Special Guest Post by Sarah Kennedy: Writing—and Revising—The Altarpiece (The Cross and The Crown Book 1)

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 In the tumultuous years of King Henry VIII’s break from Rome, the religious houses of England are being seized by force. Twenty-year-old Catherine Havens is a foundling and the adopted daughter of the prioress of the Priory of Mount Grace in a small Yorkshire village. 

The Tudor era looms large in the contemporary imagination, from Henry VIII and his six wives, to “Bloody Mary” and Elizabeth I. The Tudor era was a time of massive change in Europe, and Henry VIII’s break from Rome caused an upheaval in his country that rocked the very foundations of everyday life: the Church. It was an era not wholly unlike our own. People struggled with fundamental questions of belief and authority; the right relationship between religion and politics; the moral authority of the ruler; the moral responsibility of that same ruler.

I’ve been fascinated with the Tudors since, as an undergraduate, I first studied Renaissance Literature. Shakespeare, of course, but also Sir Thomas Wyatt, who supposedly had a close—some would say too close!—relationship with Anne Boleyn. As a PhD student, I studied the ways that Renaissance poets wrote about women, because the “woman question” was central to the changing world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

As a professor of English literature and creative writing, I now teach this literature, but my imagination has always wandered to the “blank spaces” in history. My creative life began in poetry, but in researching the history of the church in England, I came across a curious “hole” in the record: what happened to the nuns in England after the dissolution of the convents. The monks could become priests in the new church or find other professions. But what about the women?

When I began my first novel, The Altarpiece, I chose a real place—Mount Grace in northern Yorkshire—and peopled it with fictional characters. I changed the religious house from a monastery to a convent to focus on women. Catherine Havens, my main character, is a young novice, but she is also strong-willed and educated: a true Renaissance woman.

That was in 2012, and the novel was first published in 2013. Since then, I have changed publishers. I’m now with Penmore Press, and their gracious offer to republish the book allowed me to go back through the story. There is more known these days about the nuns of Tudor England, though still not a great deal, and I have read quite a lot more “convent fiction,” an entire subgenre of its own!, in the years since the book first came out. I’ve also thought more about why I decided on a fictional character in a far-flung region of England.

Most writers of historical fiction have to choose between the famous-person route (Hilary Mantel often does this) or the completely-obscure-person route (I call this the “Walter Scott route” and Nancy Bilyeau has made good use of this). Of course, a writer can (as I do) have her character rub shoulders with or bump into the famous folk, but basically the story centers upon either a well-known historical personage or someone fabricated. I enjoy and admire stories about kings and queens and their families, but I chose to create a character because I now realize that I didn’t want to follow a biography to its necessary end. I wanted more latitude with my character, and I could only do that with someone I had created.

So the Catherine of The Altarpiece does have her moments in the presence of royal glory, but most often she toils away in the company of her friends and family—and her own busy mind. I like to imagine that this is how many of the great changes in the Early Modern period happened: through the efforts and will of ordinary people, thrust into difficult decisions by extraordinary times.

Sarah Kennedy

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About the Author

Sarah Kennedy is the author of the novels The Altarpiece, City of Ladies, and The King’s Sisters, Books One, Two, and Three of The Cross and the Crown series, set in Tudor England, and Self-Portrait, with Ghost.  She has also published seven books of poems.  A professor of English at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia, Sarah Kennedy holds a PhD in Renaissance Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing.  She has received grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.  Find out more at Sarah's website:  http://sarahkennedybooks.com and find her on Facebook and Twitter @KennedyNovels

Special Guest Post: Silent Water (A Jagiellon Mystery), by P.K. Adams

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The Tudor era is one of the most popular in historical fiction, and for a good reason. The 1500s were the century of the Renaissance, a time when hundreds of years philosophy and art were turned on their heads. The European worldview shifted from the pursuit of earthy perfection and the focus on the afterlife to celebrating the temporal world and its beauty, as well as the possibilities of the mind and pleasures of the body. 

It was also the century during which the monopoly of the Catholic Church ended in the religious sphere. Henry VIII in England and Martin Luther in Germany both turned their backs on Rome, and millions of people followed their example. In many ways, it was an age of a radical transformation that laid the foundation for the modern world.

