Who were the Pastons?
The Pastons were the famous 15th century letter-writing family from Norfolk, famous for their commentary on the events of the Wars of the Roses.
What was it about them that urged me to write their story?
In 1735 the family papers of the recently deceased William Paston, Earl of Yarmouth, fell into the hands of a local historian. They included a cache of documents. Within this exciting discovery of 421 Paston letters, 107 were written by a woman, by Margaret Paston. What a remarkable woman she was, from a minor Norfolk gentry family called Mautby before she married John Paston I. She was a woman who could read and write.
What did Margaret write about in her letters? Was it simply household shopping lists and care for her children?
The letters are far more complex and compelling for an historian and a novelist. Margaret's letters commented on the whole range of family life: she wrote about domestic quarrels, legal disputes, the siege and loss of castle at Caister, family scandals, disobedient daughters and obstinate sons; and then there are the love affairs, some gone disastrously wrong and others marvellously right.
Did Margaret write her own letters?
Margaret usually dictated her letters - she could read better than she could write - but they were always signed in her hand. Were women of this class more literate than we have always thought? We know about the literacy of Marie de France, of Christine de Pisan and Julian of Norwich, and of Margery Kempe. Were there more literate women in purely domestic settings? Perhaps all we have lacked is the evidence when letters have not survived. Here for us in the Paston letters is the evidence, and how fascinating to read the intimacy and range of subjects that Margaret was prepared to share with her clerk or priest who wrote for her.
How could I resist writing a sequel about this family, to complete their story. No one has ever placed this charismatic family into a novel, but Margaret's life seems to me the perfect subject. Margaret Paston expressed her feeling with force and passion in times of family crises. What a superb window these letters opened for me as a writer of historical fiction who enjoys discussing women in their rightful, and often ignored, place in history.
Do we know what the Pastons looked like? Can we visualise them?
Sadly we do not know what they looked like; there are no portraits, nor are there any verbal descriptions. But we can hear their voices loud and clear, reaching us from six hundred years ago. They deserve to be heard.
In the crucial year of 1469, where A Marriage of Fortune begins, picking up the threads from The Royal Game, Margaret was widowed, mother of five sons and two daughters and the matriarch of the family. Faced with an array of trials and tribulations, Margaret became an irresistible force. She proved to be an ambitious woman with a will of iron, who could efficiently multi-task, a clever, managing woman who, as a widow, kept her hands securely on the Paston reins.
What were the issues and problems which would make this family such a fascinating subject for a novel?
Revelling in their newly acquired Caister Castle, it was soon clear that there possession of it was far from assured. Their bitter enemy the Duke of Norfolk, with an avaricious eye and a King weakened by ill-health and clamouring magnates, would leave no stone unturned until he took it from them. Struggling to retain it against the odds, Margaret and her sons were taken into the heart of battle as well as a disastrous siege.
At the same time, at home here was the rebellious daughter Margery who, refusing all Margaret's urgings to make a 'good' match, followed her heart and married the landless family bailiff, creating a family rift that was difficult to heal.
Equally irritating for Margaret was the flamboyant Paston son and heir at the the Court of King Edward IV, who found it impossible to commit himself to more than a clandestine exchange of vows with Anne Haute, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth Woodville. It was a marriage that would have taken the Pastons into the centre of royal social circles if only Mistress Haute could entrap Sir John and lure him into making his clandestine marriage into a realistic entity.
Meanwhile Margaret's younger son flirted effortlessly and would not wed until he found the 'Valentine' love of his life, except that neither he nor Margaret could find the money to secure the permission of Mistress Brews father. Would Margery Brews ever secure the Paston love of her life as a husband?
Further clashes of will lay in store for Margaret when faced with her younger daughter Anne, whose youthful infatuation for a Paston servant was doomed to failure. Poor Anne was destined for a loveless marriage.
Then, hovering over all, there was the deviously ambitious mother-in-law, Agnes Paston, sharp and combative, whose manipulation of a family will could undermine the Paston's hold on all their lands.
And not least, Margaret's sister in law Elizabeth, a sad pawn in the marriage stakes, who lost one husband to battle, then found another, but one who trod the uneasy line of treason.
These stories are played out against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, where the Pastons struggled to keep ownership of the jewel in their crown, Caister Castle, which in 1469 came under siege from the Duke of Norfolk. The Pastons were forced to make uncomfortable choices in their loyalties when seeking out a patron who would support them in Norfolk politics. The Earl of Oxford was a valuable addition to the Paston armoury but it took the Paston men onto the battlefield at Barnet where their role on the losing side opened them to charges of treason.
For me as a writer, these letters allow us to peer into the lives of an exceptional group of women as the Pastons fought to climb the ladder from peasant to gentry. The characters come to life and shine through the dark days of the Wars of the Roses. Throughout all the conflicts Margaret retains her sense of humour and her tight hold on both family and business affairs as she juggles the inter-weaving strands of her life and those close to her. Margaret Paston is a women who demands our admiration in A Marriage of Fortune.
Anne O'Brien
‘A compelling tale of a family caught up in the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses, told with characteristic verve by one of our most accomplished novelists. Be warned: it's dangerously addictive.' Tracy Borman
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About the Author
Anne O’Brien was born in West Yorkshire. After gaining a BA Honours degree in History at Manchester University and a Master’s in Education at Hull, she lived in East Yorkshire for many years as a teacher of history. She now lives with her husband in an eighteenth-century timber-framed cottage in the depths of the Welsh Marches in Herefordshire, on the borders between England and Wales, where she writes historical novels. The perfect place in which to bring medieval women back to life. Find out more at Anne's website http://www.anneobrien.co.uk/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter @anne_obrien
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