Book Launch Guest Post ~ Fictionalising history: On Wilder Seas, by Nikki Marmery

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

April 1579: When two ships meet off the Pacific coast of New Spain, an enslaved woman seizes the chance to escape. But Maria has unwittingly joined Francis Drake’s circumnavigation voyage as he sets sail on a secret detour into the far north.

On Wilder Seas is the story of Maria, the only woman aboard the Golden Hind with Sir Francis Drake during his circumnavigation voyage. Inspired by an eye-witness account describing Drake’s raid of a ship off the Pacific coast of New Spain, the unknown sailor tells us: “Drake tooke out of this ship… a proper negro wench called Maria which was afterward gotten with child between the captain and his men pirates and sett on a small iland to take her adventures.”

Although other eye-witnesses add some few details, this fleeting reference is pretty much all we know about Maria. All we can be sure of is that she joined the Golden Hind on April 4, 1579 from the ship of Spanish nobleman Don Francisco de Zarate; she was aboard for Drake’s exploration of North America and his aborted attempt to find the Northwest Passage above America; and that she was abandoned, heavily pregnant, on an island in the East Indies, eight months later on December 12.

In writing Maria’s story, I set myself the challenge of sticking to the facts, where they could be ascertained, and fictionalising in the space between them. But I soon found that when it comes to Drake’s famous voyage, facts are few and far between.

Histories of the Golden Hind are based on the earliest published accounts: the first appeared in 1589, in Richard Hakluyt’s Principall Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation. A fuller account, The World Encompassed, was published by Drake’s nephew in 1628.

Both were heavily censored; Maria is not mentioned in either of them. Another episode: the trial and execution of the officer Thomas Doughty, accused of treason and beheaded at Port San Julian in July 1578, has been heavily edited in Drake’s favour, compared to eye-witness testimony.

A further indication of the unreliability of these accounts is the mystery surrounding the location of Drake’s colony Nova Albion. In Hakluyt and The World Encompassed, the colony where Drake and his crew lived for five weeks in the summer of 1579 is located at 38° N – in California, where Drake’s Bay is today. 

But eye-witnesses placed it at 44°-48°N – between Oregon and Vancouver. This is also where it is located in contemporary maps made by cartographers who knew Drake, and on the Molyneux Globes, which were first published in 1592 by Emery Molyneux, who knew and had sailed with Drake.

It appears that in the written accounts cleared for publication in Elizabethan England and in the following decades, the location of the colony was revised – most likely to prevent the Spaniards from learning how far north Drake had sailed, and that he had been seeking the NorthWest Passage, which would give the English a shortcut route to challenge Spanish power on the American Pacific coast.

As a result, there is very little we can be sure of about Drake’s exploration of North America. While this is a problem for a historian, it is a gift for the novelist. It enabled me to fictionalise more fully in my portrayal of Drake in Nova Albion; it is where Maria’s story can live and breathe.

Thus, in my novel, Drake’s colony is sited on or near Vancouver Island, rather than California. I explored the idea of first contact between Drake’s English sailors and the First Nations peoples in this part of North America – but seen purely through the eyes of a woman unconnected to either culture. It gave me the freedom to imagine a far more shocking end to the colony than is suggested by the sources.

As for Maria’s fate, she sailed on from Nova Albion to cross the Pacific Ocean with Drake. The historical record leaves her about to give birth on Crab Island, 1 degree 40 minutes south of the equator, just east of Sulawesi. We cannot know if she survived the birth, or the exposure on a waterless, deserted island.

Here then, was another gap in the record – and one I was glad to fill with my own interpretation. I believe there was something special about Maria: it can be seen in the space between the facts; in what is left unsaid in the records. 

Something about her was sufficiently compelling that Drake defied his own rule forbidding women on his ships – uniquely in her case – and permitted her to stay aboard for so long. During the course of my research, I learned about so many courageous, ingenious and resourceful women, living lives like Maria’s in the colonial New World. They gave me the confidence to trust in Maria’s ability to overcome her situation – and imagine her forging an alternative ending for herself than is suggested by the historical facts.

