Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 18

Worst royal brother ever?

I am already falling behind in my Today in History posts, for February was an eventful month for medievals, at least the ones I write about. Here are two consequential occurrences that happened on today’s date.

February 7th, 1102 was the birthdate of the Empress Maude, AKA Matilda, the almost-queen of England. She failed, of course, to claim her father’s crown, but her son Henry succeeded where she had not, becoming king at 21 and forging the dynasty so much more interesting than those upstart Tudors. 😊 She is, of course, a major character in my novel When Christ and his Saints Slept and she appears also in Time and Chance. And she shares a starring role with Queen Adeliza in Elizabeth Chadwick’s excellent novel about these two women, Lady of the English.

Also, on February 7th, this time in 1478, George, Duke of Clarence, was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death after a trial presided over by his brother, Edward. Legend has it he was drowned in a butt of malmsey, but that is rather unlikely. George is probably the worst brother ever inflicted upon a medieval king. Yes, worse than John. True, John did his best to see that Big Brother Richard rotted in a German or French dungeon, but he did have some redeeming qualities. He was intelligent, for one, and seems to have been genuinely interested in governing; he also shared the Angevin sardonic sense of humor. I honestly can’t think of any virtues that George possessed. He was shallow, selfish, showed no aptitude for anything other than causing trouble, and had no more understanding of loyalty than a hungry shark. I need to get inside the heads of my characters in order to bring them to life on the printed page and I can tell you all that being inside George’s head was not something I’d ever recommend.

Hero dogs!

I am very happy to report that I finally finished the Author’s Note for The Land Beyond the Sea. Many of you know that I find these very challenging since I whine about it from time to time. I think it is similar to an actor feeling comfortable when he can stick to a script but getting nervous if he has to appear on a talk show and be himself. I do think they are important for historical novelists, though, since they give us the opportunity to let our readers know if we’ve taken any liberties with historical fact or to explain why we chose one set of conflicting facts over another. Next on the agenda will be the map, and then I should have some time to catch my breath before the copy edited manuscript comes back.
Since you all know how much I love dogs (and other animals), I am sure it won’t surprise you that I was fascinated to read about a Florida woman who suffered a stroke and was saved by her two Labrador retrievers, who raced out of the house when she gasped for them to get help, returning with a neighbor who called 911. Dogs have often come to the aid of humans in need, sometimes total strangers, but this story sounds so Lassie-like that it is probably a good idea that there is video evidence, all captured on this lucky woman’s home camera. Here is the link; enjoy. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...

Was that a dragon sighting during the Super Bowl?

This post is aimed at my American readers and anyone else in other countries who watched our Super Bowl. Since I have friends in Boston, I won’t say that this was one of the most boring SBs that I can remember. I’ll say only that it could not measure up to last year’s epic SB, coincidentally won by my Eagles. I did think the NFL commercial was hilarious. But for me and my fellow Game of Throne fans, the highlight had to be the shocking revelation that the Bud Light kingdom is in Westeros. See the story below for a link to the actual ad and some very funny comments on Twitter, including one by George R.R. Martin.
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2019...

The Mise of Amiens and Mother Nature on a tear

I am posting some stunning photos of Lake Michigan, transformed into a frozen wonderland—as long as you don’t have to venture outside to admire it. It seems as if almost all of my readers and Facebook friends are being buffeted and battered by Mother Nature this week. We are freezing in much of the US and Canada, sweltering Down Under, and now the UK is being hit with bitter cold and snow. Yikes.
Back on the history front, on January 23rd, 1264, the King of France lit a fuse that would set off an explosion in England. Simon de Montfort and his fellow barons had compelled Henry, the English king, to accept restrictions upon royal power in the Provisions of Oxford, which they saw as a natural corollary of the Magna Carta. When civil war loomed, both sides agreed to submit to the arbitration of the French King, Louis, who was also Henry’s brother-in-law. Simon was unable to attend, having broken his leg in a fall from his horse, and he was recuperating at Kenilworth Castle when he got the decision. Louis had ruled against the barons and in favor of his fellow king on all counts, even annulling the Provisions of Oxford although this went well beyond the scope of his authority. The Mise of Amiens was so one-sided that it made rebellion all but inevitable and four months later, the king’s army would meet Simon de Montfort and the barons on the battlefield at Lewes.
I dramatize this event in Chapter 29 of Falls the Shadow. Here is the closing scene of that chapter, on page 395, after Simon has gotten the bad news and asks for a moment alone with his wife, Nell, who was, of course, the sister of the English king.
* * *
Dusk was fast falling; the last of the candles had guttered out and only a hearth fire now held the dark at bay. “Shall I send for a cresset lamp?” Nell asked, and Simon shook his head, held out his hand. She came slowly from the shadows, sat beside him on the bed. Taking her hand, he brought it to his lips, pressed a kiss into her palm. After a time, he said:
“Henry may be God’s greatest fool, but he is still your brother. And Richard…he will likely oppose us, too, Nell.”
“I know,” she said softly. She’d never truly thought it would ever come to this, never thought the day might dawn when her husband and sons would face her brothers and nephews across a battlefield. She shared Simon’s confidence, but not his darker moods. Hers was a world of sunrises, not sunsets, a world in which hope flourished and faith was rewarded, and she clung to that comforting certainty all the more now that her need was so great.
“I trust in you, Simon,” she said, “and I trust in God. Whatever happens, it will be for the best, for us and for England.”
* * *
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weathe...

