Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors
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Authors: English Historical Fiction Authors
Tags: #Debra Brown, #Madison Street Publishing, #English Historical Fiction, #M.M. Bennetts
Copyright © 2013 by Debra Brown
Copyright of articles held by the respective authors.
Cover and interior design by Masha Shubin
Cover Photos (bigstockphoto.com): Alnwick Castle © Gary Humfrey; Damask Seamless Floral Pattern © Iuliia Goncharova; Portrait of the Elegant Woman © Kiselev Andrey Valerevich; Ripped Paper © Silvae
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher and/or author.
Publisher: Madison Street Publishing
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Table of Contents
List of Novels by Contributing Authors
Falling in Love with England and Its History
Roman Britain and Early Medieval Period (55 B.C.—A.D. 1000)
Boadicea: Warrior Queen of the Iceni Britons
Ancient Roman London as Destroyed by Boadicea, Britain’s Warrior Queen
Anno Domini and the Venerable Bede
Monarchy: The Early Middle Ages—House of Wessex
Athelstan: The Secrets of a Dark Ages King
Late Medieval Period (1001-1485)
William Before He Was the Conqueror
Monarchy: William the Conqueror
Two Men, One Crown: Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy
Monarchy: The Normans—William Rufus and Henry I
The Mysterious Death of King William the Second
Monarchy: The Normans—Stephen and Matilda
Why I Love Eleanor of Aquitaine
Alais of France: Forgotten Princess
Knights Templar: The Beginning
A Bad Rap for Henry and Eléonore
Simon de Montfort and Simon de Montfort
What if Edward Bruce Had Succeeded in Ireland?
Two Legends, Two Outlaws: Robin Hood and William Bradshaigh
A Brief but Very Satisfactory Wooing: Edward III and Philippa of Hainault
A (Possible) Page from the London Gazette: September 1331
The Elusive History of the Order of the Garter
Scourge of Europe: The Religious Hysteria Created by the Black Plague
How Joan of Kent Became Princess of Wales
Alice Perrers: A Notorious Woman
A Royal Love Story: Richard II and Anne of Bohemia
An All-Consuming Passion: The Love Affair that Changed the Course of English History
A Short—but Heartfelt—Valentine from the Fifteenth Century
Richard III vs. Henry VII: Naughty or Nice?
Mysteries, Miracles, and Tableaux: Early Theater in England
Of Cameleopards and Lions: The Medieval Bestiary
Food for Thought: Medieval Feasts
Dinner as It Might Have Been at Kenilworth 760 Years Ago
Medieval Bathing for Cleanliness, Health, and Sex
Boundaries: Medieval Women in Medieval Gardens
A Seer, a Prophet, or a Witch?
Money Lending in the Middle Ages, or You Think Your Visa Card’s Rates Are Bad?
King Lear’s Town: A Little History of the City of Leicester
Miniature Cathedrals: England’s Market Crosses
Relic in the Valley: St. Martin’s at Cwmiou
Welsh Idylls: St. Gwenog’s Church
Buried Treasure: St. Mary’s in Burford
The Worst Marriage of the 16th Century
For Sale: Rich Orphans—The Tudor Court of Wards
The Execution of Sir Thomas More
English Crime and Punishment: Death by Pyre—A More Seemly Death for Women?
Little Ease: Torture and the Tudors
“The Rack Seldom Stood Idle...”
The Art of Courtly Love: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
The King, the Archbishop, and the Bear
The Death of Henry VIII: Demolishing the Myths
Elizabeth Tudor’s First Crisis: Enter Mary Queen of Scots
Elizabeth & Mary, Rival Queens: Leadership Lost and Won
Border Reivers: Kinmont Willie Armstrong
“Carrying Away the Booty”: Drake’s Attack on the Spanish Silver Train
“El Camino Real”: A Path Worn through Time
Childbirth in Early Modern England
Mother Mourning: Childbed Fever in Tudor Times
The Truth about Halloween and Tudor England
The Elizabethan Gardening Craze
The Three Weddings of James VI and I (but Only One Wife)
A Witch’s Lair Found Buried under a Mound
Pirate Extraordinaire and Friend to the Crown
General George Monck and the Siege of Dundee
So You Say You Want an Execution...
Religious Upheaval during 17th Century England
Prophecy and Polemic: The Earliest Quaker Women
The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons
Secret Service, Spies, and Underhanded Dealings during the 17th Century
Desperate Measures in 17th Century Medicine
Superstitions and Bodily Health
Lloyd’s: Lifeblood of British Commerce and Starbucks of Its Day
Marriage in 17th Century England
Fabulous Fabrics of the 17th Century
Party Clothes in the 17th Century
17th Century Garden Design for Women
Gossip in Early Modern England
What Was Old in the Olden Days?
Early Georgian Era (1715-1800)
Mary Delany, Artist and Personality
The Rise and Rise of the English Landscape Garden
Doggett’s Coat and Badge: The World’s Oldest Rowing Race
The Original Jack the Lad: Jack Sheppard, 1702-1724
Right-Royal Comings and Goings at Weymouth, 1794
Robin Hood, Agincourt, and Gender Equality?: Archery in Late Georgian England
Elizabeth Linley Sheridan: Lady of Fantasy and Tragedy
Grace Dalrymple Elliott: A Very High Flyer Indeed!
Sir John Soane: At Home with an Eccentric Genius...or “Padre Giovanni Has Come to Visit.”
Child’s Play...or Is It?: Georgian Era Nursery Rhymes
Pronunciation: Eighteenth Century Style
Britain’s Cross-dressing Women
The Wig Business Was Big Business in 18th Century France
Gorgeous Georgian Metrosexuals, or How to Strut Your Metrosexual Stuff in Georgian England
Flip, Shrub, and Other Drinks Favored of Georgian Londoners
A Midnight Masquerade in 18th Century London
Feeling a Little Flushed, Dear? (The Invention of the Flush Toilet)
Currency in the Second Half of the 18th Century
Stand And Deliver...Your Tolls?: The Rise and Fall of the Turnpikes
Top Ten Tourist Attractions in London, 1780
Sir Sidney Smith and the Siege of Acre, 1799
Madness in Their Method: Water Therapy in Georgian and Regency Times
Stourhead: Painting with Nature
The Pursuit of the Picturesque
The Must-have Garden Accessories for the Rich and Richer? A Glasshouse and Pineapples!
Late Georgian and Regency Era (1800-1837)
The Extraordinary Clandestine Activities of a Nineteenth Century Diplomat
11 May 1812: The Death of a Statesman
London in the Early 19th Century
The Hole in the Wall: Regency Dancing
Almack’s: It’s Not Quite What You Think...
Dorothea Christorovna Benckendorff Lieven: Princess Lieven
Lady Hester Stanhope: Regency England’s Eccentric Expatriate
Libraries in Georgian and Regency England
Ashes, Tallow, and Turpentine: Coming Clean in the Regency Era
A Regency Era Lady’s Prodigious Layers of Clothing
The Changes in Ladies’ Fashion from 1780s to 1814: Too Much or Too Little
Ladies’ Slippers and Half-Boots in the Regency
Unrequited Love: Jane Austen and America
Class Distinctions in Regency England
Vicars and Curates and Livings…Oh My!
A Glimpse of York during the Regency Era
Phantasmagoria: Getting Your Fright On in Late Georgian England
Entertainment Tonight: Regency Style
The Victorian Technological Revolution: Transportation
Sir Goldsworthy Gurney and His Steam Carriage
Scotland Yard and a New British Mystery
The Great Stink of London 1858
The Harlot Who Was Dickens’ Muse, or Even Greater Expectations
Cameos, Silhouettes, and Cartes de Visite
Popular Pigeons and Slanderous Psittacines
The Higher Education of Women in the Victorian Era
Flirting With Fans: A Victorian Tradition
Battle of Isandlwana, 22 January 1879
Downton Abbey and the Fight for Irish Freedom
Ellis Island and British Immigrants to the USA
A Prince, a Prophet, and a Peer: Sir Samuel Hoare
Historical Tidbits Across the Ages
Mottisfont: The Evolution of an English House