More Progress on Books

 I am pleased to say that I am more than 60% on with the second book in the Walking Among Lions series, and I expect to see it finished and out there by December 2022 at the latest. The working title is Hanley Castle but there is a chance that might change. Anyway, keep looking out for it. 

This will pretty well complete Constance's story when coupled with Within the Fetterlock. However, that novel is now 'hard to find' and also I have found out some new facts; I am conscious of some errors, and I now interpret the political situation slightly differently. Some of this will show up in Hanley Castle, but I have decided that a third volume in the same style is necessary to complete Constance's story.  This has a working title of The Downfall of Our House and I hope to have it out in 2023.

The second Alianore book, The Mists of Middleham is next up. It is very largely finished, just needs a certain amount of work, mainly polishing. It will be finalised once the third Constance book is out, and again I hope this will be in 2023.

A Link to my Website

 My long neglected website can be found here.

It is now relatively updated!

The long promised Constance Prequel

 Here we are.

Walking Among Lions is the first of a trilogy about Constance of York. It was first conceived as a prequel to Within the Fetterlock. (A draft title was This New Spring of Time but my friends changed my mind.)

As Within the Fetterlock is now 'hard to find' and my understanding of the politics and certain facts have changed, I have now decided to go the whole hog, so the trilogy will cover her whole life.

The Complexities of Medieval Wardship

 I am currently trying to unravel the arrangements for the Despenser lands in the late 14th Century. It is quite complex.

When Edward, Lord Despenser died in November 1375, the wardship of his lands was given to his widow, Elisabeth. This was an unusual mark of favour and may reflect the fact that Sir Edward had been one of England's premier knights and was very well-regarded. Elisabeth also had a third of the lands in dower plus her inherited Burghersh lands which belonged to her in her own right. This made her a very wealthy and powerful woman, and all indications are that she did a very good job of protecting her son's lands rather than asset-stripping them as 'guardians' often did.

Of course, the grant was not absolute. She 'farmed' the wardship (which ultimately belonged to the King) and had to pay a fat annual fee for the privilege. This was quite normal practice. Some of that fee was certainly paid to the Duke of York, whose daughter was married to her son Thomas around about 1379. (They were both very small children.) This began a process where various members of the York family lived off the part of the Despenser revenues right up until 1415/16. But that's another story.

In December 1390, when Thomas was still only 17, he was associated with his mother in his own wardship. This was very unusual and shows a degree of favour from Richard II. However, it applied to only part of the inheritance. The two-thirds of Glamorgan not forming Elisabeth's dower were covered as was a selection of the English lands but by no means all of them. For this Thomas and Elisabeth had to pay £700 a year to the King plus smaller amounts to various people who had been given incomes based on the issues of the wardship. The implication is that the lands must have been worth more - perhaps much more. When it is borne in mind that the Duke of York's landed income was only £900, it shows how valuable the Despenser lands must have been.

How this worked in practice is hard to discern, but it looks like Elisabeth retained charge of much of the English inheritance. The purpose of this split eludes me.

In 1394 when Thomas was twenty, he was allowed full livery of all his lands some months before his birthday. This concession may have related to his decision to go with the King to Ireland, and the downside to it is we do not get a Proof of Age as he was never required to obtain one. This deprives us of a great deal of knowledge. Again, some people were given protection until he truly came of age, but he would have had the bulk of his inheritance and his mother's duty was at an end.

This New Spring of Time.

I am still pressing on with the novel, which has now reached Chapter 8. I wish I could write more quickly and more fluently, but I can't. I take the view that continuing progress is a Good Thing.

What would speed me up (probably) would be a lucrative publishing contract and a deadline; but I might as well say that a visit from the Blessed Virgin Mary would help. The latter is more probable, after all.

However I am absolutely determined to finish this book. I am writing it, basically for two people. Constance and me. If anyone else likes it, that will be a bonus, but as I do not expect to be able to buy a Rolls Royce with the proceeds, I am remarkably relaxed about the whole thing.

What I can say is the style is quite different from anything I have written before. It May Not Please Everyone. But it so happens I am finding it easier to write that way.

Richard II

Today I saw on the internet an extract from a book which suggested Richard II's marriage to Anne of Bohemia was never consummated.

This is utter bull excrement. We know, as a fact, that Anne lost children  she had conceived. For details, see Kathryn Warner's book on Richard.

So unless the Holy Ghost was busy in late 14th Century England, it's a certain as anything can be that happened over 600 years ago that the marriage was consummated.

Deferring the Garter Meeting.

In Kathryn Warner's book on Richard II I found that in 1386 the usual meeting of the Order of the Garter was deferred from St George's Day, although no reason was given in the King's letters. This threw me as the opening scene of This New Spring of Time is that very meeting and I had written it as taking place on St George's Day. Suddenly, this was wrong!

So I searched as one does, and found that the Garter statutes (albeit compiled in Henry V's time) provided that if the feast of St George fell close to Easter, the meeting would be deferred until the following Sunday. This was to save the knights having to travel over Easter, which was a no-no.

In 1386, St George's Day fell on Easter Monday! So at a stroke, I knew why it had been deferred and the likely replacement date. Simples!

Hostage to Fortune Time

I am making good progress with the Richard III novel; in fact I think the hard work is done and all I need to finish it is write the other half and edit the thing. This latter task, because of the fragmented method of working I'm experimenting with, may take some time.

Anyroad, as we say in Lancashire, I reckon the manuscript will be finished in 2010, and that is the target I'm setting myself. I'm keeping the exact target month to myself.

Next project up is likely to be my long-projected work on Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, which has the working title of This New Spring of Time. I have started research on this - you could say I started about 35 years ago - and my current bedside reading is The Westminster Chronicle. I did make a start of the writing a bit back, but that proved abortive.

Bookies are offering very short prices on guest appearances by Constance of York and her family, while Philippa Mohun will almost certainly return by public demand.