New & Noteworthy: May 19

• M.J. Neary announces the publication of her newest novel SIRENS OVER THE HUDSON, set in Recession-era Tarrytown. The book will be released by Crossroad Press in Summer 2017. Congrats M.J.!

And if you'll be at the HNS Conference in Portland, stop by and see our contributors:

• Kim Rendfeld will moderate a panel entitled "How Am I Supposed to Write about This When They’ve Destroyed All the Evidence?”, in which the panelists will discuss navigating around research dead-ends.

• Judith Starkston will serve on a panel entitled “Mythic Tradition and Legend vs. the Historical Record”, which will discuss shifting the stereotyped expectations of readers to make room for more diverse mythic fiction.

• J.K. Knauss will be at the book signing on Saturday, June 24, signing copies of her work.

Mad Mothers: Frankish Queen Gerberga

By Kim Rendfeld

Empress costume from
The Costumes of All Nations (1882)

When brother-in-law King Charles (Charlemagne) seized her late husband’s lands, Gerberga decided to fight for her two sons’ inheritance and her own power as queen mother and regent.

After Frankish King Carloman died at age 20 in December 771, Charles moved swiftly to seize the kingdom. Was it determination or desperation that made Gerberga flee with two little boys and an entourage to Lombardy?

We don’t know how she reached the realm of Charles’s ex-father-in-law. She would have either had to cross the Alps or go by sea. The slow travel, in general, posed the danger of brigands, but add winter weather and at least one child too young to ride, and this journey becomes especially risky.

We don’t know much about Gerberga, except that she was a Frankish noblewoman selected by father-in-law Pepin to marry Carloman, but we can make a few guesses. Women typically were teenagers when they married, often at age 13. Men could marry at age 16. The most Gerberga and Carloman could have been married was four years, and their elder son was no more than 3 years old, barely old enough to start riding.

That this queen mother, perhaps as young as 17, made a dangerous journey to Lombardy with these two small children tells us something about her character. 

Seeking aid from Desiderius, king of the Lombards, was not the safest thing to do, either, but she had no other choice. Desiderius had seized power in a coup in the 750s and clashed violently with Rome before. His retaliation, blinding an enemy, was brutal and typically medieval. However, he was the powerful ally she needed—and he had his own grudge against Charles. The Frankish monarch had repudiated Desiderius’s daughter to free himself to marry into the powerful Agilolfing clan, an alliance to help him claim his late brother’s lands.

Desiderius' court, from
the tragedy Adelchi (published 1845)

Desiderius saw Gerberga’s sons as a way to get back at Charles for the insult to his daughter and restore his alliance with Francia. He tried to get the pope to anoint the little boys as kings, even seizing papal lands to pressure him. The pope refused and eventually asked Charles to fulfill his vow as protector of Rome and come to his aid.

When Charles invaded in 773, Desiderius retreated to Pavia, and Gerberga and her sons lit out for Verona, along with Lombard Prince Adalgis and a Frankish nobleman named Autchar. Adalgis escaped Verona and headed toward the Byzantine empire.

Charles, learning of Adalgis’s flight, went to Verona with a contingent of Franks, while most of the army held siege in Pavia. Gerberga surrendered voluntarily when Charles arrived.

The sources don’t say why she surrendered. Perhaps she realized she was deserted, knew there was no way she could win, and wished to avoid further bloodshed or the starvation and disease that accompanies a siege. Perhaps, she thought if she surrendered now, she and her sons would be sent to the cloister rather than be executed.

The sources are silent about her fate, but having Gerberga and her sons in the cloister is plausible. They would have been among other troublesome relatives Charles sent to the monastery such as Desiderius and later on Charles’s first cousin Bavarian Duke Tassilo and even his own eldest son, Pepin (often called Pepin the Hunchback—medieval folk were a tad insensitive).

Gerberga did not win her battle against her brother-in-law, but her story illustrates that medieval women were not damsels in distress waiting for a hero to rescue them.

My characters see Gerberga as the strong-willed young woman she is. My aristocratic Franks don’t have much sympathy for her, though, as you will see in this excerpt 

**From The Cross and the Dragon**

“It’s God’s will.” Theodelinda laid her hand over Alda’s. “I will have our priest dedicate tomorrow’s prime Mass to the princess. The rest of the royal family, are they well?”

