Tag: Medieval

Guest Post: “Historical Setting for ‘The Herb Knot’ by Jane Loftus”

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I am pleased to welcome Jane Loftus to my blog today to share a guest post about the historical setting of her novel, “The Herb Knot.” I would like to thank The Coffee Pot Book Club and Jane Loftus for allowing me to participate in this blog tour. 

The historical setting for the Herb Knot is mainly Winchester, where I live (which makes things a lot easier!).  The early chapters were set in Ghent, where I used maps, drawings, pictures, and the history of the Flanders cloth trade as a guide, but tried hard to focus on people and their interactions rather than straying too far into descriptions of Ghent itself. I’ve never been to Ghent, although, as it happens, I will be there at the end of August. 

Winchester, however, is within walking distance of my house, and its medieval layout and industry have been extremely well documented. The city itself was the former capital of England and seat of King Alfred, but compared to many other cities – Salisbury, for instance, which is also mentioned in the novel – it is quite small.  This gives the author fewer opportunities for geographical variety – you’re not going to get docks, as you would in Southampton, or mazes of streets to get lost in, as you would in London.  However, this does have advantages. 

When Rafi looks out the window in Joan’s turret, it is perfectly feasible for him to have seen all the way down the high street to where his enemies were having a menacing huddle. When he runs from Stefan and gets stuck at the bottom of Hammond’s passage, there really isn’t anywhere else for him to go. He can’t wander unseen through Seven Dials or hide in a Southampton dock warehouse. Unless you leave the city and hide out in the marshes or woods, you’ll probably get caught.  

It does make Rafi’s attempts to hide from Roger as he goes about his business that much more difficult, and, ultimately, futile.  Roger could stand in any number of places on the High Street and see absolutely everything. It does eventually bite Roger on the backside when Rafi is able to see him leg it up Blue Boar Hill and follow him, but we all know that incident doesn’t end particularly well. 

In terms of comparisons with then and now, the castle gate is still there, although the castle itself is long gone. The Guildhall has moved, the inns are now shops, and the Helle Tavern is somewhere beneath Montezuma’s chocolate shop and Occitane, the beauty shop. Not sure either of these would appeal to Adam as much as a large, frothy ale. St Maurice’s, where the curfew bell was rung, is just a tower now, with a flower market underneath. The Abbey has completely gone, bar a few stone tombs near the Tourist Information Board, and the charnel chapel is (probably) under the public toilets in Abbey Gardens. 

The cathedral, of course, is still there.  There are no markets in the immediate environs anymore; they’re on the High Street. It is not, as Rafi observes, as graceful and elegant as Salisbury Cathedral. It’s squat, it’s square, it’s a bit in your face. But it’s quite lovely and I’m very fond of it even though it was put there by the Normans and I’m not much of a fan of theirs. The top cathedral they built there, though. Gotta give them credit for that. 

St John’s is still there, on the hill in the east, overlooking the city. As with many churches, it’s rarely open. It is outside the soke, so not within the city proper, and as you climb, it’s as if you’re in a completely different world. It’s suddenly quieter; there are usually very few people around. If you decided to do a Stefan and hurl someone at a hawthorn tree, you probably wouldn’t be seen (please don’t do this). The frieze is still there and is quite remarkable. 

Doesn’t feature top of the list of things to do in Winchester, but it’s top of my list. If it’s open, go in; you won’t be disappointed. 

Try not to hide under any tombs, though. 

Blurb:   

The Hundred Years’ War comes to life in this spellbinding tale of love, betrayal, and conspiracy …  

A quest born on the battlefield will change a young boy’s destiny…  

Rafi Dubois is five years old when his mother is murdered after the Battle of Crecy in 1346. Alone and lost, Rafi is given a token by the dying Englishman who tried to save his mother’s life: a half-broken family seal which he urges Rafi to return one day to Winchester.  

Years later, when Rafi saves a wealthy merchant’s wife from a brutal robbery, he is rewarded with the chance to travel to England, taking the seal with him.  

