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

Lovers: The Princess and The Hostage

By Blythe Gifford

King Edward III of England had a total of nine children who lived to adulthood, and he worked hard to make sure they made marriages that would serve his medieval kingdom well.  For the most part.  But he had a soft spot for his eldest daughter, Isabella and although many matches were proposed for her, at age 28, she was still unwed.  Most historians suggest this was by her own choice and that she was content to remain at home with her parents, their favorite daughter, living in comfort, luxury, and with all the royal status of her rank.

Her parents provided her with enough lands and holdings to give her an independent means of support.  And when that did not suffice (often, it did not, for Isabella was known as a profligate spender), the king covered her debts.  She settled into a comfortable, if unorthodox life for the time. “The Exception Who Proves the Rule,” as historian Jessica Lutkin called her. 

Then, in 1359, England captured the king of France in a major battle, which entitled England to demand an enormous ransom for his return.  As part of the resulting complex treaty, a number of French noblemen were sent to England, to be held hostage until the money was paid.

Chateau de Coucy, France

One of these was Enguerrand, Lord de Coucy.  A powerful French lord, he had inherited his title at a young age and began his career on the battlefield at 15.  By the time he was 18, he was commanding men to suppress an uprising of French peasants.  When he arrived in England as a hostage, he was only 21, seven years younger than Isabella.

According to the rules of chivalry, these French hostages were treated more like guests than prisoners and treated to a succession of feasts and celebrations throughout their captivity.  (For my post on this see:  )  De Coucy, in addition to his prowess in war, excelled at the courtly arts.  According to Jean Froissart, recorder of all events of King Edward’s reign, "...the young lord de Coucy shined in dancing and caroling whenever it was his turn. He was in great favor with both the French and English..."

What woman could help but notice such a man?

History does not record when or how Enguerrand and Isabella met.  Did she admire him in the dance and call him over?  Did he present himself with a flourish?  Did their eyes meet and then…

Sadly, Froissart recorded none of this.  And so, when I wrote WHISPERS AT COURT, I was forced to create my own explanation.

But the spinster princess was obviously taken with the young Frenchman.  It is difficult to believe that the relationship could have developed without her active encouragement.  Was she suddenly thinking, as she reached 30, that she wanted a family of her own? 

Isabella had nearly wed at 19, a man of her own choosing, who was also a Frenchman, but one allied with the English.  Her parents had agreed and settled on the details, providing her with a huge and extravagant trousseau.  Five ships were loaded and waiting to whisk her away to Gascony, where the ceremony was to take place.  Then, at the last minute, Isabella refused to go. 

 

Why?  No one seems to know.  While they describe her trousseau in great detail (the silk mantle, lined with ermine, stitched in silver and gold embroidery, the robes of cloth of gold and crimson velvet), they do not record why a young woman who had chosen her own husband would turn back at the docks at the last minute.

So the aging princess who met the charming French hostage had a history of getting what she wanted, no matter what the cost.  Did she pursue him?  Some have said she married for love alone.  Others have suggested her father nudged her along.  Though England and France were, for that moment, at peace, having a key nobleman as part of the family could help balance the French king’s supporters.

And what of de Coucy?  Perhaps he the hunter.  And if so, what drew to this woman?

De Coucy's English arms as Earl of Bedford

Upon their marriage, he did have restored to him some English lands his family had once held.  He received an English title and had his ransom forgiven.  Those things were not trivial, but they hardly seemed to equal his life in France, where he had one of the grandest chateaux, dominion over vast lands, and was widely respected position as a leader of men.

 

But married they were, in July, 1365, at Windsor Castle in a lavish ceremony.  The amount spent on their wedding far exceeded that for Edward’s other daughters, yet more evidence that Isabella was, by far, his favorite.  Once again, history tells us more about the couple’s possessions than their emotions.  Apparently, the groom, as well as the bride, was given a crown. 

 

She was 33.  He was 25.

A few months later (was it reluctantly on her part?), Isabella and Enguerrand left for France, with official word from the king that “that all children, male or female, who at any time may be born to them abroad, shall be considered capable of inheriting lands in England, and shall be as fully naturalized as though they were born in the realm, all ordinances, establishments, customs, or usages .of the kingdom, notwithstanding.”

There were children.  Two daughters were born to them in France, but for Enguerrand and Isabella, there was no lifelong happy ending.  When Edward III died in 1377, de Coucy gave up his English title and lands and returned his loyalty to the French king.  Isabella, who had traveled back to England frequently, returned home for good with their two daughters, and the couple lived apart for the rest of her life.  She died in 1382.  After her death, Enguerrand remarried, another Isabelle, this one the daughter of a French duke.  They also had a daughter, who did not live to adulthood.

De Coucy spent the rest of his life in wars and fighting, finally dying of the plague in 1396, after being taken prisoner while on crusade in Turkey.

And their children?  Marie de Coucy, born nine months after their wedding, married a French nobleman.  Philippa de Coucy married an English lord.  Somehow, seeming to prove that England and France had not, perhaps could not, be fully reconciled.  Even by love.

