Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 72

Second battle of St Albans

The tourist board in Ithaca, NY has run up the white flag and their website simply tells people they ought to vacation in the Florida Keys, where it is not snowing. I like their style.
Meanwhile, this is the anniversary of the second Battle of St Albans, fought on February 17, 1461. It was a victory for the Lancastrians, a defeat for the Earl of Warwick, and the captive king, the hapless Henry VI, was recovered. Two Yorkist lords had remained with him to see to his safety and he’d promised them that they’d not be harmed. His queen, Marguerite d’Anjou, had other ideas, and had them both executed, letting her seven year old son pass the death sentence. Here is a link to a discussion of the battle. It is an interesting website, devoted to military history. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/...

The winter of our discontent

I hope all of you not lucky enough to be living someplace warm have emerged safely from this last battering by a very unfriendly Mother Nature. The wind-chill made it feel like minus 15 F here this morning, not normal temperatures in our corner of the Northeast; it does explain, though, why I found polar bear paw prints around the bird feeder. The fun continues this week, so hang on tight, guys. A NH police department has issued an arrest warrant for that wretched little rodent who cursed us to six more weeks of this hellish winter, but a ski resort has offered him refuge. I personally would be happy to join a mob to hunt him down, torches and pitchforks in hand. This truly is the winter of our discontent, which segues nicely into my next topic.
Here is a link to a free on-line course about Richard III which was shared with me by the Richard III Foundation; one of its benefits is that students will be able to watch the reburial ceremony of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/e...
And here is a link to a story about Richard’s last moments on the battlefield; be warned, though, that it makes grim reading, and the lead-in to the story shows an annoying ignorance, referring to Richard as “the crooked king.” In the hands of some journalists, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02...
Lastly, here a follow-up on the petition to remove Richard’s remains from a laboratory to a church or chapel prior to his reburial, in case there are some of you who’d still like to sign. https://www.change.org/p/leicester-ca...

Game of Thrones trailer

This coming blizzard sounds truly scary. So for all of you in its path, please be careful, especially those of you trapped in poor, battered Boston. Stay home if you can.
Here are a few tidbits of news about Game of Thrones to remind us that April—and spring—will eventually get here, even if it seems very far away on this frigid February morning.
http://time.com/3689802/thrones-seaso... The article is followed by a slideshow that claims to reveal the real-life people who inspired the Thrones characters. I don’t think this comes from GRRM, but it is still interesting. Some are obvious—Cersei and Marguerite d’Anjou. Others not so much. See for yourself. Above all, stay warm, everyone---unless you’re lucky enough to live on the West Coast or Down Under.

Two very diffferent queens

I hope all of you in the path of this latest winter storm and horrific temperatures will stay safe and warm. We are not getting the snow where I live—sadly, that is heading yet again for Boston—but we will be getting the frigid cold, cold even by Midwest standards. Stay strong, Boston; you, too, Mainers.
Two historical events to mention today. On February 13, 1177, Joanna, the daughter of Henry and Eleanor, sister to the Lionheart, was wed to William, King of Sicily, and then crowned in a splendid ceremony. She was eleven. She and William would have one child, a son, who died soon after birth, in 1181. There is a particularly annoying article in Wikipedia about her which accuses the source for the boy’s birth, Robert de Torigny, the abbot of Mont St Michel, of “invention or misconception,” and goes on to claim she’d not have been old enough in 1181 to bear a child. Even by Wikipedia standards, that is pitiful. Robert de Torigny was one of the most respected historians of the MA, not a man given to fabrication. Moreover, he had close ties to the Angevin royal family, which would explain his knowledge of this birth. He was not only a friend of Henry’s, Henry and Eleanor thought so highly of him that he was the godfather for Joanna’s older sister, Eleanor, the future Queen of Castile. And in 1181, Joanna would have been 16, for her birthdate was October, 1165.
The second historical event is not medieval, just sad. On this date in 1542, Catherine Howard was beheaded at the Tower of London, the second of Henry Tudor’s wives to meet this fate. Contrary to legend, she did not say she died the Queen of England but would rather have died the wife of Thomas Culpepper. No one going to the block in Tudor England made defiant speeches, not if they had family or friends they wanted to shield from Henry’s wrath.