But when he reaches Winchester, Rafi finds himself in a turbulent world full of long-held allegiances, secrets, and treachery. His path is fraught with danger and with powerful enemies working against him, Rafi falls in love with Edith, a market apothecary. But in doing so, Rafi unleashes a deadly chain of events which threatens to overwhelm them both…  

The Herb Knot is a sweeping and passionate novel set in one of the most tumultuous times in English history, from a powerful new voice. 

Buy Link:  

Universal Buy Link:  https://books2read.com/u/bzN6Z2  

Author Bio:  

Jane Loftus gained a degree in 16th-century European and British history from Surrey before taking a postgraduate degree in modern political history. As a lone parent, she worked in Winchester Waterstones before returning to IT once her son was older. 

Hugely passionate about the Middle Ages, she drew inspiration for this novel from the medieval layout of Winchester, which has been painstakingly documented. 

Jane is originally from London but has lived in Winchester for over twenty years. When not writing, she is usually out walking or watching costume dramas on Netflix – the more medieval the better. She also plays far too many RPGs. 

Author Links:  

Website: https://janeloftus.com/  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577760507961 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janeloftusauthor/   

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/janeloftus.bsky.social  

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0F3Q52X9Y  

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29357528.Jane_Loftus  

 

Guest Post: “Spotlight for ‘A Shape on the Air’ by Julia Ibbotson”

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Today, I am pleased to welcome Julia Ibbotson back to my blog to share a blurb for her novel, “A Shape on the Air.” I would like to thank The Coffee Pot Book Club and Julia Ibbotson for allowing me to participate in this blog tour. 

Blurb: 

Can echoes of the past threaten the present? They are 1500 years apart, but can they reach out to each other across the centuries? One woman faces a traumatic truth in the present day. The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the ‘dark ages’ unfold.

How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past?  

Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much both their lives across the centuries will become so intertwined. And in the end, how can they help each other across the ages without changing the course of history? For fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, and Christina Courtenay. 

Buy Link:  

Universal Buy Link: https://myBook.to/ASOTA 

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited. 

Author Bio: 

Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and the concept of time. She is the author of historical mysteries with a frisson of romance. Her books are evocative of time and place, well-researched and uplifting page-turners. Her current series focuses on early medieval time-slip/dual-time mysteries.  

Julia read English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language/literature/history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. After a turbulent time in Ghana, West Africa, she became a school teacher, then a university academic and researcher. Her break as an author came soon after she joined the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme in 2015, with a three-book deal from Lume Books for a trilogy (Drumbeats) set in Ghana in the 1960s. 

She has published five other books, including A Shape on the Air, an Anglo-Saxon timeslip mystery, and its two sequels, The Dragon Tree and The Rune Stone. Her latest novel is the first of a new series of Anglo-Saxon dual-time mysteries, Daughter of Mercia, where echoes of the past resonate across the centuries.  

Her books will appeal to fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, and Christina Courtenay. Her readers say: ‘Julia’s books captured my imagination’, ‘beautiful storytelling’, ‘evocative and well-paced storylines’, ‘brilliant and fascinating’, and ‘I just couldn’t put it down’. 

Author Links: 

Website: https://juliaibbotsonauthor.com 

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/@juliaibbotson 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuliaIbbotsonauthor 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julia.ibbotson 

Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/juliaibbotson.bsky.social 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/juliai1 

Amazon Author Page: https://Author.to/JuliaIbbotsonauthor 

Goodreads: https://goodreads.com/juliaibbotson 

 

Book Review: “A Medieval Cabinet of Curiosities” by Lorris Chevalier

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When we think about how we study history, we often consider documents and chronicles that can provide us with dates and the stories of historical figures. However, this is only half the story. We can learn a great deal from the artifacts left behind. Each era left behind its treasure trove of trinkets for archaeologists and historians to discover and interpret their meanings and purposes. One of the most fascinating periods of history was medieval Europe, full of war, religious struggles, artwork, plagues, and technological advances. What types of artifacts were left behind from medieval Europe? Lorris Chevalier explores the trinkets and artifacts left behind in his book, “A Medieval Cabinet of Curiosities.”

