Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Blythe Gifford on WHISPERS AT COURT

Today, we welcome Blythe Gifford, a long time contributor to the Unusual Historicals blog.  Her eleventh novel, WHISPERS AT COURT from the Harlequin Historical line, has just been published and an excerpt was published here on Thursday.  She’s offering a free print copy to one randomly chosen commenter, so leave a comment at the end of the interview with your email address for a chance to win.
First, here’s a bit about the book:

Lady Cecily scorns the French hostages held at court. Treated as honoured guests, the men

play at love games – and Cecily fears that her mistress, the Princess, might be disgraced.
War-weary chevalier Marc de Marcel wants only to return home. Uncertain whether his ransom will ever be paid, he makes an unlikely alliance with enticing fire and ice Cecily. He’ll help her keep the Princess safe from ruin if she’ll help him escape. A pact which could lead them into a scandal all their own...

The first Royal Wedding story, last year’s SECRETS AT COURT, was cited by Wendy, the Super Librarian as one of her favorites of the year.  She called it “medieval to the marrow.”  What tricks do you have for getting inside the medieval world and yet making it accessible to modern readers?
Hard to say!  I’m just glad someone feels that I do! Part of it is just many years of reading and writing in the period.  I actually became fascinated with the 14th century and Edward III’s family back in junior high school and he, or members of his family, have now appeared in six of my books.  I feel as if I know them and after a time, you do develop a “sixth sense” about the period.  But I also research carefully so I can “walk around” in the landscape and structures my characters do.  For this book, I became very familiar with Dover Castle, for example.  And I try, as much as a 21st century woman can, to understand the medieval mindset. 

Talk about that:  the “medieval mindset.”
There are a few critical pieces of the world view of that period:  the active role of God and the church in daily, and national, life; the loyalty to kings instead of countries, and the code of chivalry, as it was actually practiced.  Many of these are totally foreign to us now and (or) they have been distorted into something more idyllic than the reality.  And, just as we do today, the practice and the code were, at times, contradictory.  The challenge is to express that world those through characters the reader can relate to.

So who are those characters in this book?
The hero is a French chevalier, Marc de Marcel, who is being held hostage in the English court.  After a lifetime of looking at the world from the English side of the channel, I had to do some research before I could see the world through his eyes!  The heroine, Lady Cecily of Losford, hates the French, including Marc, because she blames them for the death of her father in the war, a loss she still mourns. 

What is the actual historical background around this story?
Isabella, the daughter of King Edward, married a French hostage, Enguerrand de Coucy, for love, a rarity at that time and for many subsequent centuries for a royal.  (I wrote about them in this UH post:  unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2015/02/lovers-princess-and-hostage.html ) Their flirtation provides a common cause for Marc and Cecily, both of whom want to stop the budding romance.  But instead, they find themselves falling in love, just as their friends are.  The wonderful thing about using real royal weddings as a backdrop in this period is that so little is known about the facts.  No one even knows when the princess and the hostage actually met!  This gives a novelist room for creative license without violating the facts. 

So what’s next?  More medieval stories?  Or something different?
I have several ideas, some of which include different time periods.  The readers of Unusual Historicals are versed in these issues, so let me ask the readers to comment:  What time periods seem neglected?  What eras/years/events would you like to read about?  Leave a your thoughts below with your email for a chance to win a copy of WHISPERS AT COURT. 

About the author:
After many years in public relations, advertising and marketing, Blythe Gifford started

writing seriously after a corporate layoff. Ten years and one layoff later, she became an overnight success when she sold her first book to the Harlequin Historical line.  Since then, she has published ten books, primarily set in England and on the Scottish Borders, most revolving around real historical figures and events.  For more information, visit www.blythegifford.com
Author photo Jennifer Girard

Excerpt Thursday: WHISPERS AT COURT by Blythe Gifford

Today, we have a peek at the newest release from long-time Unusual Historicals contributor BLYTHE GIFFORD, Whispers at Court, out now from the Harlequin Historical line.  And Blythe will be back on Sunday for an interview about the book.   

One lucky visitor today or on Sunday will get a free copy of Whispers at Court. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email.