“Yes, Countess. Did you know Gerberga and her sons surrendered in Verona?” he asked excitedly.

With wide eyes, Alda and Theodelinda shook their heads. “I thought our army was holding siege at Pavia, where Desiderius is hiding like the rat he is,” Alda said.

“This is the first we’ve heard about the king’s sister-by-marriage,” Theodelinda added, leaning forward. “Please, have some more wine.”

“Lady Alda, you are correct.” The merchant took a drink. “Our army has had an enormous camp outside Pavia’s walls since autumn, but Gerberga and her sons fled to Verona with Desiderius’s son. Our king and some of his men gave chase. The Lombard prince escaped, but Gerberga did not resist.”

“Where are they now?” Alda asked.

“I know not.”

“And Desiderius is still in Pavia?” Theodelinda asked.

“Yes. Our king even spent the Feast of the Resurrection in Rome and prayed for the Lord’s aid. Yet the siege continues, and the Lombard king refuses to surrender.”

“Damned Lombards!” Alda said. “The queen mother was right. They are strong, stubborn sons of whores.”

Sources

Charlemagne: Translated Sources, P.D. King

Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories, translated by Bernhard Walters Scholz with Barbara Rogers

“Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century,” Jan T. Hallenbeck, published in 1982 by Transactions of the American Philosophical Society

The Life of Charlemagne, Einhard, translated by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Edwin H. Zeydel

Kim Rendfeld is the author of two novels set in 8th century Francia: The Cross and the Dragon, about a young noblewoman contending with a vengeful jilted suitor and the anxiety of losing her husband in battle, and The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar, about a peasant going to great lengths to protect her children. Her work in progress, Queen of the Darkest Hour, features Fastrada, Charlemagne’s influential fourth wife. Connect with Kim on her website (kimrendfeld.com), her blog (kimrendfeld.wordpress.com), Facebook (facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld), and Twitter (@kimrendfeld).

Herstory: Beyond Baby-Making - The Role of Carolingian Queens

By Kim Rendfeld

Although seldom mentioned in annals, queens in Carolingian era (eighth and ninth century Francia) had a much more important role than a casual 21st-century observer might think.

If the king did not already have heirs, the queen’s primary role was to produce healthy sons to inherit the realm, and some kings tried to divorce wives unable to bear children. My main characters’ inability to conceive becomes a point of contention in my first novel, The Cross and the Dragon. (Paradoxically, a Carolingian king would not want too many sons born in wedlock because each one of them would expect kingdom when his father died, and the realm would not pass to the next generation intact.)

Yet a queen’s responsibilities went beyond baby-making, and if the question of heirs was already settled, she could have tremendous influence.

The ninth-century treatise The Government of the Palace says the queen’s role is “to release the king from all domestic and palace cares, leaving him free to turn his mind to the state of his realm.”

This does not mean the queen is relegated to the role of housewife. In the Middle Ages, the personal and political were intertwined. The queen was the guardian of the treasury, and she controlled access to her husband. The courtier and scholar Alcuin wrote to the queen to find out where Charlemagne was spending the winter.

When houseguests were foreign dignitaries, royal hospitality was key to international relations. Hospitality was more than just showing good manners. Frankish royalty would want their guests to report to their own rulers that the palace was beautiful and sturdy, the baths were hot, the table was laden, the host well dressed, and the guards and servants well cared for. All signs of power, important to project even to one’s own allies whose support could shift.

Of course, this time period was hardly ideal for women. Girls as young as 12 or 13 were considered marriageable and their families chose their husbands. Among aristocrats, marriage was most often for political reasons. Canon law gave women the right to consent to a marriage at age 15 or 16, but that could be beaten or starved out of them.

However, the reason for Women’s History Month and for posts like these is that too often women are portrayed only as victims and not as full human beings who could influence events around them and contribute to their societies. Carolingian queens certainly did both.

Illustrations are from Costumes of All Nations (1882).

