Book Giveaway - The Greatest Knight!

Another awesome giveaway to let y'all know about. This one is by The Tome Traveler. Click the link below to read the details of the giveaway! She also has an interview with the author, Elizabeth Chadwick.

The Greatest Knight Giveaway!!

This Day in History...

September 4, 1985 - For the first time in 73 years Dr. Robert Ballard photographs the RMS Titanic. Ballard was leading a joint American-French expedition and had finally located the ship only 4 days earlier. Her exact location had been a mystery since the night she disappeared under the waters of the North Atlantic with the loss of 1,500 lives.

Info for Friends...

For those of my friends that are following this blog for info on me, the fam, scrapbooking, etc, etc, etc, all of that will be moving to my new, personal blog "Bloggin' from Home" (blogginathome.blogspot.com).

This blog is going to be focused on historical fiction, history, all things British, book reviews, etc. If that interests you, please keep following! If not, please head over to my other blog and start following that one!

Hope to see some of you in both places! :)

Book Review: The Daughter of Time

The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
4 roses

*May contain spoilers*

This was a fascinating read by Josephine Tey. It is the story of Alan Grant, a policeman with Scotland Yard, who is laid up in the hospital after being injured on the job. A friend brings in a portrait of Richard III and he has a hard time believing that the man in the picture is the horrible, nephew murdering hunchback that he is familiar with. This sparks his interest and to relieve his boredom he takes up the 400+ year old case of Richard III - did he or did he not murder his nephews in the Tower? He and an American researcher working in the British Museum sort through all the evidence they can get and look at the case through a policeman's perspective - considering motives, opportunities, written accounts from the times, looking for breaks in the normal routine of the main players, etc. Grant becomes convinced that, based on the evidence, that Richard did not murder his nephews. In fact, he had absolutely nothing to gain and quite a bit to loose if he did.

It should be mentioned that Tey is writing a work of fiction here so I'm sure some things that didn't fit into her story were most likely left out. But that aside, it is an intriguing look at a man who history has made out to be a horrible monster. One of the points Grant realizes (and probably the biggest) is that, basically, history is written by the victors. Anything that might make them, the victors, look bad is going to be changed and anything that can discredit the vanquished will be trumped up as much as possible.

Some of the evidence/points that Grant comes across:

1. The accepted history of Richard III was written by Thomas More who was about 8 when Richard was killed AND he was writing for a Tudor King. He certainly wasn't going to publish anything that would make Henry VIII's father look bad. Also, a lot of his information apparently came from a certain John Morton, who hated Richard. (It should be noted that Shakespeare used More's account of Richard's life when writing his play Richard III, which most people today base their idea of Richard on.)

2. Richard had declared all of Edward's children illegitimate but there were still several heirs in line ahead of him and they continued to live happy lives during his reign. No reason to do away with just two of the heirs between him and the throne and leave all the others.

3. When Henry VII was having all of Richard's crimes laid out never once was the murder of the Princes mentioned. He wasn't even accused of it.

4. After Richard took the throne, Elizabeth Woodville came out of sanctuary, her daughters went to Richard's court, and she wrote to one of her Grey sons in France to come home because Richard would be kind to him. Would she have done this if she thought Richard killed her sons?

5. Henry VII, to bolster his claim to the throne after killing Richard, married Elizabeth of York, the sister of the Princes in the Tower. To make her claim to the throne valid, he had to make her (and ALL her siblings) legitimate. Once he did that, her brother was the rightful King again.

These are just a few of the points Grant considers when he finally comes to his verdict at the end. Some of the information Tey puts into her story certainly will make you think about what you accept as history, especially in a case such as Richard's. I do wish the story had been longer and more detail given about some of the evidence presented but I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Richard III.

Booking Through Thursday - Big

Booking through Thursday is hosted by Deb over at Wordpress.

Q: What’s the biggest book you’ve read recently?
(Feel free to think “big” as size, or as popularity, or in any other way you care to interpret.)


If we're talking biggest in size then The Sunne in Splendour (944 pages) by Sharon Kay Penman is the winner, followed by her When Christ and his Saints Slept (784 pages).

I absolutely loved Sunne and was so disappointed when it ended. It could have been another 100 pages or more and I would not have cared. And of course, even though I knew what was coming at the end, I still wanted to cry and wished that somehow, history could change. If a book is really good, really pulls you in, you usually do not notice if it is actually a really big book in size.

You've always heard the old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover." Well, we need to add to that "Don't judge a book by its size" as well. I've certainly found that some really short little books are absolutely horrible and a waste of my reading time.

This Day in History...

Today's history tidbit is quite appropriate as I'm reading Sharon Kay Penman's novel on this right now!