No wonder then that the men (and a few women) who made their mark on the 16th century continue to fascinate and excite the imaginations of so many authors of historical fiction. In my new mystery novel Silent Water, I propose to expand the scope of 16th century fiction. The novel, while dealing with the many familiar themes of the era—the dawn of the Renaissance and the rise of religious conflicts, to name a few—is set at the royal court in Cracow. 

While the Tudors and the Borgias are immediately associated with the 1500s, another powerful dynasty ruled over much of Eastern Europe at that time. I am talking about the Jagiellons (pronounced Ya-ghye-lohns), who ruled the union of Poland and Lithuania (as well as, at various times, Hungary, Bohemia, and several minor principalities and territories) for more than two hundred years.

Longer-lasting then the Tudors (founded in 1387 and dissolved in 1596), at its heyday the Jagiellon monarchy presided over a territory stretching from the Baltic in the north to the Black Sea and the Adriatic in the south. The reign of its last two kings– Zygmunt I (the Old) and Zygmunt II (August)—was the period in Polish history known as The Golden Age: never before or after, until the late 20th century, would Poland be so prosperous and peaceful as it was in the first seven decades of the 16th century. 

Interestingly, one of the most powerful and consequential Jagiellon monarchs was not actually Polish. Bona Sforza, who married Zygmunt I in 1518, was an Italian noblewoman who arrived in Cracow as a young royal bride, bringing with her new fashions, customs, and cuisine. But it was her ambition, forceful personality, and political astuteness that made the biggest mark on her adoptive country. She reformed its agricultural sector, patronized artists, founded schools, built roads and bridges, and in the process accumulated a massive fortune. She was by all accounts a fascinating but also a tragic figure. 

With Silent Water (A Jagiellon Mystery Book 1) I aim to bring to the English-speaking audiences a place that was just as dynamic, glamorous, and dangerous as the Tudor court. I also hope that it will help spur interest in Eastern European history and historical fiction. I would love to see more authors who write in English set their stories in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and many other countries whose pre-modern history was just as complex and multifaced as that of their Western counterparts. 

P.K. Adams 

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About the Author

P.K. Adams is a Boston-based historical fiction author, whose debut novel The Greenest Branch is the first in a two-book series based on the life of Hildegard of Bingen, Germany’s first female physician. She has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia and a master’s degree in European Studies from Yale. When not reading or writing, she can be found hiking, doing yoga, and drinking tea (though usually not at the same time). Find out more at her website https://pkadams-author.com/ and follow her on Twitter @pk_adams

Guest Post by Author Derek Birks: Echoes of Treason – Book 3 of The Craft of Kings

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

An Exercise in Filling in the Gaps!

The Craft of Kings series charts the exploits and trials of a fictional family - the Elders – through the period of transition between the end of Edward IV’s reign and the arrival of Henry Tudor.

In the previous two books the Elders, led by the young lord who is head of the family, John Elder, manage to survive – just about - the reign of the boy king, Edward V. So, at the start of this story, members of the Elder family are scattered and under pressure. Trust me, for this family, that is pretty much life as usual!

For the backdrop of this novel, I chose the rebellions against Richard III which occurred in October/November 1483. They are sometimes collectively called ‘Buckingham’s Rebellion’ – referring to Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who was Richard’s erstwhile ally. But the term is very misleading, for it was not Buckingham who began the revolts, nor organised them – and his own part in them was an ignominious failure.

I chose to focus instead on a less well known – indeed hardly ever referred to – area of revolt: Poole in Dorset. In truth, there was not much support for a rising in Dorset, though Poole was an ideal port for Henry Tudor to choose for his invasion and there is some evidence that he did turn up there. So, as they say, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I soon learned that researching Poole in the fifteenth century was not straightforward at all. It turned out that I was going to have to fill in a lot more gaps than usual!

To start with, my attempts to gather any information about the area for the specific date of 1483 pretty much drew a complete blank. I even had to piece together what the town of Poole might have been like. There were no contemporary maps of a place that appears to have been something like a Wild West boom town at that time. In fact, the map I commissioned for the book may well be the first genuine attempt at producing one for that period.