I would like to thank Amberley Publishing for sending me a copy of this book. When I saw the concept for this book, it was intriguing. I was hoping that Chevalier would expand the medieval world to include Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, and perhaps Africa, as they don’t get a whole lot of attention when it comes to medieval studies and a more public history view. I wanted to learn something new.

Chevalier explains that this book explores fifty objects from the Viking Age to the end of the 16th century. These objects range from the religious and extraordinary to the most common articles of clothing. Each item has a unique story to share, which Chevalier discusses succinctly. His goal in this book is to break medieval stereotypes and show how diverse the medieval world was. A nice added feature of this book was that, instead of photographs of the artifacts, Chevalier included watercolor portraits at the end of each section to show what the artifact looked like.

I enjoyed this book for the new stories and characters that I got to meet along the way. These artifacts and stories were fresh and gave depth to the medieval period, even if he did bring up the Dark Ages a few times. I did have a few issues with the book. I did wish we had a wider range in medieval history, which covered more diverse stories than European medieval history. I also wish that the stories and artifacts were in more of a chronological order so readers can see the evolution of the medieval world. As it is written, it felt like it was a cluttered cabinet with no rhyme or reason to the organization, whereas I wanted something a bit more organized.

Overall, I found this quite a fascinating read. Chevalier is extremely knowledgeable about medieval Europe and these artifacts, no matter how obscure. If you want a book that tells the stories of medieval Europe through the trinkets left behind, I recommend you read “A Medieval Cabinet of Curiosities” by Lorris Chevalier.

Book Review: “Julian of Norwich: A Very Brief History” by Janina Ramirez

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When we think about the most impactful women authors, we often think about writers like Agatha Christie, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. However, when it comes to religious texts, we have to go back in time centuries. We think about nuns like Bridget of Sweden and a mother of 14 children named Margery Kempe. Yet, we must include an anchorite who stayed in her cell for almost thirty years. Her book, Revelations of Divine Love, is considered the first great work of English prose, but many people are not familiar with the author until now. Janina Ramirez tells the story of Julian of Norwich and how impactful her book was in her book, “Julian of Norwich: A Very Brief History.”

I have heard the name Julian of Norwich before in books about the 14th century and church history, but I didn’t know much about her life. I saw this book when I was preordering the latest book by Janina Ramirez, and so I decided to give it a try.

Since this is a short book, I will try to keep this review brief. Ramirez divided this biography into sections: the history and the legacy. In history, we as readers learn about Julian’s life from the limited sources that we have about her, as well as learning about how England and Europe changed during her lifetime. It was a chaotic period in the past with the Bubonic plague, the Hundred Years’ War, the Great Western Schism, the Peasants’ Revolt, and John Wycliffe. Let’s be honest, it’s a lot to deal with, but Julian was positive in her anchorite cell. Ramirez shows how complex yet hopeful and full of love Revelations of Divine Love is while showing the theological arguments Julian of Norwich makes in her work of prose. Finally, we get to see how Julian of Norwich’s story and her writing survived for centuries.

This was a delightful little nugget of a book that was extremely well researched, that shone a light on an obscure medieval woman writer. Reading this book gave me a new appreciation for medieval female authors. If you want to learn more about this remarkable woman, I suggest you read “Julian of Norwich: A Very Brief History” by Janina Ramirez.

Book Review: “Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century” by Helen Carr

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The Plantagenets, a dynasty that ruled England for over three hundred years. At least that is if you include the Lancastrian and Yorkist kings. Otherwise, the reign of the Plantagenets ended with Richard II being overthrown. So, how did the Plantagenets fall? How did wars, favoritism, and the plague factor into the fall? Helen Carr examines these questions and the rule of three kings over the fourteenth century in her latest book, “Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century.”

I have really enjoyed Helen Carr’s insight into medieval English history in her book, The Red Prince, so when I heard she was writing a book about the Plantagenets again, with a focus on the fourteenth century, I was excited to read it. The idea in this book that caught my attention was the idea that the Plantagenet dynasty ended when Henry of Bolingbroke overthrew Richard II. As someone who believes that the Plantagenet dynasty ended with the death of Richard III, the concept that it ended almost a century earlier is intriguing.