Nikki Marmery

In this gripping tale of true feminine courage, strength and spirit of adventure, Nikki Marmery gives voice to a woman who, like so many others, has been written out of history.' ~ Martine McDonagh

'On Wilder Seas is a gripping adventure story of an extraordinary journey half way around the world by a woman who was almost completely written out of history. Nikki Marmery brings Macaia (Maria) vividly to life along with a tremendous crew of compelling and believable characters, including Drake himself.' ~ Mandy Haggith

'This is a lively, spirited account of the epic voyage made by Maria, a woman who was a mysterious passenger on Francis Drake’s Golden Hind…thoroughly researched and vividly written, with a host of colourful characters. The brutality, horror and discomfort of life on board a 16th century galleon and the wonders and dangers that the crew experiences are skilfully evoked.' ~ Sally O’Reilly 

# # #

About the Author

In a previous life, Nikki worked as a financial journalist, editing magazines about credit and foreign exchange trading. She now writes historical fiction from a rural village in Buckinghamshire. On Wilder Seas is her first novel, inspired by the true story of Maria, the woman who sailed on the Golden Hind with Sir Francis Drake during his circumnavigation voyage. Earlier drafts were shortlisted for the Myriad Editions First Drafts Competition 2017 and the Historical Novel Society’s New Novel Award 2018. Find Nikki at www.nikkimarmery.com, on Twitter @nikkimarmery and Instagram @marmerynikki

The Mirror and the Light (The Wolf Hall Trilogy) by Hilary Mantel

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

The long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall trilogy.

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.

Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. 

But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?

With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.

# # #

About the Author

Hilary Mantel is the two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize for her best-selling novels, Wolf Hall, and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. Wolf Hall has been translated into 36 languages, Bring Up the Bodies into 31 languages, and sales for both books have reached over 5 million copies worldwide. Find out more at Hilary's website https://hilary-mantel.com/ 

Before Coronavirus: Katherine Willoughby and the dreaded sweating sickness

Soon after Henry Tudor claimed the throne as King of England, a virulent disease, known as English sweat, (in Latin sudor anglicus) broke out. No one knew of a cure. The number of cases rose each day and several thousand people died.

The sweating sickness seemed to go away until the 2^nd April, 1502, when the heir to the throne, Prince Arthur, died of an unexplained fever at Ludlow Castle. During the reign of Henry VIII, severe epidemics swept through London, killing hundreds, (including Thomas Cromwell’s wife), before spreading rapidly through the country.

The symptoms were a feeling of apprehension, cold shivers, headache, exhaustion and severe pains in the neck, shoulders and limbs. After as little as half an hour, profuse sweating broke out, followed by delirium, rapid pulse and intense thirst.

Katherine Willoughby was the daughter of Maria De Salinas, who’d arrived in England with Queen Katherine of Aragon as one of her ladies. She married Charles Brandon when she was fourteen, becoming Duchess of Suffolk, and they had two sons, Henry and Charles.

Henry and Charles Brandon, by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Five years after Charles Brandon’s death, Katherine’s sons, aged fourteen and sixteen, both found a place at university in Cambridge, and were doing exceptionally well, having been tutored by Prince Edward’s tutors. Then the sweating sickness came to Cambridge.

Katherine decided to ‘self-isolate’ them at the home of the Bishop of Lincoln in Buckden, Huntingdonshire, until the danger had passed. On the 14th July 1551, both of Katherine's sons showed symptoms of the fever. Katherine, who had been ill at her home in Kingston, arrived at Buckden just in time to see her youngest son, Charles, before he died within an hour of young Henry.

Read the full story in my new book Katherine - Tudor Duchess

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Searching for the birthplace of King Henry VII at Pembroke Castle

I attended a talk by archaeologist James Meek in Pembroke, where he outlined the exploratory excavations within the walls of Pembroke Castle. The intriguing outline of a large building was revealed by parch marks during the summer of 2013.  

