Historical Fiction Spotlight: Escape of the Grand Duchess, by Susan Appleyard

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Rich in historical detail and driven by an unforgettable heroine, Escape of the Grand Duchess is a sweeping riches-to-rags tale of survival, love, and the strength it takes to forge a new life in the face of

unimaginable upheaval.

Unlike her ill-fated brother and his family, Olga’s story is one of resilience, sacrifice, and daring escape. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a reckless gambler—who harbours secrets of his own—she finds hope in the arms of a dashing army lieutenant. But before she can claim her own happiness, she must first endure the brutal realities of World War I, where she serves as a nurse on the frontlines.

As the Russian Empire teeters on the brink of collapse, the infamous Siberian mystic Rasputin tightens his grip on the imperial court, setting the stage for revolution. With the Bolsheviks seizing power and the Romanovs marked for death, Olga faces an impossible choice: risk everything to stay or flee into the unknown with her true love and their children.

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About the Author

Susan Appleyard was born in England, which is where she learned to love English history, and now lives in Canada in the summer. In winter she and her husband flee the cold for their second home in Mexico. Susan divides her time between writing and her hobby, oil painting, although writing will always be her first love. She was fortunate in having had two books published traditionally. Since joining the ebook crowd, she has published nine books, some of which have won various awards. Find out more from Susan's website and find her on Facebook and Instagram

Blog Tour Spotlight: The Queen’s Maid: Anne Boleyn in France Series: The Anne Boleyn Chronicles, by Rozsa Gaston

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France, 1514:  After an enlightening period of training as a lady’s maid at Margaret of Austria’s court, Anne Boleyn has been sent to France.

She arrives at the Palace of Tournelles, home of ageing King Louis and his new English wife, Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII. As Anne speaks French, her main role is to serve as translator for Queen Mary.

Anne’s sister Mary is also at the French court, and Anne soon learns that not everyone is pleased about the union between the French king and his young queen.

The king’s cousin-in-law, Louise of Savoy, is desperate for Queen Mary not to fall pregnant, so that her son Francis will ascend the throne.

And with Louise and the English queen pulling Anne in two different directions, it will not be possible to appease everyone.

Can Anne successfully navigate the familial politics at the French royal court? Will she make her mark as one of the queen’s maids?

Or could her divided loyalties prove to be her undoing…?

‘Wonderfully detailed and entirely enjoyable. This is a young Anne in whom I absolutely believe, and who does much to explain the woman she’d become.’ – Sarah Gristwood, author of Game of Queens

THE ANNE BOLEYN CHRONICLES SERIES:

Book One: Maid of Honour

Book Two: The Queen’s Maid

Book Three: Queen of Diamonds

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About the Author

Rozsa Gaston is a historical fiction author who writes books on women who reach for what they want out of life. She is the author of Maid of Honour: Anne Boleyn at Margaret of Austria's Court, 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 of the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗨𝗖𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 for Early Historical Fiction, The Queen's Maid: Anne Boleyn in France, Queen of Diamonds: The French Royal Court, Margaret of Austria, 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 of the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗨𝗖𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 for Early Historical Fiction, the four-book Anne of Brittany Series: Anne and Charles; Anne and Louis, 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 of the 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟴 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞𝗟𝗬 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲; Anne and Louis: Rulers and Lovers; and Anne and Louis Forever Bound, 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 of the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗨𝗖𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 for Early Historical Fiction. Other works include Sense of Touch, Marguerite and Gaston, The Least Foolish Woman in France, Paris Adieu, and Budapest Romance. Rozsa Gaston studied European history at Yale and received her master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia. She worked at Institutional Investor, WR Capital, and as a columnist for The Westchester Guardian before becoming a novelist. She is currently working on Book Four of The Anne Boleyn Chronicles, covering Anne Boleyn's time at the 1520 Field of Cloth of Gold. She lives in Bronxville, New York with her family. Find out more at her website:rozsagaston.wordpress.com/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter / X: @RozsaGaston

Book Launch Guest Post by Eleanor Swift Hook : The Turncoat’s Revenge (Lord's Learning Book 3)

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Spring 1628: England is at war with France as the rest of Europe consumes itself in increasingly bitter conflict. n Dunkirk, Philip Lord, disgraced adventurer, has a new ship and through it the chance to gain enough from his privateering to follow his guiding star. But when he must risk everything to rescue a fellow Dunkirker at sea, he and the ever-loyal Jorrit are thrown into mortal danger.