Sources

Women at the Court of Charlemagne, Janet Nelson

Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne, Pierre Riché (translated by Jo Ann McNamara)

**An Excerpt from The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar**

"What are the furs the girl is holding?" Hildegard asked.

"Rabbit, my queen."

"Child, bring them to me. Oh, she holds them up without being asked. She is a good servant, Ragenard, and will fetch a good price should you want to sell her."

Sunwynn stood rigid and trembling. Leova swayed and steadied herself. She turned and fixed her gazed on Ragenard's face. For a moment, they locked eyes.

"Thank you, my lady queen," he said, "the girl is a good servant, and if you run your hand over the rabbit furs she is holding, you will find they are of the finest quality."

Fury rose from Leova's gorge, causing her hands to shake under the furs. Her child could be lost to her because of a Frank's whim!

Stroking the rabbit furs, Hildegard gazed at her husband across the room, smiled, and nodded as if to herself. "I want the rabbit furs, some leather, and the bolts of linen and wool. I'll pay two hundred dernier."

"My lady queen, they are worth more than that. Let the linen flow between your fingers; feel the fine texture of the wool. They are worth two hundred fifty dernier."

"I must be a good wife and spend my husband's treasure wisely. Two hundred twenty-five."

"You are a good wife and a good queen. Two hundred twenty-five it is." He bowed.

Relief washed through Leova. She barely noticed the clerk scribbling on the wax tablet. Sunwynn would stay with her—for now.

 Kim Rendfeld is the author of two novels set in 8th century Francia: The Cross and the Dragon, a tale of love set amid wars and blood feuds, and The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar, about a peasant going to great lengths to protect her children. Her work in progress, Queen of the Darkest Hour, features Fastrada, Charlemagne’s influential fourth wife. Connect with Kim on her website (kimrendfeld.com), her blog (kimrendfeld.wordpress.com), Facebook (facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld), and Twitter (@kimrendfeld).

Meet My Protagonist: Leova, from THE ASHES OF HEAVEN’S PILLAR

By Kim Rendfeld

Leova is an ordinary medieval woman but not a typical protagonist for historical fiction set in early medieval times. Nor are people like her found in the annals, which ignore commoners, portray pagans as brutes, and treat war captives like booty.

When I wrote THE ASHES OF HEAVEN’S PILLAR, I wanted to tell the story about the 8th century wars between the Christian Franks and the pagan Saxons from a peasant’s point of view, and I wanted to delve more into the slavery that existed at the time. I needed Leova.

My heroine looks good for her age, 28, but is not a blooming maiden. Although illnesses and the possibility of famine make conditions tough by 21st century Western standards, Leova thinks she had a good life. At the beginning of the story, she has a loving husband, two healthy children, a small farm, and a freedom she takes for granted.

She is a pagan who believes the Saxons will ultimately triumph as long as the sacred pillar, the Irminsul, stands. Her religion involves human sacrifice—a thanksgiving to the war god for triumph in battle. It’s a reality she accepts. Like the Christians of her time, she believes supernatural beings are responsible for all that happens in her world, from a fruitful harvest to an illness to a military victory.

Everything falls apart in 772 with Charlemagne’s first war in Saxony. The Frankish king’s soldiers burn the Irminsul, and she loses her faith and all that makes her life good—except for her children. For their sake, she refuses to surrender to the blackness threatening to overwhelm her as the pyres claim her brother then her husband. Her son and daughter, Deorlaf and Sunwynn, come first.

After the family is sold into slavery by relatives, she will set aside her pride and kneel before a master she fears and loathes to prevent her children from starving. She will let a kinder master use her body for his pleasure if that keeps her family intact. And she will risk the slow strangulation of hanging to protect her daughter from a lustful count and being sealed in a barrel and drowning as a witch while she begs one of her old gods to bring her lost son back to her.

There is a lot to like in Leova: her devotion to her children, her willingness to sacrifice, her courage, her determination, and a strength she draws on despite her lack of power and privilege.

**An Excerpt from The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar**

July 772, Eresburg, Saxony

Leova fought the urge to seize her children's hands and bolt out of the longhouse. No, she thought, listening to her husband's quick strokes of the whetstone, we will need food; we will need knives.