We begin our adventure with a double reburial of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, the idea of King Edward I and his wife Eleanor of Castile. It was a kind gesture, but the prophecy that was left behind would be almost prophetic. With the death of King Edward I, the Hammer of the Scots, the throne passed to his son Edward II. While Edward I was a strong warrior, Edward II was a handsome prince who only cared about his favorites, Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser the Younger. It would cause those around him, including his wife, Isabella of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, to take action against him. Isabella and Mortimer placed Edward III on the throne, but they would soon learn that Edward III was not as passive as his father.

Edward III would return to the warrior state of mind like his grandfather Edward I. With his wife Philippa of Hainault, they would have a large family with many sons, including John of Gaunt and Edward the Black Prince. It would be Edward III who would try to take the French throne for England in a conflict known as the Hundred Years’ War (not the quickest war, and it didn’t go the way Edward III envisioned it). And to top it all off, Edward III had to deal with the emergence of the Black Death and how it affected not only his own family but England and Europe as a whole.

Before Edward III died, his heir, the Black Prince, died, which meant that the Black Prince’s son, Richard II, was destined to be the next king. However, youth and favoritism failed the king as chaos reigned ever since the start of his reign, with the Peasants’ Revolt, and ended with Henry of Bolingbroke becoming the first Lancastrian King, Henry IV.

This was another wonderful book by Helen Carr. It demonstrates Carr’s ability to balance extensive research with a narrative format to create an accessible history book that novices and experts will equally enjoy. My only qualm with this book, if you can call it an issue, is that I wanted it a bit longer so we get more analysis of how this one century affected English and European history as a whole. If you want a book that dives into the history of one of England’s most tumultuous centuries, I highly recommend you read “Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century” by Helen Carr.

Book Review: “The Black Death in England: Journal of the Plague Years in the Fourteenth Century” by Kathryn Warner

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Throughout history, pandemics have ravaged human populations and changed the course of history. None more so than the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death. It devastated entire families and altered entire countries, primarily in Europe. Although England is an island nation, that does not mean it could not escape the pandemic’s horrors for long. In her latest book, “The Black Death in England: Journal of the Plague Years in the Fourteenth Century, “ Kathryn Warner explores the lives of the victims of the Black Death throughout England during this century.

I would like to thank Pen and Sword Books and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. I haven’t read many books that focus primarily on the Black Death, so I was interested to see what kind of insights Warner would provide in this book.

Warner is known for her meticulous research, which she masterfully demonstrates in this book. Unlike other books about the Black Death, Warner chooses to focus on the individual stories of the victims and the survivors from every walk of life. Now this is a lot of information, especially when you consider how many waves of the plague hit England and the number of villages that were in England during this period. However, Warner breaks it down so each region gets its special section. Primarily, Warner explores the plague outbreak of 1349-1350, but she does explore other outbreaks.

The true highlight of this book is the fact that Warner focuses on the stories of the common people, not just the nobility or royalty, which are often highlighted in medieval history books. I think it was so fascinating to see how others dealt with the plague and how it affected their families and the nation as a whole.

Overall, I think this is a solid book for those who want to dive into the archives and explore the impact of the Black Death in England. It may be a difficult read for some and it might not be for casual readers, but if you want something more academic, I would suggest “The Black Death in England: Journal of the Plague Years in the Fourteenth Century” by Kathryn Warner.

Blog Update: 500,000 Views! Thank You All So Much!

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Hey my fellow history nerds!

I know this is not the kind of post that you normally see on the blog; it’s usually something you will see on the Facebook page, but this was such a big milestone that I felt like it warranted a blog post. 

As you can tell from the title of the post, Adventures of a Tudor Nerd has officially crossed over 500,000 views, which is insane to think about. Seven years ago, when I started after I was a guest author for Rebecca Larson’s blog, Tudor Dynasty. It was a lot of fun, but Rebecca said that I should try writing my own history blog. I wasn’t sure what I could write about since all I am passionate about are history and books, so I decided to give history book blogging a try and post book reviews.

And the rest was history.

