.Living the History

And the Winners Are....!

2009-12-24T13:15:00.005Z

I've just taken time out from the big Christmas cook-in to do the draw forThe Running Vixen give away. This is my other half standing in the kitchen between chores. I am sorry not to have more copies, but the lucky five winners are numbers 8 and 11 who win The Running Vixen and The Wild Hunt, and then numbers 23, 18 and 40, who win The Running Vixen on its own. When I count the number of the poster in the blog, I find the winners are:

For the two books

Meghan
Lady D

For The Running Vixen

Rachbe
Katherine
Ashomodai

Congratulations! :-)

If you would like to PM me a forwarding address, I'll get the books sent off first thing in the New Year. My e-mail adddress is elizabethchadwick@live.co.uk

Sorry to those who didn't win - blame my husband who picked the numbers! I'll be running other draws though. Next one will be in March when The Scarlet Lion comes out in the USA, and then in May when To Defy a King is published in the UK.

In the meantime, merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Right, back to the baking frenzy....

MEDIEVAL MONDAY: 2 letters of King John

2009-12-21T10:39:00.007Z

Today's samples of Medieval work in translation are a couple of letters from the patent rolls in the Tower of London pertaining to King John. In my novels where John makes his appearance, I have often described him as the kind of man who found it more interesting to dig tunnels than walk in a straight line on the surface.

The below are letters of John's concerning countersigns in secret embassies.
The King &c. to Robert de Vipont, greeting.
If Guido de Castellon will find you such security as we elsewhere signified to you by letter, then cause him to be liberated by this countersign: namely we commend you not to liberate him unless we should send Thomas de Burgh to you; we send you, however, in the stead of the same Thomas, our beloved and faithful Peter de Rupibus, our Treasurer of Poitou, and ye may undoubtingly credit him in this business. Witness ourself at Verneuil on the 26th day of September. By Peter de Rupibus (AD 1201).

Here's another one. Except John got in a muddle because he'd forgotten to whom he had given instructions!
The King &C. to Hubert de Burgh, his Chamberlain and Peter de Stokes &c. We command you to allow William Baudud clerk to speak with Geoffrey de Lusignan, through Thomas the clerk of our chamber, by this countersign; namely that we enjoined you, to believe nothing whatsoever, unless we should signify it to you by one of those three persons of our household whom we named to you; and we believe the same Thomas to be one of those three; and should he not be one of them, yet, nevertheless we desire that through him the aforesaid William Baudud the clerk may for the present speak to the said Geoffrey. And because we do not well recollect who those three were, inform us thereupon, that another time we may with more certainty give you our commands; for we truly wish that he may see him, and converse with him.
And if the aforesaid Geoffrey be willing to follow, in all things, the agreement made between us and the Viscount of Thouars, a transcript of which we send to you, then we will that he be released from fetters and partially put in ring-chains. Witness ourself at Chinon on the 26th August.

I'll be publishing more from the patent rolls on other Medieval Mondays since they are a mine of information about the life of King John, the political, the social and the domestic. Here's just another small glimpse. Different this time. It's a list of what was being recieved into his treasury and it's dated December 9th, so not far off our own season.
Teste 9th December at Clarendon. Know that on the Saturday next after the feast of Saint Nicholas (8thDec) in the 9th year of our reign, we received at Clarendon our great crown which came from Germany &c.

Of course we no longer know what that crown looked like or what happened to it. Bottom of the Wash? Now there's a thought!

Don't forget, my blog contest below is still open until mid-day Christmas Eve!

THE RUNNING VIXEN - Christmas Draw

2009-12-16T23:22:00.010Z

I am coming to this later than a lot of readers, but FINALLY I have received my author copies of THE RUNNING VIXEN! The course of publishing does not always run smoothly and there was a slight delay in me receiving my set of books. Anyway, they are here now, and just in time for Christmas, I have 5 copies to give away, and the first two come with a copy of THE WILD HUNT included. I will leave the draw open until mid-day Christmas Eve London time. Just leave a note on the blog if you want to be included in the draw. I will assign each request a number, put them in my Norman helmet on folded up scraps of paper and get my husband to make the draw on Xmas Eve. Obviously the winners won't receive their book until the New Year, but I'll get them sent out as soon after the festivities as I can get to an open Post Office.

THE RUNNING VIXEN is a re-issue of my second novel and belongs to the time when I was writing at the more romantic end of the historical fiction market. It's a stand alone follow up to THE WILD HUNT and is about the natural daughter of my hero from that novel the half-Welsh Heulwen (which means sunshine. I found out after I'd written the novel that my sister in law lives next door to a Welsh lady called Heulwen). It has been interesting rewriting this one as there are moments including Geoffrey of Anjou and the Empress Matilda. I am writing about the latter at the moment and both she and Geoffrey are not entirely the same now as the characters I created all those years ago. Back then I just used to start writing, never knowing where the book would take me. It was a flying by the seat of the pants approach, but it seemed to work!
THE RUNNING VIXEN was published in paperback in the UK and the USA in the early 90's but sadly had a very short shelf life. This was partly due to the natural vagaries of the industry at the time and partly due to the death of publishing mogul Robert Maxwell. After his death his publishing empire was split up and there were some tough times ahead for his authors, me included. THE RUNNING VIXEN arrived and vanished faster than the time it takes for milk to become yogurt. But anyway, that's all water under the bridge and here it is now. For the chance to win a copy, just leave a note on the blog and I'll take it from there.
The third book in the series THE LEOPARD UNLEASHED is due for publication next December once I've re-edited it.

First UK cover

USA version

German book club - recognise
the cover of Lords of The
White Castle here?

From Russia with love!

2009-12-14T10:45:00.001Z

MEDIEVAL MONDAY

Today's excerpt comes from Jocelin of Brakelond's Chronicles of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds.
Jocelin was a monk there and wrote a narrative of events there between 1173 and 1202.
On the night of St. Etheldreda - 22nd June 1198, he tells us that a fire broke out in the shrine itself when part of a candle set fire to a wooden dais under which there was a storage space containing wax, linen thread and sundry items - the general impression being that it had become a kind of dump-all for the wardens of the shrine. The fire spread and calamity threatened....

'....the clock struck for Matins and the vestry master, on getting up, saw the fire, and ran as fast as he could, and beat upon the board s if someone were dead, and shouted in a loud voice that the shrine was on fire. We all rushed up, and met the incredibly fierce flames that were engulfing the whole shrine and almost reaching up to the beams of the church. Our young monks ran for water, some to the rain water tank, some to the clock, and some, with great difficulty, when they had snatched up the reliquaries, put out the flames with their hoods. When cold water was thrown on the front of the shrine, the precious stones fell down and were almost pulverised. Moreover, the nails by which the sheets of silver were held to the shrine came loose from the wood underneath, which was burnt to the thickness of my finger, and without the nails the sheets were hanging one from another. Yet the golden Majesty on the front of the shrine, with some of the stones, remained stable and intact, and was more beautiful after the fire than before, because it was solid gold.'

I was very interested the first time I read this because I hadn't realised until then, that clocks were around as early as the end of the 12thC. Somehow I'd thought it was slightly later. I was also fascinated by the detail that the monks were aroused from slumber by someone beating on a board. I'd have expected them to ring a bell, but no. The details concerning the shrine itself were interesting too.
The translation is readily available in the Oxford World Classis series.
The shrine at Bury St. Edmunds was one of the most important places of Pilgrimage in the 12th and 13th century and St.Edmund was the closest thing England had to a patron saint at the time.
My hero in The Time of Singing, Hugh Bigod, carried the banner of St. Edmund into the battle of Fornham St. Genevieve in 1173 when King Henry II's supporters defeated the Young King's rebel army.

NEW FEATURE! MEDIEVAL MONDAY

2009-12-07T22:27:00.005Z

I had started to run a small feature titled Medieval Monday at Facebook, but found that I didn't have enough room for the post on my profile. I've therefored moved it over to my blog. Basically, in between my usual blogs and every Monday, I will quote a small piece in translation from a Medieval primary source. It will be as it takes my fancy, but I hope to show the rich texture of Medieval life and how similar and different it was to our own.

My first post for this new series at my blog venue comes from the Historia Novella of William of Malmsbury, who wrote this prior to 1142. I'd written a shortened version at Facebook a couple of weeks back, but here it is with fuller flavour. It concerns men with long hair.

'In the twenty eighth year of his reign the king returned from Normandy to England. In the twenty ninth year a thing befell in England that may cause wonder to our wearers of long hair who, forgetting what they were born, enjoy transforming themselves to look like women. One of the knights in my part of the country, proud of his very luxuriant hair but alarmed by the stings of conscience, imagined in his sleep that he saw someone strangling him with his own tresses, and so, on waking up, he promptly cut off all the excess of hair. This precedent quickly made its way through England and, as a penalty just suffered is wont to influence the mind, almost all the knights had no objection to their hair being cut to a reasonable length. But this strictness did not last for long, since a year had hardly passed before all who regarded themselvs as courtiers relapsed into their old fault; they vied with women in the length of their locks and when the hair was inadequate, they fastened on a kind of wig, forgetting, or rather not knowing, the Apostle's judgement. 'If a man have long hair it is a shame unto him.'

Nothing new under the sun is there?

As I have the time, I am also adding to my sidebar the first and last sentences of my work in progress each day. It'll keep changing. First lot's tonight, but will be different tomorrow!

The Cover For To Defy a King!

2009-11-24T11:06:00.002Z

I went to London yesterday and asked my editor if it was okay to show the cover of TO DEFY A KING to the world. She said yes, so here it is. It's a PDF that I've had to open in paint and a better resolution one will be available in the not too distant future, but here's one to be going on with - and isn't it fabulous! It still says historical fiction, but it's not run of the mill headless woman/body part/ etc. It has a filmic looks and I love it to bits. The background cloth is slightly more prominent and is a kind of rich damask fabric.
Click on the image to enlarge

Empress Matilda - Some Akashic notes

2009-11-16T00:36:00.003Z

I mentioned last time that I'd be posting some snippets from my Akashic Records research on the Empress Matilda. What are the Akashic Records? Here's an explanatory piece on my website about them. http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/akashic_record.html Sometimes this method of accessing the past is known as Remote viewing.
Alison and I have been investigating the life of the Empress Matilda for about 6 months now. There is still a wealth of research to come, but here, for the curious and the interested, are a few select paragraps from the 100,000 words we've assembled so far on the subject of her life, her times, and the people surrounding her. My work in progress has a working title of LADY OF THE ENGLISH (which may change) and is going to be about Empress Matilda between 1125 and 1148. She will be sharing the stage with Henry I's queen, Adeliza of Louvain, who was also 'Lady of the English' during her time as a royal wife.

I will post more notes on another occasion. These are taken at intervals from the chronological document where I collate the weekdly episodes. We haven't got fully going on the civil war yet. The below are pieces from the earlier years and only the point on the tip of the iceberg.

Matilda as a child before she goes to marry the Emperor of Germany.

She’s like a miniature grown up. I would say she is very forceful, very aware. Not afraid, not timid, interested in everything, interested in experiences. She has a lot of life about her. She has love for her father. Her eyes go up at the right hand side when she thinks of her father. Her eyes make a little crescent and they’re just adoring. They come alight. How does she feel about her mother? Alison’s voice lowers and grows dull. ‘Bleuggh, Mummy. Mummy’s as dull as ditchhwater she thinks, and mummy smacks her with a stick, so mummy’s not favourite. She doesn’t want to be like mummy, she wants to be like daddy.

Matilda's relationship with Emperor Henry

He talks politics with her. He knows that she is interested in politics and that she is motivated by politics. So he thinks that it will make him more attractive to her. If she wants a man to be proud of, he will be that man. Mainly he thinks of her as slightly in the background in her correct position and following him around. He thinks of her as smaller than him, doing the right thing. He does appreciate her quite a lot actually. He appreciates her good sense and being able to see the right thing to do in the right circumstances and that she is sensible in her household duties. He likes that. He thinks that he’s got a genuinely good egg. He’d just like to get her a bit more aroused. Alison laughs. He’s always cogitating how to do this! I say – like the guy buying his wife the basque and the suspenders for Christmas! Yes!

So what does Matilda think about being given these sexy clothes? Alison replies that they’re not sexy, they are genuinely beautiful. I say, ‘So what does she think about being given all these gifts and clothes? She likes it. Who wouldn’t? In a shy way she appreciates him for doing it, and also because they are often things that she would never have thought of, so it enhances her life, and he has a way of thinking of these things and she would never have bothered. If she had to do those sort of things, they would have been very practically carried out, but she can see the advantage as well and feel how it holds sway in the court to look very good – so she uses it in a practical way and she is starting to have quite a soft spot for him. I wouldn’t say it’s a meeting of souls or anything, but there is a side of her that’s quite fond of him

Now go to any time before 1126 when Matilda was pregnant – if there was a time.

Alison: I feel sick. Yes, she’s puking. Yuk. She’s got all these gorgeous silk gowns on. She feels absolutely dreadful. She’s rolling on the bed. She feels horrible. Sick. She’s rolling on the bed and holding her stomach. She’s crying – not sobbing, but it’s bringing tears to her eyes it’s so bad. She’s feeling really horrible. Fast Forward. More sickness. She feels as if she’s going to retch her whole insides out. It’s made her feel so ill; she’s all pale and can’t do anything. All sunken in and weak. FFW. She’s pretty bad. She’s not being sick now, but she’s weak and ill and her tummy hurts. Every time she moves she feels as if she’s at sea and she’s going to be sea-sick, so she tends to stay very still, sitting in a chair. FFW This feels better now. She’s walking now, waddling. Quite heavy. She’s resigned to things. She often has to be helped. I can see her being helped to have a bath. I can see her putting her foot in the water. The bath tub is one of these wooden things. She’s being given a good wash and her hair piled up on her head. She’s thinking that if all pregnancy is like this, it’s a wonder she didn’t know it was as bad as this and people must have had a real conspiracy of silence about all this. FFW. More sickness again and ripples of movement, although it doesn’t feel painful this time. She’s just about unconscious; that’s why it doesn’t feel painful. She keeps going in and out of consciousness. She’s absolutely exhausted and it’s still all in there; it hasn’t come out. She’s in labour? I think so, unless she’s asleep. Yes, she’s in labour. She’s not in her body though; she’s going way, way off. It’s taking ages, FFW. There’s a lot of blood. Her back passage is really in trouble as well. Nothing’s happening. I can see the baby’s head and it’s all blue and still between her legs.

Matilda's reaction to the Emperor's death?

Alison: Grief, sadness in her abdomen, solar plexus, eyes. Crying. She’s also quite controlled in the sense that she’s static in one place. She’s sitting quite neatly and crying gently. FFW. She’s coming out from the crying. In the aftermath she’s still feeling quite gutted and delicate but she’s making the motions of carrying on in a normal way. Those around her are very sympathetic and allowing for her grief and allowing for her trying as well. Her trying? Her trying to restore normality. They feel sadness as well. This is a genuine sadness and grief that is passing. There’s not much thought going on beyond that sadness, apart from a small thought low down ‘What shall I do now?’

Description of Stephen of Blois, future King of England

Stephen has very bulbous features. He has wide, round eyes with heavy lids and heavy underneath sometimes. Mid-brown eyes that are quite dense.