Dust clouded the sunlight from the open door and stuck to Leova's face and hands. Her home's wooden walls could not keep out the clamor from the village—the women's screams, babies' cries, hooves pounding on hardened earth. Through the noise, a deep voice bellowed, "Invasion from the west! Invasion from the west! Men to arms! Women and children to the forest!"

Her guts clenching, Leova blindly threw barley bread and dried beef into her bag. She had abandoned her bean stew, still simmering in the hearth. The warrior's shouts added little to the earlier message from the fortress's horns.

Leova's slender twelve-winter-old son scowled. "I should be fighting," Deorlaf said.

Derwine set aside the knife he was sharpening against the whetstone and slapped his son with the back of his weathered hand. "Stop wasting time! Release the swine and pull carrots and onions like your mother told you!" He raised his hand again. "Now, Deorlaf!"

Deorlaf looked down, mumbling "not fair." Snatching a sack, he grabbed a wooden trowel and stomped out of the longhouse.

"Father?" whimpered Sunwynn.

Leova dropped her sack, marched two steps, and shook her fair nine-winter-old daughter. "Father is busy," she hissed.

"But the night terrors," said Sunwynn, her body rigid.

"Our charms will protect us," Leova replied, hoping it was true.

* * *

Kim Rendfeld is the author of THE ASHES OF HEAVEN’S PILLAR and its companion, THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON, both set in the early years of Charlemagne’s reign. Connect with Kim on her website (kimrendfeld.com), her blog (kimrendfeld.wordpress.com), Facebook (facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld), and Twitter (@kimrendfeld).

Odd Jobs - Tanning: A Medieval Dirty Job

By Kim Rendfeld

In The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar, Hugh, the son of a tanner, eagerly volunteers when King Charles (today called Charlemagne) asks for one man from each free household to serve in the army invading Saxony. When the son of Hugh’s count asks him to join the castle guard, he is overjoyed. He sees a life that’s more privileged and an escape from the tannery. Tanning was a dirty job, even to medieval people accustomed to garbage and dung in the streets.

The tanner first obtained the skins of slaughtered cattle, and the blood, dirt, manure, hooves, and horns that went with them. After trimming the skins, the tanner rinsed the raw material in a local waterway or well. If the former, downstream neighbors might complain about the pollution.

Then, there was the matter of getting rid of the hair all the way down to the roots while maintaining the grain. Tanners would let the hair rot by sprinkling it with urine, folding the skins hair-side in, and piling them up in a warm place. Or they could soak them in an alkaline solution made of wood ash or lime.

When the hairs were loose enough, the tanner spread the hides over wooden beams and used special knives to scrape off the hair on one side and whatever flesh there was on the other. Next came another washing. The tanner could use a solution with pigeon droppings or dog poo, which would remove lime and make the product softer and more flexible. Or the craftsman might use fermented barley or rye, with stale beer or urine as an additive. This could take up to three months.

The hides were washed again in water. (Feel sorry for those downstream, yet?) Then the tanner needed to preserve his work with a solution made with the bark of an oak, spruce fir, or whatever else was available. That was done in two phases. The first pit used a weak solution, probably left over from the second phase (medieval people didn’t let things go to waste). The hides were taken in and out of the first pit until they attained the desired color. Then the tanner placed the hides in a deeper pit and layered them with the bark. Cold water or a weak tanning solution was poured over them. The hides sat, probably for a year. After that, the tanner would sell the hides to other craftsmen, who would provide the finished products.

Disgusting as the process is, tanners fulfilled an important function. They took a byproduct of the cattle slaughter and made it into a material medieval people depended on. Their shoes, saddles, helmets, armor, and many other leather goods were the result of a tanner’s handiwork. But no one wanted them as neighbors. And a young man might welcome a way out of the family business.

Sources

English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, Techniques, Products, edited by John Blair, W. John Blair, Nigel Ramsay

Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, edited by Thomas F. Glick, Steven Livesey, Faith Wallis

The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC - AD 600, by J.N. Adams

Kim Rendfeld is the author of The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar and its companion, The Cross and the Dragon, both set in the early years of Charlemagne’s reign. Connect with Kim on her website (kimrendfeld.com), her blog (kimrendfeld.wordpress.com), Facebook (facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld) and Twitter (@kimrendfeld).