She miscarried of her savior

For those who still deny the existence of climate change—and we know who they are—I would mention that while much of the US is suffering under some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded, Down Under they are enduring one of the worst heat waves in Australia’s history. The climate is indeed changing and we can expect greater volatility, wilder storms, devastating droughts, horrific flooding, much of which we are already experiencing. I hope my friends in the US and Canada stay safe and warm for the next few days, and that my friends in Australia get some relief from their hellish summer. Below is a post about Anne Boleyn; it goes back a few years, so I am hoping most of you won’t remember it. 😊
On January 29, 1536, Anne Boleyn was prematurely delivered of a stillborn son. Less than four months later, she was dead, sacrificed to Henry’s obsession with having a male heir—and possibly his roving eye, which had already alighted upon Jane Seymour, whom he wed eleven days after Anne’s execution. Henry was a class act. It is widely believed that Anne’s “failure” to give Henry a living son sealed her doom; this was the belief at the time, too, the Spanish ambassador Chapuys writing “She has miscarried of her savior.” However, the creator of one of the best websites about Anne, the Anne Boleyn Files, does not agree. You can read her argument for yourself here. http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/the... I personally believe the miscarriage did mark a fatal turning point in their relationship, but then, I am certainly not an expert when it comes to the Tudors. In fact, when I typed the opening sentence in this post, I was amused to find I’d written that Anne Neville was the one delivered of a stillborn son. We know where my sympathies lie, of course, but I do spare some of it for Anne Boleyn. Whatever her flaws, she did not deserve the death she got, any more than Katherine of Aragon or silly little Katherine Howard did

The empress who'd rather have been a queen

I hope you all are braced for the next Polar Vortex, which will be impacting much of the US and Canada; my sympathies, too, to my friends Down Under, where it has been hellishly hot. Now here is my entry for Today in Medieval History.
On January 27th, 1186, Constance de Hauteville, aunt of the Sicilian king William II, was wed to Heinrich von Hohenstaufen, King of Germany, and heir to the Holy Roman Empire. She was thirty-one, he was twenty, and I think we can safely say that theirs was not a loving marriage. Heinrich was well educated, fluent in Latin, a poet like his enemy, the English king Richard, and very intelligent. He was also a sociopath. Wives of sociopaths rarely lived happily ever after. But Constance was a remarkable woman, courageous and resourceful. The more I learned about her, the more I found myself wanting to write about her. I did not expect to be able to do it, though. But then I was asked to write a short story for George R.R. Martin and Gardner Debois’s anthology, Dangerous Woman. Once I stopped laughing at the idea of me doing a short story, I started to give it serious consideration, and the result was The Queen in Exile, which may be the first short story to have an Author’s Note! While Constance also appears briefly in Lionheart and she has several scenes in A King’s Ransom, I was very pleased to have this opportunity to give her more time on center-stage.
Her life was filled with high drama. Left behind in Salerno by Heinrich, she came close to being killed when the citizens rebelled against her hated husband. She was saved in the nick of time, but was then turned over to Heinrich’s enemy, Tancred, King of Sicily. Tancred treated her well, and eventually sent her under guard to be a hostage of the pope. She seized her chance when they encountered some of Heinrich’s imperial guard on their way to Rome, and they came to her rescue after she’d identified herself as their empress. Because of their age difference and her failure to conceive during the first eight years of their marriage, Constance was widely believed to be barren. But to the amazement and skepticism of the medieval world, she became pregnant in the spring of 1194, and was delivered of a healthy son in late December of that year, who would later gain greater fame than either of his parents. She was forty by then and Heinrich’s enemies—who were legion and well-deserved—claimed the entire pregnancy was a hoax, a scheme concocted by Heinrich to get a male heir. Constance was outraged by this malicious slander and countered it by inviting the women of the town of Jesi to watch her give birth, determined that none would be able to deny the legitimacy of her son. Heinrich’s cruelties soon drove the Sicilians into rebellion and Constance is said to have conspired with them. Heinrich apparently believed it, and her future looked very bleak, for now that she’d given him a son, he no longer needed her to lay claim to the Sicilian crown.
. I have great admiration for Constance, wed to a man who had neither honor nor mercy. She deserved so much better, and I am grateful to that medieval mosquito who infected Heinrich with malaria and brought about his unexpected and sudden death in 1197—assuming that he did die of malaria, for dysentery has also been suggested, as has poison. While there is no evidence of the latter, if it was true, the question would not have been, Who would have wanted to murder Heinrich? It would have been, Who would not have wanted to murder him?
Constance at once took control of her island kingdom, expelled Heinrich’s hated Germans, and devoted the remaining year of her life to safeguarding the Sicilian throne for her young son. Sadly, she died too soon, at only forty-four, but before her death, she entrusted young Frederick to a very powerful patron, Pope Innocent III. It was a shrewd move and would benefit Frederick greatly as he launched his remarkable career, becoming King of Sicily, then Holy Roman Emperor, and even King of Jerusalem. Constance has been neglected by history, as is too often the case with women. But Dante placed her in Paradise.

