Nancy Bilyeau's Blog, page 23

THE TAPESTRY on InStyle's Bookclub List for April

I'm ecstatic that InStyle magazine picked The Tapestry for its April book club. Other novels include Sara Gruen's At the Water's Edge and Hallie Ephron's Night, Night, Sleep Tight.

Says the magazine:

"Fans of the Tudor era, you’re in for a treat. In the third installment of Bilyeau’s dramatic trilogy, we once again meet Joanna Stafford, a former nun who is determined to protect both her beliefs and her friends from the dangerous politics that surround King Henry VIII’s reign...."

To read the full review and see all seven recommendations, go here.

Recap of Wolf Hall, Episode 1, "Three Card Trick"

"Wolf Hall" has come to Masterpiece Theater, following a much-talked-about run on British television. This is a stellar adaptation of the historical novel by Hilary Mantel that delves into the darkest side of Tudor England.

I think the series is brilliant, with performances by Mark Rylance, Jonathan Pryce, Claire Foy and Damien Lewis that can be studied for a thousand nuances.



When the show ran in the UK, there were some complaints about the time jumps and flashback, especially in Episode 1: "Three Card Trick."

In my recap, posted on medievalists.net, I explain the timeline and supply some historical tidbits at the end too.

For the recap, go here.

The Lonely Death of Elizabeth Boleyn

On Lambeth Road, on the south bank of the River Thames, is the elegant Garden Museum, offering visitors lush gardens to walk through and an array of horticulture tools to examine. The shop sells books, kits, soaps, embroidered bags, and thumb-pot waterers. Somewhere beneath the shop floor—no one knows exactly where, since there are no markers or plaques—lies the body of Elizabeth Boleyn, the mother of Henry VIII’s second queen and grandmother of one of England’s greatest rulers, Elizabeth I.



Her present obscurity is not a shock; there is no irony to this. Instead, her unmarked grave is the outgrowth of a life remarkable for its silence amid the noise–the style, the wit, the fiery ambition and brilliant allure of the Boleyn family.




How did Elizabeth Boleyn feel about her striving husband, Thomas; her notorious daughters, Anne and Mary; her erudite son, George? Was she proud to be mother-in-law of Henry VIII—and did that emotion flip to outrage and grief when Anne and George were beheaded in 1536, among the charges being that they committed incest? Or, perhaps, like her spouse, the Earl of Wiltshire, Elizabeth was grateful to survive the brutal coup that destroyed the Boleyn faction and even willing to court the king’s favor once more.




We don’t know as much about Anne Boleyn as we think we do. The movies and miniseries and novels and articles and twitter handles create the impression of a certain kind of woman: beautiful, witty, and bold. Someone who could steal a king from a prestigious first wife of many years’ standing. But there are surprisingly few authenticated likenesses or letters of Anne Boleyn’s, and many descriptions of her behavior come to us from the pens of her enemies.




If the facts about Anne Boleyn are minimal, they are fragmentary for her mother. One assumption is that most women’s lives from this period are not recorded. But other mothers of Henry VIII’s wives come into greater focus, with one sad exception. Queen Isabella of Castile is of course a famous figure of history; the other royal mother, Duchess Maria of Cleves, comes through in her religious choices, her relationships with her husband and children, her loyalty to her homeland. Jane Seymour’s and Catherine Parr’s mothers are present in history; we can feel their care taken for their families. Only Joyce Culpepper, wife to that ne’er do well Edmund Howard, is more of an enigma than Elizabeth Boleyn, and that is because she died before Catherine Howard reached the age of 10.

But Elizabeth Boleyn outlived Anne. She was there, in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, the daughter, wife and mother of prominent courtiers. So how can there be so few mentions?




Elizabeth Boleyn does play a part in an unsavory scandal. There was a rumor that Henry VIII had an affair with her when he was young, before his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Supposedly a gentleman said to the king about his planned marriage to Anne that it would be a blot on his conscience, “It is thought that ye have meddled both with the mother and the sister.” The king replied, “Never with the mother.” And Thomas Cromwell leaped in, “And never with the sister.” (Cromwell’s attempt to clear his master’s reputation notwithstanding, Henry VIII’s affair with Mary Boleyn is accepted by historians.)