New & Noteworthy: October 20

Lots of news from our contributors this month! 

• Jessica Knauss's SEVEN NOBLE NIGHTS, the epic of family and betrayal in medieval Spain, will debut on December 15. You can enter now for a chance to win one of ten proof copies at Goodreads. 

• Blythe Gifford’s second Royal Wedding Story, WHISPERS AT COURT, took first place in the Historical/Regency category of the Book Buyers Best Contest, sponsored by the Orange County (California) Chapter of Romance Writers of America. RUMORS AT COURT, the third book in the series, will be released in May, 2017, in the U.S. and the U.K.

• Anita Davison announces her newest title, MURDER AT CLEVE ABBEY, the second instalment in the thrilling Flora Maguire Edwardian Cosy Mystery Series. More information at Amazon.co.uk 

• On 29 October, Alison Morton will be on the "Research for Creative Writers" panel at the SilverWood Writing Day, a fringe event at the Bristol Literary Festival, UK. Alison's specialist area will be writing in extreme circumstances - she does write historical thrillers, after all! Full details here. In addition, Alison's fourth book, AURELIA reached the final four for the Historical Novel Society's 2016 Indie Award. Not bad out of 400 possible winners!

 • Kim Rendfeld’s second novel, THE ASHES OF HEAVEN'S PILLAR, will be re-released Nov. 2 in print and ebook formats. Praised by reviewers, the novel is about a Saxon peasant who will go to great lengths to protect her children — after she has lost everything else. Preorders for the ebook are available at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. If you would like a note when the print edition is available, email kim [at] kimrendfeld [dot] com.

The Arts: Frescoes as Medieval Mass Communication

By Kim Rendfeld

Despite constant warfare and the threat of famine and disease in the Dark Ages, the people loved their art. It could transport them beyond their daily worries. Or reinforce the message of whoever paid for artwork and demonstrate the patron’s wealth.

In Carolingian times (eighth and ninth century Europe), frescoes were popular decoration for palaces and churches. An ancient art form, a fresco could start as a thick coat of sand mixed with lime and ferruginous clay. Then, someone applied a thin layer of lime atop that. A painter then created harmonious forms and applied color. For pigments, he used indigo, lazur (a blue from azurite or lapis lazuli), prasin (derived from a green mineral known better as pseudomalachite), and dangerous substances such as yellow arsenic, red lead, and mercury.

Painters were skilled craftsmen who emulated the ancients. These medieval artists held the first century BCE Roman architect Vitruvius in high regard, especially when it came to symmetry and proportion. Vitruvius believed the body was a model of proportional perfection, with outstretched limbs fitting equally well in a circle or square and architecture should imitate its beauty and harmony.

Painting a fresco was a tricky business and required stamina from the artist, working

nonstop to paint plaster in the hours it was still wet and the paint would take. Because the color was lighter when it dried, the artist had to anticipate how the color would turn out. If he made a mistake, he had two options: let it go or scrape it off, losing hours of work. Large frescoes, like those covering entire church walls, were often done in sections, so the artist had the additional challenge of making sure the colors matched.

The artist also followed certain conventions. A lord must bear arms. Apostles had certain attributes such as a bearded Matthew, a bald Peter, and young James and Zebedee.

The goal was not realism but beauty.

The results could be idealized scenes from history, daily life, the Bible, or ancient mythology. In a palace, those images could reassure friends and intimidate enemies. In a church, they could reinforce religious stories, especially useful when the faithful had no Bibles to consult or were recent converts from paganism.

Many early medieval people couldn’t read, but they could interpret the pictures on the walls.