Robert of Gloucester, Matilda's half brother

He’s a big, intelligent complex man. Tall, strong, flexible. Aaah, he picks Matilda up in his arms, kisses her on both cheeks. He treats her like one of the boys in lots of ways. He doesn’t alter the conversation at all for her. He says it’s good to have her back.

He seems to be tired. He’s dozing and it’s late at night. She comes into the room. She’s got her arm round a basket of stuff. She’s clearing the room, putting things in the basket. He says ‘Don’t do that right now. Sit by me.’ He makes her put the basket down. They sit together and make plans about what she wants to do with her life. He is being very attentive in a military way. Very practical. He doesn’t miss out on the emotion either. He often asks ‘How do you do that in Germany? (doesn’t say Germany but that’s what he means). He brings her out and makes her rise to the occasion and use her intelligence. He gives her his perspective on what she says as well. He doesn’t seem to be talking about himself. It’s not necessary. He’s interested in knowing about her and he’s thoughtful. His emotions and his mind work closely together. Does he think Matilda could be the next ruler of England? Maybe, with the right man at her side. It’s too early to tell yet. He certainly takes her very seriously. He’s assessing her character all the time and likes what he sees. She is straight. He trusts her. She is someone with logic and a brain. She has everything you need for any situation.

Description of Geoffrey of Anjou, Matilda's 2nd husband - on being told he is to marry Matilda.

There’s a dusty, ashy feeling in the mouth and a downturn of the lips. He’s thinking he’s getting something second-hand, used. He’s got all his youth to offer and he’s to get something second hand. He’s thinking maybe if he uses her very well she may die in childbirth because he’s heard that older women do. And then he can have someone nice. I can feel that he’s in quite a large room with his father. They’re at quite a distance. His father is nearer towards the fire and Geoffrey is looking across the room and towards the window. He’s thinking of all the luscious ladies in the village outside who would be very acceptable but he’s to have this older lump of a woman. He knows where he’s at politically. They’ve had a lot of discussion around the political side of it. But never mind, If he goes at it hard that will be the best plan of action and he’s got youth on his side, he’ll outlive her. And then, political thing satisfied, he’ll be able to have his pick. Meanwhile he’s just got to put a brave face on and be political. He is quite pleased with that because he is rather handsome and he likes posing and inspecting. He has wavy hair, quite thick lips nicely shaped. Plumpish soft cheeks. Very attractive in a cherubic sort of way. The eyes are not cherubic at all. They’re a greenish colour but they flash! And when they flash, they flash blue in the depths of the green. Very glassy, but sea-type colours.

How Brian FitzCount, supporter of Matilda, felt about her.

Alison makes a small sound. He has to look the other way actually. Because he likes her? Yes. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he doesn’t trust himself – but oh gosh, it’s terrible actually. If he got attached to her, it would be like falling down a huge mountain in darkness and he couldn’t do it to himself. So he has to keep it very light and very official. It is the loyal servant very much in love with the mistress. But this loyal servant is also extremely intelligent and also self aware and aware of his position and feelings and situation. He has real dignity.

What Queen Adeliza thinks about Matilda getting married to Geoffrey of Anjou.

Alison: She couldn’t be more pleased. She thinks it’s delightful. He’s handsome. She thinks Matilda will be very lucky. Her husband is such a clever man for thinking of the match and guiding his daughter in this way. She likes the feeling that everything’s settled. She thinks Matilda will soon get used to it. It’s hard for her to get over the grief of her first bereavement. She understands that; that is the main thing that gets in the way. So the age difference doesn’t bother her? He is very mature for his years and when he is in his twenties they will both be adults, so she can’t see a problem. She says that his seed will be young and potent, so they will be guaranteed good, healthy children. She knows it has been a problem for Matilda (as well as herself) and it makes her sad, but she wishes well to Matilda. Has she discussed the situation with Matilda re the betrothal and marriage? She can see Matilda moping. Matilda is very reluctant to talk to Adeliza. Adeliza is sad because she wants to comfort Matilda and reassure her that everything is going to be all right and she’ll have a good life. She thinks Matilda is sad because of the death of her first husband and wants to comfort her. It’s all falling on deaf ears. Adeliza wishes she could do something to change Matilda’s attitude before she goes. She dearly wishes that. She talks about it to Henry but he’s not very sympathetic. Adeliza becomes thoughtful. She doesn’t know what she can do, but she hopes that on the journey to Anjou, Matilda will have a change of heart and look forward, not back, and be looking forward to being a wife and a mother in a great household. She prays for her and wishes sincerely for her wellbeing.

She provides clothes and goods for her to take with her and help her on her journey – particularly clothing. Quality things.

David, future King of Scotland

He’s got very lively, sparkly brown eyes. He’s a very nice person, a loving person, but quite balanced and he knows the score. He knows everybody’s not nice. He’s a very able person. He knows himself well. He can turn on the charm. He’s basically a nice guy, but not a fool and not naieve.

Henry II as a toddler with his mother

I am seeing bottle shapes. They look like skittles and they are falling down. The child is crawling. It’s outdoors. They are on grass. The child is crawling towards the skittles. Matilda has told everyone to hold back a bit, not roll any more balls. She wants to see what he’ll do. He’s put one of the skittles back up on its base. He’s put a loop round it. It’s not skittles that you knock over but the sort you put a hoop over. It’s a flat hoop about an inch and a half wide. Alison laughs. Then he puts both arms in the air as if to say ‘Hooray, I’ve won!’ Aaah, Matilda is clapping him and saying ‘Well done, well done. Bravo! Bravo!’ He’s still holding a hoop while he’s in her arms and he’s waving it about and she’s praising him for being so clever. She is saying, ‘Here is the winner of the game, here is the winner! She’s holding him up higher as well. She is saying more quietly to him ‘That’s right, that’s how you win.’ Meaning? It doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you get the hoop over. She’s praising him because she wants a winner in the household. She’s making sure that everyone in the court applauds him and acknowledges his win – so she is also training them. She is saying ‘Daddy will come and explain some more things to you. Your daddy is a ferocious winner.'

The Empress arriving in England in 1139

She is breathing deeply, taking a good lungful of English grassy air. Feels good. Feels damp as well. She is sussing out the landscape for herself. There are a lot of people telling her which way she ought to go, but she’s paying no attention, she’s oblivious because she wants to make up her own mind about it. She’s spending quite a while just looking at the horizon and making sure she knows where she is and where she’s going. She wants to instil calm into her followers because they are all agitated talking at once and she doesn’t want that. She wants a bit more finesse. Now she’s taking command. They were trying to control her, but now she is gripping people and telling them what to do and which way to go and when.

Grand days out and pottles - or what I did in September and October

2009-11-01T11:17:00.014Z

In between sitting in my study working on my writing, I've been out and about over the past few weeks researching and learning a lot about all sorts of things.

As many of my blog readers know, I use the Akashic Records to get at the people I write about. http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/akashic_record.html Alison, (who accesses these records for me) and I, were invited to give a talk and demonstration at the conference of the British Society of Dowsers in Cirencester. http://www.britishdowsers.org/ We were invited for the entire weekend to Cirencester Royal Agricultural College and so as well as our own talk, were able to attend several lectures by other speakers, including one on using dowsing rods in an archaeological context and a very fascinating and disturbing one on Electro Magnetic stress - what all those wireless microwaves bouncing round your house are actually doing to your health, and how to minimise the effect. The worst offenders in the home are cordless phones and wireless internet. The information on digital baby alarm monitors was horrific. Roy Riggs, the lecturer, has a website here:http://www.royriggs.co.uk/
Alison and I gave our talk - how we came to use Alison's ability to tune into the past, what it means to us, how I work with it. We gave a short demonstration and took questions. In the audience, specifically to see us was Peter Stewart, a professor of physics who is working on the same thing as us from a scientific perspective. He uses the terminology 'Remote viewing' for what Alison is able to do and has conducted several successful experiments himself whilst engaged in obtaining the scientific data to bring to the mainstream.

Cirencester Royal Agricultural College

Home from Cirencester, it was off to Rufford Park with my re-enactment group the Conroi de Vey for a day's cooking in Sherwood Forest - beef and veg stew.

Addressing the dinner whilst a colleague spins wool.

And then the last full weekend in October it was Nottingham's famous Robin Hood Pageant, where the good, the bad and the seriously scary all unite to celebrate a broad spectrum of medieval themes under the umbrella of that most famous of outlaws. I had cooking pot duty again (which is my preference. I'm a reasonable cook and in the colder months, having charge of the cauldron means a fire and shelter from the rain). Saturday's dishes consisted of a meatball stew with mushrooms and onions for the meat eaters and a leek, onion and parsnip soup for those who had foresworn meat. As nibbles there were cheese and turnip pies, leche lumbard (a kind of fruit spread made with dates) cheeses, apples, pancakes and a smoked ham. Sunday was more of the same re the nibbles, but the hot food consisted of a vegetable and barley pottage and a lamb and apricot stew for the meat eaters (high status, but delicious!).

While there, I bought 2 tavern pottles for holding wine, dateline 13th-15thC. The mostly unglazed aspect of the pottles mean that they could be steeped in boiling water and which acts act like a thermos, so they were ideal for holding mulled wine.
The little bit of glaze on these ( replicas of Kingston on Thames ware) is purely for decoration and snob factor. Height is about the size of an upright postcard. I also bought a hunting lodge mazer - a ghastly item dating from circa 1250 onwards. It has a representation of a deer and forest trees inside the body of the cup, so that as you drink down the wine, the tableau is revealed. It's a fascinating but horrible (to modern eyes) piece of work, rather like a tacky gift from the seaside. I just had to have it for show and tell!

Another item to add to my show and tell collection was an arrow. This is typical for circa 1200. It's poplar wood with goose feather fletching, bound with linen thread and secured with rabbit skin glue. Overall length is 2 feet 10ins. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of these!
That's me done with re-enactment for a few months now. I am thinking of taking up spoon carving over the winter though...Here's Robin Wood's take on the matter with a video to click on at the left hand side http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/spoon-carving.htm Robin's site also shows what a porringer is, and you can even buy one. http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/bowls-plates.htm Philippa Gregory once said that she would never write the word porringer in one of her novels, so this is what one is (5th on the right) in case you were wondering!

Next time up - some Akashic excerpts from my Empress Matilda research.

Stirring the cauldron, courtesy of Alan Woolhouse
Credits go to Janet Walters for the photograph at the top of the blog.

Biography of John Marshal

2009-10-11T14:31:00.017Z

I am gradually adding biographies of the people I write about to my website. This is my latest one covering John Marshal. It won't be up at the website itself for a short while yet as I've to send it on to my designer and she's to arrange it all nicely! For the moment though, here it is as a blog post. Click on the photos to enlarge if you want. As usual, please excuse the mad formatting!

John Marshal: The biography

‘Qui de si mais voldreit oir

Del bon Mareschel, de Johan’

‘To you who would hear more

of the worthy John Marshal.’

(Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal, lines 120-121)

The great William Marshal had an equally great father, but his reputation does not have the burnish of his son’s. Indeed, John’s reputation has somewhat suffered at the hands of modern mindset in my opinion and from misunderstood motives. John Marshal had his flaws, he was no ‘perfect, gentle, knight,’ but neither was he a callous, treacherous robber baron, indifferent to his small son’s life. Professor David Crouch, senior authority on the Marshals in the academic community says of him. ‘John Marshal was a formidable model for his son: astute, physically powerful, an easy companion in the royal chambers, and a cool warrior in the field…he was no coarse bandit and played the great game of politics with talent and perception…John Marshal was ‘a definitive man of standing in his son’s eyes.’

John Marshal was probably born in the South West of England (most likely Wiltshire or Berkshire) around the year 1105. His father was a marshal at the court of King Henry I and we know his name was Gilbert Giffard. The appellation is a fairly common Norman one, meaning ‘chubby cheeks.’ John had a brother too, named William, who entered holy orders and had the living of the church of Cheddar in Somerset. He went on to become chancellor to the Empress Matilda. If there were any other siblings, they have not come down to us in history. We also don’t know who his mother was although one of the dubious genealogy sites online suggests that his mother was a de Venoix and for once it actually makes sense. Venoix is very close to Caen in the Calvados region of Normandy where many of William the Conqueror’s followers haled from, and there was a royal marshal called Robert de Venoix, so perhaps the families by association of work, formed a closer bond.

Gilbert the Marshal had estates provided for him to live off whilst he performed his duties at court. These included Tidworth in Wiltshire and Nettlecome in Somerset. They had estates in Devon and possessed seven and a half knights’ fees for scattered estates held of various landlords. Hamstead (now Hampstead Marshall) in Berkshire was probably a holding. There is a 13thC mention of the Marshal’s right to Hamstead and the Grange at Speen for service of the Marshal’s rod. Speen lies just outside Newbury on an area of strategically valuable high land overlooking the modern town.

The Marshal family were of the minor nobility but ambitious. They were middle ranking royal civil servants on the make. A Marshal’s duties were numerous, and since John followed his father into the position, he must have grown up learning the ropes. The word ‘Marshal’ comes from ‘Marescallus’ meaning ‘Horse slave’ and at one time they had been stable hands under the control of the Constable’s department. Although the office rose from these humble beginnings, the marshal’s work was much concerned with horses and transport and keeping order. The Marshals had their own department at court and there were several of them, although with a ‘Master Marshal’ in charge of all. This was a somewhat fluid position when John was growing up and there was a certain amount of jockeying for position within the ranks.

The Marshal’s duties included seeing that the stables were properly run and supplied and providing harness and mounts for those in need of them. The job also involved dealing with the kennels and the mews. It was the marshal’s task to provide carts for transport when the court was on the move. He had to find lodging for the household and keep order at the court. As a symbol of the latter office, he carried the Marshal’s Rod. He had to ensure that the ‘verge’ was observed. A verge was a personal space between the king and any supplicant. Take a step too far and the Marshal’s rod would make sure you knew you had transgressed! The Marshal was in charge of the ushers who saw to it that only desireables got in to see the king. They were the club bouncers of their day so to speak – and I am sure sometimes not above taking bribes. Another aspect of the job was dealing with the 'ladies of the night' who serviced the court. The Marshal had to keep the working girls in line and regulate their activities. There were fines for unruly behaviour, and one suspects that this is another area where backhanders and insider dealing went on.

The Marshal also had to sit at the exchequer. It was his task to take responsibility for anyone who couldn’t pay their debts there, and his department maintained the debtor’s prison. Being in there would cost a sheriff or a bailiff half a mark for every night they were in custody. On top of this he kept the tallies of all the wages owed to the King’s troops when in the field and saw that they were paid, for which he was entitled to a portion of that wage bill. Perks of the job included being entitled to every black and white horse taken on a battle campaign.

Each time a noble’s son was knighted at court, the marshal was entitled to a payment of a palfrey or a saddle. His daily wage was two shillings a day and he was entitled to bread, wine and candles whilst working at court. There were also ‘backhander’ perks from barons higher up the food chain who thought that a bit of glad-handing in the form of grants of land was useful in order to keep the king’s marshal sweet.

