Susan Higginbotham's Blog: History Refreshed by Susan HIgginbotham, page 35

Married to the Enemy: A Guest Post by Christy English

I'm delighted to welcome Christy English, author of the newly released The Queen's Pawn, a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine and Alais, Princess of France. Take it away, Christy!

Married to the Enemy: Medieval Marriage and Political Alliance


In my novel, Alais, Princess of France, is sent away from her father, King Louis VII at the age of nine to marry among her father's enemies, one of the sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. This arrangement was typical for medieval princ...

A Letter to Margaret of Anjou

Since some of you found the letter from the Earl of Oxford of interest, here's one of my favorite letters from the Paston collection. It's written to Margaret of Anjou on August 30, 1461, by two of her and Henry VI's most faithful followers: Robert Hungerford and Robert Whittingham.

Following the defeat at Towton, Margaret and Henry had gone into exile in Scotland. Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, accompanied by Hungerford and Whittingham, went to France to meet with King Charles VII, only to...

A Letter of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, to His Wife

On the anniversary of the battle of Barnet, which was fought on April 14, 1471, I thought I'd share this letter from the Paston collection (from John Fenn's edition). It was written by John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, shortly after the Lancastrian defeat at the battle. Oxford probably did not see his wife again until 1485, when after years of exile and imprisonment, he returned to England with Henry Tudor's forces and joined in the victory at Bosworth.

To the right reverend and worshipful Lady:

Ri...

Edward of Lancaster

(First, after I began writing this, Karen Clark posted an excellent piece on the marriage of Anne Neville and Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Do check it out.)

One of the set pieces in almost every novel set during the Wars of the Roses--or at least every novel sympathetic to Richard III, which very nearly amounts to the same thing--is the scene where the hapless little Anne Neville is forced by her ambitious father to marry Edward of Lancaster, the vicious son of Margaret of Anjou. (In nine out ...

English History in One Syllable

Four years ago at a flea market, I found an 1898 book entitled History of England in Words of One Syllable, which was part of an entire series entitled "Burt's One Syllable Histories." And except for proper nouns (which are broken up syllabically), the author, Mrs. Helen W. Pierson, accomplishes her task according to her publisher's specifications.

Here's how Mrs. Pierson deals with some of our favorite folks:

Now this young man, Pier Gav-es-ton, was wild and bad, and led the king into all...

Was Edward, Earl of Warwick Locked in the Tower?

Some time back, I wrote a post about the claim that Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, had mistreated his ward, Edward, Earl of Warwick, causing him to become mentally retarded. The upshot of the post was that there's no evidence that any of Warwick's guardians mistreated him before he had the misfortune to be imprisoned by Henry VII in the Tower, where he spent the rest of his life before being executed in 1499 at age 24.

Warwick's story--his father, George, Duke of Clarence, was executed at Edw...

The Illegitimacy Project?

As you might know, I have Google set to send me an alert when certain phrases, like "Edward II," are mentioned. Today--rather to my irritation--I was notified of the following story from the Associated Press:

__________

LONDON (AP)-- Taking its cue from the success of the Genome Project, a group of revisionist historians, genealogists, and history buffs has formed the Illegitimacy Project, with the goal of proving through DNA testing that historical figures rumored to be illegitimate are in fac...

Search Terms!

First, I'm winding up my blog tour today. Thanks to everyone who hosted me. It was fun!

And now, here's some search terms for you. (I cheated a little this time and pulled some from the report for Historical Fiction Online, which I co-administer.)

melusine- water witch- english

None of those foreign water witches, please.

jean plaidy sex

Would you lay off the poor woman? Sometimes "I'm dead, don't bother me" means exactly that.

either hugh

Any port in a storm, huh, Edward?

elizabeth woodville...

Guest Post from Roger Hudson: What Makes a Good Historical Mystery?

I'm pleased to welcome a guest today: Roger Hudson, author of Death Comes by Amphora, set in ancient Athens. You can read more about Roger at his website. Thanks for joining us, Roger!


WHAT MAKES A GOOD HISTORICAL MYSTERY?

Or what do I look for in a good read? I can only give my opinion. Others may disagree.

First, a strong sense of time and place. What grabbed me first with the genre, more even than straight historicals, was the great feeling that the writer has transported me there by time mac...

I'm on Kindle, and It's Kool!

Just to let you know that my second novel, Hugh and Bess, is now available on Kindle. I believe the other novels will be following soon.