Elizabeth Boleyn was at least 11 years older than Henry VIII and giving birth to nearly a child a year during the last decade of the reign of the old king, Henry VII. The prince was kept under close watch by his father; he married at the age of 17. So any adulterous affair between the two seems improbable.




But then the Boleyns were the subjects of many scurrilous rumors. Elizabeth Amadas, wife of the royal goldsmith, is supposed to have said, “that the king had kept both the mother and the daughter” and that Thomas Boleyn “was bawd to his wife and two daughters.”




One of the worst of the anti-Boleyn rumors was that Henry VIII fathered Anne and thus he married his own daughter. Since Anne Boleyn was born most probably in 1501, when Henry Tudor was 10 years old, this is officially ludicrous.



We do know that Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn were fairly close. Anne was sent to the Low Countries and then France when very young, to receive a fine education, but that doesn’t rule out a strong bond. Lady Boleyn sometimes accompanied Anne as chaperone when her daughter was the beloved of Henry VIII. And when Queen Anne was in the Tower of London in 1536, under arrest, alternately stunned and hysterical, she said her mother would “die of sorrow.”



Two years later, Elizabeth Boleyn died. Was it of sorrow? The answer is … perhaps.



In the beginning and in the end, Elizabeth defined herself not as a Boleyn, but as a Howard. That could be the key to understanding her.



Anne Boleyn’s aristocratic blood comes from her mother’s family. Elizabeth was the granddaughter, daughter and sister of a duke of Norfolk. The Howards are considered one of the “old” families of Henry VIII’s court, but in fact theirs was not ancient nobility. Richard III raised John Howard to the dukedom in 1483, as reward for loyalty during his struggle for the crown. John was a knight’s son and, through his mother, the grandson of a duke.



John Howard died at Bosworth alongside Richard III. His son, Thomas Howard, the earl of Surrey, was imprisoned and his lands were taken. He spent years proving himself to the Tudors and buying back Howard property. This all took place during Elizabeth’s childhood. The Howards were a close-knit family, and probably the struggle to survive royal suspicion brought them even closer.



The poet John Skelton, while a guest of the Howards, wrote a poem in tribute to several young women, including Elizabeth. The poem suggests she had a potent allure. Based on the outstanding attractiveness of Anne, Mary, and George Boleyn, it seems safe to assume that their mother was lovely.



Elizabeth married Thomas Boleyn when she was 17 or 18. He was intelligent and determined—ferociously so. He set himself to climb the ladder of Tudor society: courtier, knight, ambassador, earl, all the way to Lord Privy Seal. Elizabeth gave birth to perhaps seven children (four died young) and ran his households. She may have served both Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon at important occasions, but is thought to have mostly resided in the country, in Norfolk or Kent, at the family‘s castle of Hever. Although the couple must have lived apart for long periods—Thomas Boleyn traveled to France and Burgundy repeatedly for the king—there is no impression of estrangement. Many 16th century marriages worked this way.



“Most historians have felt that Anne’s father personified all that was bad about the court,” writes Eric Ives in The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Yet Thomas Boleyn shifts from hard to like to actively repugnant after the killing of Anne and George. He did not defend his children; in fact, he offered to serve on their jury. He left court after their deaths, yet wrote sycophantic letters to Cromwell. He lost the office of Lord Privy Seal but retained his earldom and seat on the king’s council. Incredibly, he attended the christening of Prince Edward, the child of Anne’s replacement, Jane Seymour, in 1537.



Thomas Boleyn died on March 12, 1539. He was buried in Hever Church, and King Henry VIII ordered that Masses be said for his soul. But Elizabeth was never laid to rest with him. She in fact pre-deceased him by a year; one court paper said she was “sore diseased with the cough” as early as 1536. Perhaps her children’s murders robbed her of the strength to recover and she suffered a slow decline.