The second Royal Wedding story, set again in the 14^th century English court, it shows a little-known slice of medieval history:  the treatment of noble hostages during the Hundred Year’s War between England and France.  Blythe posted more about that here: http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-battlefield-and-beyond-noble.html

King Edward’s daughter Isabella ultimately married Enguerrand de Coucy, a French hostage and WHISPERS AT COURT centers on the romance between their two fictional friends.  Here’s a glimpse of the story:

Lady Cecily scorns the French hostages held at court. Treated as honoured guests, the men play at love games – and Cecily fears that her mistress, the Princess, might be disgraced. War-weary chevalier Marc de Marcel wants only to return home. Uncertain whether his ransom will ever be paid, he makes an unlikely alliance with enticing fire and ice Cecily. He’ll help her keep the Princess safe from ruin if she’ll help him escape. A pact which could lead them into a scandal all their own...

RT Book Lovers gave it 4-stars, saying “Gifford creates memorable characters and stories with such passion and authenticity that they capture the hearts of fans worldwide."

**An Excerpt from Chapter One of WHISPERS AT COURT**

 

The Court of Edward III, King of England, at Westminster

November 1363

     The minstrels’ horns signaled the beginning of a new dance.  Cecily searched the room, hoping for rescue.  She should join the dance with a partner who might become a husband, not with a hostage.

     And the hostage had not offered his hand.

     Well, then, if she were trapped, she would attempt to be gracious.  She pursed her lips.  “You are from the Oise Valley?”

     A frown, as if the reminder of home had angered him.  “Yes.”

     “And do they dance there?”

     “On occasion.  When les goddams give us a pause from battle.”

     She blinked.  “The what?”

     He smiled.  “It is what we call the Anglais.”

     “Why?”  Did they wish to curse the English with every name?

     “Because every sentence they utter contains the phrase.”

     She stifled a smile.  Her father, indeed, had been known to swear on occasion.  She could imagine that he would have had many more occasions in the midst of battle. 

     But she held out her hand, imperious as the princess could be.  “If you can dance, then show me.”

     “Is this part of a hostage’s punishment?”

     “No,” she snapped.  “It is one of his privileges.”

     “Then, pray, demoiselle, tell me your name, so I may know my partner.”

     He shamed her with the reminder.  Anger had stolen all her senses.  She was acting like a common serving girl.  “Lady Cecily, Countess of Losford.”

      The surprise on his face was gratifying.  He looked at her uncovered hair and then glanced behind her, as if expecting an earl to be hovering close behind.

     “I hold the title.”  At once a matter of pride and sadness.  She held it because the rest of her family was gone.  Held it in trust for a husband she did not yet know.

     His nod was curt, yet he held out a hand, without hesitation now, as if that had been his intention from the first.

     Surprise, or something deeper, unfamiliar, stirred when she put her fingers in his.  She had expected his hands to be soft, as so many of the knights’ had become now that war was over.  Instead, his palm was calloused; his knuckles scraped.  Wounds from today’s joust, she thought at first, but in the passing torchlight, she saw he carried scars of longstanding.

     They joined the carol circle.  On the other side, Lord de Coucy and the king’s daughter Isabella smiled and whispered to each other as if the evening had been prepared for their amusement.  That man showed not a whit of resentment at his captivity, while beside her, de Marcel glowered, stubbornly silent as the music began.

     They could not have been more unlike, these two.

     Carol dancing, with its ever-moving ring of dancers holding hands, did not lend itself to talk.  And he moved as he spoke, with precision, without excess, doing only what was necessary.

     She wondered whether this man enjoyed anything at all.

Certainly he did not enjoy her.  When the dance was done, he dropped her hand quickly and she let go a breath, suddenly realizing how tense she had been at his touch.

     He stood, silent, looking around the Hall as if searching for an escape.  And yet this hostage, this enemy could, if he wanted, lift a goblet of the king’s good wine, fill his belly with the king’s meat and his ears with sweet music played by the king’s minstrels, all the while alive and comfortable while her father lay dead in his grave.

     “What did you do,” she asked, “to earn the honor of substituting for the other hostage?”

     “Honor?”

     “You were defeated in battle, you killed my…countrymen, yet the King welcomes you to his court where you have food and wine aplenty and nothing to do.  It seems a generous punishment for defeat.”

     “A prison with tapestries is no less a prison.”

     “But you are safe.  You may do as you please.”

     “And if it please me to go home?”

     And yet her father would come home no more.  “You must pay some penalty.  We conquered you!”

     As the words escaped, she saw his expression change.

     “No!  Not conquered.  Never conquered.  We were betrayed by cowards.  Lord de Coucy and I were not among them.  We would have fought until the last goddam was dead.” 

This time, it was a curse he hurled.