I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested in what I had to say when it came to history books, but you guys have been such an amazing community. I started with the Tudors because that was the dynasty that I felt the most comfortable discussing, but as time has gone on, I have added even more periods of the past; the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings, the Plantagenets and the wider medieval world, the Wars of the Roses, the Tudors, and most recently the Stuarts. It’s been fun to share my thoughts on books with all of you, but I also believe that authors should be able to promote their books on my blog through guest post, to bring things full circle. Finally, I enjoy talking about TV shows and movies that I have watched and want to rant about, as well as poetry that I find profound. 

I have been blown away by the amount of love and support that I have received over the years. I am just a history nerd with a love for the past and books. Thank you all so much for being part of this crazy, amazing adventure. To the publishers and authors I have worked with, thank you for allowing me to read some truly amazing books, and thank you for becoming mycolleagues and friends. 

This has been such an unbelievable journey so far, and I can’t wait to continue to embark on even more history adventures.

Keep on taking your own history adventures and never stop learning from the past.

Here’s to more history adventures!

-Heidi

Book Review: “Wortes and All: Medieval Cooking” by Emma Kay

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History is not just dates and conflicts with men and women sprinkled in, so we can learn a lesson. It’s not just births, conflicts, triumphs, marriages, and deaths. The people of the past are similar to us in so many ways, and it is through the field of study known as Living History or Experimental Archeology that we can understand the past through a more hands-on approach. One of the most popular methods of studying living history is cooking recipes from the past. But one must wonder how our tastes and understanding of the benefits of food change over time. Emma Kay takes the question of how eating and drinking changed over the medieval period in England and explores it in her book, “Wortes and All: Medieval Cooking.”

I would like to thank Amberley Publishing for sending me a copy of this book. The study of Living History/Experimental Archeology has been an area of interest for me for a couple of years now, especially cooking, as it gives the past a bit more substance. When I heard about this book, it was a compelling concept to me, and I wanted to read it and see if Kay would provide new insight into this field of study.

This book is broken down into chapters where different foods are highlighted: soups and stews, bread and dough, meat, fish, sauces, dairy, eggs, fruits, vegetables, sweet treats, and drinks. Each chapter explores these topics through the early medieval period (4th-13th centuries) and the later medieval period (14th-16th centuries). While we do have manuscripts that have recipes written down, Kay also highlights leechdoms, which are medical remedies or medicinal tomes. She also explores how the theory of the four humors affected the diets of those living in the medieval world.

What I appreciate about this book is the diverse resources that she compiled for her research. It is not just English cookbooks and manuscripts, but Anglo-Saxon tomes on medicine, Scandinavian sagas, French cookbooks, and even Middle Eastern manuscripts. It shows how interconnected the medieval world was, even with all the conflicts and distances between nations. Kay goes a step further by including not only the original recipes in their original languages, but also her translations and even images of her recreating the recipes.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and the information that was provided. I learned quite a lot of new information about cooking and drinking in the medieval world, but part of me wishes it were a bit longer, as this is only about a hundred pages. I think I will explore other books written by Emma Kay. If you want a book that explores how the culinary arts changed over the medieval period, I recommend you read “Wortes and All: Medieval Cooking” by Emma Kay.

Guest Post: “Research of the Locations Featured in Sword Brethren” by Jon Byrne

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I am pleased to welcome Jon Byrne to my blog today to share information about his research for the locations in his novel Sword Brethren.  I would like to thank The Coffee Pot Book Club and Jon Byrne for allowing me to participate in this blog tour.

Detailed research is important for all writers – but for those writing historical fiction, it is vital. While much can be gained by researching information on the internet or reading books on the subject, one of the best things for me is the chance to visit the locations depicted in the book. Sometimes it is only by going to a place that you can really get a feel for how it might have been. Having said that, all of the places depicted in Sword Brethren have changed so much over the last 800 years that it is still difficult to imagine how a location would have looked so long ago, especially as there is so little remaining from this period. 

The story begins in Cranham, a fictional village in East Anglia in England, located somewhere between Bury St Edmunds and Thetford. I traveled the area a few years ago, visiting the local castles like Framlingham and Orford, as well as the village of Lavenham – one of the best-preserved medieval villages in England. This helped to get an idea of what the area might have been like in the High Middle Ages, but even here most of the buildings date from the late medieval and Tudor periods.  