The outline of a possible late medieval double-winged hall house was confirmed by geophysical surveys carried out by Dyfed Archaeological Trust, funded by the Castle Studies Trust, in 2016. If these remains prove to be a ‘mansion-house’ and are dateable to the fifteenth century, this could be a compelling candidate for the location of King Henry VII’s birth in 1457. 

Visitors to the castle are currently treated to a 'tableau' of Henry's birth in the adjacent Henry VII tower, although Margaret Beaufort looks much older than fourteen - and her lady in waiting can hardly hold the heavy child! I've always thought the room too small and more likely to be used as a guardroom than living accommodation.

The tower was recorded as being in a poor state of repair at that time, so an adjacent building could have been commissioned by Jasper Tudor, the uncle of Henry, who was granted the castle in 1452 when he was made Earl of Pembroke. Jasper didn't live in the castle until the death of his brother Edmund in 1456, his sister-in-law Margaret Beaufort came in to his care and gave birth to Henry Tudor the following year.  

Two trial trenches were excavated to establish the condition, character and extent of the building – and, if possible, its date. The archaeological evidence uncovered was partly compromised by excavations of the site in 1931, which were unrecorded apart from two black and white photographs.

1931 excavations

The 2018 evaluation confirmed the presence of the large free standing stone structure within the Outer Ward, the remains of which indicate it was domestic and of high status.  A curving staircase with two spiral steps were exposed and finds indicate that the roof was of slate with green glazed ceramic ridge tiles.  

2018 excavation

A large cess pit was excavated with finds including pottery of medieval and later date, animal bone, including swans and blackbirds, and a significant number of oyster shells. Finds also included a few sherds of Roman pottery.

Archaeologist James Meek said it was not yet possible to date the building to the time of Henry Tudor's birth, but the two preliminary trenches strengthen the case for excavation of the rest of the site later this year - so watch this space.

Tony Riches 

Sir Francis Bryan: Henry VIII's Most Notorious Ambassador, by Sarah-Beth Watkins

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Sir Francis Bryan was Henry VIII's most notorious ambassador and one of his closest companions. Bryan was a man of many talents; jouster, poet, rake and hell-raiser, gambler, soldier, sailor and diplomat. He served his king throughout his life and unlike many of the other men who served Henry VIII, Bryan kept his head and outlived his sovereign.

This book tells the story of his life from coming to court at a young age through all his diplomatic duties to his final years in Ireland.

The latest book from the best-selling author of Lady Katherine Knollys: The Unacknowledged Daughter of King Henry VIII

Excerpt:

Francis Bryan and Nicholas Carew were becoming firm favourites of the king’s. At the May joust in 1514 at Greenwich the king lent horses and armour to them both for jousting. The tilt yard at Greenwich had become Henry’s permanent play area. Close to the palace of Placentia, Henry had added extra stables, an armoury, a gallery and a five-storey tower for viewing. Such was Henry’s delight in the joust the Spanish ambassador commented ‘The King of England amuses himself almost every day of the week with running the ring, and with jousts and tournaments on foot in which one single person fights with an appointed adversary… 

The most interested in the combats is the king himself, who never omits being present at them’. As well as the king, Nicholas Carew especially excelled as a star of the tournament. He became so popular and so skilled that Henry gave him his own tilt yard at Greenwich in 1515. Carew and Bryan were both also charged with teaching the art of chivalry to ‘encourage all youth to seek deeds of arms’ and pass on their skills to a younger generation. On 19 April 1515 there were more entertainments at Richmond, jousting and a banquet, in honour of Louise of Savoy and Bryan and Carew rode out with the king again. Henry paid for his friends coats of blue satin embroidered with white satin including ‘48 yds. blue satin, at 7s. 8d. a yd., for coats, trappers and saddlery for Bryan and Carew’.

