The Conscience of a King by David Field (The Medieval Saga Series Book 6)

 

Publication Date: March 31, 2023

Length: 276 pages

I have purchased books one, six, and seven in this series as they have gone on sale. They sat in my Kindle for awhile and I decided to read the last book in the series first. This was because it is about Simon de Montfort and there are so few historical fiction books about him. 

Simon de Montfort begins his young life watching his parents' quest to conquer the religious Cathars in the Albigensian Crusades in southern France. His father is killed in 1218 while fighting and Simon and his brother Amaury are left as heirs to a family title that must be fought for after it is stolen and given to a distant cousin by a vengeful King John. Amaury agrees to relinquish all rights to the earldom, being the older brother and first in line to inherit any lands, if Simon gives up all rights to the family lands in France. When Simon travels to England to regain his title, Earl of Leicester, he becomes a close ally for a time of King Henry III. He spends countless time and energy proving himself as a military leader and strategist, convincing Henry of his loyalty and rightful place as part of the English nobility.

As a frequent member of the court, Simon witnesses Henry's ability to be swayed by whomever is in his current circle. Henry's wife, Eleanor of Provence and her foreign relatives, often influence him in negative ways, wanting lands, money and titles of their own. Henry's mother, Isabella, who has married into another influential family, the de Lusignans of France, also vie for special privileges and the result is a bitter revolt of the barons and native English nobility who see their rightful inheritances being squandered by those without the authority to do so. 

When Simon marries and begins a family with Henry's sister Eleanor, the stakes increase and the couple work to navigate the tricky political world they are thrust into. When the King and Simon have a serious disagreement and falling out over money owed, the de Montforts flee to France, living as exiles. As things become more tense in England between the barons and Henry, Simon is eventually to return, fighting against Henry and his son Edward, with a showdown of epic proportions.  

This book stuck to the facts of Simon's life as a history book would, only adding a few fictional characters. It is not a long book but packs a lot into the pages. We witness Simon growing both physically and emotionally as well as spiritually and as he moves from young, idealistic boy to military leader, husband, and father, he gains respect from those around him and devotion from those he has saved from a life of poverty and misery. 

Field does a great job of simplifying what is a complicated period, with the Barons' Wars, the foreign influences at court, and the reasons behind the discontent in the nations of England and France. Using a fictional girl, Merle, who is given to Simon as a concubine, whom he never treats as one, the author allows us to glimpse the compassionate part of de Montfort, when he treats her well and cares for her when he doesn't have to.

I have always found this period and subject to be a bit on the dry side, as it is hard to keep up with the political machinations going on but I understood things so much better after reading this book. The significance of de Montfort's attempts at reforms with the provisions of Oxford is not easy for the casual reader and I wish I'd read this one first before Falls the Shadow, by Sharon Penman because I think I might have kept things straight a bit more in her much longer, involved novel. 

I intend to read the other books in this series as well as his Tudor and Maritime ones focusing on Sir Francis Drake. If you are looking to better understand the period of the Norman Conquest through the reign of Henry III, I highly recommend these books in the Medieval Saga Series. 

Stacking the Shelves #20

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Enjoy your reading this week :)

I am really enjoying this author's book, The Conscience of a King, about Simon de Montfort and Henry III. I have three of his books set during and just after the Norman Conquest. This is his first book in his Tudor series and it centers around Henry VII. The series finishes with Elizabeth I and includes a book on Cardinal Wolsey and another on Thomas Cromwell. These are subjects that rarely get their own book. I bought this first one in the series and hope to read it soon. He has a simple style but he combines solid historical fact with a great narrative that really teaches history in an interesting way. Simple, but effective. It was on sale on Kindle for $1.00 this week too so that was a great find.

I hope to read and review this one in time for New Year's Eve. I've been reading a lot of history and heavy historical fiction so it's fun to get back to my Verity Bright series and see what is happening with Eleanor, Clifford, and Gladstone the bulldog. There are so many cozy mystery series out there but this one is my favorite! The only one I've really stuck with in order from the beginning. I got it for only $2.00 with my Amazon Kindle credits this week.

This author is kind of hard to find unless you want to pay full price. Libby and Hoopla don't carry many of her books and my local library here in Texas has none.  I didn't mind buying this one because for some inexplicable reason I am fascinated by the events in the country of Burgundy during the 1400's and I know Margaret of York marries into the royal family eventually. This book centers around her life and so it seems like a unique one. If you've read it let me know what you think. Also, if you've read anything by this author as she's a new one for me. I own her book, Queen By Right, about Cecily Neville but still haven't read it yet.

Noteworthy News #1: The Missing Princes Project

 

I have been wanting a place to post things I've come across that might not fall into the book review or book accumulation category. This might be an author I heard on a podcast, a book advertised online that is already out but I haven't read yet, or just an article that covers a topic related to history or books that looked interesting. So this is my first blog entry titled, "Noteworthy News." If I hear or read something noteworthy that I want to share I'll do it here. Likely it will involve history or mysteries as that is what I love the most!