When John was in his mid twenties, he and his father had to fight for their right to be the Master Marshals of the court. Two of the other Marshals, Robert de Venoix and William de Hastings were claiming the post but John and his father were successful in their petition, which probably the form of a trial by combat. (Sidney Painter. William Marshal. Knight errant, Regent and Baron of England).John’s father died around 1129 or 1130 and John inherited his position at court, although he had to pay forty marks for the privilege. This included the office of ‘avener’ or provider of provender. To inherit his lands, he had to pay the death duty of £22 13s and 4d. Some time over the next few years, he married an heiress of modest worth with lands adjoining his own Wiltshire and Berkshire interests. She was called Aline Pipard and her main estate was at Clyffe Pypard in Wiltshire.

http://www.british-history.ac.ukreport.aspx?compid=66537#s2

She bore John two sons – Walter and Gilbert. In 1135 King Henry died and the country was thrown into turmoil as two claimants jostled for the crown – Henry’s daughter Matilda, and her cousin, Stephen. Initially, John swore fealty to Stephen and was granted the castles of Ludgershall and town and castle of Marlborough in Wiltshire. Stephen’s generosity gave John a strong power base and made him formidable in the Kennet Valley and North East Wiltshire.

Ruins of Ludgershall Castle

Sheep on the Marlborough Downs near

Rockley, a manor that John Marshal

gave to the Templars.

In 1139, the Empress came to England and made her bid to take the crown that she claimed Stephen had usurped. For whatever reason, Stephen suspected John Marshal of duplicity and besieged him at Marlborough. My personal opinion is that John had fallen foul of the factions at court who thought he had been receiving too many favours, and felt that he should be put in his place. He had no strong affinities at Stephen’s court and a man isolated was a man who could be picked off and brought down. I think John jumped before he was pushed (off the mortal coil). Speculation aside, what is known is that John swore for the Empress and adhered to her cause for the rest of the Civil War. His brother William joined her entourage as her chancellor.

Unfortunately for John, the Empress’s attempt to regain the throne was not plain sailing and to cut a long story short, she lost her advantage and while besieging the Bishop of Winchester at his palace of Wolvesely, she was almost captured. John was a few miles out of Winchester, dealing with a supply problem, when he heard that the troops of William D’Ypres, a Flemish mercenary in the pay of Stephen’s queen, were coming down the Andover road straight for him. If D’Ypres managed to break through, John knew that Winchester would be encircled and the Empress captured. John made his stand at Wherwell where there was a ford over the river Teste.

The River Teste at Wherwell Today

He fought for as long as he could, but with D’Ypres’ numbers too great to withstand, he retreated into the nunnery and barricaded himself in. D’Ypres knew he couldn’t leave a man like John Marshal to create mayhem in his rear, so he ordered the nunnery to be burned along with the men inside it. There was chaos. Some of the troops fled the burning church only to meet their end on the edges of the mercenary’s swords. John barricaded himself in the tower with another knight and refused to come out. When his companion feared for their lives and wanted to surrender, John told him that he would kill him with his own hands if he mentioned that word again. They stayed put, but John paid the price when molten lead from the church roof landed on his face and burned out his eye. Once D’Ypres’ force had moved on, John staggered from the church with his companion, and the two of them made their way to safety. This must have been something of a feat because that safety was twenty five miles away at Marlborough; they were on foot, and John had suffered a terrible facial injury. Nevertheless, they made it and once recovered, John set out to recoup and regroup.

Houses in Wherwell village today

John’s most powerful neighbour in the region was Walter of Salisbury, hereditary sheriff of Salisbury (nowadays called Old Sarum). When Walter died, his son William replaced him, but died not long after the battle of Wilton in 1143. The second son, Patrick became lord of Salisbury and he supported Stephen. Looking to curtail his forceful neighbour in the Kennet valley, Patrick took up arms against John. John ably defended himself, although he had fewer resources than Patrick, and even if often on the back foot, it was never defeat. Eventually Robert Earl of Gloucester stepped between the men. He offered Patrick an earldom if he would come over to the Empress and he suggested that John divorce his wife and marry Patrick’s sister to make peace between them. The men agreed and sometime between 1144 and 1145, John Marshal annulled his marriage to Aline and took Sybilla FitzWalter to wife. Aline was remarried to Gloucester’s uncle, a widower called Philip de Gay or de Gai. On the surface, John’s action may seem harsh, but that’s to judge him by the standards of our day, not his. He changed a ‘you will lose’ situation into a ‘you might win’ one by this strategy, and certainly stabilised life for himself and his dependents. Had he not agreed to the deal, Patrick of Salisbury would have eventually taken him down. The only road for John would have been disinheritance or death. Neither scenario would have secured the future for his wife and his boys. By cutting the deal, he ensured that he held onto his life and retained his lands. His wife was not disparaged but honourably given elsewhere and his sons retained their right to inherit his lands.

John and Sybilla swiftly began a second family. It’s perhaps telling that he only had two sons by his first wife in the course of fifteen years and six (and perhaps seven) offspring with Sybilla over the same period. The first was born within a year of the marriage and christened John for his father. The second, destined for fame and legend was William, born in either 1146 or 1147. We know for certain there were two daughters, Sybilla and Marguerite, and two more sons, Ancel and Henry. Henry went on to become bishop of Exeter and was probably born after Henry II had gained the throne. Ancel became a household knight in the service of his cousin, Rotrou, Count of Perche. During this time when his children were being born and growing up, John was very much around as a role model.

The fighting continued and the Empress’s position grew more desperate as her adherents either gave up or died. She lost her stalwart supporter Miles of Gloucester when he was accidentally shot by one of his own men whilst out hunting. Her half-brother Robert of Gloucester died, and her stalwart supporter Brian FitzCount retired to a monastery. The Empress herself departed England in 1148 and did not return, but her son Henry was waiting in the wings and growing up fast.

For John Marshal the period covered by the late 1140’s up to 1153 was a continuing dark time when he was involved in a war of slow grinding attrition. His lands were burned and ravaged by Eustace, the son of King Stephen and the best that John could manage was to grit his teeth and endure – which he did. He was known as a man of great cunning, a builder of castles ‘designed with wondrous skill’ and a man well able to attract men to his banner. Although a generous benefactor to the Church, he was still vilified by certain bishops and clergy. He was excommunicated for raiding church lands and forcing the church to answer in his secular court. He also made the church’s tenants build his castles for him, which did not go down well. ‘He built castles designed with wondrous skill, in the places that best suited him; the lands and possessions of the churches he brought under his own lordship, driving out the owners whatever order they might belong to.’ (Gesta Stephani). John seems to have taken the excommunication stoically and to have treated it as a hazard of the job so to speak.

John’s relationship with the Church was not all bad-feeling and acrimony. He was in fact a generous patron. He donated his house and lands in Winchester on Jewry Street to Troarn Abbey in 1148 He gave lands at his manor of Rockley to the Templars and he was a benefactor of Bradenstoke Priory where he was eventually to be buried.

3D map of Winchester. The tiny black arrow

on the left indicates the site of John

Marshal's house that he gave to Troarn

Abbey. Click to enlarge

At some point in the early 1150’s John built a castle at Newbury. The whereabouts of this place is now unknown and there has been much speculation as to where it was. As far as I’m concerned, the answer is staring everyone in the face. It’s at Speen.

http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2008/10/castles-in-ether-finding-newbury-castle.html

Since that article was written, some archaeological dowsing work has taken place at the site and bears out the above details so far. Also it turns out that the Bishop of Salisbury had a residence on this site in the 12thC. This ties in with the Gesta Stephani’s comment above ‘He built castles designed with wondrous skill, in the places that best suited him; the lands and possessions of the churches he brought under his own lordship, driving out the owners whatever order they might belong to.’

There's also this article on my blog. http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2009/03/return-of-castles-in-ether.html

Be that as it may, John fortified a position in the Newbury area and held it for the Empress. In the summer of 1152 King Stephen besieged it on his way to try and take Wallingford. The first assault battered John’s troops badly but they didn’t give in. Stephen didn’t want to sit down to besiege it. I suspect he knew how hard John Marshal could stand and that he would sell the castle very dearly. John in his turn, knew he was in a dire situation and couldn’t hold out for much longer. He didn’t have the men and supplies necessary. He asked Stephen for time to gain honourable permission from the Empress to surrender the castle. Stephen agreed, but told John that he must provide hostages and pledges for his good word. John agreed to do so and handed over as one of them, his small son William, who would have been around five or six years old.

With the time he had been given, John set about stuffing his keep to the rafters with men and supplies. Why did he do this when he could have yielded? I suspect it was because he was buying time for Wallingford and for Henry FitzEmpress. Each day that he stood, was a day gained for the Angevin cause. John Marshal hadn’t backed down at Wherwell, where his stand had allowed the Empress to escape. He hadn’t backed down before the superior strength of Patrick of Salisbury, and he wasn’t going to back down now, even if it meant gambling with his son’s life.

Stephen duly came on the appointed day to demand the surrender of the castle and John refused him and told him he would fight. When threatened with the execution of little William by hanging, John uttered those by now infamous words. ‘Il dist ken e li chaleit de l’enfant, quer encore aveit les enclumes e les marteals dunt forgereit de plus beals.’ ‘He said that he did not care about the child, since he still had the anvils and hammers to produce even finer ones.’

Callous father? Cool brinkman gambling with his son’s life? A man caught between a rock and a hard place and doing what he must to safeguard others? I leave that for readers of A Place Beyond Courage to decide. I will say that there is far more going on under the surface than a cursory glance informs and that it is vital for anyone studying this incident to read it through the lens of medieval mindset. It’s not what’s on top that matters here, but what’s underneath. Stephen could not bring himself to hang the boy, although for a time William was the plaything victim of the royal camp as he was also threatened with being flung from a catapult and squashed whilst strapped to a hurdle intended to attack the castle gate. This is often not mentioned in the various secondary source narratives concerning the incident. From what I have garnered elsewhere, young squires and captive sons were frequently subjected to such torments – rather like the traditional ‘punishment details’ for youths at public school.

Stephen took William into his household and John Marshal’s son seems to have settled well in his new life. He was happy and confident enough despite his ordeal to want to play a game with King Stephen, involving jousting with plaintain leaves. One wonders how such a chirpy, confident, secure little boy could have been born of such supposed parental indifference. A servant was sent to keep an eye on William, ‘because his family had great fears that he would come to harm’ (Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal) but was caught in the act and chased away.

John’s castle at Newbury eventually fell to Stephen, but John had managed to buy that extra time for Wallingford. Stephen moved up to invest the latter and Henry came from Normandy to oppose him. Eventually a treaty was agreed whereby Stephen would keep the throne in his lifetime and Henry would inherit it on his death. Althought there were a few more skirmishes, the long civil war was in essence over.

Stephen died in 1154 and Henry FitzEmpress, at the age of twenty one, became King of England. Life slowly settled down. It is likely that John’s final son Henry was born at this time and named for the new power in the country. Henry set about restoring order. All adulterine castles were to be destroyed, and I suspect this is what happened to Newbury. Henry also took several castles back into his own power, including Marlborough. John was allowed to keep the manors of Wexcombe and Cherhill that Stephen had granted him, but only for his lifetime; it was not to be a hereditary right. John continued to serve Henry as his master marshal, but the King had his own new men to promote and John was of the ‘old regime’. Many of the gains made in the period of the war were lost, but John had still played his hand well and while his fortunes diminished, he nevertheless had created a fine platform from which his offspring could leap to make their own achievements. William did so in spectacular fashion, going on to become Earl of Pembroke and regent of England. Henry, as aforementioned, was to become bishop of Exeter. More distant descendants of John Marshal include Robert the Bruce, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, George Washington and Winston Churchill.

John died in 1165, around the age of 60, which is as much as we know about his demise, although it may be telling that he made a grant to Bradenstoke Priory of half of the township of Easton, in the presence of his wife, two of earl Patrick’s chaplains, his chamberlain Osbert and Ralph the Physician. Was the physician there because he just happened to be handy and a man of learning, or was he there because of medical difficulties?

John was buried at Bradenstoke Priory, the foundation of his marital relatives the Earls of Salisbury. His tomb and Sybilla’s have now been lost, but their bones still rest somewhere beneath the grass and tumbled stones of the ruins.

http://www.burtonbradstock.org.uk/History/Bradenstoke%20Priory_files/Bradenstoke%20Priory.htm

I can say without a doubt and from personal experience, that their spirits live on and John’s is a particularly vibrant one!

Potterings At Pickering

2009-10-05T14:02:00.017Z

First of all, my apologies if I haven't been feeding through all of your comments. After my (insert rude words) e-mail crashed, I lost the notifications of postings too, and then I was away, and it all went to hell in a handcart. I am hoping that normal service will now be resumed (whatever normal is!) Also please bear with the odd formatting. It looks fine in draft, but in my browser there are some odd gaps between the photos. Life would be boring if everything ran to plan I guess!

Okay:
Sorry for the title. I couldn't resist it following on from Conquest at Kenilworth!
Actually it's more than just Potterings at Pickering. I was away in early September combining a family break with a spot of retrospective ground research in Yorkshire for To Defy A King. As many of you know, To Defy A King is about William Marshal's eldest daughter Mahelt and her marriage to Hugh Bigod, heir to the Earldom of Norfolk. It's a follow on from The Time of Singing, but it is also very much a stand alone novel. It ties in with The Scarlet Lion too and includes details of which I wasn't aware at the time of writing TSL.
Just click on the photos if you want to enlarge any.
The Bigod family in Roger II's and Hugh's day had estates in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Yorkshire. They had 60 villages in the latter shire. The main holding of the family in Yorkshire which was held personally in demesne, was Settrington. It was held from the Crown for the service of nine knights and came into the Bigod family through marriage in the early part of the 12th Century. Hugh Bigod II was given Settrington by his father Roger in 1199. Perhaps so that the 17 year old youth could have an income of his own, perhaps to teach him the responsibility of governance, and perhaps to help out with the administration - or maybe all three.
Having set scenes at Settrington, I wanted to visit and pay my respects and walk the landscape to make sure I hadn't made any terrible mistakes. Whenever I stand on a piece of ground, I often think of one of those speeded up time capture films. This ground, this space even, has always been there in whatever form, and we just occupy it for a small moment in time. Even so we leave a footprint. So I'm aware that I am perhaps standing where Hugh and Mahelt once stood, and before them, who knows, a Roman, a Celt, a tree, a dinosaur!
Anyway, we spent a glorious afternoon in Settrington, walking the dog, taking photographs and enjoying the quiet beauty of a Yorkshire Dales village. The manor was held by lords of the Bigod name until the sixteenth century when they were disastrously involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace revolt against Henry VIII and effectively lost their lands. Francis Bigod was hung, drawn and quartered for his part in the rebellion. He was just 29 years old. However, genetically they continued to survive down the female line and numerous families in the region have Bigod ancestry in their blood.

A rather fine apple tree

Gates to Settrington House and as
close as I was going to get to
Hugh and Mahelt when in Settrington.

We were staying self-catering in the village of Nawton between Helmsley and Pickering, and this too was a Bigod holding, although not in demesne as their tenants were the Counts of Aumale for the service of four and a half knights.

Stubble field at Nawton, once a
Bigod holding.

We visited Pickering Castle, which is an excellent example of a motte and bailey construction.
The dog (11) loved it and romped all over the place like a puppy.

Artists Impression of Pickering Castle
in the 14thC

view of stormy skies from the top of the
castle

Riveaulx Abbey was also on the agenda as it was virtually next door to where we were staying and even in its ruined state gave a strong feel for the power of the Cistercian order of monks who founded it and lived and prayed there - 650 of them in the 1160's from early beginnings of just 12.