One of the places that I found particularly helpful was Eye Castle – originally a motte and bailey fortress built during the reign of King William I. This is even earlier than the timeframe of the book, which made it far more relevant, but the castle is ruined, and a house was built on the motte in 1844, which has since decayed and collapsed. Nevertheless, the fictional village and castle of Cranham would not have been dissimilar. 

Lübeck, in northern Germany, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the location for approximately a third of the book. I spent a very satisfying weekend walking the cobbled streets and visiting the historical sites it has to offer – made considerably easier for me because at the time I lived in Berlin, which is only 280 km (approx. 170 miles) away.  

  

Caption: The Holsten Gate in Lübeck (built between 1464 to 1478). On the right can be seen some of the buildings of the Salzspeicher – a row of historic salt warehouses. On the left, the spires of St Mary’s Church (Marienkirche) pokes above the trees. 

Founded in the mid-12th century, Lübeck became known as the Queen of the Hanseatic League (originally a powerful trading network of merchant communities in Northern Germany) and was the main point of departure for the Northern Crusades. Unfortunately, most of the late medieval buildings that the city is famous for – the Holsten Gate (Ger. Holstentor), St Mary’s Church (Ger. Marienkirche), St Peter’s Church (Ger. Petrikirche), the Salzspeicher (salt warehouses) and the famous brick-built gable houses – were not constructed at the time of this book. Only the cathedral that still stands (Ger. Dom zu Lübeck) existed in the early 13th century, and it was under construction, although it has been modified many times since and was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War. Much of the half-island that today makes up the old town was undeveloped and prone to flooding in the period of the book. The Holstenbrücke (Holsten Bridge) was first mentioned in 1216 but it is conceivable that a bridge existed beforehand. This would have been constructed from wood. 

One of the highlights of researching Sword Brethren was a week-long trip I spent in Latvia with my family. We were based in Riga, which is a fascinating city that I would recommend anyone visit. Again, most of the architecture is later than the events in my book. In the early 13th century, Riga was made almost entirely of wood (including the churches), and despite being the largest city in the eastern Baltic at this time, it was little more than a village when compared to cities in Western and Central Europe. 

One of the first buildings made of stone in Riga was the original St George’s Castle, the first headquarters of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, an order of warrior-monks, similar to the Knights Templar, who were formed to protect the fledgling German colony. It is the oldest surviving stone building in Riga. The only part still surviving is the chapel, now used by the Latvian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design. 

(Wikimedia Commons):  

Caption: St George’s Chapel – the oldest stone building in Riga and the original headquarters of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword.  

Outside of Riga, the only buildings that still remain from the period of the book are the stone castles built by the Brothers of the Sword and the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights that followed them. Most of these are either ruins or in various states of repair. Many of these castles were built on the banks of the River Daugava (Ger. Düna) by the German settlers and crusaders, using the river to improve their defenses. Sadly, today many are submerged beneath the waters of the Daugava that engulfed them when the Riga Hydroelectric Power Plant was built. 

Nevertheless, two castles that remain in good condition lie northeast of Riga, only 23 miles or so from each other. The first is at Sigulda (Ger. Segewold), which was first constructed in 1207 and later rebuilt into a convent-type fortress. From its elevated position on a steep slope above the Gauja River, you can see another castle at Turaida across the water, built on the remains of an old pagan hillfort. It is a beautiful location, with the thick forest around it, and it gives a good flavor of how it might have felt to live here in the early 13th century. 

 

 Turaida castle (Ger. Treiden) (taken by author):  

Caption: The view from Sigulda castle. 

The second castle, one of the best preserved in all of Latvia, is at Cēsis (Ger. Wenden). This is a huge castle, much of it still complete, with several relatively intact towers and walls. This is the castle that later became the main seat of the Brothers of the Sword and the Teutonic Order afterward. It is an impressive fortress that features more in the next book of the series, Soldier of Christ. 

