers around Clifton’s hospital bed is clearly for the Union.
Q. The southern characters seem to be somewhat ambivalent about slavery and its connection to the Southern cause. Is this a common attitude among the Confederates that you researched?
A. Both North and South, the central issue in most people’s minds at the beginning of hostilities was not slavery. The average Northern soldier was fighting to preserve the Union and his Southern counterpart was fighting a second war for Independence from what was perceived to be the political and economic tyranny of the North. In fact, racial attitudes were essentially the same throughout the country. Nevertheless, recognition grew as the war progressed that slavery was at the heart of the conflict between the states. The Southern characters in Two Brothers were well-educated people of the upper class who held strong religious beliefs. It’s clear from their writings that they recognized the evil inherent in the institution of slavery and believed that slavery would wither away of its own accord over time. They even worried about the difficulty of transition for former slaves when freedom was inevitably achieved. Their slaves were mainly household servants, who, despite being well treated, were simply making the best of a bad situation. It should also be acknowledged that the plight of field slaves on large plantations was often much worse, but that sad circumstance does not fall directly within the Two Brothers storyline and the purview of its characters.
Q. What do you hope readers will gain from reading your book?
A. The realization that these soldiers, both North and South, were American patriots. They were the children and grandchildren of Revolutionary War patriots, yet they strongly disagreed on the major political, economic, and social issues of the period. The Civil War transformed this nation and we should celebrate our history by striving to achieve a better understanding of it. Historical fiction, properly done, can contribute greatly to that knowledge, and entertain at the same time.
Q. What motivated you to write your novel?
A. The Civil War has always held special meaning for me as my father related interesting stories that he heard from his maternal grandfather, who served in the 10th West Virginia Infantry. However, the real impetus started about twelve years ago when I documented all aspects of my genealogy, including details of the Civil War regiments of my ancestors. My paternal great great grandfather served as quartermaster of the Federal 6th Maryland Infantry and Clifton Prentiss was another officer in the regiment. I discovered that Clifton’s younger brother, William, served in the Confederate Maryland Battalion and was written about by Walt Whitman in Memoranda During The War. I was captivated by the story and launched a three-year research effort that amassed a considerable stack of historical data on the persons and events involved. With the breadth and texture of the tale fully revealed, it was quite evident that this was a story that must be told.
Q. Apparently you could have written Two Brothers as a non-fiction. Why did you write it as an historical fiction?
A. Despite being aware that many Civil War buffs are biased “to the hilt” against historical fiction, I believed that the Prentiss brothers’ story could achieve greater readership as a novel, rather than as a non-fiction. After all, the circumstance of “brother fighting brother” is the quintessential story of the American Civil War. Further, the Prentiss brothers’ story is quite remarkable because they met during the Breakthrough Battle at Petersburg just one week before Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox. These dramatic events were recalled in a number of somewhat contradictory memoirs and eyewitness accounts that do, nevertheless, confirm the substance of the story. Clearly much would be lost if this poignant tale was presented as a stark non-fiction, based entirely on official records and supplied with extensive footnotes.
Q. Did you create many characters and events to benefit the telling of the story?
A. All but two of the characters in Two Brothers were real people and many of their experiences were recorded in post-war memoirs, books, and articles. Some literary license was employed when several anecdotes were stretched to include primary characters. My standards for creating these fictional aspects were 1) it could have happened that way; and 2) there was no evidence that it didn’t happen that way.
Q. Did these standards prevent character development?
A. Probably. I was careful not to indulge in too much character development beyond what was clearly suggested by historical record and genealogical evidence provided by a Prentiss family member. These were real people, living in difficult times not that long ago, and their memory should be respected. I believe that it’s wrong for an historical fiction author to take excessive liberties with the personality and character of historical figures. My hope is that the reader, despite the lack of character development, would become emotionally involved with the characters given their authenticity.
Q. The dialogue sounds very authentic for a mid-nineteenth American setting. Is it based on letters and journals written by the people portrayed?
A. Yes, the dialogue is often based on the words and phrases of the participants that they recorded in letters, memoirs, and journals. In some instances, the dialogue is close to the record of what was actually said in those moments. I wrote in nineteenth century style to harmoniously blend the dialogue and narration as much as possible, although this format creates difficulty for a few readers.
Q. Your book appears to focus more on the Confederate brother William rather than the Union brother Clifton. Is that true, and if so, why?
A. My goal was to be even-handed in the treatment of the Prentiss brothers as I related their wartime experiences and explored their reasons for choosing opposite sides. My own sense of the Civil War is that soldiers of both sides were honorable Americans. Whitman revealed a similar view in “The Wound Dresser” when he declared them all to be “unsurpass’d heroes” and “equally brave.” As research yielded more usable material on William and the 1st and 2nd Maryland Battalions than on Clifton and the 6th Maryland Infantry, it does appear that there is a bias in favor of the South. However, this factor is mitigated by the shift of focus from South to North as the story progresses toward the climax at Petersburg. Also, the viewpoint of the surviving brothers around Clifton’s hospital bed is clearly for the Union.