Sunlight slanting down on the abbey ruins

medieval floor tiles

Taz goes exploring.

Riveaulx Moor. The North Yorkshire
Moors are the largest expanse of
heather moorland in England.
There you see, the Scots don't have a
monopoly on the heather!
Reminds of the Alfred Noyes poem The Highwayman. 'The road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor.'

We also visited Middleham Castle. Not because of Richard III I have to admit, but because Hugh Bigod's brother in law, Ranulf, was once lord of this keep. The dog, who had loved Pickering, and pottered happily around Riveaux, was having none of Middleham and dragged my husband out at a rate of knots the moment we arrived at the West Range.
It was rather cold and dark there, but it was a warm day for September and I was quite happy about the chill air. the dog however, stayed outside and could not be persuaded to venture back in. He planted his bottom on the ground and refused to budge.
Most of the buildings were of a later date than 'my' Ranulf's, but still, it was interesting to see where he and his wife Marie Bigod had once lived - not to mention Richard III :-)

A very odd and somehow creepy statue
of Richard III at Middleham. behind him, just round the corner to the left is the West Range which Taz decided was seriously scary.

Can we go now please?

Houses in Middleham village

While on our Yorkshire week we went from Pickering to Whitby via steam train. This was courtesy of Santa and Holly Claus - and I would like to say thank you very much to readers Jean and Jim Brooks for being so hospitable and kind! Here they are in their Christmas personas aboard the Santa train!

Everyone say "aaarrrrrhhh!"
"Pirate" ship sailing out of Whitby harbour

I have also to thank Jean and Jim for recommending Lord Stone's Cafe at Chop Gate. If anyone is walking or hiking in that area, then do visit. It's a terrific tea shop and cafe very close to the Cleveland Way and some of the most spectacular views in England - the kind that make your eyes sting with emotion because they are so beautiful and so restorative for the spirit (even if they knacker your knees from the climb!). http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/trail.asp?PageId=34 Did Hugh and Mahelt ever see the view from here? I like to think they did.

Just breathtaking

Conquest at Kenilworth Castle

2009-09-16T00:48:00.014Z

It's been a few weeks since I blogged, but I hope to get up and running again now (as you'll all have read, I've had some disruption with e-mails too, but the new address is on the right sidebar and I'll keep it there for a while).
I'm back from a research break/holiday in Yorkshire that I'll be blogging about soon, but first up I thought I'd ease myself back into blogging by posting about a recent re-enactment event at Kenilworth Castle for English Heritage. No pictures of me (probably a relief :-) ) because I was behind the camera taking the photographs.
As I often mention, I'm a member of Regia Anglorum re-enactment society www.regia.org Sometimes though, I go to play with friends in other societies, and this was one of those occasions when I went along as a guest member of Conquest, who do Norman, Angevin and Plantagenet Living History. http://www.angevin.org/
I love attending these events because I always find out things I didn't know.
Here's a picture gallery of show and tell - enjoy! You can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.

Talking to medieval surgeon Toby Whittey, I was fascinated to learn about the thread used as sutures for stitching
up wounds. Silk sometimes, but if that wasn't available, then horse-tail hair was the usual alternative, preferably from a stallion as apparently a stallion produces finer tail hair than a mare! Toby's stitching kit also included staples to hold the wound together while it was stitched, and goose feathers. The shafts of the goose feathers are used in cases where the doughty surgeon has to removed a barbed arrow from a wound. The quills are slipped onto the tines of the barb, thus minimising the damage as the arrow head is withdrawn.
Toby was also practising his trepanning skills with a tool copied from a 12thc treatise on medieval surgery - essential for men in the field struck on the skull and suffering from compression. It would be their one (slim) chance of survival.

Tony's stichery kit complete
with horsehair suture.
Click to enlarge! Apparently
modern gynaecological needles
aren't much smaller - yikes!

A spot of trepanning practice

More tools of the trade. Love the
dried frog in the foreground!

Tony's display and demonstration were only part of the day's delights. There was also a wise woman displaying her crafts, a woodturner and a weaver. Authentic food was provided on both days, being assorted pies on day one, and a stuffed salmon baked in a salt crust on day two. Various nibbles such as gingerbread, cheese and seasonal fruits were also on the menu.

Something to drink... (would have been alcoholic back in the day, but modern men who are going on the battlefield are not permitted intoxicating brews for health and safety reasons!).

Pies and a plum and apple compote from the visitor's tent.

Fishy goings on. The Salmon awaits his salt crust cover.

Weaving on a handloom. The end result
is going to be a tunic.
Click to enlarge

'Tigwald', busy at his wood turning with
the walls of Kenilworth Castle in
backdrop.

Tigwald's rather spiffy brooch. I love
seeing replica details like this in 3D
because the touch and feel add that
extra dimension when it comes to
the writing. Click on photo to enlarge.

A board game

A deacon's outfit.

A baron's private devotional in his campaign tent.

Preparing for battle. Where are the squires
when you need them? Probably at the
food tent!

Guard duty late 12thC style

Bring on the archers - standard archer
and crossbowman. The latter apparently
were much feared because it didn't take
years of training. Half an hour and anyone
could kill a king - and one did at Chalus
Chabrol. The sniper weapon of the 12th
and 13thC

Fearsome posing in well-fought kit

New e-mail account.

2009-09-12T15:15:00.003Z

Hello everyone.

I returned from holiday to find my e-mail account with BT had very messily died in my absence. Not being inclined (after two TRULY TERRIBLE experiences with BT's non UK call centres) to get them to fix things this time around I have done what needed doing long ago, and transferred elsewhere. This does mean though that for the past week I have been unable to read any incoming e-mails to my Elizabeth Chadwick account, and also that until I get things moved over, I won't be able to read incoming e-mails on my old account.
If anyone does want to get in touch with me, my new account address as of today (Saturday 12th September 2009) is elizabethchadwick@live.co.uk So sorry for any inconvenience, but believe me, this is sooooo much easier than going through the torturous circular rigmarole of a BT overseas call centre experience (shudder).

Once I've got my e-mail addy changed throughout Internet land, I'll be posting about a day out with Conquest and Regia Anglorum at Kenilworth Castle and then posting about my research visit to Yorkshire.

Anon and bear with me.
Elizabeth

INTERVIEW WITH SHARON KAY PENMAN

2009-08-23T10:14:00.020Z

I have something rather special for everyone this time around - an interview with my good friend and fellow author Sharon Kay Penman. She has been very generous and taken time out of her busy writing schedule to answer a few questions.
I have loved all of Sharon's books since first becoming hooked on her first novel The Sunne in Splendour - my edition is Macmillan 1983 - see foot of this post. At the time I was just an avid reader, not an author myself and I was blown away by this fabulous historical novel about Richard III, his family, life and times. Sharon has continued to hit it out of the park with every novel she writes, whether they be mysteries or or her richly detailed historical novels set in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, particularly featuring the 'Devil's Brood' of Angevin royalty. There's no one better.
So here, without further ado, Sharon Kay Penman welcome.

Q. I really enjoyed Devil’s Brood. I am always amazed at how you managed to keep so many threads spinning at once and I think you have a particular skill for explaining the politics of the period in a thoroughly readable manner. Do you keep spreadsheets or charts of who was related to who and what political game plans were, or is it all stored in your head?

A. I keep it all stored in my head; is that weird or what? I make extensive notes on various topics like medieval sexuality or ships or Cyprus—all subjects of heavy-duty research now for Lionheart. But I seem to have no trouble remembering the shifting political alliances or the behind-the scenes double-dealing. Maybe I was a Borgia in a past life?

Q. There are some spine tingling scenes in Devil’s Brood. The one in Canterbury Cathedral with Henry doing penance for Becket’s death will stay with me for a long, long time. Do you know that you’ve written a particularly memorable scene at the time or does it take a while/other opinions before it sinks in?

A. Usually I know if a scene is going to work. When Henry did penance at Becket’s tomb, I just sensed that it was going the way that I’d hoped. I was surprised, though, that it came so easily; I’d expected to have to suffer more! Another dramatic scene that I was satisfied with was Simon de Montfort’s death scene in Falls the Shadow. But sometimes a scene will resonate with my readers in ways I didn’t expect. The Here Be Dragons scene that readers mention most is the one in which Joanna burned Llewelyn’s bed, and I didn’t see that one coming.

Q Henry II’s son Geoffrey seems to have been a real hit with the readers in Devil’s Brood. I get the feeling you enjoyed writing about him and his relationship with Constance. There doesn’t seem to be a lot known about Geoffrey – or am I wrong? How did you find out about him, and did you have more leeway in creating his character and scenes than you did with Henry and Eleanor?

A. Your writer’s instinct is right on target here. I have always found Geoffrey to be the most intriguing of the brothers. But he has been overshadowed by his more celebrated brothers, Richard and John, and historians rarely bothered to consider his motivations. Fortunately for me, a Breton historian named Judith Everard finally made up for those years of neglect. I don’t think I could have written Devil’s Brood had she not written Brittany and the Angevins first. I certainly would not have been able to flesh out Geoffrey’s portrayal without her input, and he would have remained an enigma. She was able to reveal the reasons behind Geoffrey’s actions, and this enabled me to create a plausible, three-dimensional character, not the one described by a biographer of Richard as motivated by “mindless malice.”

Q. A member of a Penman fan e-list where I participate asked the following question when she heard I was going to be interviewing you: How could such a smart, charismatic leader have been so utterly clueless in interpersonal relationships? Did he have the kind of ego that prevented him from recognizing that anyone could have a viewpoint different from his?

A. I think Henry was the ultimate control freak, unable to delegate any real authority to his sons or to Eleanor. And he paid a high price for that sort of pride. I also think he was deeply wounded by the rebellion of 1173, and those wounds never fully healed. He forgave his sons, but he no longer trusted them, and that set him on a road which led to his terrible, tragic death at Chinon.

Q. Your next project is Richard The Lionheart, and then the story of Balien of Ibelin – the true story, not the Kingdom of Heaven version. I’m really looking forward to both. Are you finding it any different working to a tighter deadline than with some of your earlier books?

A. Oh, yes! I have always had three years to do one of my historical novels, but I only have two years for Lionheart, so I am having to fight off periodic panic attacks.

Q. Is Richard proving to be surprising in any way, or is he as you imagined so far?

A. A total surprise in many ways. When I wrote Here Be Dragons more than twenty years ago, I did not have a particularly high opinion of Richard, accepting the then popular view of him as a brilliant but bloodthirsty soldier, an ungrateful son, and a careless king. Since he was only a minor character in Dragons, I did not do extensive research about him. It was not until I was writing Time and Chance and then Devil’s Brood that my research revealed a different man. He was indeed a brilliant battle commander, but I was fascinated to discover that, while he was utterly reckless when it came to his own safety, he was very conservative when it came to the lives of his men. Henry will always be one of my favorite historical figures, but I came to see that his sons had some legitimate grievances, particularly Geoffrey and Richard. So scratch the ungrateful son charge. And research in the past twenty years has given us a more nuanced and favorable view of Richard the king. He was a good judge of other men, had a real flair for multi-tasking and strategic thinking, and his father’s sardonic sense of humor. Twenty years ago, I saw him as arrogant and ruthless, and I was right—he was. But he was a much more complicated man than I’d originally thought. I think it is only fair to judge historical figures by the standards of their time, and to medieval eyes, Richard was what they most admired, a “man of prowess.”

Q. If you were going to attend a great banquet set in the time of Henry II, but Henry and Eleanor weren’t there, who would you choose to be sat either side of you?

A. Geoffrey, most definitely. And Richard, to see if my portrayal of him in Lionheart is on-target. I wouldn’t mind getting to meet his queen, Berengaria, either. And John, of course, and…well, we’d soon have a full house.

Q. Did you ever do any fiction writing before you wrote Sunne in Splendor? When was the first time you actually wrote anything down?

A. Sunne was my first novel. I’d written stories as a child, and I’d written a “novel” in my teens about young love that mercifully later disappeared.

Q. I know you’ve said you craft each chapter and polish it before you move on. Do you ever have to go back and rewrite once you have finished the book, either because by the time you’ve got the whole in your hand a certain early piece doesn’t feel quite right, or because research you’ve done along the way necessitates a change?

A. I’ve gone back to do some minor tinkering, but I’ve never done a major rewrite. It would be wonderful, though, to be able to go back in time and correct mistakes that subsequently came to light—like my little time-traveling grey squirrel in Sunne. (I know what you mean! I have a few errors of dateline or detail that I would love to be able to correct in my earlier work!)

QWhat is a typical working day? Suppose I became a fly on your wall on a typical weekday when you got up and buzzed off when you put the light out. How would I see your day panning out?

A. I don’t keep set hours as some writers do. So if I’m working on a chapter and it is going well, I am likely to spend hours at my computer, coming up for air occasionally and to feed or walk the dogs. And since I’m an owl, not a lark, I’m likely to be writing well into the night.

Q. Do you take a day off in the week.

A. No. Spoken like a true workaholic, I know. But not a day passes when I’m not either writing or researching or thinking about plot developments.

Q. Is there anything that inspires your muse? I ask this because I listen to music away from my PC, and it resonates in my subconscious for when I’m ready to write at the PC. I wondered if there’s anything that stirs your creative juices.

A. I have a number of wonderful photographs of North Wales, taken by a brilliant Welsh photographer friend, Dave O’Shea, and I think they help to stir the “creative juices.”

Q. From talking to you by e-mail, you seem to have an excellent library of research books. Do you know how many you have? Where do you get them from? (I know we both know about Oxbow and Abe etc but not sure if readers do).

A. Yes, I have an extensive library by now, several thousand or more. I used to make day-long trips to the University of Pennsylvania about fifty miles away, for they have a wonderful medieval library. But I’ve not had to do that for years. In the old pre-internet days, I would buy my books from second-hand bookshops in the U.K. I would arrive with a wish list, and snatch up anything that might be remotely useful to me in the distant future. Then I’d have the fun of packing them up and lugging them to the Royal Post Office. But the internet has changed all that, of course. I find many of my books on ABE, both the English and French websites. The Medieval Bookshop is one of my favorites. Amazon’s mother ship and its sites for England and France are also great sources. Life is so much easier for writers now, isn’t it? I wanted to find a collection of miracles supposedly performed at Becket’s tomb, written by one of the monks at Christchurch priory. I knew it had been translated in the 19^th century, so I set out to find it. And eventually I did—in Japan. So an American author bought a book from a Tokyo book-seller that was a translation by a Victorian historian of a medieval monk’s work! And the result was the scene in Devil’s Brood where Henry is doing penance at Becket’s tomb while being kept company by a garrulous monk who just won’t shut up and who happens to be the author of that collection of miracles.

Q. You have mentioned favourite research books before that readers might like, such as Robert Bartlett’s England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings and David Crouch’s History of William Marshal. Do you have any quirky favourites? I confess that my own quirky favourite is Malcolm Jones’ The secret Middle Ages with all its strange folk art objects (such as the erotic biscuit moulds!) Can you give one that you’ve found fun that’s a bit left field?

A. I don’t know if it is quirky or not, but I really like Daily Life in the Twelfth Century (That's one of my favourites too!)