Sources

Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne by Pierre Riché, translated by Jo Ann McNamara

Daily Life in the Age of Charlemagne by John J. Butt

“Vitruvius's Theories of Beauty,” The British Library

The Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments, Volume 1, by Nicholas Eastaugh

minedat.org

Wet-Wall Tattoos by Richard Maschal

Kim Rendfeld’s debut novel, The Cross and the Dragon, is set in the early years of Charlemagne’s reign. The story about a young woman contending with a jilted suitor and the anxiety her husband will be killed in battle was re-released August 3, 2016, in print and ebook formats. Her second novel, The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar, will be re-released in November. Connect with Kim on her website (kimrendfeld.com), her blog (kimrendfeld.wordpress.com), Facebook (facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld) and Twitter (@kimrendfeld).

New & Noteworthy: August 19

Anita Davison's latest novel MURDER ON THE MINNEAPOLIS will be re-released by Aria (an imprint of Head of Zeus) in October 2016. This is the first in a series of five novels featuring the adventures of amateur sleuth Flora Maguire. The second book, MURDER AT CLEEVE ABBEY, is due for release this December, with the rest to follow in 2017. MURDER ON THE MINNEAPOLIS is now available for pre-order at Amazon.

To celebrate the re-release of THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON, Kim Rendfeld is holding two giveaways: one for a signed paperback for U.S. residents via Goodreads, the other for an ebook open internationally via her blog. See Kim’s post for details.

NOTE: Heather Domin's blog tour at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours promoting THE HEIRS OF FORTUNE has been postponed due to scheduling conflicts. As soon as it is rescheduled, the new date will be announced.

Beyond Our Stars: What Does the Sky Tell Us about God?

By Kim Rendfeld

In Charlemagne’s day (748-814), astronomy was a blend of natural philosophy and religion, a study of the creation — and the creator.

Medieval people saw God’s hand in everything, from providing a good harvest to feed them through winter to healing the sick to deciding the victor of the war. So they would do what they could to gain God’s favor. Three days of litanies were part of the military strategy. In the medieval mind, searching the night sky for clues to God’s will made sense.

The universe had to be orderly, and Carolingians relied on Roman books to explain it: Pliny’s Natural History, Macrobius’s Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, Martianus Capella’s Marriage of Philology and Mercury, and Calcidius’s Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. Early medieval intellectuals placed Earth at the center of the universe and the sun, moon, and seven planets revolving around it in eccentric patterns — that is, circles within each other but not sharing the same center — and at different angles to the Earth’s plane. Planets, the keepers of God’s time, could also move in epicycles, loops along a circle.

King Charles himself took a keen interest in astronomy and corresponded with scholars about phenomena such as eclipses and the size of the moon. His biographer Einhard elaborates, “He learned how to calculate and with great diligence and curiosity investigated the course of the stars.”  Charles passed on his interest in astronomy, along with the six other liberal arts, to his children, both sons and daughters. In a poem, the scholar Alcuin mentions a daughter gazing at the night sky and praising God, who created it.

The pursuit of knowledge fit into Charles’s imperial ambitions. In 780, he recruited foreign intellectuals, and in the decade that followed, workers were converting the royal villa at Aachen to a palace, one of many construction projects Charles would undertake.

Astronomical events were important enough to record in the annals. The year 810 saw two eclipses of the sun and the moon, and 812 had a midday eclipse of the sun. To Einhard, those eclipses, spots on the sun lasting seven days, and a ball of brilliant fire that fell from the sky during a war were among the signs that Charles was near the end of his life.

Einhard says Charles ignored the omens. Perhaps the emperor decided not to make a big deal of them publicly. But a year after that last eclipse, the 65-year-old monarch in declining health appeared to be putting his affairs in order. He invited his son Louis, the king of Aquitaine, to the assembly in Aachen, placed a crown on Louis’s head, and named him co-emperor. Charles also ordered that his grandson Bernard be called king of Italy, succeeding Louis’s late brother.

A few months after the assembly, a high fever and pleurisy sent Charles to his bed. He died a week later on January 28, 814. The annals say nothing about the sky that night.

