Dracula. Vlad the Impaler. Otherwise known as Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia. Ethan Bale, whose latest novel, The Lost Prince, features the historical figure, examines the man behind the legend and asks: was he a monster by nature? By nurture? Or both? Just a few weeks ago, King Charles undertook his annual pilgrimage to Transylvania, […]
Dark Waters Rising by Cassandra Clark
Autumn, 1394, and all is not well at Swyne Priory. Dissension has arisen amongst the nuns. The new novices whisper in corners, spreading malicious rumours and sharing dark secrets. The Prioress gives Hildegard an order: search out the cause of this unrest, and put a stop to it. But before Hildegard can investigate, she’s forced […]
The Empress Matilda and the stolen crown
Carol McGrath’s novel The Stolen Crown retells the extraordinary story of the Empress Matilda and her fight to gain the throne of England during the 12th-century civil war known as the Anarchy. It’s a period, as she says, of “thrills, jeopardy and unforgettable characters”. When I began to write Empress Matilda’s story I wondered if […]
Battle Song by Ian Ross
1264, and storm clouds are gathering as Simon de Montfort and the barons of the realm challenge the power of Henry III. The barons demand reform; the crown demands obedience. England is on the brink of civil war. Adam de Norton, a young squire devoted to the virtues of chivalry, longs only to be knighted, […]
The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak
Brunhild was a Visigothic princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet — in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport — these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms […]
The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine by JF Andrews
The lives of the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine are the stuff of legend. Her daughters, however, are less well known, and the fascinating personalities of her daughters-in-law have been almost entirely overlooked, as have those of the daughters she bore Louis VII of France. The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine showcases the lives, travels […]
Two Houses, Two Kingdoms by Catherine Hanley
The 12th and 31th centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. The lands under the control of the English king once reached to […]
The Fallen Sword by AJ Mackenzie
Rejoining the English army laying siege to Calais, Simon Merrivale discovers that the conspiracy against the thrones of England and France has regrouped and gathered force. New allies have joined their ranks, including a dark secret society known as the Pilgrims, and the Holy Roman Empire and the Knights of Saint John have also been […]