Q A question from medieval historian Gillian Polack who's a member of the Penmanreview forum: I’m really curious to know if Sharon finds it easier/harder/different to talk about the Middle Ages with Medievalists (the ones who don’t write fiction) now than it was when her first book came out?

A. An interesting question. I’ve lurked on Mediev-l for years, but I don’t travel in academic circles. I know I am always very flattered when professors write and tell me they enjoy my books, trust my research, or recommend my novels to their students.

Q From Tamara Mazzei(owner of Penmanreview and publisher of Brian Wainwright)If I were to ask Sharon a question, I think it would be whether she felt constrained by the known history of Eleanor, Henry and Thomas Becket. IMO, I think that's one thing that makes it hard to write about those particular characters -- because so much has already been written about them, in their own times and later --and in fiction and nonfiction. That's a lot of expections to have to plow through, even if one is able to ignore most of them.Looking back over all the different books she's written, HBD is still myfavorite, and I suspect at least part of the reason for that is because,with the exception of some of the political events and the parts concerningJohn, she had fewer constraints because there was less documented historysurrounding Johanna and her everyday life with Llewelyn -- and it gave hermore latitude to create a self-contained story. Perhaps I am wrong on that,but I would be curious to know Sharon's take on it.

A.I think I might feel that way about the Tudors, Tamara. So much has been written about Elizabeth Tudor, etc, that I think it would be challenging to find ground that hadn’t already been thoroughly ploughed. We don’t know as much about Eleanor as we do about Henry or their sons, lacking the personal anecdotes about her that the chroniclers passed on about her husband and sons. Women, even women like Eleanor, too often slipped through history’s cracks.

I think one reason Here Be Dragons is such a favorite with my readers is because it was unknown territory. Most readers—even in Wales—were not familiar with Llewelyn’s history, and so I was able to surprise them. It probably helped, too, that Dragons has such a compelling and true love story. And like Devil’s Brood, Dragons is the story of family entanglements and the pain we bring upon ourselves—Joanna and her father, Llewelyn and his estranged son Gruffydd. I think we can all identify with family vicissitudes and conflict, even if ours are not played out on such a grand stage.

It doesn’t seem right to be discussing the MA without mentioning a writer you publish, Tamara—Brian Wainwright. He has written an excellent historical novel about Constance of York, called Within the Fetterlock, and a hysterical spoof set in the time of the Yorkists called The Adventures of Alianore Audley.

Lastly, I’d like to thank you, Elizabeth, for inviting me to visit with you and to give me a forum to to speak to your readers about the Middle Ages, a subject dear to both our hearts.

You're very welcome Sharon. I have so enjoyed reading your answers and I'm sure visitors to the blog will too! Apologies for some slightly strange formatting. Blogger does not always take kindly to cut and paste!

My first ever venture into reading one of Sharon's novels!

Starter for Twenty - Medieval novels from my collection

2009-07-30T21:39:00.007Z

Having recently finished my latest novel and having handed it in, I got round to a bit of tidying around and came to perusing my keeper bookshelf. This gave me the idea for a post listing twenty medieval historical novels that live there. All are friends I wouldn't dream of parting with. I haven't listed them in order of preference - just in order of scanning, and they are only representative, but here they are with brief notes. A selection of the well-worn and the slightly newer that have taken me on far-ranging adventures, educated me, and kept me sane. (I know the latter is debatable, but you know what I mean)!

1.

I was very tempted to put all of Sharon Kay Penman's novels on my list, just as I was tempted to put all my Dunnet's or Gellis' but that would have left room for nothing else. So I've put up my 'read most times' Penman as a representative of the rest. Sharon Penman has an unsurpassed talent for bringing the Middle Ages to life and for explaining the complex politics in a thoroughly readable way that leaves you wanting more. Her research is deep and her characters are of their time, but people you can still recognise. SKP is the true royalty when it comes to writing historical fiction set in the medieval period.

2.

Part 2 of a trilogy, but I read this first and it stands alone. The story of Margaret Kendall, wealthy merchant's widow, who is forced into marriage with Gregory de Villiers, a younger son and unfrocked monk. A glorious, tongue in cheek romp. The others in the trilogy are A Vision of Light and The Water Devil. First read this around 1990

3.

Arn de Gothia is given to the church, but his skills lie with the military arts. Something of a Parsifal character, this is the story of his early years and the forging of a Templar Knight. Don't expect a strong resolution at the end though. This is only the beginning of the journey.
Read this year.

4.

I love all of Cecelia Holland's Medieval novels. Hammer For Princes and Great Maria could have as easily appeared here, but Until the Sun Falls is also a tour de Force. The story of the Mongol Empire following the death of Ghenghis Khan.

5.

Another Holland. Kevin Crossley this time. This is the story of 12th century boy Arthur, living on the Welsh Marches and with a mystic connection to older legends. Holland has a gift for bringing the period to life. It's a young adult novel but easily makes the crossover.

6.

The story of Henry I. Not many authors have tackled this particular king who is probably one of England's greatest monarchs - but in an understated kind of way. He ruled with a rod of iron and his nature was not always endearing, but the country had 35 years of peace under his rule. Juliet Dymoke writes his story with apblomb.

7.

From the days when medieval romances were meatier tomes you could really sink into. Eden Hawkhurst's husband goes missing on crusade and of course she sets out to find him, but on her way she meets Tristan Damartin and things start to get complicated. A great romp - sexy and forthright but rich story telling nevertheless - or so I thought back in 1977!

8.

More Crusader stuff. I read this one last year and it made me laugh out loud. The tale of a young lad who becomes a Templar squire, the narrative told through his irreverent and cheeky banter. Aimed at the YA market, but I loved it.

9.

More Holy Land mayhem. The background to the events that led to the third crusade. This was probably the first 'gritty' historical that I read in the early 1970's. Retail price 30p

10

The incomparible Dorothy Dunnett and the first of her six books about Francis Crawford of Lymond. I can't say it better than one of the original quotes for this book from Neil Patterson of the Sunday Times: 'This is the first time I have stood in the market place and shouted and I wish I were more practised and my voice were bigger, for I have something of delight for all who care for excellence.'
There are historical novelists, and then there is Dorothy Dunnett. My edition, bought after having read it from the library, is the 1984 printing.

11.

Another great dame of the genre, Roberta Gellis. Alinor has one of the best romantic heroes I have ever come across. Ian de Vipont is a tour de force - and so is Alinor. She's a woman of her time and yet she runs ring around the men. I've read this one to bits in the past. Ignore the cheesy cover. It's a well-researched, meaty historical novel.

12

Madselin - my favourite Norah Lofts. The story of a noble Saxon young woman forced to make adjustments in the wake of the Norman Conquest. A very fine novel.

13.

Having read all the Dunnett and suffering from withdrawal symptoms, I came across this one. Vainglory by Geraldine McCaughrean is like stepping into a richly illuminated Book of Hours. I love the language, and I am still a little in love with the hero, Victoire de Gloriole.

14

Grace Ingram is also known as Doris Sutcliffe Adams. This particular novel is part romance, part medieval mystery, written in a pacy, tongue in cheek style with an endearing 'feisty' heroine very much of her time and a believable, vulnerable hero. A favourite comfort read for me.

15

Carla Nayland is a friend from the historical fiction community but I wasn't asked to read this; I did it of my own accord and read it just like any other book. This is early medieval - what used to be called the 'Dark Ages' but Carla skillfully weaves the story of Eadwine and his struggle for survival and inheritance.
I read this about a year ago or thereabouts.

16

Queen Melisande of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land in a state of flux comes to life in this one. Again, the rich texture and use of language puts this one in the Dorothy Dunnett field of operation. I was hooked from the moment I read the opening paragraph.

17

The first work of historical fiction I ever bought for myself with a book token. I was fifteen at the time. I'd bought books in other genres before, but this was the first historical. I'd recently fallen in love with the Middle Ages in a swash buckling romantic sort of way, and the cover sucked me in!

18

A fast-paced intelligent romance novel that isn't just about the bonk. In fact, although the intimate moments have you reaching for a cold drink, they are not over done and the story itself with its mystery and developing cooperation between hero and heroine, is very rewarding. One of the best historical romances I've read.

19

H.A. Douglas is a re-enactor friend and this is self-published by Lulu. Again, I wasn't pushed into reading it, nor obliged to say nice things, but this is a superb little novel about life in the north of England in the tenth century. The author is very good at writing a female viewpoint and the story has a powerful sense of time and place. It's as good as anything published by the big houses.

20

I was a fan of Ellis Peters' Cadfael looooong before the mainstream cottoned on. Here's my bookclub edition from 1979. This was my first meeting with the gorgeous Hugh Berenger for whom I formed a lifelong attachment. Never mind the mystery, never mind the monk, just give me dark-eyed light on his feet Hugh!
Seriously, I loved the Cadfael books and I have them all.

Fessing up - more medieval sex-life

2009-07-19T13:53:00.007Z

'Have you had sex with your wife on a Sunday?' You shall do penance for four days on bread and water.'

'Have you had sex with your wife or with another woman from behind doggy style? If you have done this, you shall do penance for ten days on bread and water.'

'Have you kissed some woman due to foul desire and thus polluted yourself? If you have done this, you shall do penance for three days on bread and water. But if this happened in church, you shall do penance for twenty days on bread and water.'

'Have you tasted your husband's semen in the hope that because of your diabolical deed he might burn the more with love for you? If you have done this, you should do penance for seven years on the legitimate holy days.'

Excerpts from History Laid Bare by Richard Zacks, in turn extracted from the early 11thC penitential of Burchard of Worms.

Continuing my blog post on medieval attitutes to sexuality, the above is copied from a penitential written around 1012 by German bishop Burchard of Worms. It's part of a twenty volume work covering every imaginable sin, but volume 19 chapter 5 contains the ones pertaining to sexual sins, of which 194 are listed. I should think that by the time the scribe finished writing them down, he would have had to go and dunk himself in a cold bath and head for confession himself! It appears that every permutation likely to ocurr in the confessional has been touched on and then some! The ones above are the more mundane. I haven't listed the ones pertaining to nun ravishing, various forms of incest and ummm... bread abuse.
Obviously people did these things or there wouldn't be a need to have the guidelines, although some sins were rarer than others and some were seen as far more serious. Semen swallowing for example, gets you seven years' worth of penance, whereas kissing is only three days (except in a church!) and sex on a Sunday four. Other than the missionary, alternative sexual positions equals ten days on bread and water. It upset the order of the world to have the woman on top or to engage in unnatural sexual positions. And since sex was for conception as mentioned in my earlier post, there was only one place semen was supposed to be deposited so there were heavy penances for putting it elsewhere.
Albert of Cologne, a Dominican friar and bishop was of the opinion that the missionary position was 'the blameless path.' A slight deviation was the sideways position, 'then comes the sitting position, the standing, and, finally, the greatest sin is 'retrorsum' like mares. That's why certain people have said this position constitutes a mortal sin, but that's not my opinion.'
Did people keep to the letter of church law? Did they go to confession with clear consciences? Again, it's a case of different strokes for different folks. Side by side with strictures from the church to behave in a sexually restrained and exemplary fashion, went medieval straightforwardness, fun and bawdiness. (you only need to see the British joy in Pantomime to see it at work in the national psyche). Grape Street in London was once Gropecu*t Lane. Pelican Street in Paris was once (13thC) the Rue de Poile-Con (Cu*t trimming street). Then there was Swylcontdich in Cheshire. By 1848 it was Swillinditch. Alongside the religious chants, the teachings, the warnings from the pulpit, were bawdy folk tales and soldier's songs involving lusty copulation all night long. There are explicit riddles such as this one from a book of Anglo Saxon Riddles.

I am a wonderful help to women
The hope of something good to come
I harm only my slayer
I grow very tall, erect in a bed
I am shaggy down below
The lovely girl grabs my body, rubs my red skin
Holds me hard, claims my head.
That girl will feel our meeting!
I bring tears to her eyes!
What am I?

You can almost hear and see the giggles can't you? Answer is at the end of the post.

A marriage did not have to be consummated to be valid but the non consummation had to be voluntary on both sides. If either party was unable to have sexual intercourse then the marriage could be dissolved. A jury of matrons could be called to examine the woman and say whether or not she was capable and and the same for the man. There is a known English court case where a man was brought before a female jury, having been accused of being unable to produce the goods. The jury then proceeded to give him a physical examination. One of their number showed him her breasts and fondled him him intimately and tried to get him interested while the others looked on. When nothing stirred in the bushes, he was pronounced a fraud. In another case though, similar treatment resulted in a response that made the jury declare that the man's equipment was 'large enough for any woman living in the world.'

As a writer of historical fiction, I have plenty of examples of variation through which to choose my path. I think the most important thing for me in choosing that path is being as aware as possible of all the variations. Absorbing the rich melange of thought and custom by detailed reading across the disciplines is, I believe, the best way to get the hang of a workable model of the mindset.

Illustration of a Medieval badge from The Secret Middle Ages by Malcolm Jones.

Here are some books from my own library covering the subject - not comprehensive. I have other works with snippets here and there.

History Laid Bare - Love, sex and perversity from the ancient Etruscans to Lawrence of Arabia
by Richard Zacks

Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing unto Others by Ruth Mazo Karras.

The Language of Sex: Five Voices from Northern France around 1200 by John.W. Baldwin

Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages: A Sourcebook edited by Conor McCarthy

The Medieval Idea of Marriage by Christopher Brooke

Medieval Obscenities Edited by Nicola McDonald

Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England by Ruth Mazo Karras

Handbook of Medieval Sexuality edited by Bullough and Brundage

The Secret Middle Ages by Malcolm Jones.

Answer to the Riddle - an onion....

No Sex Here, we're Medieval!

2009-07-01T23:38:00.003Z

There have been one or two discussions online about Medieval sexuality, so I thought I'd post a few thoughts of my own on the subject. Being a historical novelist who features detailed relationships between my characters, it's inevitable that their sex lives become part of the equation. So, the question is: If I'm going to try and be as historically accurate as possible, what are the do's and don'ts for my characters? Over the next few days, I'm going to post on matters of the heart and areas further south in the medieval world view.

The first thing to realise even before I begin, is that just like now, one size doesn't fit all. I have to be prepared to accept that there's more than one model going on here, but that within the spread of opinion, there are still general rules.

Incidentally the tasteful above illustration is courtesy of the border of the Bayeux Tapestry.

They married really young didn't they?
Well, that depends. The aristocracy tended to marry at a younger age than the peasantry. Aristocratic women were married off pretty young, while aristocratic men were often batchelors into their forties - William Marshal being a case in point. Roger Bigod was well into his thirties. His son Hugh was 25 when he married the probably 14 year old Mahelt Marshal. Twelve was the age of consent for a girl and fourteen for a boy. Some marriages were consummated at this young age. On other occasions the girl - or boy was left to mature a while longer. There are marriage clauses in existence where pacts are made between families concerning consummation dates. Mahelt Marshal bore her first child when she was about 16 years old. Margaret Beaufort was just thirteen when she bore the future Henry VII. While our society is somewhat censorious about the age thing, the medieval mindset on the matter was somewhat different. The medievals would have been shocked to think that we might regard such juvenile marriages as child abuse. A teenage girl getting married in the middle ages was seen as taking a responsible place in adult society. i.e. maturity was placed earlier than it is now. Most medieval children would have been accustomed to the mundane aspects of sexual activity among adults. There was little privacy in society and the medievals were not prudes. They had no problem placing a married couple in bed together, naked, with witnesses - but would probably be horrified by the titilation offered by a standard modern pop video, available for children of any age to watch. e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoVeAGaO27I

Sex wasn't for fun - it was to beget children.
Yup. That was the general idea. Medieval writers regarded sex as sinful, but that sin was mitigated if you did the deed to procreate. 'Carnal connection with wives must take place for the sake of offspring, not pleasure, and a man should abstain from sex with his pregnant wife.' So said a 9th century Frankish church council. Henry I of England had more than 20 illegitimate children - apparently because he liked children. (oh yeah?) No one asked what the mothers thought! This of course would have nothing to do with his wife's predeliction for kissing the feet of lepers. Her brother, the future King David of Scotland caught her at this habit on one occasion and asked her if her husband knew about it. The fact that they had one son and one daughter, as opposed to the other scattered twenty, does make one pause for thought!
Basically the Christian idea was that if sex took place in marriage, it should be open to the possibility of conception and contraception was forbidden.