Q. The southern characters seem to be somewhat ambivalent about slavery and its connection to the Southern cause. Is this a common attitude among the Confederates that you researched?
A. Both North and South, the central issue in most people’s minds at the beginning of hostilities was not slavery. The average Northern soldier was fighting to preserve the Union and his Southern counterpart was fighting a second war for Independence from what was perceived to be the political and economic tyranny of the North. In fact, racial attitudes were essentially the same throughout the country. Nevertheless, recognition grew as the war progressed that slavery was at the heart of the conflict between the states. The Southern characters in Two Brothers were well-educated people of the upper class who held strong religious beliefs. It’s clear from their writings that they recognized the evil inherent in the institution of slavery and believed that slavery would wither away of its own accord over time. They even worried about the difficulty of transition for former slaves when freedom was inevitably achieved. Their slaves were mainly household servants, who, despite being well treated, were simply making the best of a bad situation. It should also be acknowledged that the plight of field slaves on large plantations was often much worse, but that sad circumstance does not fall directly within the Two Brothers storyline and the purview of its characters.
Q. What do you hope readers will gain from reading your book?
A. The realization that these soldiers, both North and South, were American patriots. They were the children and grandchildren of Revolutionary War patriots, yet they strongly disagreed on the major political, economic, and social issues of the period. The Civil War transformed this nation and we should celebrate our history by striving to achieve a better understanding of it. Historical fiction, properly done, can contribute greatly to that knowledge, and entertain at the same time.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
More Blog Touring, and Bits and Pieces
Some more reviews from Amy at Passages to the Past, Margaret at Historical Novels, and Grace's Book Blog. And Margaret is also interviewing me over here.
On a non-me-related note, I finished reading Robert Hutchison's The House of Treason this week. It's nonfiction about the Dukes of Norfolk from the end of Richard III's reign through that of Elizabeth I, and is a quite interesting portrait of a family that found it exceedingly difficult to stay out of the Tower. I'm currently reading Margaret George's Memoirs of Cleopatra, which is quite good.
Next week, I'll be mostly gone from the blogsphere. While I'm away, I'll leave you with a Q & A from David Jones, author of a novel about the American Civil War, Two Brothers: One North, One South. In the meantime, Happy Easter!
On a non-me-related note, I finished reading Robert Hutchison's The House of Treason this week. It's nonfiction about the Dukes of Norfolk from the end of Richard III's reign through that of Elizabeth I, and is a quite interesting portrait of a family that found it exceedingly difficult to stay out of the Tower. I'm currently reading Margaret George's Memoirs of Cleopatra, which is quite good.
Next week, I'll be mostly gone from the blogsphere. While I'm away, I'll leave you with a Q & A from David Jones, author of a novel about the American Civil War, Two Brothers: One North, One South. In the meantime, Happy Easter!
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
More Blog Tourin'
A couple of reviews today by Lilly at Reading Extravaganza and S. Krishna. Thanks, folks!
March was a rather dismal month for amusing search terms on my website--most were straightforward and sensible. However, these are two web surfers who might have a bright future together:
torrid nubiles
whipping scene in poor cecily
Well, as they say:
to each his own like the old lady that kissed the cow
March was a rather dismal month for amusing search terms on my website--most were straightforward and sensible. However, these are two web surfers who might have a bright future together:
torrid nubiles
whipping scene in poor cecily
Well, as they say:
to each his own like the old lady that kissed the cow
Monday, April 06, 2009
Blog Tour and a Giveaway!
Over the next few days, I'll be doing a blog tour for The Traitor's Wife, so this blog will be a little quiet since you'll be getting so much of me elsewhere. (Boswell says you can never have enough of me. But he's got Beggin' Strips and sausage biscuits to earn, so there may be some bias here.)
First, stop by Historical Tapestry for a giveaway of The Traitor's Wife! Two copies are up for grabs for readers in the U.S. and Canada.
Second, the lovely Amy over at Passages to the Past has an interview with me. You even get to see my smiling face!
Third, Carla, Michele, and Cheryl have each posted reviews. All are discerning readers, so I'm glad they liked it!
First, stop by Historical Tapestry for a giveaway of The Traitor's Wife! Two copies are up for grabs for readers in the U.S. and Canada.
Second, the lovely Amy over at Passages to the Past has an interview with me. You even get to see my smiling face!
Third, Carla, Michele, and Cheryl have each posted reviews. All are discerning readers, so I'm glad they liked it!
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Sweeping Changes Planned for Amazon's Review System
SEATTLE—APRIL 1: Concerned over customer and author complaints about its reader reviewing system, Amazon is planning drastic changes in the way customers will be allowed to review books.
The centerpiece of the new plan, called “Twice as Nice,” which is to be unveiled formally later this month, requires reviewers to leave two positive comments for each negative comment they make in an individual review. An anonymous company executive explained, “If you say, for instance, that an author couldn't write her way out of an open paper bag, you will have to balance that by making two positive comments like, ‘But her male characters were really HOT,' and ‘At least she didn’t have anyone eating potatoes in medieval England.’”