Still, it was in her choice of where to die that Lady Boleyn’s voice can perhaps, finally, be heard.

She died on April 3rd, 1538. A nobleman wrote in a letter: “My lady Wiltshire was buried at Lambeth on the 7th… She was conveyed from a house besides Baynard’s Castle by barge to Lambeth with torches burning and four banners set out of all quarters of the barge, which was covered with black and a white cross.”



The Garden Museum is based in the deconsecrated parish church of St Mary-at-Lambeth. Photo by Mike Glaeser.
Before it was the Garden Museum, the building on Lambeth Road where Elizabeth Boleyn was buried was the Church of St. Mary’s. The church was abandoned in the 1970s, and sponsors moved forward to transform it into a museum. One person who was buried beneath its floor was John Tradescant, a famous gardener of the early 17th century. Before Tradescant lived and died, the church was the chosen resting place for some of the Howards.  It was very near to the family’s manor house of Lambeth. A memorial plaque, now lost, honored Thomas Howard and his wife, Agnes, Elizabeth’s parents. At least one of her sisters rested beside her.


Even more significantly, Elizabeth did not die at Hever, her husband at her side.  Seriously ill, she left Kent and traveled to London. Elizabeth Boleyn spent her final days in the home of Hugh Farringdon, the abbot of Reading, near Baynard’s Castle, not far from Lambeth.


Who was the abbot of Reading? Born Hugh Cook, he was a Cluniac monk who took the name of Farringdon and became abbot in 1520. Reading was one of the wealthiest abbeys in England. King Henry was the abbot’s guest in January 1521, and Farringdon later became a royal chaplain. The abbot took the king’s side during the Great Divorce, signing the Articles of Faith that acknowledged the supremacy of Henry VIII over the pope. In 1532, the king gave the abbot a New Year’s gift of twenty pounds.


It seems probable that Abbot Farringdon was known to Queen Anne Boleyn, and thus to her mother. Perhaps some sort of friendship sprang up between them and, for whatever reason, Elizabeth Boleyn turned to him when she was dying.


Certainly the other members of the Boleyn family would not have turned to a monk in their final days. Anne Boleyn, her brother and her father were all fervent supporters of church reform. The tenets of such reform were a direct connection to God in faith, without the intercession of priests, monks, and abbots. But did Elizabeth in her heart agree with this? It is possible that she did not find comfort in the church that her onetime son-in-law had created.


There is a final chapter in the life of Abbot Farringdon, and not a pretty one. Although he had conformed to the king’s will for years—unlike other monks and abbots and friars who chose martyrdom—in 1539, just after his abbey had closed, he was charged with high treason. The abbot was accused of giving money to the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace. This rebellion took place in 1536 and 1537, and it is inexplicable why no steps were taken against him for so long a period afterward.


Abbot Farringdon was entitled to be tried by Parliament but his death sentence was passed before trial began, by order of Thomas Cromwell. On November 14, 1539, Hugh Cook Farringdon was hanged, drawn and quartered before the gatehouse of his own abbey.


So ended the life of Elizabeth Boleyn’s friend, yet another victim in the brutal and capricious reign of Henry VIII.




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Nancy Bilyeau is the author of a trilogy of historical mysteries set in the reign of Henry VIII: The Crown, The Chalice and The Tapestry.

THE TAPESTRY Review: "Best of the Best Historical Fiction"

I'm very excited about this review from Library of Clean Reads, which gave The Tapestry a "G" rating and said, "Is it possible that this third book in the Joanna Stafford series of fantastic historical fiction is the best yet? If you have read The Chalice and The Crown you may wonder how it could get any better, but it has."


 "...It’s obvious that the author has done meticulous research, as usual. And that she is well versed in the Tudor era. Apart from Henry VIII and Catherine Howard, other historical figures appear throughout the novel, ie. Cromwell, Anne of Cleves (Henry’s fourth wife), Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, Hans Holbein. I learned about the Henry’s Act of Six Articles forbidding persons who had taken vows of chastity in a religious order from every marrying, on pain of death. I loved the list of characters (useful to readers unfamiliar with the era) as well as the extensive bibliography.


"Look for royal intrigue, murder, friendship, love, treachery, religious/political turmoil in this best of the best historical fiction."



To read the full review, go here

The Tomb of a 17th Century Wife

No doubt due to my morbid nature, tombs and effigies have long fascinated me, the older the better. I find myself in a friendly competition of sorts to find the most unusual ones with my friend Beth von Staats, a fellow historical writer, who brought to my attention the singular tomb statue of Richard Rich, despicable courtier to Henry VIII. Rich is lying on his side, propped up, staring at the living while holding a book in the most unnerving way.

So imagine my delight in coming upon an image of a woman wearing Elizabethan dress and not just lying on her side, propped up to face us, but cradling a skull! The statue is to be found in the Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral.


I dove into research on the woman in question, Lady Dorothy Dodderidge. There was little to learn. She was the daughter of Sir Amias Bampfield, a member of Parliament in Devon and the second wife of John Dodderidge, a justice of the king's bench considered incorruptible. He earned the nickname "the sleeping judge" because of his habit of closing his eyes while listening to a case. The couple had no children. She died in 1617, well into the reign of James I.


Sir Walter RaleghI did discover that Dorothy possessed an interesting first husband who preceded the esteemed Dodderidge: Sir Edward Hancock, devoted secretary to Walter Ralegh, entrusted with carrying his seal. Hancock traveled to Guyana with Ralegh in 1595--the courtier was attempting to win back the favor of Queen Elizabeth I by discovering gold for England (mostly for himself). None was found of course, but a book did come from it: The Discovery of Guiana.


After Ralegh was arrested in 1603, the 43-year-old Edward Hancock committed suicide in what may have been a failed suicide pact with Ralegh, who tried to stab himself to death with a table knife in the Tower.


I asked Mathew Lyons, author of a wonderful book on Ralegh called The Favourite, what he thought about the possible pact. "Not an explicit one for sure," he responded. "I tend to be a bit cynical about Raleigh's attempted suicide.  It smacks of opportunism. It would be pretty cruel to make someone kill themselves to make your own fake suicide look more realistic."


But, Mathew says, another Ralegh associate in Guiana, Lawrence Keymis, also killed himself. Did Ralegh have a dark charisma? "Yes, that would be my reading of it," says Mathew. (His twitter handle is @MathewJLyons, follow him!)


Sir Edward Hancock's estate was given to his widow to administer. Shortly after, Dorothy married the sleeping judge, who was older than 50 at the time. Nonetheless, he outlived her by 11 years, even marrying a third time, but choosing to be entombed with Dorothy in a niche under a Gothic arch. His monument consists of his recumbent effigy--he's not propped up on his side-- sculpted in alabaster, resting on a chest-tomb. He's wearing scarlet robes with a court roll in his hand.

A view from above of John Dodderidge
We can't know what Judge Dodderidge had in mind when he ordered the designs for The Lady Chapel. Dorothy is cradling a memento mori, which in Latin means: Remember that you must die.


Full length of Dorothy Dodderidge

It might have been the fashion of the time, for there exists a famous portrait of 1615 by Frans Hals, called Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull.In researching memento mori, I came across this observation: "Well known literary meditations on death in English prose were part of a Jacobean cult of melancholia that marked the end of the Elizabethan era." That surprised me. I'd read in other places that many in England welcomed the ascension of James I, exhausted by the 45-year-long rule of the Virgin Queen. It was more complex, clearly.


Franz Hals painted at least two portraits incorporating skulls


Read Beth's excellent post on Richard Rich here.

And here's his statue:



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Nancy Bilyeau is the author of a historical mystery trilogy: The Crown, The Chalice and The Tapestry.

The Tomb of a Tudor Wife

No doubt due to my morbid nature, tombs and effigies have long fascinated me, the older the better. I find myself in a friendly competition of sorts to find the most unusual ones with my friend Beth von Staats, a fellow Tudor writer, who brought to my attention the singular tomb statue of Richard Rich, despicable courtier to Henry VIII. Rich is lying on his side, propped up, staring at the living while holding a book in the most unnerving way.

So imagine my delight in coming upon an image of a women wearing Elizabethan dress and not just lying on her side, propped up to face us, but cradling a skull! The statue is to be found in the Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral.


I dove into research on the woman in question, Lady Dorothy Dodderidge. There was little to learn. She was the daughter of Sir Amias Bampfield, a member of Parliament in Devon and the second wife of John Dodderidge, a justice of the king's bench considered incorruptible. He earned the nickname "the sleeping judge" because of his habit of closing his eyes while listening to a case. The couple had no children. She died in 1617, well into the reign of James I though she lived most of her life during the reigns of the Tudors.


Sir Walter RaleghI did discover that Dorothy possessed an interesting first husband who preceded the esteemed Dodderidge: Sir Edward Hancock, devoted secretary to Walter Ralegh, entrusted with carrying his seal. Hancock traveled to Guyana with Ralegh in 1595--the courtier was attempting to win back the favor of Queen Elizabeth I by discovering gold for England (mostly for himself). None was found of course, but a book did come from it: The Discovery of Guiana.


After Ralegh was arrested in 1603, the 43-year-old Edward Hancock committed suicide in what may have been a failed suicide pact with Ralegh, who tried to stab himself to death with a kitchen knife in the Tower. Hancock's estate was given to his widow to administer. Shortly after, Dorothy married the sleeping judge, who was older than 50 at the time. He outlived her by 11 years, even marrying a third time, but choosing to be entombed with Dorothy in a niche under a Gothic arch. His monument consists of his recumbent effigy--he's not propped up on his side-- sculpted in alabaster, resting on a chest-tomb. He's wearing scarlet robes with a court roll in his hand.

A view from above of John Dodderidge
We can't know what Judge Dodderidge had in mind when he ordered the designs for The Lady Chapel. Dorothy is cradling a memento mori, which in Latin means: Remember that you must die.


Full length of Dorothy Dodderidge

It might have been the fashion of the time, for there exists a famous portrait of 1615 by Frans Hals, called Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull.





Read Beth's excellent post on Richard Rich here.

And here's his statue:

THE TAPESTRY book launch makes it onto SHELF AWARENESS

On Wednesday I celebrated the release of my novel, The Tapestry, with 100 friends and readers at The Mysterious Bookshop in Tribeca. I shared the launch with M.J. Rose, bestselling author of 15 novels who has just come out with The Witch of Painted Sorrows.




I really enjoyed the Q&A section, answering questions about my writing routine and whether the characters have grown over the series.

It was a lovely evening, and, the next day, a picture from the party made it onto Shelf Awareness as Image of the Day. Go here!

The Downfall of Katherine Howard

Katherine appeared briefly in The Crown, for a few chapters in The Chalice, and now she plays a large part in The Tapestry.



I have a different opinion of Katherine than most other historical novelists--and nonfiction writers too.

She has been the dirty joke of the Tudor period, but I feel there is a lot more to Henry VIII's fifth queen.

See the post here.

Alison Weir, Deborah Harkness, Kate Quinn and More Endorse THE TAPESTRY

I'm honored to share with you the authors who've read advance review copies of THE TAPESTRY and offered these quotes of endorsement:


“Nancy Bilyeau's passion for history infuses her books and transports us back to the dangerous world of Tudor England. Vivid characters and gripping plots are at the heart of this wonderful trilogy, and this third book will not fail to thrill readers. Warmly recommended!” – Alison Weir, author of The Marriage Game

“In Joanna Stafford, Bilyeau has given us a memorable character who is prepared to risk her life to save what she most values.” -- Deborah Harkness, author of A Discovery of Witches

"A rip-roaring Tudor adventure from Nancy Bilyeau! Novice nun turned tapestry weaver Joanna Stafford returns to the court of Henry VIII. She's that great rarity of historical fiction: a fiercely independent woman who is still firmly of her time. A mystery as richly woven as any of Joanna's tapestries." -- Kate Quinn, author of Lady of the Eternal City

“Bilyeau’s writing is effortless, vivid, gripping, and poignant, bringing Tudor England to life with sparkling zest. If you want to see the reformation from the side of the English people rather than the self-serving court, it is tough to do better.” – Dominic Selwood, author of The Sword of Moses

"The Tapestry takes its history seriously, but that doesn't stop it from being a supremely deft, clever and pacy entertainment. This is Nancy Bilyeau's most thrilling - and enlightening - novel in the Joanna Stafford series yet." —Andrew Pyper, International Thriller Writers Award winner of The Demonologist and The Damned

"A master of atmosphere, Nancy Bilyeau imbues her novel with the sense of dread and oppression lurking behind the royal glamour; in her descriptions and characterizations...Bilyeau breathes life into history."—Laura Andersen, author of The Boleyn King

"In The Tapestry, Nancy Bilyeau brilliantly captures both the white-hot religious passions and the brutal politics of Tudor England. It is a rare book that does both so well." –Sam Thomas, author of The Midwife’s Tale

“In spite of murderous plots, volatile kings, and a divided heart, Joanna Stafford manages to stay true to her noble character. Fans of Ken Follett will devour Nancy Bilyeau’s novel of political treachery and courageous love, set amid the endlessly fascinating Tudor landscape.” -- Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl

“These aren't your mother's nuns! Nancy Bilyeau has done it again, giving us a compelling and wonderfully realized portrait of Tudor life in all its complexity and wonder. A nun, a tapestry, a page-turning tale of suspense: this is historical mystery at its finest.” -- Bruce Holsinger, author of A Burnable Book and The Invention of Fire

Alison Weir, Deborah Harkness, Bruce Holsinger and More Endorse THE TAPESTRY

I'm honored to share with you the authors who've read advance review copies of THE TAPESTRY and offered these quotes of endorsement:


“Nancy Bilyeau's passion for history infuses her books and transports us back to the dangerous world of Tudor England. Vivid characters and gripping plots are at the heart of this wonderful trilogy, and this third book will not fail to thrill readers. Warmly recommended!” – Alison Weir, author of The Marriage Game

“In Joanna Stafford, Bilyeau has given us a memorable character who is prepared to risk her life to save what she most values.” -- Deborah Harkness, author of A Discovery of Witches

“Bilyeau’s writing is effortless, vivid, gripping, and poignant, bringing Tudor England to life with sparkling zest. If you want to see the reformation from the side of the English people rather than the self-serving court, it is tough to do better.” – Dominic Selwood, author of The Sword of Moses

"The Tapestry takes its history seriously, but that doesn't stop it from being a supremely deft, clever and pacy entertainment. This is Nancy Bilyeau's most thrilling - and enlightening - novel in the Joanna Stafford series yet." —Andrew Pyper, International Thriller Writers Award winner of The Demonologist and The Damned

"A master of atmosphere, Nancy Bilyeau imbues her novel with the sense of dread and oppression lurking behind the royal glamour; in her descriptions and characterizations...Bilyeau breathes life into history."—Laura Andersen, author of The Boleyn King

"In The Tapestry, Nancy Bilyeau brilliantly captures both the white-hot religious passions and the brutal politics of Tudor England. It is a rare book that does both so well." –Sam Thomas, author of The Midwife’s Tale

“In spite of murderous plots, volatile kings, and a divided heart, Joanna Stafford manages to stay true to her noble character. Fans of Ken Follett will devour Nancy Bilyeau’s novel of political treachery and courageous love, set amid the endlessly fascinating Tudor landscape.” -- Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl

“These aren't your mother's nuns! Nancy Bilyeau has done it again, giving us a compelling and wonderfully realized portrait of Tudor life in all its complexity and wonder. A nun, a tapestry, a page-turning tale of suspense: this is historical mystery at its finest.” -- Bruce Holsinger, author of A Burnable Book and The Invention of Fire