Emma and Jane

I’d like to mention a new book that I thought might be of interest to many of my readers. Patricia Bracewell’s second book in her trilogy about Emma of Normandy, The Price of Blood, has just been published. Here are links to Patricia’s website and Amazon to find out more.
http://www.patriciabracewell.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Price-Blood-Emm...

Emma has been lucky enough to attract several talented authors. Pat is telling her story now and a few years ago, so did Helen Hollick in Forever Queen. I believe it was published under another title in the UK?

And while this is not medieval, I thought it fitting to take a moment to remember one of history’s more tragic pawns, Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days Queen, who went to her death at age 17 on February 12, 1554. Jane’s story has attracted her share of writers, too, one of the most recent being Susan Higginbotham’s Her Highness the Traitor.

oops

Correction--poor old Claudius didn't die on February 11th after all. I usually double-check dates but this one I took on faith. Fortunately, Rania called it to my attention. I am lucky to have backup!

Claudius, Elizabeth of York, and Tyrion

I know there are a lot of fans of the brilliant series, I, Claudius, so it is worth mentioning on February 11th, 55 AD, Claudius was murdered, most likely by his wife so her son, Nero, could become emperor; who are we to doubt Robert Graves?
February 11th is a significant date, too, for the House of York, being the birthday in 1466 of Elizabeth of York, Edward IV’s daughter and Tudor’s queen, and also the date of her death in 1503 at the age of only thirty-seven.
And on February 17th, last season’s Game of Thrones is available to tide its long-suffering fans over until the new season finally starts.

A King's Ransom

More Ransom news. There was one typographical error that made it into Ransom; well, actually there were two, for Raimond’s sister Azalais is referred to once as Adelais. But the more significant one occurs in the Author’s Note, where I gave the link to the YouTube rendition of Richard’s prison lament by the wonderful singer, Owain Phyfe. It is a haunting song, offering us an interesting glimpse of Richard’s hidden side; the soldier tends to overshadow all other aspects of his personality. Unfortunately, the URL ended up with a misplaced period. This is how it should have read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVRjm...
I’d also included a link to a reconstruction of Richard’s beloved “daughter,” Chateau Gaillard. But that link is no longer operative. For any who’d like to see Richard’s castle as he would have seen it, click here. It is truly spectacular. http://vimeo.com/37701608

A King's Ransom in paperback

I am happy to report that Ballantine Books is publishing the paperback edition of A King’s Ransom today, February 10th. Here is the link, she hints, for any who would like to buy it. http://www.amazon.com/Kings-Ransom-Sh... The British paperback edition of Ransom won’t come out until later this spring; stay tuned.

The first Game of Thrones book proposal

Nothing of personal historical interest to report today, so I am falling back upon Game of Thrones, which may be fantasy, but it also has a certain gritty medieval reality, and was purportedly inspired by the Wars of the Roses. Any one interested in reading GRRM’s initial proposal for his epic project? I don’t think there are any real spoilers for this was written years ago—at the time, he planned a trilogy! And the plot and the characters have changed as the writing progressed, as often happens. So I would seriously doubt that the eventual ending of the Ice and Fire series will resemble this in any fashion. But for those who don’t want to take even a small risk, pass it by. For the rest of us Gamers, enjoy this brief glimpse inside the head of a very gifted writer. I personally think some of his characters wanted a say in their own fates and did not always agree with the course GRRM had charted for them. I’ve had a few of mine who ended up getting a lot more time on center stage than expected; you never know who is going to be a born scene-stealer until it happens. So I would guess that Jamie probably did some whispering to GRRM’s subconscious, resulting in a more complex character than GRRM first planned, and we know how charming Tyrion can be when he puts his mind to it. Anyway, here is the link. http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/game-o...