A Place Beyond Courage (64 page)

Authors: Elizabeth Chadwick

Tags: #Fiction, #Historical

BOOK: A Place Beyond Courage

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The ‘anvils and hammers’ speech has more going on in it than first meets the eye. John was the master marshal, as his father had been before him. Originally, the royal marshals had been much concerned with the equine side of matters. Indeed, many of their rights and privileges in the King’s court go back to these beginnings (when a young man was knighted in the royal court, he was obliged to give the master marshal either a palfrey or a saddle). A marshal or
marescallus
was also a name for a farrier or a blacksmith, and the tools of the trade were the anvil and the hammer. When John Marshal said those words, he was referring not only to his personal virility, but also to the traditional symbols of the marshal’s occupation. Having associated with him at court, Stephen would know of John’s dealings with the court prostitutes and this would have emphasised the sexual connotations of that speech. John Marshal did indeed have the ‘anvils’ and ‘hammers’, he knew how to use them, and Stephen knew he knew!

Readers who are acquainted with my novels
The Greatest Knight
and
The Scarlet Lion
will know that little William survived his ordeal to become a celebrated tourney champion, guardian of kings, Earl of Pembroke and finally regent of England. John was not to see his fourth son’s rise to greatness as he died in 1165 when William was eighteen years old and training to knighthood in the house of Guillaume de Tancarville, chamberlain of Normandy: a position John had secured for him - surely a sign that he was not indifferent.

Concerning other matters, readers may want to know if Henry I was indeed murdered by poison. The answer is no one knows. All that can be said for certain is that he was taken violently ill at Lyons-la-Forêt and died a few days later. I think it not implausible that he was helped on his way, and this being a work of fiction, I was able to explore that notion.

I have conducted the solid backbone of my research by using the main primary sources and various academic secondary sources, which I have listed below. Less conventionally, I have augmented the above by using what is sometimes known as the Akashic Record to access the personalities of the characters and events in their lives. This is a belief that each person leaves behind an indelible record of themselves impressed upon sub-atomic material - what mystics might call the consciousness of the universe. These recorded emotions, thoughts, feelings and actions can be accessed if one has the ability - rather like seeing past events as one would see a film.

I have found this resource invaluable for gaining insights into the life of John Marshal. It has been particularly useful in fleshing out the personalities and lives of John’s wives Aline and Sybilla, about whom history has left us very little detail. Were I a historian, such archives would be inadmissible, but as a writer of historical fiction without such academic restraints, I have found them extremely useful and enlightening. If one believes in their existence, then they are a unique way of accessing the past. If they come from the subconscious, then they are still a fabulous creative tool. What I can say is that the combination of all the strands of my research have shown me in John FitzGilbert the Marshal a resourceful, charismatic man of fierce courage and high standards, a man of intelligence, pragmatism and understated humour who showed a resolute refusal to accept pity or self-pity, however dire the circumstances in which he found himself. A man who battled the odds and won through to give his descendants their opportunity to reach for the stars.

Select Bibliography

Bradbury, Jim,
Stephen and Matilda: The Civil War of 1139-53
(Sutton, 2005, ISBN 0 7509 3793 9)

Chibnall, Marjorie,
The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English
(Blackwell, 1999 edn, ISBN 0 631 19028 7)

The Chronicle of John of Worcester
, vol. III, ed. and trans. by P. McGurk (Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press, 1998, ISBN 0 19 820702 6)

Crouch, David,
The Reign of King Stephen 1135-1154
(Longman, 2000, ISBN 0 582 22657 0)

Crouch, David,
William Marshal, Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147-1219
(Longman, 2nd edn, 2002, ISBN 0 582 77222 2)

Davis, R. H. C.,
King Stephen
(Longman, 1990 edn, ISBN 0 582 04000 0)

Dialogus de Scaccario and Constitutio Domus Regis
, ed. and trans. by Charles Johnson (Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press, 1983, ISBN 0 19 822268 8)

Gesta Stephani
, ed. and trans. by K. R. Potter (Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press, 1976, ISBN 0 19 822234 3)

The Historia Novella of William of Malmesbury
, ed. by K. R. Potter (Nelson, 1955)

History of William Marshal
, Vol. 1, ed. by A. J. Holden with English translation by S. Gregory and historical notes by D. Crouch (Anglo-Norman Text Society Occasional Publications series 4, 2002 , ISBN 0 905474 42 2)