I set quite a lot of the action at a prominent coastal landmark called Handfast Point – known locally as Old Harry Rocks. It’s a place I have visited many times but unfortunately, because of hundreds of years of erosion, there is no trace of what stood on the point in 1483. There is reference in the sources to a castle there in King John’s reign and another, new castle built there in the sixteenth century, but nothing in between. 

So, a big gap to fill – and that’s where the historical fiction writer can have great fun! I decided that, by 1483, the old twelfth or thirteenth century castle would still have been there, but perhaps in a state of disrepair – otherwise they would not have needed a new one a century later. So that’s what I used for the location – an old, small and decaying castle perched on the edge of sheer chalk cliffs. Did something similar ever exist? I’ve no idea, but it seems at least plausible based on what we know - which is next to nothing!

If you are new to my books then you can expect a lot of action and a fairly high body count – with some interesting characters – at least, I hope you’ll find them interesting!

Derek Birks

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About the Author

Derek was born in Hampshire in England but spent his teenage years in Auckland, New Zealand, where he still has strong family ties. For many years he taught history in a secondary school but took early retirement to concentrate on writing. Apart from his writing, he spends his time travelling, walking and taking part in archaeological digs. Derek is interested in a wide range of historical themes, but his particular favourite is the late medieval period. He writes action-packed fiction which is rooted in accurate history. His debut historical novel, Feud, is the first of a series entitled Rebels & Brothers, which follows the fortunes of the fictional Elder family during the Wars of the Roses up to 1471. A second series, entitled The Craft of Kings, also features the Elder family in the 1480s. Find out more at Derek's website: www.derekbirks.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter @Feud_writer

Guest Post: The Vision of Antje Baumann, by Laurence Power

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It is May 1940 in Holland. As the Baumann family realizes that Hitler’s war has suddenly become their war, sirens begin blaring as a squadron of airplanes flies over Oosterbeek. Antje, Gerrit, and Cornelis Baumann are too young to understand what is happening around them. All they know is that they feel powerless as they watch their father cry.

In spring and early summer of 1945 I was a pupil in a rural school in Tipperary. Our curate arrived in one day with collection boxes to put to use. Teaching ceased to allow the priest to say what he had to say. He told us how lucky we in Ireland were because we had enough food to feed all of us, while in Holland children were starving and eating tulip bulbs and whatever else to stay alive.

Two generations earlier Ireland had lived through The Great Famine, the tragedy that took one million lives; another million emigrated. Everyone was aware of it. I took a collection box and walked into farmer's houses for the "starving children of Holland." Most of us took boxes and we were proud to do so.

Over a generation later I was in Holland buying pedigree MRI cattle for a Dutch oral surgeon living in Ireland when I met up with farmers he knew with cattle to sell. To make conversation one evening I raised the Nazi occupation of their country. At first it seemed that they didn't want to go there. But ever so slowly they began to talk. 

To me it seemed a taboo topic until then. Finally, they opened up. There was sadness, anger and most of all there was emotion. It was extraordinary. They couldn't be stopped; a torrent of words without let-up. One of those people told me that in the first days of May 1945 he saw his mother leave the house early. She carried an axe in her hand. Soon she was in the company of other house wives; they too carried axes. Scores to be settled.

From Chapter 17 in my book and on I deal with the airborne landings, near Arnhem. I visited the landing places, the scenes of battle, the blunders, the courage of British tommies and the Dutch resistance. Epic stuff. After the Arnhem tragedy we were, once again, into famine; the Great Irish Famine and now the Hunger Winter. 

How one individual could orchestrate and create such devastation and suffering? Never again. I cycled around the landing areas and Arnhem, I visited museums and the Imperial War Museum in London for background information on Marker Garden. I'm not young now but hope to return there in September, if the Lord is willing. It was the book I had to write.

Laurence Power

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About the Author

Laurence Power is a retired business professional. When Catherine, his wife of 50 years passed away, he researched and wrote Black ’47, a story of the Great Irish Famine of 1846-49 that forever altered the path of Irish history. Laurence lives in County Kildare in Ireland and is currently researching and working on a book that will reverberate in a few countries, hopefully in 2019. His cycling days are over but not his writing days…not yet. Find out more at Laurence's website http://laurencepower.ie/ and find him on Facebook.