But people used contraception anyway?
That would depend on their own belief and how strongly they followed church teaching. Sometimes people know the rules but break them anyway. (riding a bicycle on a pavement for e.g. or dropping a cigarette stub on the pavement). Contraceptive practices were undertaken. The Trotula, an 11thC treatise on women's health has various suggestions on preventing conception. The woman should wear against her naked flesh the womb of a goat that has never borne offspring, or hang the testicles of a weasel around her neck. After a difficult birth, if a woman did not wish to conceive ever again, she should throw a handful of barley into the placenta. Perhaps with slightly more success, other methods such as inserting a stone or piece of moss up against the cervix, or douching with vinegar are recommended elsewhere. Coitus interruptus was practised. How widespread all this was, we don't know, but since it's all mentioned here and there, it was obviously part of life's pattern. Breast feeding might have given some natural protection for a while, but breastfeeding women were supposed to abstain from sex anyway. The nobility often employed wet nurses (although not always. It bears emphasising that not everyone was running down the same path) and once a wife emerged from her forty days of childbirth confinement, she was straight back on the breeding programme.
I found it rather interesting when researching TO DEFY A KING, that Hugh Bigod and Mahelt |Marshal appeare to have had several of their children at three year intervals i.e. 1209, 1212, 1215, 1218. I don't know when the fifth was born. In the novel, I've gone with them using contraceptive practises.

Next time around:

Getting into position
Who wears the trousers
Grounds for divorce

THE WIP HAS A TITLE!

2009-06-30T23:01:00.003Z

Just a quick note. I'm in the middle of writing a longer blog post - about sex (!!) which will be up tomorrow night, but I realised that although I've posted it on Facebook and a couple of other places, I hadn't mentioned on my blog that the work in progress about Mahelt Marshal and Hugh Bigod finally has a title. It's called ta da!

TO DEFY A KING.

Due out Spring 2010.

I had to write the catalogue blurb last week in around 100 words, and this is what emerged.

The privileged daughter of one of the most powerful men in England, Mahelt Marshal’s life changes dramatically when her father is suspected by King John. Her brothers become hostages and Mahelt is married to Hugh Bigod, heir to the earldom of Norfolk. Adapting to her new life is hard, but Mahelt comes to love Hugh deeply; however, defying her father in law brings disgrace and heartbreak. When King John sets out to subdue the Bigods, Mahelt faces her worst fears alone, knowing neither she, nor her marriage are likely to survive the outcome.

A story of huge emotional power set against the road to Magna Carta and the fight to bring a tyrant king to heel.

Roger Bigod II Earl of Norfolk

2009-06-12T07:57:00.011Z

I've been preparing a permanent piece for my website about Roger Bigod II, the hero of THE TIME OF SINGING. It'll be up at the website soon, but in the meantime here it is for my blog.

Roger Bigod II
I set out to write about him after being made curious by a remark in a reference work mentioning that his career path was in many ways similar to that of the great William Marshal. They were both self-made men, if for different reasons. Both had clawed their way up the ladder of fame and fortune. Both had been born in troubled times and had cut their political teeth at the courts of the Angevin kings and their familiers. Each of them was to marry an heiress in the King’s gift and wield great power that would help shape England’s future.
William Marshal is fortunate and almost unique in having a history written about him shortly after he died; thus his deeds and his life story have remained for posterity.
Roger of Norfolk has no such history to track his days on earth Even so, there are traces of his tale in chronicles and charters and these can be pieced together to make a larger body of knowledge. Roger’s son and heir married William Marshal’s eldest daughter and so we get a brief glimpse of him in the Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal, where Roger is called ‘a man who was never very slow in doing what was to his advantage and honour, when it was appropriate for him to do so.
So what was Roger Bigod’s story? What kind of man was he, and what sort of life did he live?

Roger Bigod has no known birth date or year, but was probably born somewhere between 1140 and 1146. He came from a family of obscure origins but whom we know were vassals of the Bishop of Bayeux prior to the Norman Conquest and haled from the Calvados region of Normandy.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bayeux,+France&sll=51.41334,-1.344109&sspn=0.155244,0.440483&ie=UTF8&ll=49.276447,-0.705529&spn=1.299104,3.523865&z=9
An ancestor called Hugh Bigod who was very likely Roger’s great grandfather was described by Wace in the Roman de Rou, as ‘The lord of Montfiquet’ and was apparently a forester and a steward to Duke William of Normandy. ‘He was small in stature, but very bold and valiant.’
Roger’s ancestors followed their overlord to England and settled, although they still held onto their Norman fiefs. Roger’s grandfather, also called Roger, was one of the mainstays of the Norman government. Although not at this stage made Earl of Norfolk, he was sheriff of the county and was apportioned vast lands there and in Suffolk and Essex. The Bigod family became the rulers of what had once been the kingdom of the East Angles. The first Roger Bigod founded a Priory of Cluniac monks at Thetford and built the first castle at Framlingham. He married twice and had three daughters and two sons by his wives. The eldest son, William, was the product of his first marriage. The younger son, Hugh was born to his second wife, Alais. When William drowned in the disaster of the White Ship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ship the second son, Hugh, inherited everything. Prior to this, Hugh had stood to gain nothing. Now suddenly, he got the lot.
Hugh Bigod does not seem to have had a good reputation in history. He had an eye to the main chance and a determination to get to the top that left little room for courtesy or finesse. By changing sides to his own advantage, he did very well out of the civil war between Stephen and Matilda and at this time was created Earl of Norfolk. Here’s a brief article giving an overview of The Anarchy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anarchy Like his father, Hugh married twice. His first match was to Juliana de Vere, sister of the earl of Oxford and it was from this match that Roger Bigod, hero of the Time of Singing was born, probably at Framlingham in the stone great hall there, the ruined remains of which can still be seen today. The photo on the left shows the remains of the hall where my Roger Bigod would have lived when he was first married. The white parts of the chimney stacks are original Norman chimneys, with later Tudor brickwork on top.
For reasons unknown, Hugh divorced Juliana at some point in before the early 1150’s and married instead Gundreda, sister of the Earl of Warwick. By Gundreda, Hugh Bigod went on to have two more sons, Hugh and William.
Roger would have been raised at the family home of Framlingham, but would have been without his natural mother from his mid-childhood. Instead he grew up with his stepmother Gundreda and his two half-brothers. Roger would appear to have been educated both in the knightly arts and those pertaining to the pen. From his later career, we know he had a sound knowledge of the law and was frequently used as a judge on the bench by successive kings of England. He was present at the Assize of Clarendon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assize_of_Clarendon so was familiar with the working of the judicial system from an early age It’s interesting to note that around the time Roger was receiving his grounding in the law, William Marshal was setting out to serve his uncle Patrick, Earl of Salisbury, as a hearth knight in Poitou.
In 1173, King Henry’s son rebelled against his father. Roger’s own father, Hugh, threw in his lot with the young man and his faction. Henry II had sought to limit Hugh’s vast power in East Anglia and to this end had built a dominant castle at Orford to oppose Hugh’s castles at Framlingham and Bungay. Hugh was not best pleased at this restriction and voted with his sword. Roger Bigod took a different view to his father. It seems rather ironic that Hugh of Norfolk, well into his seventies, supported the Young King, and Roger, a young man, supported King Henry’s established monarchy. We don’t know when Roger and Hugh parted company, or how the conversation went, but obviously father and son faced each other on opposite sides of a divide. I suspect the fact that they chose opposite sides was one of personal acrimony rather than a mutual ploy.
Matters came to a head when the country rose in rebellion against King Henry on the Young King’s behalf. The Earl of Leicester and Hugh of Norfolk forged an alliance and imported Flemish mercenaries to fight for the cause. The royalists, led by among others the justiciar Richard de Luci and Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford (Roger’s uncle) were hard pressed to contain the rebellion, but contain it they did. Having defeated and turned back the Scots who had put their oar into the general unrest by heading over the border, de Luci turned his army southwards to deal with the rebels in East Anglia, who were now branching out into the Midlands. Roger joined the royalist army as they prepared to meet the advancing rebel contingent at the bridge over the river Lark at Fornham St. Genevieve in October 1176. Roger was given the privilege of bearing the banner of Saint Edmund into battle. The Bigod family owed knights’ service to the Abbey of Saint Edmund, so Roger had every right to bear the banner in that role. Saint Edmund was the closest thing England had to a patron saint in the twelfth century. He was an Anglo Saxon king murdered by the Vikings, and his cult had a strong following. The shrine of Saint Edmund was covered in beaten silver and gems, and pilgrims came from far and wide to pray at the tomb. For Roger to bear that banner was a great honour, responsibility and privilege. Roger’s own blazon was that of a red cross on a gold background.
The royalist army was outnumbered four to one by the rebels. However, the latter consisted of hired men, many of them untrained out of work Flemish weavers, covering their deficits with a soldier’s pay until the looms picked up. They weren’t accustomed to standing hard. To get to the bridge across the lark, they had to cross marshy ground that split and scattered them. In contrast, the core of de Luci’s men were hard-bitten soldiers. They had been joined by a posse of locals, probably no more qualified to fight than the weavers, but in this case, their homesteads were at risk and there was a strong desire to be rid of these foreign parasites.
The battle was a disaster for the rebels and a massive success for the royalists.
The earl of Leicester was taken prisoner and with him, his Amazon wife Petronilla, who is supposed to have worn a hauberk at the battle. When the royalist men closed in on her, she took off her rings and tossed them into the spated river, saying that no one was going to have them. Perhaps they are still there now!
Following the battle, the rebels surrendered. Roger’s father was made to pay a fine of around 500 marks and the defences at Framlingham, the seat of his earldom, were torn down in punishment and his castle at Bungay was taken away. He was a broken old man by this time. One source says that he went on pilgrimage to the Holy land, but given his age, the state of his health and the fact that he was buried at the Priory of St Mary’s Thetford, it is unlikely. Wherever his demise, he was dead by the spring of 1177. Immediately a dispute arose between his three sons as to who inherited what. Hugh had not divided his lands between them and the whole should have gone to Roger. But Roger’s mother in law contested the will, saying that her eldest son was due all the land that her former husband had acquired during his lifetime as earl.
The dispute came before King Henry, who was no man’s fool when it came to matters of money and inheritance. He knew a good thing when he saw it and although the case was set in motion, he deferred judgement pending further investigation and kept the lands in his own administration. However, not to lose a good man who could both fight and administer, he utilised Roger’s skills and Roger was often at court, involved in legal administration and serving in a military capacity. His stepmother made her own plans to keep her cause alive. She married Robert de Glanville, a court lawyer who’s brother Ranulf was the King’s justiciar (he ruled the country in Henry’s absence). Her eldest son, for whom she was fighting chose to abscond the battle for a while at least, and went on crusade.
Henry also refused to grant Roger the earldom of Norfolk and the privileges that went with it – such as the third penny of the shire. This was a perk granted to an earl, whereby every third penny taken in tolls on markets and goods and passage was given to the earl of that shire. It becomes obvious when you look at the history that Henry was having his cake and eating it. It also appears that while Henry valued Roger, he was also suspicious of the Bigod name by now. Roger’s father had been rebellious and untrustworthy. Henry had had terrible problems with his own sons in that respect, so why should someone else’s son be any different? Roger was not about to get his full inheritance any day soon.
At the time Roger was serving the King and following the court, Henry had a young mistress. Her name was Ida de Tosney and she was one of his wards. This meant that he was her guardian. Her father, Ralph de Tosney had died when she was a small child. She had a brother, Roger (called Goscelin in The Time of Singing) who was also in wardship. Ida was probably in her mid teens when she became Henry’s mistress and bore him a son who was to grow up to become William Longespée, earl of Salisbury. The photo on the left is of his tomb effigy in Salisbury Cathedral.
From burrowing in charters, we know that Roger and Ida married around Christmas time 1181. Had Henry grown tired of his poppet and moved on? Was Ida a reward to Roger? Was there mutual attraction going on? We can’t say from this distance using conventional history. What is known is that Henry released several of the disputed manors to Roger as part of the bride’s marriage portion. It is not recorded what Gundreda and her sons thought about this, but they can hardly have been thrilled. What is also known is that Roger and Ida’s firstborn son Hugh, turned up within a year of the marriage and that it continued to be a fruitful one. Hugh was joined by two sisters, Marie and Marguerite, then three more brothers, Roger, William and Ralph. There may have been a couple of others, - John and Ida, but their existence is on less solid ground and they pop in and out of genealogical tables.
Henry still had no intention of returning the Earldom of Norfolk to Roger, but he continued to work him hard. Towards the end of Henry’s reign in 1187, Roger was serving at the King’s Court (Curia Regis) at Westminster and hearing pleas.
Henry died in 1189 and Richard I became King. Richard had need of funds for his crusade and he also needed a firm government to serve him. It was time for a new broom to sweep clean and to issue promotions to likely men. Roger finally got his reward and twelve years after his family lost the earldom of Norfolk, it was restored to them for a thousand marks. He was granted permission to rebuild Framlingham castle and immediately began doing so on a grand scale. You can see a photo gallery here.
http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/Books/Framlingham%20Castle%20Photo%20Gallery/index.html Here is an url to a site about building works at Framlingham. You can click through to an archaeological report. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.1238
The shell of the castle still stands today with its thirteen great towers. There are also the remains of the hall where Roger and his wife Ida lived in the early years of their marriage. The second, grander hall where they dwelt as a more mature couple has largely gone, but small bits remain as part of the Visitor centre. Photo of Framlingham
Once Roger had been granted an earldom, the hard work really began and he had to shift gears. Not only had he a new castle to build and a growing family to support, but Richard sent him out travelling on the judicial circuit, hearing pleas and making judgements at various stopping places up and down England. The pipe roll of 1190-91 shows him busy in Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Wiltshire. At this time too, he was given custody of Hereford Castle. In 1194 he was in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancaster. In 1195 he covered nine counties, with two more added in 1197. Northumberland, Yorkshire, Westmorland, Lancashire, Cumberland, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Herefordshire with Warwickshire and Leicestershire added later. On top of this, he had to support the appointed justiciars while Richard was away on crusade and try to help keep the peace – not always an easy task. The King’s brother John had made a play for his brother’s throne and Richard’s chancellor, William Longchamp who was opposing John, was hated by the barons. Roger, together with men such as William Marshal and the Archbishop of Rouen had to find the strength, the tact and diplomacy to deal with the situation, maintain stability, and manage their own lives.
On his way home from crusade, Richard had been captured crossing enemy territory in Austria, and was now the prisoner of Emperor Henry of Germany. A ransom was finally negotiated, but before Richard was released, he had to provide sureties for delivery of the money. Various nobles from England came to his aid and Roger was on the shipping list. There is no concrete evidence of his actual presence in Germany, but we do know he was on the shipping list. Did he go? With his experienced handling of the law and judicial subjects, I suspect he was present. No proof either way at the moment.
Richard returned to England to find that his brother John had risen up against him – and then run away to France to summon aid, leaving his castellans to ride it out as best they could. Richard swiftly set up military campaigns to deal with the insurrection and headed to Nottingham to deal with the rebels there. Roger was there with him in a military capacity.
When Richard died in 1199 and John came to the throne, Roger offered his loyalty. He went to Scotland for him as an envoy to King William and was frequently at court. He helped the town of Ipswich, in which he had a firm trading interest, to secure a charter of liberties from John in 1200. This gave the town various rights and privileges including permission to elect its two bailiffs who had previously been crown nominees. Four coroners were also created to watch over crown rights in the borough. In return for his assistance, Roger was admitted as the first foreign burgess of the town. In token payment he gave one ox, one bull, two quarters of corn and two of malt. For this, he and his heirs were then exempt on paying tolls in the town on the corn and grain reaped on their demesne lands.
Roger once again went on the judicial circuit early in John’s reign – 1201, but this was his last time on eyre as it was called.
Roger was a cautious, canny operator. His family had always been stewards to the royal family – also known as dapifers. One of Roger’s hereditary jobs and of ceremonial prestige, was to set the first dish before the King at official banquets and also to bear one of the ceremonial swords at the coronation. However, the Earl of Leicester thought he should have this privilege too and disputed the position. Roger had a think and decided to settle the matter amicably. He would renounce the title providing Leicester gave him ten knights’ fees. Leicester agreed to do so and Roger gave up the stewardship. He did have some follow up problems as getting Leicester to agree was the easy bit. Making him disgorge the manors was a different matter entirely and even after Roger II’s death (1221) the dispute rumbled on because Leicester had only paid seven and a half of the fees (1236).
In 1207 Roger consolidated his family’s prestige by marrying his heir, Hugh, to Mahelt, William Marshal’s eldest daughter. When she became the last of the Marshal’s children to survive, the title of Marshal came down to her and was passed on to her eldest son, Roger.
Throughout the early and mid part of John’s reign, Roger served the King faithfully. He answered the summons to battle campaigns, performed necessary stints at court and generally led a steady life. In 1213, the King visited him at Framlingham and all seemed well between them. However, as the political problems facing the king escalated and John’s behaviour deteriorated, Roger and his eldest son Hugh, had second thoughts about their support. At the time of the Magna Carta crisis in 1215, Roger renounced his support of John and joined the rebel barons. The rebels were probably delighted to have him among their number, because he was a consummate lawyer and could help oversee the wording and drafting of their demands. Why did Roger rebel against King John? Conventional history doesn’t tell us. He didn’t change sides until late in the day, but once he made up his mind, he stayed on the opposing side until after John was dead. Having turned rebel, he faced both excommunication and hostilities against his magnificent thirteen-towered castle at Framlingham.
The royal army came to Framlingham in March 1216 and prepared to lay siege to it. Although the castle was a state of the art fortress and the garrison boasted deadly crossbowmen among its numbers, Roger obviously preferred not to put it to the test and after only two days, the fortress was yielded to King John by Roger’s castellan, William Lenveise. Roger himself was in London at the time, because his huntsmen and dogs were apparently sent there to join him. Unfortunately, his young grandson was at Framlingham and was taken hostage by King John. However, this fact didn’t bring Roger to heel and he continued in rebellion. John died in October 1216, but Roger did not come to terms of peace with the royalist government until September of 1217 when he was finally restored to his earldom and Framlingham was returned to the family. By yielding the castle rather than putting up a fight, Roger secured the inheritance for the next generation. His hostage grandson was also the grandchild of William Marshal and this probably helped to secure the child’s safety during the ongoing hostilities, particularly after the Marshal was named regent following John’s death.
Roger died somewhere between the end of April and August 1221. He was well into his seventies and his son Hugh had taken over many of the duties of the earldom by then. His wife, Ida had predeceased him because there is no mention of any provision being made for her widowhood and it is not known where she is buried.
Like his contemporary William Marshal, Roger Bigod had been born into uncertain times during the regnal battle between Stephen and Matilda. He had learned statecraft at the court of Henry II and woven his way through the often difficult rule of Richard and John. History leaves us quiet traces of a man capable, firm and honourable. An understated man in his personality, who nevertheless knew and appreciated the value of display. The thirteen towers of Framlingham castle still standing today, and the remains of the stone hall he first shared with Ida are testament to both traits of Roger’s personality – unsung but shining. Visitors to the House of Lords will also find his statue looking down from the gallery in the company of William Marshal and his stepson William Longespée among others. He can also be found in slightly less exalted places! Photo here of Roger Bigod Mews.