I have been listening to the podcast Gone Medieval with various guests that centers around, of course, all things Medieval. Yesterday's episode was titled, "Princes in the Tower: New Evidence Revealed" and Philippa Langley was interviewed about her years of research and subsequent book on the subject. I was fascinated to learn that she was the driving force behind the search and eventual discovery of Richard III's body and that this set off a desire for her to prove whether or not he was involved in the death of his nephews. Many people think Richard was unfairly targeted by men of his time and by Shakespeare and made into the villain in this story without the goods to back it up. The Tudor version of him as the evil Uncle has stayed with him for centuries. 

In her interview for the podcast she explains how she spent four years just putting together a timeline of events and trying to determine if there was any reason to believe the princes had died in Richard's care. She talked about the enormous amount of research she compiled and how overwhelming it all was to keep track of. Her book, published just today, November 17th, details the hunt for the truth. It is called The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case. She worked with police to find out how they conduct cold case investigations, and spent hours reading archival material related to the story. It was called, "The Missing Princes Project" and is the first attempt to use forensic science to really dig into the facts. 

I found all of this so interesting and informative and while I may not get a chance soon to add this to my TBR pile, the podcast interview summed it up enough to give me an idea of the contents of the book. It is obviously a well researched new theory behind a very old unsolved mystery. There were some unique documents uncovered that I won't give away here but either go listen to the podcast episode or read the book and you will be surprised at what was uncovered. 

 

Stacking the Shelves #19

 

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Enjoy your reading this week :)

I have been listening to a great podcast called Gone Medieval and this author was interviewed about his work on Henry VII. He has other books on that subject but this one really caught my eye because it is rare to find a book on just the Beaufort family, Henry's ancestors. I can't think of another one like it. It should be interesting as the author was informative but not stuffy and boring either. 

It's time to start the November Read Christie book. This one doesn't feature either Poirot or Marple but it does say on the synopsis that it was one of Agatha Christie's personal favorites. It is hard to believe that next month is the last for this challenge of 2023. It has been a lot of fun participating!

I already own book 1 in this series but haven't started it yet. They just look interesting and unique so hopefully they can go on my TBR list soon. It's part of a mystery series called Captain Lacey and the author goes by both Jennifer Ashley and Ashley Gardner, depending on which series she's writing. I like to start with the first book but this is book 12 and was on sale so I went ahead and bought it. It centers around a Captain returning home from the Napoleonic Wars who becomes involved in various mysteries and I'm always drawn to a series like this with a strong male lead in the Regency era.

Kings and Queens of Britain: Every Question Answered by David Soud

 

Publication Date: September 1, 2014

Length: 1190 pages

I am still making my way through this wonderful book. But as crazy as my week has been I decided since I haven't finished another complete book, I wanted to review this one anyway as it is one you can read a little at a time, skip around in, treat it more as a "coffee table" type of book. That, and I absolutely love it. It is the kind of history book I will come back to again and again. The colorful pictures and sidebars alone are worth the price and even though I bought it on Kindle I am thinking of ordering the hardcover copy just to have the glossy pictures at my fingertips. 

This book is organized into short chapters on every British monarch, beginning with the Kings of Wessex and starting with a brief history of Roman Britannia. It covers all the important dates and events in the lives of the rulers and the common people, while skipping too many details that would confuse and bore readers who might not have all the background knowledge to follow along easily. Although I consider myself to be better educated in this area than say the average American friend I know, there are many monarchs I know very little about and so giving a general overview of each King and Queen and the milestone historic events in their lives, allows me to see if I am interested in learning more about that person or time in history. 

The sections included are: The House of Wessex, The Norman Kings, The House of Plantagenet, The Houses of Lancaster and York, The House of Tudor, The House of Stuart, The House of Hanover, The House of Windsor, and Royal Edicts. Beautiful pictures of landmark buildings, people, castles, and original documents are included and I spent a lot of time looking at those before I even started reading anything. 

Another plus with this book is that it is not filled with dry and dull facts. The author states that he wanted it to be a "pageant of personalities" rather than a straight history book and he does a great job of focusing on the personal stories while also adding the necessary background of the time period to complement the subjects' life events. 

The last section on Royal Edicts is a wonderful addition. It begins with the Laws of William the Conqueror and runs all the way to Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Speech. As someone who is a bit lazy about reading authentic, primary sources when researching an event in history it was really great to have the major ones complied together and ready to read. There were some like The Assize of Clarendon or The Magna Carta that I know a bit about from reading historical fiction but had never bothered to look at outside of the novel I was reading. It just made this book that much more thorough of a source to pick up when I need to see a chronological timeline of rulers and resources. 

If you are someone interested in the entire chronological timeline of British rulers while not wanting a gigantic, super detailed, time consuming tome this is the book for you. I have found other ones that focus on just Kings or just Queens or maybe a certain era, but this is the best one I've run across that fits in all the rulers with colorful, engaging stories and fascinating supplemental material. It's a perfect gift for the true Anglophile in your life!