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The Hoydens are delighted to welcome Debra Brown to be our guest this week. Debra is the webmistress and doyenne of a fellow blog, the English Historical Fiction Authors Blog as well as being an author in her own right.
The contributors to this blog have come together to produce a gorgeous book with a luscious cover: CASTLES, CUSTOMS AND KINGS (buy links are at the end of this post) - the perfect Christmas present for a lover of history. Contributors include our own Hoyden, Deborah Swift.
I am in a position I dearly love as the owner of the English Historical Fiction
Authors blog. Though I have a restless mind, running the blog makes me
focus on a daily dose of British history written by numerous learned authors.
At this writing, we have nine hundred fifty two posts in the
line-up. This means I have read around nine hundred fifty luscious,
English/British history posts. Can you imagine? Finally those dates I memorized
in school have events connected to them, and I even know something about the
events.
It is exciting to have released an historical anthology this
fall—a select group of posts from the first year of the EHFA blog titled Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales byEnglish Historical Fiction Authors. It contains a wide variety of topics
which are organized in the chronological gamut from the Roman era to World War
II written by fifty-five authors.
Here on Hoydens and Firebrands, the focus is on the 17th
century—so allow me to share some interesting Stuart era points from the book.
Margaret Skea
wrote about The Three Weddings of James
VI and I (But Only One Wife). Most of us only get married once, she said,
and that to the same person.
 |
| Anne of Denmark |
James chose Anne, Queen of Denmark, saying she pleased his
subjects and God—who had “moved his heart
in the way that was meetest”. Margaret confesses she is not sure whether
James’ understanding of God’s will was influenced by the fact that Anne was
eight years younger than himself while the other candidate, Catherine of
Navarre, was eight years older and looking her age. Anne first married James by
proxy with George Keith, Earl Marishchal standing in.
Anne left Denmark to meet her man with a small fleet, but
storms battered the ships, endangering her life. The Admiral concluded this was
the work of witches and sought safe haven in Norway. Witch trials followed in
both countries.
James, to bypass concerns for his safety, sneaked off to
Norway on ships paid for by the Lord Chancellor of Scotland. Their second
wedding took place in Oslo, and finally in January 1590 for the benefit of the
Danish royal family, they married a third time at the castle of Kronborg in
Denmark.
James I was obsessed with daemonology and witches, according
to Deborah Swift. In her essay
called A Witch’s Lair Found Buried Under
a Mound, she tells about a house that was uncovered just before the 400th
anniversary of the Pendle Witch trials in 2012. In the walls of the house in what
was called the wild and lawless region of Lancaster, an area “fabled for its theft, violence and sexual
laxity, where the church was honoured without much understanding of its
doctrines by the common people”, was found a mummified cat.
Concealing things in old buildings was common in the 17th
century, Deborah says. Some 1,700 shoes concealed shoes have been found, not
just in Britain, but also in Germany, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Perhaps the shoe was thought to trap the spirit of the wearer.
Sam Thomas wrote So You Say You Want an Execution. As you
might expect at such a well-attended correction of everything gone wrong from
theft to murder, prayers were said, sermons preached, and speeches delivered.
However, Sam tells us, some executions had all the dignity
of a three-ring circus. Peddlers strolled through the crowd crying their wares,
and the crowd ate, drank, and socialized.
One pamphlet from 1696 shows a preacher delivering an execution
sermon on one platform while behind him one can see not only the condemned
offering up his last prayers, but a magician performing on an adjacent stage.
Sam claims to prefer, in this case, to be the opening act rather than the
headliner.
Read Sam’s article in Castles,Customs, and Kings to learn why one judge attacked a soon-to-be-killed
prisoner.
 |
| Nell Gwyn |
As most of us know, before the Restoration female roles in
plays were performed by men. Charles II, however, had been to the theater in
France during his exile where he saw women performing, and, Karen Wasylowski informs us in her post
The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah
Siddons, he noted that it had caused neither outcry nor panic in the
streets. A new career path for unprotected British women opened up: Actress.
The first “bombshell” actress was the King’s mistress, Nell
Gwyn. She was sexy and funny, and she made use of the wardrobe malfunction in
her portraits to enhance her notoriety. Unfortunately for serious actresses, by
the mid-eighteenth century brothels had developed amidst other businesses
around the theater district, increasing the connection between theater and sex,
acting and prostitution.
In the second half of the 18th century, to bring
greater legitimacy many full length portraits were made by famous artists,
providing dignity and a positive image of their roles. Karen says, “A refined, gentle sort of eighteenth
century Paparazzi mentality had begun.”
You will want to read Linda
Collison’s essay Lloyd’s: Lifeblood
of British Commerce and Starbucks of its Day to see how a coffeehouse
developed into an insurance market, philanthropic efforts, and the creation of
a fund for wounded soldiers and the dependents of those killed in battle.
Not all has gone well for Lloyds. They insured the
“unsinkable” Titanic. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the attack on New
York’s World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, and Japan’s 2011 earthquake and
tsunami cost them. Linda says, “The
history of Lloyd’s is a fascinating one, and still evolving. Wherever there is
risk and money to be made you’ll find the name Lloyd’s.”
I have barely touched on a few of the nearly two hundred posts in
this large, beautiful book. Readers
have said, "It was literary comfort food – a recollection of childhood,
warm and satisfying." "I found the approach charming and
reassuring." "Despite the length, there is no encyclopedia feel and
each author's voice is well preserved." "This book is a scholarly
treasure trove with a wide appeal."
You can settle down for an evening with this book or pick it up
during a coffee break. The topics are but a few pages each, and you can go from
place to place in the book as your mood dictates. Castles, Customs, and Kings, edited by myself and M.M. Bennetts, is a wonderful gift for any lover of
history.
Buy links for CASTLES CUSTOMS AND KINGS
Debra Brown is the author of the early Victorian novel The Companion of Lady Holmeshire.
Website. M.M. Bennetts, an early 19th century specialist, is the
author of May 1812 and Of Honest Fame Blog