For the celebration of May Day at Shooters Hill, Henry put on a masque around the story of Robin Hood, one of his favourite themes. Eighty-seven yards of green satin were needed for Bryan’s and Carew’s coats and Arnold, the Queen's embroiderer, made hawthorn leaves for their headpieces. The king himself was dressed ‘entirely in green velvet, cap, doublet, hose, shoes and everything’. Henry had with him a band of archers and a hundred noblemen who were joined by Queen Katherine and her ladies to watch an archery contest. Afterwards Henry asked his queen whether she would ‘enter the greenwood and see how the outlaws lived’ and when Katherine said she was content to, he led her into the woods to an area decorated with floral bowers and where tables were laid out with a feast. Bryan was also at the Christmas entertainments at Eltham when the king’s chapel master William Cornysh devised a castle pageant. 

For all the pleasure, there was also work to do and in 1516 Bryan became the King’s cupbearer bringing him in even closer contact to the king both officially and personally.

# # #

About the Author

Sarah-Beth Watkins grew up in Richmond, Surrey and began soaking up history from an early age. Her love of writing has seen her articles published in various publications over the past twenty years. Working as a writing tutor, Sarah-Beth has condensed her knowledge into a series of writing guides for Compass Books. Her history works are Ireland's Suffragettes, Lady Katherine Knollys: The Unacknowledged Daughter of King Henry VIII, The Tudor Brandons, Catherine of Braganza, Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots: The Life of King Henry VIII’s Sister, Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's Unwanted Wife and The Tragic Daughters of Charles I. You can find Sarah-Beth on Twitter @SarahBWatkins

Katherine Willoughby and Charles Brandon

Katherine Willoughby was one of the most intriguing yet least well known women of the Tudor court of Henry VIII. Attractive, wealthy and influential, Katherine knew all Henry’s six wives, becoming lifelong friends with Anna of Cleves and Catherine Parr, She and also knew Henry's children well, and It was rumoured that Henry might choose her as his seventh wife. So how did the daughter of one of the most committed Catholics in England become an outspoken advocate of religious reform?

Katherine was born at Parham Old Hall in Suffolk, on the 22nd of March 1519. Her father was  William Willoughby, the 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, a prominent courtier and the wealthiest landowner in Lincolnshire.  Her mother was María de Salinas, who’d arrived in England from Spain in 1501 with Queen Catherine of Aragon. She was the Queen's ladies-in-waiting and closest companion, and named her daughter after Queen Catherine.

It seems young Katherine had a sheltered childhood. As her two brothers died in infancy, she was brought up with only her tutors and servants for company. Her mother was often away at court, and her father died suddenly when she was seven,  making Katherine Baroness Willoughby de Eresby – and one of the wealthiest heiresses in England.

I began exploring her life when writing about her first husband, King Henry’s best friend, Charles Brandon, for my book, Brandon – Tudor Knight. With typical panache, Brandon borrowed the money to buy the wardship of nine-year-old Katherine, and claimed his plan was to secure her as a bride for his son and heir, Henry, Earl of Lincoln, who was named after the king.

I suspect the truth was a little different. Charles Brandon’s wife, Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France, and the king’s sister, suffered with a debilitating ‘pain in her side’, so I believe he was making plans for the future.

Whether or not I’m right, the fact is that Mary died on the 25 June 1533, and Brandon's marriage to young Katherine (barely two months later) instantly solved his money worries, with Katherine’s thirty manors making Brandon the most important landowner in Lincolnshire.

Katherine was fourteen at the time, and Charles Brandon was forty-nine, though we must take care not to apply modern standards, it must have been quite a shock to suddenly become a duchess, with privileged access to the king, and one of the most senior ladies of the Tudor court. The age difference was not unusual, although court gossips will have raised an eyebrow at Brandon’s haste.

Tony Riches

Katherine - Tudor Duchess is on Amazon UK and Amazon US

in paperback and eBook

and an audiobook edition is in production

Charles Brandon meets Duchess Margaret of Savoy

In my research for my book, Brandon Tudor Knight, there were no shortage of incidents and episodes which gave me an insight into his true character. I’d like to choose one involving Duchess Margaret of Savoy that’s well documented and suggests the strength of Brandon’s relationship with the king.