Guest Post by Rozsa Gaston: Passion and Politics in Early Renaissance France

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

France admired her but Brittany loved her. Just as Louis did.Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is the love of King Louis XII of France’s life. Too bad he’s already married.While his annulment proceedings create Europe’s most sensational scandal of 1498, Anne returns to Brittany to take back control of her duchy that her late husband, Charles VIII, King of France, had wrested from her.

France, 1498 

Charles VIII, King of France, has died in a freak accident at age twenty-seven. His queen, Anne of Brittany, is now sole sovereign ruler of Brittany as well as Europe’s most wealthy widow. When the new king, Louis XII of France, sues for her affections, she tells him he has one year to get an annulment or she will move on. The king’s annulment proceedings create Europe’s most sensational scandal of 1498, while Anne returns to Brittany to take back control of her duchy that her late husband had wrested from her. But can she maintain Brittany’s independence from France if she accepts Louis’ offer to make her queen of France once more?

Stained Glass Mosaic of Anne of Brittany and Louis XII, King of France
Hotel de Ville, Vannes, France
Photo courtesy of Thor Karlsen and ABP BZH Agence Bretagne Presse

Louis has admired Anne since meeting her as a young girl at the court of her father, Duke Francis II of Brittany. Even at the age of seven, the future duchess of Brittany held herself as the ruler she would one day become.

In return, Anne’s first girlish crush was on Louis d’Orléans, the twenty-one-year-old handsome and debonair friend of her father’s from the French royal house of Valois. The impression Anne and Louis made on each other was indelible, the threads of which were picked up many years later once Anne became the widow of Charles VIII and Louis ascended the French throne.

Anne of Brittany and Louis d’Orléans, 1491
Gravure from Secrets of History: Anne of Brittany
Courtesy of Stephane Bern

Louis must get an annulment to make Anne his bride. His wife resists, the hunchbacked, sterile Jeanne of France, whom he was forced to marry against his will as a youth of fourteen, by her father, known as the spider king for his devious machinations.

But Louis has an ace up his sleeve. He is aware that the most scandalous pope in the history of the Catholic church, Alexander VI, also known as Rodrigo Borgia, needs a title, land, and noble wife for his purported nephew, Cesare, whom everyone knows is his son.

While Louis offers a backroom deal to the pope in order to obtain his annulment, Anne returns to Brittany to make the Tro Breizh, a journey through her realm to reaffirm her political power as Brittany’s sovereign ruler. If the French king wants to marry her, he will have to come get her, but not without his annulment decree in hand.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Map of the Tro Breizh (Tour of Brittany)
from Editions Coop Breizh, courtesy of Google Images

Finally, the annulment is granted. The decree is delivered by Cesare Borgia himself, a cocky peacock from the streets of Rome who is laughed at behind his back by the French royal court.

Louis leaves for Brittany immediately, there to wed Anne in Nantes at her father’s castle where they first met. This time, Anne’s marriage to the king of France is on her terms. Her marriage contract states that she is to remain sole sovereign ruler of her own duchy of Brittany, unlike her marriage contract with Charles, in which she was forced to cede sole sovereignty.

Louis respects Anne’s right to administer her own duchy. He knows she is determined to retain Brittany’s independence from France. One day he believes Brittany will come into the kingdom of France, but not under his wife’s watch.

Chateau of the Dukes of Brittany

Birthplace and ancestral home of Anne of Brittany

Nantes, France

It is not Brittany that the king of France covets, but Italy, just as Charles VIII did before him. Louis stakes a claim to the duchy of Milan and then to the kingdom of Naples.

Portrait of Louis XII, King of France
Artist Unknown, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Anne would prefer Louis to mind France’s affairs and stay out of Italy’s, but the king has other ideas. Two months before the birth of their first child together, Louis leaves for Milan, where he enjoys initial success in claiming its ducal throne. But after several months, Louis begins to realize the morass he has gotten himself into in Italy. Allies change sides, then change sides again. The age of chivalry is dead and in its place the Borgias lead the pack in poisoning their enemies and seizing power by unscrupulous means.