Sources:
The Bigod Family, an investigation into their lands and activities 1066-1306
PHD Thesis by Susan A. J. Atkin University of Reading

The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century by Marc Morris/Boydell

History of William Marshal Vol II/Anglo Norman Text Society

The History of the Norman People: Wace’s Roman de Rou

Pot Pourri

2009-05-30T21:15:00.011Z

This post is a mixture of all sorts - a bit like my dog!

1. The Time of Singing
2. Work in progress
3. A trailer for The Greatest Knight, Sourcebooks version USA
4. Akashic moment with William Marshal

With a week to go to paperback publication of The Time of Singing (Amazon are already sending it out) I thought I'd post a photo of the paperback cover (same as hardcover except for blurb) and the audio cover. Headless woman strikes again, but I do rather like it. I am busy writing a biography about Roger Bigod to put on my website and it should be ready within the next two weeks - hopefully earlier. There is already some material on the site referencing the Bigods and the novel. Click here: http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/Books/books_timeofsinging.html
More on its way.
Looking back to the time I first started writing The Time of Singing, I thought I'd repost this link to my blog archives. This was the moment I decided to write about Roger Bigod and Ida de Tosney. http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2007/01/change-of-plan.html
Earlier, I had been considering doing the story of this Roger's grandson, but when I started exploring the characters, Roger II was the one who called to me and hi-jacked my muse - not least because of his wife, Ida. Her true identity has only recently been discovered by genealogists and she has been identified (before her marriage to Roger) as a mistress of Henry II and mother to William Longespee, future Earl of Salisbury. The Time of Singing examines the relationship between Ida and Henry, Ida and Roger, and the dynamics caused by Longespee's birth and what happened afterwards - although that isn't the entire story. In his own quietier way, Roger Bigod was a man just as dynamic as the great William Marshal (who claims several cameo roles as a secondary character in the novel).

Paperback cover

Currently I am hard at work on the sequel ready for next spring. It's now on the 3rd draft. Still no title, but we're getting closer.
I've written it 3 times on the PC and am now reading it as a paper draft - no hardship this afternoon, sat beneath the cherry tree in the garden in the glorious late May weather. You would think by this stage I'd be fairly set wouldn't you? Ummm... not a bit of it. Below is a one page sneak preview of part of the draft (click to enlarge). As you can see, I'm not entirely happy with it. Once I've read all the way through the script, it will be back to the PC to key in the alterations and re-read with a refreshed eye. Then print out, then read aloud to my husband, make notes, back to the PC and finally hand it in. All I can say at the moment is, that like the title, it's getting there!

Work in progress - 3rd draft and still plenty of work to do!
Click to enlarge if you want.

As I've mentioned, Sourcebooks in the USA will be publishing The Greatest Knight on September 1st. I've been indulging my whimsy by making a trailer as part of the promo - and hey, trailers are fun to make anyway and cost nothing except time. Here's my first effort. I may tweak some of the photos, but I think it's not bad.

On the odd occasion, I post Akashic moments. Here's an excerpt from a recent one connected with my work in progress about William Marshal's daughter. I asked to see William and his son having a good time (if there was one) after their reconciliation following the death of King John. It won't necessarily go in the novel, but it helps me to work on the characters. Here's what came through:

I asked Alison to go to William Marshal and William Junior after King John’s death and look at the best time together after their reconciliation.

Alison: I’m with William Junior. He’s very upright. He’s not a relaxed sort of person but he’s more stress free than usual and he has more of the same sort of energy going through him, rather than a strong energy in a particular place. He’s just upright. I saw dappled light or reflection. I am feeling a curved seat. I thought at first he might be on a horse, but it feels too wide to be a horse, but it’s that kind of saddle shape. It’s a red cloth with a plaited gold braid edge. I’m feeling him breathing out now. Sighing, relaxing. Settling down. He’s not so upright. Loosening up. Now he’s smiling. I seem to be locked inside his feelings rather than seeing what’s outside. I am seeing something that looks like thick greenish glass, curved again. I am seeing a diagonal line curved through or a cross. The diagonal line is a lance held by someone on a horse who has now stopped. The lance is at an angle to the ground and the knight is leaning over talking to someone at the side of the horse. William Junior is smiling. I feel as if William Junior is elevated on a platform or looking out of a window, which makes sense with the green glass. So that seat could be a window seat? Yes…yes that’s right. Spot on. The window is open and I can feel a breeze and a scent of hay. The man on the horse is William Marshal and Jnr. is happy to see his father happy. It feels like back to business as usual. I suppose it’s like when your dad’s at work, everything feels right in the world, and it’s that old childhood security. He’s longing for his dad to come back in the room, he’s waiting for that to happen. He wants to put his arms around his dad and ummmm….wrestle him. Roll about the floor and feel his muscles. There are actually young children playing about on the floor on mats. Go forward. What I’m seeing is William Snr coming off the horse. Dismounting? No, I think he’s falling backwards. He’s not hurt himself; he’s getting up and brushing off help. He’s saying ‘That’s it for today.’ He’s got a broad grin. He’s got stubble; he’s not clean shaven. He’s saying ‘Well done,’ to the youngster who’s unseated him. There’s a bit of back ache but he’s kind of wriggling himself so he can walk without any limp. He’s taking his equipment off and coming to the main room. I was wondering if one of the youngsters was one of his other sons, Gilbert or Walter? Alison asks if I want to find out. I say don’t go too far, but just out of curiosity. Well he does have love for this person and it feels the sort of love you have for your family, but I don’t know how I could find out who it could be. Intuitively I am feeling Gilbert but I wouldn’t like to say. Okay not important. I was just curious. Anyway, back to the main point. He’s coming up the stairs. Back to William Junior’s point of view. Alison laughs. This is really interesting. This is the first time I have ever seen William Junior with his dad’s sense of humour, and it really is just like William. He’s sitting in the window with his legs crossed and he’s fiddling with something (a walking stick we later suss) and his mute look is one of ‘I won’t mention it if you don’t mention it - but this walking stick could easily be a lance. His dad’s already saying ‘All right then, all right. You needn’t say anything. You weren’t there. You didn’t have a go.' There’s something about William Senior hinting that the the reason Jnr. wasn’t in the tiltyard was down to some spurious injury. 'If you hadn’t pretended you’d got this injury, you would have been there as well.’ It’s actually to do with Jnr’s upper right leg. He’s resting it. It’s a muscle thing. I am also seeing a blue vein. Perhaps he’s strained it or been cut or something. A scar? Yes, I think it’s something that’s healing and he can’t pull it because it might come apart. Back to Jnr.. Alison laughs aloud. Jnr.says ‘Come on then, come on then, try me! William Snr comes towards him, big, heavy, and WJ extends his walking stick in a ‘Touche!’ gesture. So then, William Snr (and this is really funny) puts his hand to his back and says ‘I’m injured, I’m injured!, and starts hobbling. Jnr. says ‘You’re no more injured than I am and pokes him in the shoulder. So then William Snr grabs the stick and he’s saying ‘You will not challenge me, you will not dishonour me’ or something like that. He grabs the stick and gets Jnr. round the neck. And then they are rolling about on the floor laughing and fighting which is exactly what Jnr. wanted. He can really writhe and put his elbows about and it’s not risking his leg. And because his dad is so much bigger than him and holds him firmly, it’s like being a child again and being held by someone who is compassionate but wants to play. Oh, they’ve actually rolled over now and William Jnr is holding his dad down and saying ‘Do you concede?’ Senior rears up and says ‘Never! Never!’ And he’s on top of William Junior now. Ah – Alison laughing hard now This is really funny. William Snr falls back and pretends to be dead. So William Jnr has to pat his face and try to revive him, but no, he’s dead. Then he gives this kind of great big snort like he’s snoring. Then there’s a bit more. They’re too busy laughing then. They both fall on their backs. Has anyone else been observing all this? Yes, the children, I was going to mention that.

Every so often, they’ve tried to creep closer, then backed off because they thought it might be dangerous, but when William Snr was feigning death, William Jnr was saying ‘Is Grandad all right?’ Aha! Then the children would be Mahelt’s children – Roger, Hugh, and perhaps little Isabelle, because these were the only grandchildren born before William Marshal’s death! Alison gets loads of shivers in response to this realisation and says it feels lovely. So, back to ‘Is Grandad all right?’ He’s pretending to be dead and the children are all a bit taken in by it and worried. William jnr’s going ‘Come one come on, wake up!’ And then the big snore.

And then it’s good fun for the kiddies to sit astride granddad, so of course he’s bouncing them up an down. William jnr is lying on the floor as well. He’s tickling their feet and tummies while they are sitting on top of granddad. Oh, it’s a very physical scene isn’t it, and very relaxed and natural. Writing up these notes it occurs to me that so often in historical fiction and in text books, you see the dry political facts, and even in reference books about daily life, you only generally see how people went about the business of doing things in their jobs or with artefacts. You seldom see this sort of close up, warm family interaction, which must have happened all the time. William Marshal may have been regent of England and a great magnate, but why shouldn’t he play with his family and bounce his grandchildren on his chest? (!). I think beyond the fun, it’s a moving reminder to take in all facets of a person’s life.

Speedos!!!!

2009-05-22T20:30:00.005Z

Sorry, about this, but I had to post this cropped guy from a 15thC painting by Matthaus of Kuttenberg. He's having a wash, having just been down the silver mine. Wouldn't look out of place on a modern beach would he?

The book in question is Goldsmiths. Medieval Craftsmen by John Cherry, published by the British Museum press.
This same painting even has a 'beach hut' and lifeguard tower for the guy.
The original painting is very similar to the 'Where's Willy?' (Waldo) story books of Martin Handford.

Below is the original painting. See if you can spot Speedo man! You can click on the painting to enlarge.

This is only an interim post while the author has a whimsical moment.
Normal service will be resumed over the weekend!

Hometown castle and church.