“So you hate the English,” she said.  Blunt words, but he was a blunt man.

     “As much as you the French,” he answered.

     “I doubt that,” she said, sheer will keeping her voice steady.  “But since you detest us and disdain the king’s hospitality, I hope your time here will be short.”

     He bowed then, the gesture a mockery.  “In that, my lady, we are in accord.”

© Blythe Gifford, all rights reserved

About the Author

After many years in public relations, advertising and marketing, Blythe Gifford started writing seriously after a corporate layoff. Ten years and one layoff later, she became an overnight success when she sold her first book to the Harlequin Historical line.  Since then, she has published ten books, primarily set in England and on the Scottish Borders, most revolving around real historical figures and events.  For more information, visit www.blythegifford.com

Author photo Jennifer Girard

The End of An Era: The 12-Year Old Girl Who Started a 100-Years War

By Colin Falconer

You cannot blame a hundred years war on a 12 year old girl.

But you could perhaps blame William the Conqueror. When he took over the English throne in 1066 he retained possession of the Duchy of Normandy in France. Under feudal law, this meant that he and all future English kings owed homage to the king of France for their lands on the other side of the Channel.

The situation was always going to be a stone in the shoe of both monarchs.

Two hundred and fifty years later, Isabella’s marriage to Edward II of England was an effort to resolve the problem. Instead, it made it much worse.

Born in 1295, Isabella was the only surviving daughter of the wonderfully named Philippe the Handsome of France. At 3 years old, she was already being proposed as the bride for the King of England’s eldest son, Edward, to smooth negotiations for the Anglo-French truce of 1299.

Phillipe was not just a pretty face - he was thinking ahead; his own dynasty was secure - after all, he had three healthy sons. And if his daughter married England’s son, then his grandson would be King of England one day.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Edward was ten years older than his bride when they married. He was the youngest of fifteen children and his mother had died when he was 6. He had endured a miserable childhood and his father, the formidable Longshanks, had taken little interest in him.

But with exquisite irony, Edward was the only son to survive.

He lived in his father’s shadow then and always would. For despite his strapping good looks he just wasn’t king material. In fact he has been described by some historians as one of the most unsuccessful kings ever to rule England.

He was certainly outfoxed by Isabella. In 1325, she left England to conduct delicate negotiations with France over Gascony. She returned with a mercenary army and threw him off the throne.

By then her father was dead and two of her brothers soon after him. Some blamed the curse laid at her father’s door by Templar Grand Master Jaques Molay when Phillip burned him alive outside Notre Dame cathedral.  When her other brother Charles died as well in 1328 there was no clear successor to the throne of France. All three had died without a male heir.

Isabella transferred her claim to the throne to her eldest son, Edward, and actively encouraged him to pursue it as the closest living male relative of the late King Charles and the only surviving male descendant of the senior line of her father’s Capetian dynasty. By the English interpretation of feudal law, it made Edward III the legitimate heir to the throne of France.

But the French didn’t see things this way. Under France’s Salic law, males descended through the female line were disqualified from the succession. Besides, the French didn’t want an English king. So they crowned the dead king’s cousin, Charles of Valois, as their new monarch.

Though Isabella’s reign as regent of England was short - her son removed her and executed her lover when he was just eighteen - she continued to have great influence at court and kept up a healthy correspondence with all of Europe’s leading figures. She persuaded Edward to pursue his claims with full vigour. In 1337 Edward refused to pay homage to the French king for his lands in Aquitaine - so the French confiscated them. In modern parlance hostilities escalated from there.

The dispute led to the Hundred Years War - although the name is actually a later invention of historians, as it was actually three separate wars divided by periods of truce. From it grew the legends of Joan of Arc, Agincourt and the Black Prince.

The war had consequences Isabella could not have foreseen for her beloved France. The country was devastated by the war - it lost half its population - and spurred the growth of nationalism on both sides. It also brought about the fall of the French language in England, which had served as the language of the nobility and trade from the time of the Norman Conquest.

Yet it had all started with a marriage that was supposed to bring a lasting peace.

It was inevitable really, from that day in 1066 when Harold caught the arrow in his eye. Or was it Jacques de Molay’s curse?

It was only ironic that a woman who so prided herself on being a daughter of France so much should bear the son who started the war that brought her country to its knees.

ISABELLA, Braveheart of France, available now from Amazon US and Amazon UK

And also available as POD from Cool Gus publishing.

Colin Falconer’s blog page

Colin Falconer on Twitter