Stained glass image of Louis XII, King of France
By Jean Perréal, c. 1500
Walters Art Musuem, Baltimore, Maryland
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Anne is concerned that her good-hearted husband is like a lamb led to slaughter in Italy. When, finally, he returns, they are visited by diplomatic envoys from Florence, the junior of whom is the young Niccolò Machiavelli. Instantly, Anne sees that Machiavelli is sizing up the king, to report back to Florence. She arranges for the young envoy to be sent back soon, distrusting his motives at the French court.

Beggar’s Meeting with Anne of Brittany and Louis XII
By Adrien Thibault
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Both Anne and Louis have high hopes that a dauphin for France will soon be born to Anne to join their daughter Claude. Meanwhile, Louis, confident that he still holds Milan, is determined to try to take the kingdom of Naples, to which he has a much more flimsy claim. Knowing that he lacks the resources to take and hold Naples alone, he enters into a secret alliance with Ferdinand of Spain. They decide to carve up southern Italy between France and Spain, with Louis getting Abruzzi and the Campania, including the city of Naples, and Ferdinand getting Apulia and Calabria in the south.   

All is harmonious between Anne and Louis, a couple temperamentally suited to each other and with deep affection planted between them from the days of Anne’s childhood. Where Anne is fierce, Louis loves a challenge. Anne is lavish in her tastes, but also in her care of her husband; Louis is somewhat parsimonious and relies on Anne to add splendor and lustre to the French court.

But when Anne proposes that their daughter Claude one day marry the heir to the Habsburg throne, Louis secretly wishes their daughter to marry the heir to the throne of France. Neither worry overmuch as Claude is just a babe of one. Besides, once Anne has a son, he will ascend the French throne and Claude will one day rule Brittany as her mother’s successor.

Yet no son arrives…

Close up of figures reputed to be Anne of Brittany and Louis XII
from The Unicorn Tapestries thought to be commissioned by Anne of Brittany for Louis XII, c. 1498-1505
The Met Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 Photo by R. Gaston

ANNE AND LOUIS excerpt:

“Ma Brette, you know I must go. The moment is right. With the pope’s support I will sweep Milan clean of Sforza and claim my inheritance for France,” Louis reasoned to Anne. As usual, she was not having it.

            “Why must you fall into the same trap that Charles did? Do you really think there is something on the other side of the Alps so much better than what we have here?” Anne balled her fists at her side, containing the urge to beat some sense into her husband’s head. What was with these men and their harebrained dreams of conquest in foreign lands?

            “’Tis not the same trap at all. Milan is mine through my father’s mother. And Borgia has given his word that he will support me in sweeping Sforza from the city. His son will ride at my side as soon as I can wrap up his affairs here.” Louis looked frustrated. He was no matchmaker like his wife and without her support Cesare’s marriage aspirations were going nowhere.

            “Get rid of him as soon as possible, then stay here and wait for the birth of your child, husband. Is not your duty to manage the affairs of your country and not interfere in the affairs of another?”

            “This is an opportunity ripe for the picking. And you know the Borgia won’t leave unless I personally accompany him over the border.” Louis rolled his eyes. “We just need to get your princess to agree to marry him.”

            “She will never agree.”

            Louis looked closely at his wife. Usually Anne didn’t put too fine a point on whether her maids of honor agreed with her marriage choices for them or not. She just insisted on their obedience. What his Brette really meant was that she herself would never agree to handing over Charlotte of Naples to such a man.

            Louis sighed, wondering how he could get her to change her mind. His wife’s motto was ‘Non mudera, I will not change.’ Well did he know.

Cesare Borgia (1475-1507)
Portrait of a Gentleman Thought to be Cesare Borgia
by Meloni Altobello (1490-1543)
Museum Accademia Carrara, Italy
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

“I have arranged for Cesare to come to dinner tonight. Have Charlotte come, too, and we will excuse ourselves so that they may dine alone and get to know one another.” Louis tried to sound authoritative. He was king, but he had never arranged a private dinner for two unmarried people to meet. He had no idea how to manage it.