“We think this will lead to a more pleasant and congenial atmosphere at Amazon,” explained a public relations representative. “It won’t eliminate negativity altogether, because, let’s face it, some people just can’t be satisfied with anything. But at least anyone who leaves a negative comment will have to think hard about doing it, because they have to leave those two positives or the system will reject their comment. And looking for two positives will ultimately tend to enrich the reading experience, we think.”
The PR representative added, “To be frank, this decision was a business necessity, because authors are very sensitive, fragile sorts and will be more productive if they’re not spending three days in bed with their cats each time they get a bad review. By easing their pain, we’ll be increasing their output, and in the long run, we’ll have more product. It’s really a win-win situation all around, even for the cats, since the more the author produces, the more cat toys are involved.”
Under the new system, reviewers inclined to be critical will be encouraged through online tutorials to find creative ways of softening their remarks. Explained the company executive, “You can write, ‘This book put me to sleep,’ but then add, ‘But you know, a soothing sleep was just what I needed last night.’ Or the reviewer could say, ‘This writing is sophomoric,’ but add, ‘And I really had a blast my sophomore year.’ There are so many ways reviewers can be nicer. It’s mind-boggling, really.”
Also targeted will be the way in which customers vote on the helpfulness of reviews. The current system, under which readers can rate a review “helpful” or “not helpful,” will be changed to eliminate the “not helpful” option. “Our philosophy is that every review is helpful in some way, even if it’s by the author, her mother, or her best friend, because it at least gets a dialogue going,” explained the PR representative. “So readers will now vote ‘helpful,’ ‘very helpful,’ or ‘extremely helpful.’ It’s a small thing, granted, but it really will make life on Amazon a lot more pleasant. It just sets a more genteel tone.”
Asked whether the new system might simply mean that “helpful” becomes the new “not helpful,” the representative said, “We have an algorithm to take care of that, I’m sure.” Asked to explain precisely what an algorithm is, the representative said, “I’ll get back to you about that. I was an English major."
When asked whether the discouraging of negative reviews would stifle open discussion, the executive was philosophical. “It’s true that Amazon might become a little less lively, but I think in the long run, the new, nice Amazon will suit people just fine. And if reviewers have these pent-up urges to be snarky, they can always start blogs, can’t they?”
For more details about this new program, visit this site.
The centerpiece of the new plan, called “Twice as Nice,” which is to be unveiled formally later this month, requires reviewers to leave two positive comments for each negative comment they make in an individual review. An anonymous company executive explained, “If you say, for instance, that an author couldn't write her way out of an open paper bag, you will have to balance that by making two positive comments like, ‘But her male characters were really HOT,' and ‘At least she didn’t have anyone eating potatoes in medieval England.’”
“We think this will lead to a more pleasant and congenial atmosphere at Amazon,” explained a public relations representative. “It won’t eliminate negativity altogether, because, let’s face it, some people just can’t be satisfied with anything. But at least anyone who leaves a negative comment will have to think hard about doing it, because they have to leave those two positives or the system will reject their comment. And looking for two positives will ultimately tend to enrich the reading experience, we think.”
The PR representative added, “To be frank, this decision was a business necessity, because authors are very sensitive, fragile sorts and will be more productive if they’re not spending three days in bed with their cats each time they get a bad review. By easing their pain, we’ll be increasing their output, and in the long run, we’ll have more product. It’s really a win-win situation all around, even for the cats, since the more the author produces, the more cat toys are involved.”
Under the new system, reviewers inclined to be critical will be encouraged through online tutorials to find creative ways of softening their remarks. Explained the company executive, “You can write, ‘This book put me to sleep,’ but then add, ‘But you know, a soothing sleep was just what I needed last night.’ Or the reviewer could say, ‘This writing is sophomoric,’ but add, ‘And I really had a blast my sophomore year.’ There are so many ways reviewers can be nicer. It’s mind-boggling, really.”
Also targeted will be the way in which customers vote on the helpfulness of reviews. The current system, under which readers can rate a review “helpful” or “not helpful,” will be changed to eliminate the “not helpful” option. “Our philosophy is that every review is helpful in some way, even if it’s by the author, her mother, or her best friend, because it at least gets a dialogue going,” explained the PR representative. “So readers will now vote ‘helpful,’ ‘very helpful,’ or ‘extremely helpful.’ It’s a small thing, granted, but it really will make life on Amazon a lot more pleasant. It just sets a more genteel tone.”
Asked whether the new system might simply mean that “helpful” becomes the new “not helpful,” the representative said, “We have an algorithm to take care of that, I’m sure.” Asked to explain precisely what an algorithm is, the representative said, “I’ll get back to you about that. I was an English major."
When asked whether the discouraging of negative reviews would stifle open discussion, the executive was philosophical. “It’s true that Amazon might become a little less lively, but I think in the long run, the new, nice Amazon will suit people just fine. And if reviewers have these pent-up urges to be snarky, they can always start blogs, can’t they?”
For more details about this new program, visit this site.
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