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.  WHISPERS AT COURT, which revolves around the romance between Isabella and Enguerrand, will be released in June, 2015. For more information, visit www.blythegifford.com

Author photo Jennifer Girard

Illustration credits: "Sir Enguerrand de Coucy, 1st Earl of Bedford, KG" by Rs-nourse - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Enguerrand_de_Coucy,_1st_Earl_of_Bedford,_KG.png#mediaviewer/File:Sir_Enguerrand_de_Coucy,_1st_Earl_of_Bedford,_KG.png

"Dessin Château-de-Coucy Rempart 011" by Collectionneur: Destailleur, Hippolyte (1822-1893) - Bibliothèque nationale de FranceCote : BNF Richelieu Estampes et photographie Rés. Ve-26j-Fol. DestailleurProvince, t. 5 , n. 1281 . microfilm A031428Identifiant: 07741283(Originally uploaded at fr.wikipedia; description page is/was here.). Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dessin_Ch%C3%A2teau-de-Coucy_Rempart_011.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Dessin_Ch%C3%A2teau-de-Coucy_Rempart_011.jpg

The Battlefield and Beyond: Noble hostages in the medieval English Court

By Blythe Gifford

Today, the word hostage is terrifying, implying the threat of imminent death if money is not paid or other demands met.  In the Fourteenth Century, however, being a hostage could be a much more pleasurable experience.

Battle of Poiters.  French knights left, English right.

In fact, if you were a knight or a noble in war at this time, the threat of death in battle was less than the threat of being taken captive.  After all, if you were dead, your enemy got nothing.  If you were alive, however, he might collect quite a tidy sum for your return.  In fact, the potential for such lucrative “spoils of war,” was a great incentive for a knight to join the call to battle.

Of course, there were chivalric rules about all this, but the result, particularly during the Hundred Years’ War, was that war became an elaborate economic game as well as a military one.  This reached its zenith in the Treaty of Bretigny between England and France.  When it was signed, in 1360, it seemed as if England had, indeed, won the war, which had not then gone on for a hundred years.  King Jean II of France was taken prisoner at the battle of Poitiers and the English were in a position to demand nearly any price for his return.  The final amount agreed on, three million gold ecrus, more than France’s total annual income, a ruinous figure which, eventually, contributed to the treaty’s failure.

King Jean II of France

But when he was held in England, King Jean did not languish in a drafty prison cell.  He was housed in the Savoy Palace, along with many other members of his entourage.  Certainly, not all prisoners were so well treated, but part of the code of chivalry was that knights should behave honorably to each other.  The captor should honor a man’s station and the captive should, on his honor, not try to escape.

The result, for a time, was that England was full of French nobles, feasting and partying as if they were guests at an elaborate house party.  (To be fully accurate, a hostage was to pay for his own room and board, but it’s hard to find detailed evidence of how this was accomplished.) 

Late in 1360, King Jean returned to France to personally work to raise the full amount of the ransom, which had been slow in coming.  In his absence, 40 nobles were sent in his place as surety for his return, but after a while, even the substitutes became restless.  In a great example of how this all played out, King Jean’s son, the Duke of Anjou, was allowed to cross the Channel to go to Calais, which was, technically, still English territory.  Even though he had cross the English Channel, he was bound by honor to remain an English prisoner.  However, the temptation of being so close to home, and his wife, proved too much, and the Duke went riding one day in 1363 and never returned.

This horrible breach of honor did not go unnoticed.  King Edward III of England wrote King Jean, shaming him with his son's blot on the royal name, and as a result, King Jean returned to England in January of 1364 and once again put himself in Edward’s hands as a hostage.

Savoy Palace on the Thames, the hostage king's home in London.

There are other, less flattering reasons given by history of why the French king might have returned to captivity, but suffice it to say he was given a royal welcome, once again housed in the Savoy Palace, and though he was ostensibly still working to moderate the ruinous terms of the Treaty, he apparently had a glorious time while doing it. 

Right up until he became ill and died less than three months later.

King Jean's funeral.

The cause of death was natural and the king of England mourned his royal brother with all due ceremony, giving him a funeral truly fit for a king before returning the body to France for another funeral and burial.

Well might Edward have mourned, for when he lost possession of the French king, he lost the leverage he needed to collect the remaining ransom.  Faced with the requirements of honor versus handing over good French coin to the English, the new French king let payments slide and eventually declared the treaty void in 1369.

By 1367, the last hostage in England had been released and by that time, as the French historian Edouard Perroy writes in his book, THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR, “There remained in London as hostages only the small fry of petty barons and burgesses.  Individual measures of clemency set some free, and others married and settled permanently in England…”

Married?  Mas oui!  Including a French count, Enguerrand, Lord de Coucy, who married King Edward’s daughter Isabella.  And that was what sparked the idea for WHISPERS AT COURT, my next Royal Wedding story, scheduled for release in 2015.

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 romances set in England and on the Scottish Borders, most using real historical events as inspiration.  SECRETS AT COURT, a Royal Wedding story, was a March 2014 release from the Harlequin Historical line.  For more information, visit www.blythegifford.com 

Photo credits:  Author photo Jennifer Girard

"JeanIIdFrance" by Anonymous (Paris) Formerly attributed to Girard d'Orléans. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JeanIIdFrance.jpg#mediaviewer/File:JeanIIdFrance.jpg

"The funeral procession of Jean II" by Virgil Master (illuminator) - Jean Froissart, Chroniques (Vol. I). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_funeral_procession_of_Jean_II.jpg#mediaviewer/File:The_funeral_procession_of_Jean_II.jpg