1628: A savage year for England—a year that sees the nation embroiled in three wars.

Just across the sea, Europe devours itself in a conflagration that started a decade before and is to burn ferociously for two more decades until it becomes a byword for brutality, devastation and death. The Thirty Years War. In terms of proportionate population loss, it would be more destructive than the two orld Wars of the Twentieth Century.

England was drawn into this maelstrom courtesy of the English princess Elizabeth, heir to the throne of England, and her husband the Elector Palatine, who have been at the heart of the conflagration since it began. English outrage at Elizabeth losing both her Bohemian crown and her status as Electress Palatine, brought donations of money and volunteer canon fodder. But even with English support and Elizabeth’s uncle, the King of Denmark, throwing the might of his army on the scales, it isn’t going well.

Elizabeth Stuart Queen of Bohemia

But in 1628 England is also at war with Spain. 

Why?

State policy? 

Or hurt feelings?

The Spanish Court snubbed King Charles and his favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, five years before when they travelled to Madrid in disguise, in a quixotic attempt to woo the Spanish Infanta. A slight Buckingham, at least, has not forgotten, and he is a man to bear grudges.

Whatever the motivation, the Spanish king is kin to the Emperor and the two are united in their desire for a Catholic Habsburg hegemony of all Europe. So yes, statecraft might argue that war against the Emperor made war against Spain a sensible choice, and by and large the English were pleased to support this war.

Spain having been the traditional enemy of England since before the Armada and memories of that Elizabethan success and ancestral pride originally fuelled enthusiasm in the breasts of true-born Englishmen! But such success was not to be repeated in this generation. An attempt to capture Cadiz, in a naval expedition organised by the Duke of Buckingham, failed completely with a third of the fleet being lost.

Francisco de Zurbarán

And the third war?

Well, even though King Charles recently married a French Princess and the French have been active allies in the anti-Habsburg Palatinate cause, England is now at war with France!

Yet only a short time ago they had been bosom pals.

Indeed, they had been such close friends that the English king agreed to provide ships to help the French king put down rebellion by his Protestant Huguenot subjects. This caused outrage amongst the English people and a horrified Parliament had objected to the notion of English forces attacking fellow Protestants. In the end it was the ships alone and not their crews which were provided. 

It didn’t help Anglo/French relations that Buckingham was suspected of trying to seduce the Queen of France under the nose of her husband whilst on a diplomatic visit, and had been refused permission to return to the country as a result.

Amity with France collapsed altogether when it became clear the French had made a secret treaty with Spain, seemed to be abandoning the Protestant cause in the Empire—and were building their own navy.  

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (by Peter Paul Rubens)

So was it state policy or more of Buckingham's slighted pride that sent his man Walter Montague to France as a secret agent, to encourage and foment a Huguenot rebellion, with the promise of English support? Though how such support could be forthcoming was unclear.  There was no money for third  war. Least of all one with scant benefit to England’s national interests. 

In the end, the promised support for a Protestant uprising in La Rochelle came in the form of an expeditionary force commanded by Buckingham personally in the summer of 1627. The intent was to seize the fortress town of Saint-Martin-de-Ré which controlled the approach to La Rochelle, thus opening a sea route to the beleaguered city. 

It was another disaster,  a fiasco, foundering as badly as the Cadiz debacle—if not more so. The Isle-de-Ré became ‘the Ill Array’ on English lips. Buckingham, already despised for his monopoly farms and the excessive influence he had over the king, carried the full weight of blame for the extent of its failure in the popular mind, and was hated and derided in equal measure. 

Invasion of Re, 1627

So now here we are.

It is 1628 and England is embroiled in three wars.

Buckingham is licking his wounds and raising a new fleet against the French, to redeem his honour and win back the love of the nation. But it’s not going to plan. England has had enough of war and more than enough of Buckingham himself.  Monopoly farms, military catastrophe and incompetence are not the only charges set against him. Rumours that he poisoned King James have been taken seriously at the highest levels. Twice now, Parliament has tried to impeach Buckingham, and been prevented from doing so by the king dismissing it. This time, though, Parliament is bringing forward a Petition of Right addressing its grievances, and taking aim at the Royal favourite, which it insists must be agreed by the king if he wants to secure ongoing finance for his three wars. And Parliament holds the purse strings.

England in 1628: A stage set for tragedy, onto which our players must stride.

A young mercenary turned privateer, condemned for treason, but driven by an overriding ambition, and a nobleman’s daughter, in the service of the English heir, the exiled Queen of Bohemia, seeking to protect her mistress and herself from the machinations of an overpowerful enemy. Each must play out their part against the blood drenched backdrop of war, politics, intrigue—and murder…

Eleanor Swift Hook

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About the Author

Eleanor Swift-Hook enjoys the mysteries of history and fell in love with the early Stuart era at university when she re-enacted battles and living history events with the English Civil War Society. Since then, she has had an ongoing fascination with the social, military and political events that unfolded during the Thirty Years' War and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. She lives in County Durham and loves writing stories woven into the historical backdrop of those dramatic times. You can find out more about the background of Lord's Legacy on her website www.eleanorswifthook.com and find her on Twitter @emswifthook

See Also:

Book Review: The Turncoat’s Revenge (Lord's Learning Book 3) by Eleanor Swift Hook

Blog Tour Gues Post; Inspiration Behind The ‘Soldier Spy’ Trilogy, by Rosemary Hayes

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

1812: Britain’s war against Napoleon continues. Will Fraser and Duncan Armstrong have served their country well as spies, exposing traitors and rescuing betrayed royalists. Now they are asked to support military operations in the Peninsular War. The French are using a new code which is proving impossible to decipher. Will and Armstrong must work with Spanish guerrillas to intercept messages between French Commanders and pass them to Wellington’s codebreakers

Much has been written about spying during warfare – particularly during WW2 – and I have always been attracted to stories of those working in the shadows, under-cover agents, brave men and women risking their lives to garner information about enemy activities. 

Of course, spying on your enemy is an activity as old as history itself and has become ever more sophisticated in this digital age. But how did spies operate in earlier conflicts? I decided to investigate covert operations during the Napoleonic Wars. And what a rich seam I uncovered about those 19th century spies, who they were and the lengths to which they went to get their information across borders.

The extent of spying, on both sides, during the Napoleonic Wars, was considerable. Not only at a diplomatic level, through overseas embassies and through the Alien Office, in London, and highly placed double agents, but among networks of ordinary people, too, who passed on maps and documents, letters, money and even arms.  

Smaller documents or items of intelligence could be sewn into clothing or hidden in hollowed out walking sticks or riding crops. Or even, apparently, in a hatpin (see below)! Larger items were hidden in barrels or at drop off points on the French coast such as oyster sheds. And fishermen sometimes buried items on uninhabited islets for later collection. 

Both sides employed complex codes and ciphers to protect their communications. Codebooks and cipher wheels were standard kit. One captured French codebook was worth its weight in gold to the British Intelligence Service. 

Until 1811, the French had lagged behind the British in the matter of devising and cracking codes but then the French started using the Great Paris Cipher. This code was so complex that the French were convinced that it could never be broken. Although documents using the code had been captured by Wellington’s forces, it’s unravelling defeated even the most skilled group of decoders and linguists based at his headquarters in Portugal. 

And then, at last, a British officer, George Scovell, a gifted linguist, famously cracked it, deciphering a captured letter from Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother. It revealed current and planned French troop movements and this intelligence led to a pivotal breakthrough in the Peninsular War. 

Wellington never acknowledged Scovell’s part in this breakthrough - and Joseph Bonaparte never believed the code had been broken.

Sir George Scovell

In Paris, there were underground networks of those spying for the British. Royalists, Bonapartist defectors and even double agents moved in secret, often under the noses of Joseph Fouché’s secret police (more of him later). Many were caught but a few key figures were never unmasked. 

Both British and French agents used disguises, posing as merchants, priests, artists or diplomats. Some even used travelling theatre troupes as cover to move behind enemy lines. The more mundane the cover, the more convincing. Fishermen and smugglers took agents and documents to and fro across the Channel. One Jersey fisherman made nearly 200 trips across before he was caught and executed.

Women played an important role in Napoleonic espionage. Rachel Charlotte Biggs was an English writer and spy. Between 1802 and 1816, she repeatedly visited France and Napoleon controlled Europe. She corresponded with British politicians and reported her observations about military strength, industry and agriculture and the political state. Her extraordinary story is told in the novel ‘Georgian Heroine’.

Another was a countess who allegedly passed secrets to the British via coded embroidery patterns. Female spies came in many guises and used imaginative ways in which to move intelligence across borders, including hiding micro letters in hatpins! 

Fishermen’s wives and daughters also put themselves in danger by passing on information and giving shelter to royalist spies. But among the many women spies, the one who really caught my attention was Arabella Williams, originally from Liverpool. Her handler was William Wickham. Wickham was a British diplomat who used his position in Bern as a cover to gather information and coordinate royalist organisations against France. Arabella became known as ‘le petit matelot’ – the little sailor – as she had acted as a courier passing papers between France and England for a number of years disguised as a sailor, without being caught. Arabella had her own property in France where she had lived for some years, which she also used as a safe house for other agents. 

One of her contacts was Abbé Ratel. Early in the war, Abbé Ratel organised a network of royalists to keep watch around the port of Boulogne and provide early warning of any invasion. Reports were sent to England through fishermen recruited by Ratel – who was reputed to have a very beautiful mistress. Arabella was described as being petite, very pretty, lively and immensely busy. The group she belonged to was extremely successful and despite the gendarmerie’s surveillance they managed to escape detection for many years. Sadly, I can find no portrait of Arabella though we do know that she was an English widow, the daughter of David Mallet, the poet and joint composer of ‘Rule Brittania.’ 

In France, all those spying for Britain or sympathetic to the royalist cause had to evade the clutches of Napoleon’s Minister of Police, the notorious Joseph Fouché. He was ruthless in his pursuit of British spies or those in France with royalist sympathies, torturing and executing them. He was dubbed ‘the most feared man in France’ and even Napoleon was quoted as saying ‘I fear Fouché more than all the armies of Europe’.

Joseph Fouché

The threat from spies in France and those with royalist sympathies was very real. There were several attempts to assassinate Napoleon, the most famous being in Paris on the evening of December 24th 1800. Almost certainly funded by the British, this very nearly succeeded when a cart exploded just after Napoleon’s carriage had passed, killing bystanders. 

Malmaison, Empress Josephine’s country chateau, was the site of others, including the poisoned snuff put into a replica of Napoleon’s snuff box and placed on his desk there.

Although I have changed some of their dates and locations, many of the characters mentioned in my books are based on real people including ‘Le Petit Matelot’, Pipette, the fisherman’s wife, Abbé Ratel (disguised as Father Jacques) the infamous Joseph Fouché, Wellington, General Hill and George Scovell.

The two main protagonists in my ‘Soldier Spy’ trilogy are Captain Will Fraser, a disgraced ex-army officer and his wounded sergeant, Duncan Armstrong.

In ‘Traitor’s Game’ while desperately trying to find Will’s brother, they first become embroiled in the murky world of espionage, with tragic consequences.  In the second ‘The King’s Agent’, now officially undercover agents, they are sent to France to rescue

betrayed royalists, and in the final book, ‘Code of Honour’, set in Spain and Portugal, they work with Spanish guerrillas to intercept messages between French Commanders and pass them to Wellington’s code breakers. 

And it is in this final story that the mystery surrounding Will’s dismissal from the army is at last uncovered. 

In these fast-moving stories, Will and Armstrong play terrifying games of deception and duplicity. But they are also stories of love, loyalty and revenge.

Rosemary Hayes

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About the Author

Rosemary Hayes has written many books for children in a variety of genre, from edgy teenage fiction, historical fiction and middle grade fantasy to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books.  Many of her books have won or been shortlisted for awards and several have been translated into different languages. Rosemary has travelled widely but now lives in South Cambridgeshire. She has a background in publishing, having worked for Cambridge University Press before setting up her own company Anglia Young Books which she ran for some years. She has been a reader for a well-known authors’ advisory service, runs creative writing workshops for both children and adults and reviews for historical publications. Rosemary has now turned her hand to writing adult fiction. Her historical novel ‘The King’s Command’ is about the terror and tragedy suffered by a French Huguenot family during the reign of Louis XIV. Traitor’s Game is the first book in the Soldier Spy trilogy, set during the Napoleonic Wars. The King’s Agent is the second and the third, Code of Honour, has recently been published. Find out more at www.rosemaryhayes.co.uk  and find Rosemary on Facebook and Twitter / X: @HayesRosemary

Book Launch Spotlight: Achilles's Wife: A Novel of Greek Myth Retelling (Trojan Threads) by Judith Starkston

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

In an ancient kingdom, a princess takes inspiration from a visiting young woman to challenge her father's views and reach for leadership—and then discovers her muse is a man.

The goddess mother of Greek mythology's most famous warrior, Achilles, will do anything to prevent her son's fated early death. In a desperate move, she hides Achilles, against his will, on an island—disguised in a girl's body.

Tormented by inner discord, the miscast "girl" befriends Mia, the eldest daughter of the island's king, launching a transformation of Mia's own. Armed with a new vision she believes comes from a girl, Mia contends with family secrets, a controlling father, her destiny to rule, and the wrath of a goddess.

When fate reveals Achilles's identity, a divine mother's fury drives Mia and Achilles into marriage. Mia must navigate her love for a man with a divided heart and a dangerous measure of immortality. Balancing governance and motherhood, Mia will face an unbearable choice.

Unique, fascinating, and restores a long-lost voice to the story the Trojan War." -Margaret George, NYT bestselling author of The Memoirs of Cleopatra

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About the Author

Judith Starkston writes historical fantasy set in the Bronze Age of the Greeks and Hittites. Her five novels bring women to the fore—whether the Trojan War captive Briseis or a remarkable Hittite queen whom history forgot, even though she ruled over one of the greatest empires of the ancient world. Judith has spent too much time reading about and exploring the remains of the ancient world. She has degrees in classics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cornell. She lives in Davis, California with her husband and a rambunctious garden.  Find Judith on Facebook, and Instagram @judith_starkston

Book Launch Guest Post: The Boleyn Curse: An enchanting, historical novel packed with secrets, from Alexandra Walsh

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The court of young King Henry VIII seethes with secrets and scandals, but every ambition has its price. Elizabeth Boleyn, loyal wife to Thomas Boleyn and devoted mother to Anne, Mary and George, believes she can navigate the shifting tides of court life. But when she catches the eye of the lascivious king, Elizabeth is drawn into a perilous game and the cost of her defiance will echo through the generations.

Elizabeth Boleyn: The Mother of Anne, Mary and George Boleyn

She was the mother of Anne Boleyn, one of the most famous queen consorts in British history. Her elder daughter, Mary, was Henry VIII’s mistress; her son, George, fell from grace alongside his sister. Wife of Thomas Boleyn, sister of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, daughter of the Earl of Surrey – Elizabeth Boleyn stood at the centre of Tudor power.

And yet, despite her proximity to one of England’s most notorious dynasties, Elizabeth’s story has vanished. So too has commentary on her role as a mother who witnessed one of the most violent spectacles of the Tudor age: the moment her own brother, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, sentenced two of her children to death on behalf of the king.

How would you endure such horror: as a mother, a sister, a human being?

It is cruelty unimaginable and yet Elizabeth Boleyn had no choice but to survive it. This courage in the face of catastrophe lies at the emotional heart of The Boleyn Curse: the strength of a woman forced to bear the unbearable.

Did that strength come from her own mother, the indomitable Elizabeth Tilney? Or was it forged over a lifetime of surviving the turbulent currents of the Tudor court?

Born of formidable women

Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey (later 2nd Duke of Norfolk), and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney.

Tilney herself was remarkable: twice married, widowed in the Wars of the Roses and once a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth Woodville. She understood both the glitter and danger of court life, lessons she would pass down to her daughters.

When Richard III seized the throne, the Howards aligned with him, following him into battle when Henry Tudor challenged him for the crown at Bosworth. There, Elizabeth’s grandfather was killed and her father imprisoned. In response, her mother fled with her children to sanctuary in a Benedictine priory on the Isle of Sheppey.

It is a striking image: a mother guiding her children through political catastrophe, teaching endurance as much as obedience. The lineage of maternal strength would shape Elizabeth profoundly.

Marriage and ambition

Around 1499, Elizabeth married Thomas Boleyn, heir to a prosperous Kentish family with connections to the Irish earldom of Ormond. It was an astute match: old nobility joined to new ambition.

A surviving letter suggests that in the first years of their marriage Elizabeth bore Thomas several children. Two young sons, Thomas and Henry, died in infancy, but Mary, Anne and George survived, becoming the centre of Elizabeth and Thomas’s world.

Aristocratic babies were often nursed by wet nurses, but mothers remained closely involved. It would have been Elizabeth’s duty to supervise the nursery, to choose attendants and to ensure the moral and religious education of her children; the first stage in shaping the next generation for court life and advantageous marriages.

Elizabeth would have drawn on the lessons taught by her own mother as she taught manners, etiquette, languages (especially French), music, embroidery, piety and courtly conduct.
For women like Elizabeth, motherhood was inseparable from legacy. She and Thomas undoubtedly loved their children, but they also recognised opportunity. When the chance arose for Anne to attend the court of Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy in Mechelen, they grasped it. Mary too was sent to France, and George was encouraged into court service.

Elizabeth’s own marriage had been arranged by her father, and it was her responsibility, alongside Thomas, to secure suitable matches for their children. Mary married Sir William Carey, a cousin of the king who held the positions of Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Esquire of the Body of the King. George made a strong dynastic match with Jane Parker, daughter of Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley. It was through her great-grandmother, Margaret Beauchamp of Blesto, that Jane, like William Carey, could claim a distant kinship to Henry VIII. None of them could have imagined that their middle child would one day wed a king.

Silence and grief

After the executions of her children, Elizabeth withdrew from court, grieving and unwell.

She had outlived Anne and George but the sources do not record her sorrow. There are no letters, no recorded lament – simply silence. A devastating void where her grief should echo through the centuries.

Elizabeth died two years after her children in April 1538 near Baynard’s Castle in London and was buried in the Howard vault at St Mary’s Church, Lambeth, now the Garden Museum.

Before history turned the Boleyn name into scandal, Elizabeth was simply a mother trying to raise children safely in an unsafe world. None of them could have expected their lives, their names and the horror of her children’s death would continue to horrify hundreds of years later.

Alexandra Walsh

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About the Author

Alexandra Walsh is a bestselling author of dual-timeline women’s fiction inspired by the lost voices of history. Her novels span the Tudor, early Stuart, and Victorian eras, exploring secrets, power, and women’s hidden lives across the centuries. Her books include The Marquess House Saga, The Wind Chime, The Music Makers, The Forgotten Palace, The Secrets of Crestwell Hall, The House of Echoes, Daughter of the Stones, The Patron Saint of Married Women and The Boleyn Curse. A former journalist of over twenty-five years, Alexandra now presents The Alexandra Walsh Arts Show on PureWestRadio.com and has worked in television and film as a producer, director and scriptwriter. Alexandra is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a member of the Society of Authors and the Historical Writers’ Association. Follow her on social media: Instagram/X (@purplemermaid25), Bluesky (@purplemermaid25.bsky.social), and Substack (@purplemermaid25). For updates and more information visit her website: www.alexandrawalsh.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter @purplemermaid25 and Bluesky @purplemermaid25.bsky.social

Book Launch Guest Post: Desiderius Erasmus: The Folly or Far Sightedness of Renaissance Europe's Greatest Mind, by Amy McElroy

Available for pre-order

from Amazon UK and Amazon US

One cannot discuss the Renaissance without coming across the name of Desiderius Erasmus. He was renowned for scholarship, views on education, religion, and conduct. Erasmus found himself in the midst of the religious debate in Europe during the sixteenth century and regardless of where his path led he would find himself subject to praise and scrutiny.

Desiderius Erasmus has been a source of interest and research for many years and the scholar remains an important influence of religion and education today, but who was he?

There is nothing simple about the life of Desiderius Erasmus. His place and year of birth are just two of the issues that raise questions about his life. He has at least two places who claim the honour of his birth, Gouda and Rotterdam. His birth can be narrowed to 1466-1469, some claim Erasmus manipulated his birth year to either conceal the circumstances of his birth or claim he was too young to make life altering decisions. Even his name can sometimes be a matter of debate. 

At the time of his birth it was common for children to take on the name of their father as their surname. Erasmus was the illegitimate son of Gerard Helias and Margareta Roger, therefore one may expect his name to have been Desiderius Gerard, but he was given the sole name of Erasmus, possibly after Saint Erasmus whom his father paid respects to on more than one occasion. Erasmus himself added Desiderius to his name but throughout his life he referred to himself as Erasmus.

Erasmus wrote his Compendium Vitae as an abridgement of his life, which he referred to as ‘An Iliad of Woes’. Erasmus claims his father was one of many sons and therefore was volunteered for the Church; a common practice in families with multiple children. Gerard instead left Rotterdam, and Margareta, and travelled to Rome where he worked as a scribe. 