The young Henry VIII wanted to prove to his people that (unlike his father) he was a true warrior king, and – respond to the demands to ‘teach the French a lesson.’ In 1513 he chose Charles Brandon to lead the invading English army of some 30,000 men on an ambitious mission to France. 

Brandon’s appointment as High Marshall was quite amazing considering his only previous military experience was a disastrous sea battle in the English Channel. The army had plenty of battle-hardened commanders, so although there were no doubt mutterings behind the king’s back, Henry’s choice shows the degree of trust he had in Brandon’s leadership ability.

The invasion of France went surprisingly well and after a short siege the city of Tournai surrendered on 24 September 1513.  It’s said that when the king was presented with the keys to the city he passed them to Brandon – quite an honour, as Charles had only been knighted in the March of that year.

There were several weeks of celebration after the victory, culminating with a grand banquet as guests of Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy. Margaret was the daughter of Emperor Maximilian, the holy Roman Emperor, and King Henry’s great rival. Margaret was also wealthy, well-educated and powerful. Having been widowed twice, she’d sworn never to marry again, but Henry thought she would make the perfect partner for his best friend Charles Brandon. 

There are various accounts of the story of how Brandon ‘proposed’ to her, but I like the one attributed to Margaret herself:

One night at Tournai, after the banquet he [Brandon] put himself upon his knees before me, and in speaking and him playing, he drew from my finger the ring and put it upon his, and since showed it to me; and I took to laugh, and to him said that he was a thief, and that I thought not that the king had with him led thieves out of his country.  I prayed him many times to give it [the ring] to me again for that it was too much known but he understood me not well and kept it until the next day that I spoke to the king, requiring to make him give it to me because it was too much known, I promising one of my bracelets the which I wore, the which I gave him, and then he gave me the said ring.

Brandon didn’t take the hint of course, and later at Lille it is reported that he once again knelt before the duchess and took another ring from her finger. Again, Margaret had to speak with Henry VIII, this time complaining not about the ring but of Brandon’s conduct, in stepping out of line - far beyond his status.

Henry was enjoying these games of Tudor ‘courtly love’ and, instead of ordering Brandon to return the ring, gave Margaret a more precious one set with diamonds. The incident caused in international scandal and of course infuriated Margaret’s father, Maximilian.

Years later Brandon sent his eldest daughter to the court of Margaret of Savoy - perhaps to learn something of how a woman could exercise power, or possibly in reconciliation for his earlier conduct.

Brandon enjoyed great favour from the king throughout his life, including protection from his many enemies within the English nobility, who called him a ‘stable boy’ (he was once Henry’s Master of the Horse).  Thomas Cromwell’s reforms to the royal household created the new position of Lord Great Master to oversee everything and Brandon was the first to hold this post. 

He worked for Henry right up to the day he died, when the king said that in all their long friendship Charles Brandon had never knowingly betrayed a friend or taken advantage of an enemy. He is reported to have asked his council, ‘Is there any of you who can say as much?’

Tony Riches

Special Guest Post by Sarah Kennedy, Author of The King's Sisters

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The King’s Sisters continues the story of Catherine Havens. It’s now 1542, and another queen, Catherine Howard, has been beheaded for adultery. Although young Prince Edward is growing, and the line of Tudor succession seems secure, the king falls into a deep melancholy and questions the faith and loyalty of those around him.

Is the third novel the most difficult? It was for me. My first novel, The Altarpiece, the beginning of my Tudor series The Cross and the Crown, was the writing on which I learned to be a novelist rather than a poet. That was hard enough (plot, plot, plot!). Its sequel, City of Ladies, seemed somewhat . . . well, not easier, but at least more familiar. I knew my character, and I knew where I was going, as though the field were mine and I had walked it many times before.

Then I hit the third book, The King’s Sisters (a metaphor that plays on the unofficial title of Henry VIII’s discarded third wife, Anne of Cleves, who was called “the king’s beloved sister” after their divorce). In this novel, my main character Catherine has two children and is serving in the household of Anne of Cleves. Henry has just executed his fourth wife, Catherine Howard, for adultery when the book begins—and Catherine has just discovered that she might be pregnant, even though she’s not married.