            “Why should a princess of Naples and Aragon get to know a man with no title and no lineage, other than one he cannot claim?” The accepted story was that Cesare was the pope’s nephew. Not a single soul in Europe believed it.

            “Wife, do you not understand that the Borgia’s support is vital for me to claim Milan?”

            “Husband, do you not understand that claiming Milan gains you and your kingdom nothing?”

            “Of course, it does. It would be a gem in the crown of France.”

            “A gem that will fall out at the first push. The moment you leave Milan you know what will happen, just as it did with Charles in Naples. The Italians will re-form their alliances and push you out. Do you not know them well enough by now after suffering so horribly at Fornovo?” Louis and his troops had endured terrible losses in 1495 at the battle of Fornovo, due to the treachery of Ludovico Sforza. Initially France’s ally, Milan’s powerful ruler had switched sides to the League of Venice at the last moment.

            “It was a terrible time, but this will be different.”

            “Men! When will any of you understand that war is never different? It always ends badly, and none of you ever learn that it is best not to go where one is not invited.”

            “And that is precisely the difference. The pope has made it clear that the people of Milan want Sforza out. They’ve had enough of him. With the pope’s help, and his son at my side, they will welcome the king of France, great grandson of Giangalezzo Visconti, their very first duke!” Louis pulled himself up, looking almost Italian for a moment, handsome and glowering.   

            “For how long do you think they will welcome you? You will be greeted in glory, welcomed for a month or two, then slowly resented and ultimately booted out. Has not recent history taught you this, husband?”

            “I know that if ever there was a chance to claim Milan for France, it is now. Bid the princess of Naples to join us for dinner, so that Cesare can work his magic and we can wrap up this marriage business so I can get to Milan.”

            “Husband, you are in a dream, and I would have you wake from it soon.”

            “Wife, I am in a hurry. Deliver the princess tonight and I will write to her father to request permission for Cesare to proceed with his suit.”

            “I will not deliver Charlotte into the hands of such a ruffian.”

            “This is dinner, m’amie. Not an engagement.”

            “I will never deliver her to such a man.”

            “Then he will never leave France.”

            Anne paused a moment, looking as if she had swallowed a bag of lemons. Finally, she spoke. “If her father says no, this cannot proceed.”

            “Of course, m’amie. Just dinner is all I ask.”

 Images of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany atop their tomb
Basilica of Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis, France

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

For further reading, discover Anne of Brittany in the Anne of Brittany Series.

The gripping tale of a larger than life queen

http://lrd.to/anneofbrittanyseries

Available for pre-order now is my new short story The Least Foolish Woman in France. Readers might be interested to learn the true tale of how Anne of Brittany’s second husband was sexually harassed in young adulthood by his sister-in-law Anne de Beaujeu, France’s most powerful woman at the time. This story is short but riveting, a surprising twist on the #MeToo movement.

On pre-order now, it comes out April 12, 2019. Post a short review on Amazon by the end of April and receive an eBook edition of any of my other books for free. 

Rozsa Gaston

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About the Author

Rozsa Gaston writes playful books on serious matters, including the struggles women face to get what they want out of life. She studied European history at Yale, and received her Master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University. She worked at Institutional Investor, then as a hedge funds marketer. Entirely unsuited to the world of finance, she was happy to give it up to become a full-time novelist. Gaston lives in Bronxville, New York with her family and is currently working on Anne and Louis: Middle Years, Book Three of the Anne of Brittany Series. If you read and enjoy Sense of Touch, please post a review at http://lrd.to/SENSEOFTOUCH to help others find this book. One sentence is enough to let readers know what you thought. Drop Rozsa Gaston a line on Facebook to let her know you posted a review and receive as thanks an eBook edition of any other of Gaston’s books: Anne and Charles, Anne and Louis, The Least Foolish Woman in France, Paris Adieu, or Black is Not a Color. Visit her at www.rozsagaston.com or at https://www.rozsagastonauthor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rozsagastonauthor Instagram: rozsagastonauthor and on Twitter: @RozsaGaston

See Also:

Anne of Brittany? Raised to rule, she knew how to lead: Guest Post by Rozsa Gaston, Author of Sense of Touch