Hollister, C. Warren,
Henry I
(Yale University Press, 2001, ISBN 0 300 08858 2)

Huntingdon, Henry of,
The History of the English People 1000-1154
, trans. from the Latin by Diana Greenway (Oxford University Press, 2002 edn, ISBN 0 19 284075 4)

The Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot
, ed. by Adrian Morey and C. N. L. Brooke (Cambridge University Press, 1967)

Painter, Sidney,
William Marshal, Knight Errant, Baron and Regent of England
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1949)

Tyerman, Christopher,
Who’s Who in Early Medieval England
(Shepheard Walwyn, 1996, ISBN 0 85683 132 8)

Warren, W. L.,
Henry II
(Eyre Methuen, 1977 edn, ISBN 0 413 38390 3)

White, Graeme J.,
Restoration and Reform 1153-1165: Recovery from Civil War in England
(Cambridge University Press, 2006 edn, ISBN 0 521 02658 X)

Articles and Related Items

Armstrong, Catherine, ‘John fitz Gilbert; the Marshal’,
http://www.castlewales.com/jf_gilbt.html

Crouch, David, ‘Robert Earl of Gloucester’s Mother and Sexual Politics in Norman Oxfordshire’,
Historical Research
, 72, 1999

Farrer, W., ‘An Outline Itinerary of King Henry the First Part II’,
English Historical Review
, Vol. 34, No. 135, July 1919

Hill, Rosalind, ‘The Battle of Stockbridge 1141’, article in
Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. Allen Brown
, ed. by Christopher Harper-Bill, Christopher J. Holdsworth and Janet L. Nelson (Boydell Press, 1989, ISBN 0 85115 512 X)

King, Alison, Akashic Records Consultant

Mooers, Stephanie L., ‘Patronage in the Pipe Roll of 1130’,
Speculum
, Vol. 59, No. 2, April 1984

Painter, Sidney, ‘The Rout of Winchester’,
Speculum
, Vol. 7., No. 1, January 1932

Prestwich, J. O., ‘The Military Household of the Norman Kings’,
English Historical Review
, Vol. 96, No. 378, January 1981

Stacey, N. E., ‘Henry of Blois and the Lordship of Glastonbury’,
English Historical Review
, Vol. 114, No. 455, February 1999

As always I welcome comments and I can be contacted through my website at
www.elizabethchadwick.com
or by e-mail to
[email protected]

I also post regular updates about my writing and research on my blog at
http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com
. There is also a friendly, informal discussion list at [email protected], which readers are very welcome to join.

The Greatest Knight

Elizabeth Chadwick

A penniless young knight with few prospects, William Marshal is plucked from obscurity when he saves the life of Henry II’s formidable queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. In gratitude, she appoints him tutor to the heir of the throne. However, being a royal favourite brings its share of conflict and envy as well as fame and reward. William’s influence over the volatile, fickle Prince Henry and his young wife is resented by less favoured courtiers who set about engineering his downfall.

In a captivating blend of fact and fiction, Elizabeth Chadwick resurrects one of England’s greatest forgotten heroes, restoring him to his rightful place at the apex of the Middle Ages, reflecting through him the tumults, triumphs, scandals and power struggles that haven’t changed in 800 years.

‘An author who makes history come gloriously alive’

The Times

‘Chadwick’s historical grasp is secure and vivid . . . an absorbing narrative that canters along’

Financial Times

978-0-7515-3660-7

The Scarlet Lion

Elizabeth Chadwick

William Marshal’s prowess and loyalty as a knight in the English royal household has been rewarded by marriage to Isabelle de Clare, heiress to great estates in England, Normandy and Ireland.

The couple’s contentment and security is shattered when King Richard dies. He is succeeded by his brother, John, who takes the Marshals’ sons hostage and seizes their lands. The conflict between remaining loyal and rebelling over injustices committed threatens to tear William and Isabelle’s marriage apart and ruin their lives. As the situation intensifies, William has to steer an increasingly precarious path that will lead him eventually to the rule of a country in desperate straits. Fiercely intelligent and courageous, fearing for the man who is the light of her life, Isabelle too must come to terms with what the future holds.

The Scarlet Lion
is the second of two stand-alone novels about William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and regent of England.

‘The best writer of medieval fiction currently around’

Historical Novels Review

‘A stunning grasp of historical detail . . . her characters are beguiling, the story intriguing and very enjoyable’

Barbara Erskine

978-0-7515-3659-1