Writing this story was like encountering a barbed wire fence where there once had been open pasture. I sailed through a first draft, only to discover that I didn’t know how to end it. I went back to the beginning. Again, I wandered into a wilderness and came up against the barrier of an ending that felt like a satisfying and inevitable ending. Again, I went back to the beginning. Again, I arrived at the last fifty pages only to find that I had no idea how to get over that fence and into the lovely land of conclusion.

Did I finally figure it out? Well, I hope so. The book was initially scheduled to appear in 2015, and was actually advertised on Amazon, but it never appeared, except as an Advanced Review Copy for reviewers. It was right after this sort-of release that my first fiction publisher suddenly went out of business. For The King’s Sisters, this shocking and dismaying event turned out to be something of a blessing, because while I was searching for a new publisher, which I found to my delight in the wonderful folks at Penmore Press, I had time to look at the manuscript with fresh eyes.

In doing so, I discovered what is, for me at least, one of the problems with a continuing character or a series of any kind, mine or someone else’s: what can a writer do that’s different, interesting, even unexpected in the middle of a series without losing coherence? Historical fiction writers, like me, often have to cast about for yet another famous person whose biography the character can get tangled in or some event of great moment for the character to become a player in.

But, for me, the answer lies in character, a person who finds herself confronting political and spiritual issues that force her to make difficult choices. I want my main character Catherine to be a human being facing human problems in the human world. Our lives may sometimes be crime stories, and we may sometimes encounter the great and the famous, but human lives are also fictions of love, self-deception, betrayal, triumph, and grief. The notion of “the King’s sisters” became, at last, as much a description of Catherine’s awkward position as a former novice, in a newly Protestant country, who still seeks the company of women as a pun on the title of Anne of Cleves.

It took me a long time to figure out what my Catherine really wants this time. She doesn’t want to be part of the court, and she doesn’t want to marry a prince. She wants the things that many people want: freedom to make choices for herself, security for her children, and, sometimes, a man in her bed. The events that unfold take their shape from her very human and often quite flawed desires. And so, after several false starts and one large disappointment, I was finally able to jump that fence. It was not an easy or pleasant experience, but it taught me quite a lot about myself as a writer and about the construction of a series. On now to Books Four and Five and all of the problems they are sure to bring to me!

Sarah Kennedy

# # #

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

Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch, by Nicola Tallis

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

The first comprehensive biography in three decades on Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the Tudor Dynasty. During the bloody and uncertain days of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort was married to the half brother of the Lancastrian king Henry VI. A year later she endured a traumatic birth that brought her and her son close to death. 

She was just thirteen years old. As the battle for royal supremacy raged between the houses of Lancaster and York, Margaret, who was descended from Edward III and thus a critical threat, was forced to give up her son - she would be separated from him for fourteen years. But few could match Margaret for her boundless determination and steely courage. 

Surrounded by enemies and conspiracies in the enemy Yorkist court, Margaret remained steadfast, only just escaping the headman's axes as she plotted to overthrow Richard III in her efforts to secure her son the throne. Against all odds, in 1485 Henry Tudor was victorious on the battlefield at Bosworth. 

Through Margaret's royal blood Henry was crowned Henry VII, King of England, and Margaret became the most powerful woman in England - Queen in all but name. 

Nicola Tallis's gripping account of Margaret's life, one that saw the final passing of the Middle Ages, is a true thriller, revealing the life of an extraordinarily ambitious and devoted woman who risked everything to ultimately found the Tudor dynasty.