2009-05-09T22:34:00.014Z

The Biographical notes on my novels say that I live in Nottingham. Actually I live near Nottingham, but I do have another town on my doorstep and it's the one I visit most often because I do my grocery shop there. It's Newark On Trent, and it's still a fairly unspoiled, bustling market town with much of its history intact. In the Medieval period, it's famous as being the place where King John died. I'm always saying to my husband that I'll bring my camera on our next outing, and finally I remembered it! I'm not the world's best photographer, but I'm enclosing a few shots of the castle and the magnificent church of Saint Mary Magdalene.
Newark Castle stands on the banks of the River Trent. The first building there was a Saxon palace dating to the reign of Edward the Elder 870 -924. In 1073, Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln built a timber motte and bailey castle on the site. Fifty years later, bishop Alexander began work on a substantial stone fortress and this was again enhanced in the reign of Henry III.
In the 15th and 16th centuries the castle became more of a palace, but during the English Civil War in the 17thC, once more returned to military status. Following Oliver Cromwell's triumph, the castle was slighted i.e. reduced to a state where it could neve be a defensive fortress again. Today all that remains is the gatehouse, curtain wall and North West tower. There is a very pleasant riverside walk and a small attractive park attached to the castle. Whenever we drive into Newark intent on replenishing the store cupboards, I always take a glance at the castle as we drive past and wonder if one of those window remaining was once part of the chambere where King John died. He had arrived in Newark in a state of great physical distress. Earlier he had been borne on a litter because he was no longer able to ride a horse. The litter itself was made from willows cut from the side of the road by the swords of his knights, and with a horse cloth thrown over. For the entry into Newark, he forced himself back onto a horse, an 'ambling nag' (Kate Norgate, John Lackland) Here, at the castle, he lingered, dying, for three days, attended by the abbot of Croxton, who, despite his medical skills was unable to do anything. As John died at midnight on October 18th, apparently a whirlwind swept through the town with such violence that peope feared for their houses, and with the storm departed the soul of King John.
On the first picture, the two small arches in the middle of the wall at the base are latrine chutes. At one time the river would have come right up to the base of the castle wall.

A romanesque window from the time of King John

Taz investigates a mysterious dark hole in case there are rabbits!

The Church of St Mary Magdalene stands almost on the town square and is the third on the site. A previous Saxon church would have seen Leofric of Mercia and his famous wife Lady Godiva (presumably with clothes on!) amid the congregation. There was a late 12th century church, but very little of this remains. The existing church dates from the 1230's onwards. In 1227, Henry III gave permission for six oaks from Sherwood Forest to be felled for repairs to the church.
In 1310, another building programme was embarked upon and was to last 200 years.
Although not a cathedral, it is the size of one. The spire rises 236 feet and was built in several stages, beginning in the thirteenth century and continuing into the fourteenth. The trade guilds in the town each had a chapel dedicated in the church and at one point there were sixteen altars in additon to the High Altar. Each chapel would have been highly decorated and adorned with riches.
One of the remaining treasures of the church is an early sixteenth century pair of painted panels depicting the Dance of Death. One panel shows a young man in the prime of life, the other a skeleton holding out a carnation to him, the message being 'As I am, so shall you be.'

I will need to revisit for a more thorough look. My time was limited as I had to get my frozen stuff home and I had other appointments, but I'll be back. There's a medieval chest I didn't get a chance to look at, and I didn't have time for the misericords either (bum supports during long services, often with ornate carving beneath them). I also want a closer look at the chancel floor tiles.

Two ceilings in the church of St. Mary Magdalene Newark.

Newark is a great place to spend a few hours - historic, but modern enough so that you can buy most things. The history is right there with you every step of the way and there are plenty of good eateries and refreshment places too.

I apologise for the formatting. Blogger is having an idiosyncratic moment and the layout I see when editing is not the same as what appears on the finished blog!

Roll out the barrel - random research

2009-04-21T20:37:00.009Z

One of the ways I do my research is by selecting books at random from my reference library and dibbing into them as the mood strikes.
I had one of these moments yesterday when my husband returned from the allotment and remarked upon a tool someone was using to clear the cround. A long shaft with a blade on the end basically. We had no idea what it was called, but I thought I knew where to find out, went hunting in my library and came across the beastie in one of my reference books - The Forgotten Arts by John Seymour: A practical guide to traditional crafts. It's used in hedging and it's called a long handled slasher - I guess it does what it says on the tin!
Anyway, now I had the book off the shelf, I began to re-acquaint myself with its pages and found myself reading all about the art of coopering while I was eating my lunch. The author John Seymour seems to think that coopering is allied to boat building. If you can craft something to keep water out, then you can equally craft an item to keep liquids contained - seems logical to me.
When we think of coopering today, the main container word that has survived is 'barrel' and it has come to mean the shape rather than being a statement of quantity. We have a biscuit barrel on the sideboard for example, as well as a beer barrel - same shape different size. But once upon a time, each container had its own capacity name. A pin held four and half gallons. A firkin held nine gallons. A kilderkin 18 gallons, a barrel 36 gallons, a hogshead 54 gallons, a puncheon 72 gallons and a butt 108 gallons. One advantage the barrel has in its shape is that it can be easily handled, even if it contains a great weight. You might not be able to carry one, but you can roll it or trundle it i.e. tilt it on one of its rims and spin it along.

Barrels are apparently mentioned in the old testament and are also supposed to have been used in Classical Greece - although surely amphorae were the more usual type of container. The Romans had them and so did the Medievals. They're famously depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry when William the Conqueror is preparing to invade from Normandy.

In England, oak staves for making barrels were imported by the Hanseatic league from Russia and Eastern Europe because oak from those countries apparently has less knots than English oak and therefore made a better product.
I've also seen references to silver pennies being transported in barrels, and sheaves of arrows - although whether they were called barrels is another matter as I haven't seen the original text to see what they were called in Latin and Old French.
The cooper's art also incorporated such domestic items as buckets, butter churns and bath tubs and was once a vitally important part of medieval life - now replaced by mass produced metal containers. When John Seymour published The Forgotten arts in 1984, there wasn't a single apprentice cooper to be had in all of Britain - which is sad, but a sign of progress.

It would take the length of a novel to write about how a barrel is produced and since I'm still on library tour this week, I'm keeping it short, but I can highly recommend The Forgotten Arts by John Seymour for anyone wanting to take a look at skills we have lost or are in danger of losing, or are now hobby crafts, but which go far back in time. Subjects covered in good detail include ladder making, charcoal burning, wood turning, basket making, dry stone walling, wheel-wrighting, boat-building, saddle making, pottery, soap making (author reminisces about making soap from lion fat when living in Africa!) spinning, weaving and dyeing.
It's about ready to go back on my bookshelf. Next random read to catch my eye just now is a history of Lambeth palace (I'm going to dip into the Medieval bits this evening) by Tim Tatton Brown.

New Short Story

2009-04-13T21:04:00.004Z

I'm still on library tour for the next fortnight - Kensington Library on Wednesday with Katie Hickman, Wimbledon Library on Thursday 16th and then Knowle Library Solihull on Friday 17th. I'll be back to meatier blogging after that.
But dropping in to say that a while ago I was asked to write a short story for an anthology being produced to mark the Romantic Novelists' Association 50th anniversary. I was specifically asked for a historical short story and I obliged with one about a washerwoman - I'd been researching medieval laundry practices around the time the request came in. It's titled 'A Clean Start' and readers who are as fond as I am of John Marshal might enjoy a certain cameo appearance!
The book features stories from a range of authors who are all members of the RNA. Katie Fforde, Jill Mansell, Joanna Trollope etc. Also my friend Jan Jones who writes smashing Regency novels, although she tells me her story for this anthology is a contemporary.

url here to the full list.

http://www.rna-uk.org/index.php?page=article&id=158
Mine will be the only story played out in the 12th century, but there really is something for everyone!

This and that

2009-03-31T17:55:00.007Z

I am in the middle of a fairly intensive library tour at the moment with at least one day a week away from home. I'm really enjoying being out on the road meeting readers, and it is great to see such a broad demographic, but it does mean that my writing time is being slightly squashed. I am preparing a couple of longer blog posts but in the meantime this is to explain why I'm not around so much - tour finishes at the end of April - and to add a few snippets of general information.

The picture at the beginning of the blog. Yikes - another headless woman (although she has her head to hand - see the stool!). No, it's not the next book cover, but part of a display put on by Leominster Library to mark their celebration of historical fiction. What a great idea! There would have been more photos but my husband went out to the car to check on the dog, who's part of the tour team, and forgot about his duties as cameraman.

Talking of covers. I am told that my work in progress about Mahelt Marshal and Hugh Bigod is going to have a new look cover. My publishers are considering their options at the moment. While the existing ones have sold very well and created a brand image, it is perhaps time to move on. The Time of Singing Paperback will have the same cover style, as will the re-issue of The Running Vixen, but then who knows? I await with excitement, interest, and trepidation.

And talking of The Running Vixen: I am just working on the first batch of edits of the rewrite.
It has been very interesting revisiting something that I last worked on around 1990 and as with The Wild Hunt, I've found that my verbosity has somewhat diminished since the early days. Part of the Running Vixen involves The Empress Matilda and I am finding that in this early novel of mine, she is slightly different to the woman I am going to be portraying once I begin writing the Empress's story. Perhaps The Running Vixen brings out her harder traits, although she is only a minor character.

I am currently building up a picture of the Empress Matilda in the Akashic Records and it's proving to be magnificent material - spot on with the history, but showing the Empress and her relationships in wonderful depth. I'll post a couple of examples in a future blog. It really is terrific material.

Meanwhile with the work in progress, I am nearing the end of draft 2. With a bit of luck, I might have it ready for the hard copy edit by the end of April or early May. It's not due in until September, but since the hard copy edit is only another layer in a long process, I'm still going to need the time.

More anon when I have a moment! In the meantime back to the edits!

Return of Castles in the Ether

2009-03-09T18:04:00.008Z

Some months ago I posted an article concerning the possible whereabouts of Newbury Castle.
http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2008/10/castles-in-ether-finding-newbury-castle.html
Akashic research, including some imperative and forthright input by its builder, John Marshal, had strongly suggested that the site was at Speen just outside Newbury.
I've been doing some digging around to see if the Marshals had any connections with Speen beyond the mention of the market William Marshal granted himself there in 1218 and I have come up with some very interesting data about the Marshals and Speen.

It turns out (to my great excitement) that Speen was indeed a Marshal property prior to 1218, but the quandary now is - when did it become theirs? That's my current jigsaw puzzle.

There is an interesting reference to Speen and the Marshals dated to 1270. (See Round, King's Serjeants, page 90) It says that Hamstead (Now Hampstead Marshall) and the grange at Speen were held by the Marshals by right of the service of the Marshal's rod. A grange was an agricultural outpost - 'a farmhouse with its stables and other buildings.' This gives me a frisson because in a session, John had described the castle site as having an old farmhouse, stable and buildings as well as the defensive fortress.
Service of the Marshal's rod means that the lands went with the job of being a Marshal. Now, while the dateline of the comment is 1270, the Marshal's hereditory lands had been fixed long before this time and it's highly possible that Hamstead and the grange at Speen had been held by the Marshal family for several generations. We know that Gilbert Marshal passed the rod on to his son John, 'my' John, builder of the lost castle at 'Newbury'. We know that John's son, John inherited the rod and in his turn passed it on t0 his brother, the great William Marshal. From there it went one after another to all the Marshal sons until the last one died, then to the eldest daughter, Matilda, and from her to her son Roger Earl of Norfolk. As a sideline, it's interesting to note that the job of Marshal was much coveted and John and his father had to fight a contest for the Marshalsea from Henry de Venoix and William de Hastings. An extant charter of King John relates to this incident. I can find nothing to say that Venoix or Hastings had any connection with Speen or Hamstead Marshal though. Click on the picture to enlarge the text.
But that's not the only connection to Speen and the Marshals. Here follows a story and a puzzle. When William Marshal gave shelter to the outlawed William de Braose in Ireland in 1208, King John was angry with him for sheltering an enemy, but William replied that 'Ge vos di ge n'ai caienz nul traitor, mes j-ai herbergie mon seignor, si comme faire le deveie.' 'I tell you that I keep no traitor here. What I have done is to give lodging to my lord, as was my duty.' Historians have long puzzled over why William should say this of de Braose. What was de Braose his lord for? The answer may be Speen. Speen itself was once owned by Bernard de Neufmarche, who was William de Braose's grandsire. We know in 1166-67, William de Braose rendered one mark in payment at the exchequer for lands at Speen. His daughter Sybilla, married a baron called Adam de Port, and their daughter then married John Marshal's eldest son, also called John. There is a suggestion that Speen came into the Marshal fold at this time as a dower portion. So already there's a tangle of conflicting evidence. It certainly gives credence to the Marshal/Braose connection. Speen seems to have consisted of several manors, including Woodspeen and Speenhamland, so perhaps the Marshals were consolidating the area. When all of William Marshal's sons had died without issue, the lands were divided among the daughters and Matilda, the eldest daughter, inherited the main manor at Speen while her sisters received other portions.
It is interesting too that early in the 13th Century, William Marshal Junior, enfeoffed one Thomas Basset with £10.00 worth of land in his manor of Speen. The Basset's were Marshal kin by marriage, John Marshal (my John) having once been married to Aline, whose offspring from her second marriage, went on to marry into the Basset line.
The church for Speen is that of St Mary The Virgin. On its own website http://www.achurchnearyou.com/speen-st-mary-the-virgin/ it says:
'It is a medieval church built on Saxon Foundations, and was the mother church of Newbury. In 1086 it was recorded in the Domesday Book. The church stands about 200 yards from where I purport the castle site to be and I found it interesting that the church is claimed to be the 'mother church' of Newbury. Built before the others were built. The Marshals have a connection with this church. There are several charters listed in the cartulary of Sandford Priory.
For example from 1206:
Uniuersis etc Willelmus Marescallus comes Penbr[] salutem Nouerit uniuersitas uestra me concessisse etc deo et beate Marie et fratribus militie Templi Salomonis intuitu caritatis et pro salute anime mee et Isabelle uxoris mee et puerorum meorum et antecessorum omnium et successorum meorum in liberam et puram et perpetuam elemosinam ecclesiam de Spenes cum omnibus ad eam pertinentibus et omnibus libertatibus suis habend et tenend et in usus proprios perpetuo possidendam Et ut etc Hiis testibus Edwardo abbate de Nottel

My Latin is pretty terrible, but basically it's a salutation from William Marshal giving the proceeds of the church at Speen to the Templars for his soul, for the soul of his wife, Isabelle and for the souls of their ancestors and their heirs.
Recent trawling has turned up a mention in the Pipe roll of 1199 referencing William Marshal and Speen. 'Et in perdonis Willelmo Marescallo dim.m. de wasto qod exigebatur ex eo in terra sua de Spienes per breve R. I'm still working on the translation of this one, having only just found it, but I'll get there.

None of this proves that there was a castle at Speen, but it does add to the circumstantial evidence. The Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal tells us that John Marshal built a castle at Newbury. But no one knows where it is. Speen, on the outskirts, with its commanding views over the landscape and strategic roads would have been an ideal place. The church, within short walking distance has been there since Saxon times. The Marshal presence at Speen from the late 12th century is confirmed by pipe roll evidence and then charters - evidence I didn't know about until now. It's a slow, laborious process, but nothing turned up so far detracts from the idea that Newbury Castle was at Speen, and indeed, in a peripheral manner, supports the argument.
If I dig up any more details, I'll post them.

And finally:
For those who have lasted the distance to the end of the blog...
I have a note about my interview with Sharon Penman. Her publishers have asked if I will post the interview in August to coincide with the paperback of Devil's Brood. I'm happy to do that, but to say that the wait will be a little longer now!