A medieval marriage and one very smart dolphin

I am working on the Author’s Note, which is always more challenging for me than writing the book itself. I think it is similar to an actor feeling comfortable on stage, but getting nervous if he is asked to go on a talk show.
I was looking back through previous Facebook posts to see if anything of historical importance happened on this date. I did find one item, although it does not involve characters I have written about. But in this old post, I included an amazing story about a diver and a dolphin in need, and I couldn’t resist reposting it tonight. So here we go to January 24, 1328, when Edward III, age 16, wed the 14 year old Philippa of Hainault. I believe there is some uncertainty about her actual birth date and she could have been younger, though. They would have 13 children and the marriage seems to have been a happy one, despite his notorious affair with Alice de Perrers.
And here is my dolphin story which occurred in 2013, and was fortunately captured on video to reassure the cynics among us. Dolphins seem to be well disposed toward humans; there are a number of documented cases in which they saved people from drowning or from sharks. I guess this clever dolphin decided turn-about was fair play.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/...

When Christ and his Saints Slept and a Yorkist princess, a Tudor queen

I have some happy news about When Christ and His Saints Slept. We’ve been told that it will be available for sale as an audio book on February 12th, although it does not seem to be available yet for pre-ordering. Now I have to play catch-up again with my Today in History posts.
January 19, 1486 was the wedding day of Elizabeth of York and Henry Tudor. She seems to have been both kind-hearted and pragmatic, for she managed to make the best of a forced marriage to the usurper, and the utterly unsentimental Henry actually mourned her death. But this could not have been a happy wedding day for her, a young and beautiful woman shoved into bed with the avowed enemy of her House, a man whose official portrait looks like a wanted poster and who displayed all the warmth and charm of a Bill Belichick press conference. I hope she found happiness in her children, though she had to endure the tragic loss of her eldest son, Arthur. Her second son, Henry, was said to have adored her, and I wonder if she might have been a settling influence upon him if she’d not died so young.

The Super Blood Wolf Moon

I hope all of Harper’s victims are staying safe and warm. Much of the US is experiencing temperatures only a polar bear could enjoy, but you still might want to venture outside briefly tonight to see the eclipse of the Super Blood Wolf Moon; I am surely not the only one to think that would be a good name for a rock band. Here is the link. Weather permitting, all of us in North and South America should be able to see it. This is also true for small pockets in Europe, but sadly, my friends Down Under are out of luck.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/world/...

Our greatest Founding Father

As so many of us hunker down before Harper hits, here is something interesting to read about historical pets. I admit I was rather taken with the idea of an alligator swimming around in a White House bathtub. I was surprised that they did not include Mary Queen of Scot’s devoted little dog, who is said to have followed her to the scaffold and crept out from under her skirts after she’d been beheaded.

And January 17th 1706 is the birthdate of one of America’s Founding Fathers, the remarkable Ben Franklin, who is definitely my own favorite. In his 84 years, he accomplished enough for a dozen lifetimes. Franklin invented the lightning rod, bifocals, swim fins, and urinary catheters, among other things. He is credited with discovering the Gulf Stream. He began Philadelphia’s first volunteer fire company and started the first subscription library in the colonies. He was America’s first Postmaster General. Oh, and without his diplomatic skills, France would not have entered the war against England and the colonist’s rebellion would have ended in failure. He was also more charming than the law should allow and very witty. I’ll confine myself to just one example. Commenting about the gifted but prickly John Adams, he observed wryly that “John Adams is a man of great—if intermittent—magnanimity.”
https://www.historyextra.com/period/t...