Sources

• Einhard's The Life of Charlemagne translated by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Edwin H. Zeydel
• Carolingian Chronicles, which includes the Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories, translated by Bernard Walter Scholz with Barbara Rogers
• P.D. King's Charlemagne: Translated Sources
• Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne, by Pierre Riché, translated by Jo Ann McNamara
• Planetary Diagrams for Roman Astronomy in Medieval Europe, Ca. 800-1500, Volume 94, Part 3, by Bruce Eastwood and Gerd Grasshoff
• A History of Western Astrology Volume II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds by Nicholas Campion
• Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe by Stephen C. McCluskey
• Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance by Bruce Eastwood

---

Kim Rendfeld’s debut novel, The Cross and the Dragon, is set in the early years of Charlemagne’s reign. The story about a young woman contending with a jilted suitor and the anxiety her husband will be killed in battle will be re-released August 3, 2016, in print and ebook formats and is available for pre-order. Connect with Kim on her website, her blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

New & Noteworthy: July 15

Kim Rendfeld will re-release THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. The heroine, Alda, must contend with a jilted suitor bent on revenge and the anxiety her beloved husband will die in battle. Ebooks are available for preorder on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble. Print copies will be available on the launch date, and if you'd like a friendly reminder, email Kim at kim [at] kimrendfeld [dot] com.

M.J. Neary will re-release three of her novels with Crossroad Press in 2016. Founded by a bestselling author, Crossroad specializes in publishing new works of established authors and backlist for megasellers like Clive Barker. Congratulations M.J.!

Harlequin Historical has acquired Michelle Styles' latest Viking novel, SOLD TO THE VIKING. It will be out in February/March of 2017. Congrats Michelle!

Dark Ages Slavery and the Battle for Souls

By Kim Rendfeld

Bishops in Carolingian Francia disliked the slave trade, but not for the reasons you might think.

When Carolingian kings conquered a pagan land, it was an opportunity for Christian missionaries to spread the faith. That chance, along with many souls, was lost if war captives were shipped off to Muslim Spain, Egypt, or other parts of Africa or they became the property of Jews.

Bishop Agobard of Lyon was irked to find out that Emperor Louis the Pious required slaves owned by Jews to have their master's permission before being baptized. In On the Insolence of Jews (as anti-Semitic as it sounds), Agobard rails against allowing Jews to own Christians at all because the Christians might pick up the Jews' bad habits of observing the Sabbath on Saturday, working on Sunday, and eating the wrong food at the wrong times during Lent.

Bishops who assembled at Meaux in 845 objected to Christian and Jewish traders driving Slav war captives to be sold to Muslims. They thought it better to redeem the captives and baptize them than to allow them to fill the ranks of the infidels.

Costumes of slaves or serfs from the sixth
to the twelfth century

In the mid-eighth century, King Pepin forbade the sale of Christian and pagan slaves. Perhaps realizing sales couldn't be stopped completely, Pepin's son Charles (Charlemagne) tried to regulate the practice, requiring the presence of a count or bishop and prohibiting sales beyond the frontiers.

Before Pepin became king, a male slave might have been worth slightly over half the price of a horse, the most expensive livestock. In the later years of Charles's reign, the enslaved man might be about the same price as a horse.

Not only does this show inflation and why the slave trade became more attractive; it shows what slaves were worth compared to other possessions, more than most livestock and most garments.

A slave owned by an aristocrat might physically be better off than a peasant. In a time when having enough food to last through winter was not guaranteed, a servant in a noble household was more likely to have food and clothing. Nor was the servant subject to conscription in the army.

But slaves were vulnerable to abuse. A maid could not refuse her lord's unwanted advances. If the master needed funds for a horse and armor, he could sell slaves and break up families.

In other words, slave were commodities in the eyes of traders and their customers, and war captives were inventory. Churchmen, however flawed their motives by 21st century standards, did see war captives as humans with souls worth saving.

Sources

Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne by Pierre Riché, translated by Jo Ann McNamara

Agobard of Lyon: On the Insolence of the Jews to Louis the Pious (via Medieval Sourcebook) 

Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce AD 300-900 by Michael McCormick

Kim Rendfeld's second novel, The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar, features a pagan Saxon family sold into slavery. It will be rereleased in November and is available for preorder on Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. It will available on Amazon in the coming weeks. Her first novel, The Cross and the Dragon, will be rereleased on August 3, in print and ebook. The ebook is available for preorder at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble.