Youth and Skill vs. Age and Treachery

Author Insights: Why are many characters in Shield of Honor teenagers, is the book a Young Adult novel?

L. J. Bonham: It was not intended as a Young Adult book. The demographics of the time period were inescapable. Shield of Honor is set during the early fifteenth century. A Medieval European’s average life expectancy was roughly thirty five years and only a small fraction made it past fifty. Life was very precarious and death never far away. Disease, war, famine, and accidents were common occurrences. A person could wake up feeling fine and be dead before night fall. People’s limited control over their environment had a significant impact on the culture. You prayed hard and often because you were never sure if any given day was your last. Modern industrialized people are confident that, barring anything extraordinary, each day will end with them safe in their homes. One thing has not changed in five hundred years though, life expectancy was tied directly to socio-economic status. The rich tended to live longer than the poor, although disease was the great equalizer.

Childhood was short during the Middle Ages. Children were expected to act like adults at age seven. Girls were often married between twelve and fifteen, and boys could see battle in their teens. Edward, the Black Prince, fought at C’recy when he was seventeen and Henry V fought his first battle at fourteen. The protagonist, Edward de Clopton, would think it normal to follow his father on campaign in France at seventeen.

By contrast, the older characters are scarred, stiff, sore, and suffering from various diseases in their thirties. Edward’s uncle, Sir Thomas, is the oldest at sixty and he is a rarity, all his contemporaries are long dead.

AI: Is your point that medieval people were tougher than us?

LB: In many respects they were, but that wasn’t the book’s point. Just because it was normal for teenage children to fight wars doesn’t mean they shrugged off the terror and stress, and Edward shows that he as vulnerable as anyone else. I also drew a contrast between the sixteen year old Lady Claire and Edward’s mother, Lady Valeraine, who is near twice that age. Claire is not a giddy girl, but she is not in the same league as Valeraine when it comes to intrigue, love, and sex.

Shield of Honor’s characters may be young but their youth provides ample external and internal conflict. They struggle in a difficult time, make life or death decisions, and grow up fast and hard.