# # #

About the Author

British Historian Nicola Tallis graduated from Bath Spa University with a first class BA Hons. degree in History in 2011, and from Royal Holloway College, University of London in 2013 with an MA in Public History. In 2019 she completed her PhD at the University of Winchester. Nicola says, 'I've been fortunate enough to enjoy a varied career as a curator, lecturer, and researcher, and historical research is my passion. I spent five years researching and writing about the Grey family for my first book, and you're most likely to find me delving into documents at the National Archives or the British Library.'  Find out more at Nicola's website http://nicolatallis.com/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter @NicolaTallis

Guest Post by David Field, Author of The Queen In Waiting: Mary Tudor takes the throne

Available for pre-order from Amazon UK, 

Amazon US and Amazon AU

Mary Tudor has claimed her sovereignty. But she remains conscious that her Council had briefly preferred another — her cousin, the Lady Jane Grey — and at the age of thirty-seven, unmarried and childless, she looks fearfully at the natural beauty and popularity of her nineteen-year-old half-sister Elizabeth.

In search of ‘Gloriana’

When I began plotting out the final two novels in my six-volume Tudor series (A Queen in Waiting, about Elizabeth Tudor’s early years, and The Heart of a King, about her forty odd years on the throne) I found myself pinned against the same wall that all authors experience when writing about the more famous of our former monarchs – what might be described as ‘image overkill’.

Certain of those who ruled England in their time (for example, Elizabeth’s father Henry VIII, and before him Richard III, Henry V and Richard the Lionheart) had a public relations team who left behind a one-sided but vivid ‘take’ on their subject that has survived to this day, and has become the orthodox version that is taught in schools. This poses a definite challenge to historical writers like me, whose readers will suffer from what psychologists call ‘counter-intuition’ if you try to sell them something else. But if you don’t – if you simply trot out the same character that everyone’s all too familiar with - then it’s about as exciting as last week’s weather report.

Our accepted mental picture of Elizabeth 1st is of a self-assured, physically beautiful, occasionally stern, but courageous and competent ruler who was adored by all her subjects. She was Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’, the people’s ‘Gloriana’, a sort of reincarnation of Boudicca dressed in her late father’s battle armour addressing her troops at Tilbury. But examine the facts more closely, peep behind the ‘fake news’ curtain, and think again.

Before she was even three years old, her mother was executed on the order of her father. The same loving father who had her declared a bastard, and sent her to live in Hatfield House, a day’s ride from London, under the resentful eye of her much older half sister Mary. Not an auspicious start by anyone’s benchmark, but it was to get worse when their half brother Edward VI died, and Mary became Queen at the age of 37. Elizabeth was a mere 19, and already under suspicion of having maintained a far from chaste relationship with Thomas Seymour.

Mary was nothing if not paranoid, and Elizabeth was everything Mary was not – young, tall, physically attractive, charismatic – and probably fertile. She was also Protestant, and fell under immediate suspicion of complicity in the Wyatt Rebellion against Mary’s marriage to King Philip of Spain. There then followed, on the order of her half-sister, a period of imprisonment in the Tower, followed by house arrest in a medieval ruin in Oxfordshire. Then, aged 25, she was advised that she had become Queen of England on the death of Mary.

What life skills could she possibly have brought to the job, given that background? Since long before her accession she had relied on a few trusted advisers, and they were now the power behind the throne. Chief among these was William Cecil, Secretary of State, who was her policy adviser, personal counsellor, friend, public relations consultant – and, might it be suggested, the father she never had?

Where would England have been without Cecil? Every achievement that was chalked up to Elizabeth was in fact the outcome of Cecil’s wise and sympathetic counsel. Without him, one trembles to think what England would have become, to judge by the few events during her reign in which Elizabeth’s stubborn determination won the day. Elizabeth didn’t defeat the Spanish Armada – Howard, Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher did, despite Elizabeth.

Not only was she so tight-fisted that her navy was denied adequate ordinance, even when the Armada was in the Channel approaches, but her lack of compassion for those who lost limbs and eyesight in the defence of her realm resulted in bands of ‘sturdy beggars’ roaming the country seeking alms to keep body and soul together. Even her famous Tilbury performance was at the suggestion of her lifelong friend and adviser Robert Dudley.