 (taken by author):  

Caption: Cēsis castle – probably the best-preserved castle in Latvia from the early 13th century 

However, it is only possible to learn a certain amount from visiting sites in the book personally. The bulk of research – for me at least, is reading some of the excellent books and research papers concerning the Northern Crusades. 

The principal first-hand source is The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, which was written by a priest, Henricus des Lettis, probably around 1229. The chronicle deals with events in the eastern Baltic between 1180 to 1226. Hardly surprisingly, it is written from the German point of view and describes the role of the Latin Church in colonizing and spreading Christianity to the local pagan tribes.  

His chronicle is a highly detailed account, rich in human history, and he provides eye-witness testimony of the events at this time, depicting not only the military campaigns but interesting facts about the local people themselves. This is particularly valuable as there is practically no other first-hand evidence of the events of the early Christian settlement in what is now Latvia and Estonia. 

Blurb:

1242- After being wounded in the Battle on the Ice, Richard Fitz Simon becomes a prisoner of Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod. Alexander, intrigued by his captive’s story, instructs his scholar to assist Richard in writing about his life. 

Richard’s chronicle begins in 1203 when his training to be a knight is disrupted by treachery. He is forced to flee England for Lübeck, where he begins work for a greedy salt merchant. After an illicit love affair, his new life is thrown into turmoil, and he joins the Livonian Brothers of the Sword as they embark on imposing the will of God on the pagans of the eastern Baltic. Here, he must reconcile with his new life of prayer, danger, and duty – despite his own religious doubts, with as many enemies within the fortified commandery as the wilderness outside. However, when their small outpost in Riga is threatened by a large pagan army, Richard is compelled to make a crucial decision and fight like never before. 

Buy Links:  

Universal Ebook Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/boVKlV  

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sword-brethren-jon-byrne/1146519606?ean=2940184429601 

Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/sword-brethren/jon-byrne/9781835740798 

Author Bio: 

Jon Byrne, originally from London, now lives with his German family by a lake in Bavaria with stunning views of the Alps. As well as writing, he works as a translator for a local IT company and occasionally as a lumberjack.  

He has always been fascinated by history and has studied the Medieval world for over twenty years, building up a comprehensive library of books. In his research, he has traveled to all of the locations mentioned in the book (East Anglia, Bremen, Lübeck, Latvia, etc).  

Sword Brethren (formerly Brothers of the Sword) made it to the shortlist of the Yeovil Literary Prize 2022 and the longlist of the prestigious Grindstone International Novel Prize 2022. It is the first book in The Northern Crusader Chronicles. 

Author Links: 

Website: https://www.jonbyrnewriter.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonByrneAuthor 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Jon-Byrne/author/B0DJC6PL8D 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/52458339.Jon_Byrne  

 

 

Book Review: “Medieval Cats: Claws, Paws, and Kitties of Yore” by Catherine Nappington

On By hmalagisiIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

For centuries, man’s best friend has been the dog, but don’t tell your feline friends that. In ancient times, cats were revered as idols, but something changed during the medieval period. For a thousand years, from 500 to 1500, cats were vilified and believed to be working with witches and the devil—a harsh assessment for small, fluffy cats, which we consider pets nowadays. So how were cats portrayed in medieval art and literature? Catherine Nappington hopes to give her readers a glimpse of feline art and literature in her book, “Medieval Cats: Claws, Paws, and Kitties of Yore.”

I want to thank Ten Speed Press and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. I have been a cat owner most of my life; my current cat is an orange tabby named Colby, so when I saw this book title and subject, I thought it might be a light-hearted read.

Since this book is relatively short, I will keep this review short. In essence, this is a picture book full of illuminated manuscripts, witty sayings, and some interesting facts. While I did find the images interesting, the captions tended to be a bit distracting, and the fact that it was not in chronological order irked me (a personal pet peeve).

Overall, it was a fun read. I feel like it’s not really a nonfiction book that you are used to, but it would make a great gift for a medievalist who is a cat lover in your life. If this sounds like you or a loved one, I would suggest you read, “Medieval Cats: Claws, Paws, and Kitties of Yore” by Catherine Nappington.