September 3, 1189 - Following the death of his father Henry II, Richard I (the Lionheart) was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey in London. He spoke very little English and spent very little time in England (he preferred to live in his Duchy of Aquitaine). During the whole of his 10 year reign he was in England for about a total of six months.

Wishful Wednesdays

Wishful Wednesdays is hosted by Should be Reading.


What books have you been wishing for lately?


1. Legacy, Susan Kay - A great book about Elizabeth I

2. Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (which came in the mail two days ago!) - A detective sets about redeeming Richard III after seeing his painting.

3. Court of the Midnight King, Freda Warrington - Another good book on Richard III.

4. The Seventh Son, Reay Tannahill - Again, a book on Richard III, though not a romanticized version.

5. Harold the King, Helen Hollick - A story about Britian's Kings right before the Norman invasion.

6. Anything by Elizabeth Chadwick - She comes highly recommended by folks over at Goodreads (and other historical fictions sites) and I am anxious to get a hold of her works.

Book Review: Time and Chance

Time and Chance, Sharon Kay Penman
4 roses


This is the second book in Sharon Kay Penman's Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy. This one focuses mainly on the break between Henry II and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. I enjoyed this one though some of the stuff about Becket did drag a bit for me.

Two of the people Henry II trusted most were Eleanor, his wife, and Thomas Becket, his very close friend. In this continuation of Henry and Eleanor's story, they now many children, including several boys, and they seem to have a very good marriage. Henry has become close friends with his chancellor, Thomas Becket. Things start to go awry when Henry, against the advice of his wife and mother (and probably others as well), appoints Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury. He thought he would have a great ally with his close friend in this position. He soon found out he was very wrong.

The break between Henry and Becket and their ongoing quarrel is well documented in history. While both men were very stubborn, I found that I really had no sympathy for Becket. I believe that he brought most of the problems down on himself. He could have accomplished more of what he felt was "right" if he had attempted to stay friends with Henry. That's not saying that I did not get irritated at Henry for his stubbornness as well, I just never felt anything towards Becket except that he did it to himself. This could be because there really was not much of an in depth look at WHY Becket acted in this way; no delving into his thoughts to see why he thought he was right. Of course, Henry's rash statement of "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest" is well known to people familiar with the period and Penman uses a variation of this in the novel, though the outcome is the same. Becket is murdered by 4 knights in Canterbury Cathedral and almost becomes a saint overnight. This murder haunts Henry for the rest of his life. He even goes into self exile in Ireland for a while, though he proclaims that he is going to settle matters in that country. In the novel we see a Henry who is upset at the murder and knows that even though he did not order it, the knights thought they were doing his bidding. A lot of his sadness at this point could also be because he knows the blame is going to be placed solely at his feet.

During the mess with Becket, another of Henry's relationships begins to crumble and it is solely his doing. By taking a mistress and actually keeping her, setting her up at the royal manor at Woodstock, he inflicts a deep wound in his wife, Eleanor. I truly felt sorry for her. She had been a good wife to him from the beginning, baring him several children and even tactfully ignoring his other mistresses. Eleanor acts like a queen indeed when she finally confronts Rosamund Clifford at Woodstock (after traveling across the Channel, in winter, while almost at the end of her last pregnancy). If it had been me I would not have been able to act so calm and aloof; I would have torn into the girl. After this confrontation Eleanor gives birth to her last son, John (who most people will be familiar with as the evil King John in Robin Hood stories). After finding out about Henry's affection for this girl, Eleanor begins to drift away from him. This will lead to the final, explosive climax of their story in Devil's Brood. As to the character of Rosamund Clifford, I did not like her. I saw her as a young girl who was dazzled by the King, "fell in love with him," and then kept putting herself in his way until she got what she wanted - in his bed. I wanted to smack her, not only for going after a married man but for her constant sniveling and crying because Henry was not there with her (he was a King after all and had important things to take care of). I don't know why her character grated on my nerves so much but if there was one person in the story I'd want to go back in time and really knock around, it was this silly girl.

We see more of the fictional Ranulf in this story and quite a bit on the state of political affairs in Wales. Ranulf is, again, torn between his loyalty to his cousin the King and his love for his Welsh home. This is the story within the story in this book, even more so than it was in the first novel. Henry and Eleanor's son, Richard, also begins to pop up more in the last 1/3 of the story as well, which sets things up nicely for the last book in the trilogy.

Again, another great work by Penman. While the whole Becket issue dragged a bit for me, everything else moved along nicely. I came out of this one feeling extremely sorry for Eleanor, thinking Henry was a bit blind, Becket brought the trouble on himself, Wales was in trouble, and Rosamund Clifford was a silly little trouble maker. I am looking forward to the last installment in this trilogy to see how Penman brings that explosive climax to life.

Wordless Wednesday

Sponsored over at Wordless Wednesday.

Stonehenge

I took this picture when I was in England in 2001. Sorry for the poor quality. I had a
regular 35mm camera at the time...no digital!

This Day in History...

September 2, 1666 - The Great Fire of London began in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane. It rapidly spread throughout the city, finding easy fuel in the closely built, wooden medieval buildings. It destroyed most of London's buildings and houses. Amazingly, Although 13,000 buildings were destroyed, including St. Paul's Cathedral, in the four-day blaze only six people died. The city was rebuilt (obviously) but the medieval style of the city was gone and Charles II ordered that no buildings in London were allowed to have thatched roofs. The British author Samuel Pepys gives lots of interesting details in his Diary.


September 2, 1945 - World War II officially ended aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay when Japanese officials surrendered on behalf of their country.

New Look for My Kingdom!

Thanks to Marie over at The Burton Review for her help in figuring out how to change the more technical things on the blog! :)

So...here is the new background I've picked out. I'm still looking around but this is my favorite so far. PLEASE let me know what y'all think!

Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Bring back the castle? :)

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Here's how it works:




*Grab your current read.
*Open to a random page.
*Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
*BE CAREFUL NOT TO USE SPOILERS.
*Include the title and author so others can add it to their TBR list.

Here are my two teaser lines for the week. I am still working on finishing Sharon Kay Penman's 2nd novel in her Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy, Time and Chance.

He had never been a man to let lust command his brain. This surge of sudden desire was distracting enough, though, for him to reconsider his tactics. She'd never been shy about speaking her mind in the past. Would she have permitted him to brush her hair like this if she was not amenable to reconciliation tonight?

But of all her virtues, the one that shone the brightest for him on this December night at Argentan was her sophistication. She was wise enough to understand that men were born to sin, and worldly enough not to let it trouble her unduly. He should have realized that Eleanor, the most celebrated queen in all of Christendom, would not be threatened by a mere slip of a girl like Rosamund Clifford.

This Day in History...

Wow...this day has been a pretty bad one all around!


September 1, 1939 - At dawn, Germany invaded Poland and bombed Warsaw at 6am, beginning World War II in Europe. Within one day of the invasion, Hitler was setting up SS "Death's Head" regiments to terrorize the citizens, giving a horrific glimpse at what was to come later in the war to those that opposed him or he didn't like.


And because this one is about where I live....

September 1, 1864 - General Sherman laid siege to Atlanta, Georgia, shelling civilians and cutting off supply lines. The Confederates troops retreated, destroying the city's munitions as they went. Later that year on November 15, Sherman's troops burned the city to the ground before continuing their march through the South.

Doing Some Work on Blog

Just wanted to give a heads up to everyone. I'm going to be playing around with my background and template and stuff over the next few days so if you log in and things are weird looking (or missing or something WORSE!) don't panic. I'll be panicking enough for both of us. Just working on getting everything backed up now before I start messing with things. :)

I'll let y'all know when I'm done tinkering around so you can let me know if you like the new look better. :)

This Day in History...

August 31, 1422 - The great warrior King Henry V died and his son, aged about six months, became Henry VI of England.

Henry V is most famous for the incredible English victory at Agincourt, France. This battle was part of the English Kings' (yes, that is plural as several tried to accomplish this) campaign to gain the crown of France, which they thought they had a right to. He died after a battle of France.

His son Henry VI's reign is most notable for the War of the Roses, where the rival House of York laid claim to the English throne. Henry VI for the most part didn't want to be king.

Mailbox Mondays

Mailbox Mondays is hosted by Marcia over at The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do).
So, without further ado...





1. The First Princess of Wales, Karen Harper

This is a great story about Joan of Kent, wife of Edward the Black Prince. Got this one off Paperbackswap. Wanted to add this one to my collection after getting it from the library.




2. The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey

So the title of this one really gives you no clue as to what the book is about. It is about a detective who sets out to investigate Richard III, to see if he was as horrible as tradition has made him out to be. This one came from Paperbackswap, too. I can't wait to start this one but I have to finish SKP's Time and Chance first.



3. The Last Boleyn, Karen Harper

Obviously a book about the Boleyns, this one about Mary. This is probably a much better version of what her life was really like, with a lot less historical inaccuracies than PG's The Other Boleyn Girl. Again, got this one off Paperbackswap (you should join, really!).

Book Review: When Christ and His Saints Slept

When Christ and His Saints Slept, Sharon Kay Penman
4.5 roses

Another of Sharon Kay Penman's wonderful works. This is the first of a trilogy about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. It took me a little while to get into this book, longer than it took with "Sunne" but after about half way I started picking up speed. Having never read anything about the struggle between Maude and Stephen, this book was a real eye opener.

Henry I (son of William the Conqueror) loses his only legitimate son when he drowns in the sinking of the White Ship and ends up naming his daughter, the Empress Maude, as his sole heir. Many of the barons of England don't like the thought of a woman ruling them (and they don't like Maude's second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, who she was forced to marry) and many try to convince Stephen of Blois (grandson of William the Conqueror through William's daughter Adela) that HE should claim the throne of England. As it happens, when Henry I dies Maude prepares to head to England to claim her crown and then hears that Stephen has claimed and been crowned King of England. Thus starts one of the most turbulent times of civil war in English history.

The story is told through several POV's: Maude's, Stephen's, and Ranulf's (a fictional illegitimate younger brother of Maude). You also get, at some points in the story, the viewpoint of the common people of England who really didn't care who was ruling over them as long as they had peace and their families were safe. This war that lasted somewhere around 15 years (give or take a few) really brought England to a low spot. I was amazed at how many towns and villages were ransacked and burned, how many innocent citizens died, and how much flip flopping of loyalties occurred. For the people of England, it really was a time "when Christ and His saints slept." Towards the end of the story you see more and more of Maude's son, Henry (the future Henry II), and Eleanor of Aquitaine. When Stephen looses his oldest son Eustace(thank goodness!) he ends up naming Henry as his heir. The story comes to a close not long after Henry and Eleanor are crowned King and Queen of England.

The characters in this story are what every good writer should strive to create. The main characters are not clear cut good, bad, etc. They all have depth to them which is wonderful. I found myself at different times liking, being aggravated by, wanting to slap or hug, several of the main characters. I felt sorry for Maude because she was only trying to claim what was rightfully her's and the people of England really treated her badly. Then at the same time, I wanted to smack her because she really didn't help her cause by acting the way she did (which ultimately cost her the crown). Stephen was a likable guy but, besides being a good battle commander, was completely unsuitable to be King(and he DID steal Maude's crown). I could feel some pity for him with all this troubles he had with his barons but he did bring it on himself (just as Maude did). Ranulf was an interesting character to add into the story. You get a different perspective of what was happening through his eyes. He was very loyal to his sister and seemed to have his head on straight most of the time. I was okay with him through most of the novel though I wanted to hit him because he just couldn't let go of Annora, even though it was obvious that she wasn't going to leave her husband. Obviously Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine figure into the story more towards the end but I'm not going to go into detail about them here as their story is told more in full in the next book. There are many other interesting characters in the story (Geoffrey of Anjou, Stephen's calculating brother the Bishop of Winchester, Stephen's HORRIBLE son Eustace, Maude and Ranulf's brother Robert, Stephen's queen Matilda, John Marshal, etc, etc) but I can't sit here and talk about all of them unfortunately.

I really enjoyed this story as it covered a part of British history that I previously had read very little about. I think the best part came towards the end, once you get more and more of Maude's son Henry and Eleanor. Their story is amazing and continues in the next book Time and Chance.

This Day in History...

August 20, 1146 - Pope Innocent II held a conference of European leaders and prelates in which they outlawed the use of the crossbow. In fact, it wasn't JUST the crossbow ("the dastard's weapon") they were outlawing, it was "the deadly and God-detested art of slingers and archers." They hoped that by banning the weapon, wars would eventually end for good (Why they thought this I don't know; man is still man and would fight a war with something else if need be). Despite this prohibition, crossbows continued to be used until the 1500s (however the English used the longbow much more often in battle which was much easier to use and more deadly as more bolts could be shot per minute), when they were replaced by firearms.

This Day in History...

August 29, 1911 - Ishi is discovered in California. He is described as the last surviving STONE AGE Indian in the US.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Europeans had flooded the continent and most Native Americans had assimilated, to some degree, into this new Anglo society. This man seemed to be the exception. When he was found he spoke no English and was unfamiliar with white ways. It was eventually discovered that he was the last remaining member of the Yana Tribe. He was taken to Berkley Museum for protection and he eventually became used to life around him (even liking to ride on the trolleys).

He lived at Berkley Museum for 5 years before he caught TB and died. According to the customs of his people, his body was cremated.

Englishmen in America in the 1400s?

Michelle Moran, the History Buff, had this article posted on her blog and I found it really fascinating. Thought I would pass it along in case anyone else would be interested. :) I love it when stuff like this is found...really makes me wish I had gone into archeology or somehow majored in British history. Can you imagine being the first person to touch something like this in over 500 years???? Clink the link below to go to the full article.


Letter from Henry VII