His family informed him Margareta had died which drove him to take his vows and return to Rotterdam only to find their deception, Margareta was very much alive and with a baby, Erasmus. Having taken his vows the couple remained apart.

Erasmus began his schooling at a young age and was not initially the proficient scholar we may have expected but when he moved to a school in Deventer he fell in love with the Latin language. Sadly, when he was still a boy his parents died within a year of each other and he was left at the mercy of his guardians, whom he blamed for mismanaging his inheritance leaving him penniless and with no prospects other than entering a monastery. 

Erasmus dreamed of attending university but with no funds left he had no choice and instead entered a monastery at Stein, under the rule of Saint Augustine. Due to periods of il-health as a youth, Erasmus was granted leniency with some rules, including skipping some services and eating meat on fast days. He also made extensive use of the monastery library and influenced others to study.

He eventually took his vows and became a Augustinian Canon Regular but his saving grace came in 1493 when his skill in Latin were noted by Henry Bergen, Bishop of Cambrai. Bergen was chasing his own dream of obtaining a cardinal’s hat and intended to travel to Rome. He needed a Latin secretary and who better than Erasmus.

John III of Glymes and Henry of Bergen kneeling with their patron saints

Erasmus was taken into the bishops service and escaped the cloisters but this was only the beginning of his life outside the monastery.

Bergen’s plan for to travel to Rome never transpired and he was persuaded to allow Erasmus to enrol at Collège de Montaigu, Paris, and to pay for his education. This was what Erasmus had dreamed of but soon after arrival he realised it was not the experience he had imagined. Lectures bored him, conditions appalled him, and the funds promised to him to meet the costs of attendance were not received. 

He was soon tutoring young men to make ends meet, specifically English men that had travelled to Paaris to further their education. Amongst those would be some of his most loyal and generous patrons, including William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy. Mountjoy would become his gateway to England and introduce him to those who would become his closest friends and allies.

His first of many trips to England took place in 1499, and on this occasion, he would meet Thomas More and John Colet, both would remain influential throughout their lives.

John Colet, Dean of St Paul’s.

Over the next decades, Erasmus would travel across Europe, staying with friends, discovering manuscripts, and seeking patronage. He would become a friend to kings, princes, popes, and cardinals but he also made enemies.

He produced a huge number of texts including a translation of the New Testament. Many of his works were praised but the New Testament was amongst those that caused controversy and a series of religious debates. The later debates between Erasmus and Martin Luther are well known but Luther was not his only critic, 

Erasmus received criticism from many over the years. He was named a coward and insulted for his opinions and writing. He was bullied in attempts to make him choose sides as the Reformation began to spread but he remained a Catholic to his death.

Erasmus was anything but a coward, he stood alone in a storm that engulfed him, refusing to placate either side. Friends supported him but enemies attempted to diminish his efforts. He only wrote what he believed in and once wrote ‘I write what will live forever’, in that he was correct, but he also wrote ‘my books will be read in every country in the world’, a prophecy that he would no doubt be proud came true. 

Having spent many months researching Erasmus I find him a fascinating man who was not afraid to write about what he believed in. He held strong opinions about education which brought him into the confines of the humanist circle, but in doing so he also angered many with his views on education and religion.

Erasmus was much more than a scholar, he published extensively, many works are still printed today and some of his quotes have passed through the ages so that today, many are repeated without the knowledge they originated with him. 

My aim of writing about Erasmus was to show that although he receives conflicting commentary, both during his life and after, he was steadfast in his beliefs and I hope to have done the greatest scholar of all time justice in my book, Desiderius Erasmus: The Folly or Far Sightedness of Renaissance Europe’s Greatest Mind.

Amy McElroy

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About the Author

Amy McElroy was born in Liverpool and lived there until she moved to the Midlands for university where she studied Criminal Justice followed by Post-Grad Law. Amy is currently a civil servant, working full-time alongside her writing. She also has a blog where she reviews historical fiction and non-fiction. Amy’s first book, Educating the Tudors, was published in January 2023 and focuses on the education of all classes, the subjects they learned and who taught them. Her second book, Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era is out February 2024 and she is currently writing her third book, Mary Tudor, Queen of France. Amy also has a fourth, Desiderius Erasmus, in the pipeline, with a few more ideas up her sleeves for the future. You can find out more about Amy at her blog - https://amymcelroy.blog/ and follow her on Facebook Twitter @AmyMc_Book and Bluesky @amymcelroy.bsky.social