Likewise, had it been left to Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots would never have been executed. The popular version of events surrounding the demise of this romantic (dare I say ‘promiscuous’?) rival to Elizabeth’s crown has Elizabeth as a stern and vengeful nemesis who had Mary beheaded (badly, as it turned out, which only added to the poignant drama). The reality was that Elizabeth was reluctant to set a precedent for the execution of a queen, and only signed the death warrant in exchange for an assurance that it would not be employed until she said so. It was in fact done behind her back, and her angst at this betrayal is a matter of public record.

And what of Elizabeth’s much vaunted virginal status? Being unmarried is not the same thing as being celibate, but her frequently boasted assertion that she was married to her people was in reality an admission of her fear of marriage. After what it had meant for her mother, followed by her father’s series of disastrous marriages, sister Mary’s political blunder in marrying the ruler of England’s most dangerous foe, and the tragic betrayal of Mary Stuart by first Darnley, then Bothwell, who can blame Elizabeth if marriage didn’t seem to her to be quite the blessed state that others tried to assure her it was?

But given her naturally hot-blooded and somewhat impulsive nature (and she was descended from two parents who had possessed these qualities in spades) is it really likely that she went to her grave a virgin? The rumours ran riot through the Court regarding the unhealthy proximity of her bedchamber to that of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and even the version of events that was allowed by Cecil did not seek to deny Elizabeth’s love for her lifelong companion. Elizabeth did nothing to negate the suspicions when she gave orders, on her deathbed, that no physician was to examine her corpse – what was she hiding, in a final smoke and mirrors exercise?

Then there was her fabled beauty. Few of her subjects ever set eyes upon her, but were content to swallow the glamorous stories they were fed regarding her physical allure. They also basked in the peace and prosperity with which England was blessed during her reign, and had little idea of where the credit lay for that. However, her Ladies could have told a different story, had they dared.

Smallpox had left Elizabeth with facial pits that were smeared over with ‘Venetian Ceruse’ a lead-based whitewash that she succeeded in making fashionable, and which accounts for the images we have of Elizabeth resembling a badly advised circus clown. Her love of sweet treats left her with rotting teeth and a halitosis that was obvious from several feet away, while her luxuriantly long red hair was a wig, under which clumps of white clung stubbornly to her scalp as time progressed. As for her body, being tall is a desirable look when there are youthful curves to drape over the height, but not when the wrinkles and creases take over, as they did in her later years. Later years that reaped the consequences of all that lead, in the form of mental decline.

It was not just natural modesty that closed her bedchamber to all but the most intimate of her entourage as Elizabeth slipped into a carefully concealed dementia in which periods of silent concentration on the wall in front of her were interspersed with muttered ramblings. Cecil’s son Robert had taken over guru duties, and to the very end was pleading with her to name her successor, while working behind the scenes to ensure that it would be James VI of Scotland.

If you have persevered with this blog to the end, muttering words such as ‘misogynist’ and ‘traitor’, then you are probably experiencing counter-intuition. Unlike those who were there at the time, I have not overlooked or downplayed any inconvenient truths. By all means make a studied point of not reading my two novels on the subject of ‘Good Queen Bess’, but at least concede that there are two ways of looking at propaganda. More importantly, recognising it for what it was.

I finished up experiencing considerable admiration – even affection – for the brave young Queen who rode through all the hardships to leave England believing in itself again. I hope it shines out in what I’ve written.

David Field

# # #

About the Author

David Field was born in post-war Nottingham, and educated at Nottingham High School. After obtaining a Law degree he became a career-long criminal law practitioner and academic, emigrating in 1989 to Australia, where he still lives.  Combining his two great loves of History and the English language he began writing historical novels as an escape from the realities of life in the criminal law, but did not begin to publish them until close to full time retirement, when digital publishing offered a viable alternative to literary agencies, print publishers and rejection slips. Now blessed with all the time in the world, his former hobby has become a full time occupation as he enjoys life in rural New South Wales with his wife, sons and grandchildren to keep him firmly grounded in the reality of the contemporary world. Find out more at David's website https://davidfieldauthor.com/ and follow him on Facebook