If you’ve not heard of the Bamburgh Research Project then WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, no I jest. It’s fine if you’ve not heard of them. Briefly, because you can check out their blog for all the details, they’ve been excavating at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland for about twenty years – maybe a little bit longer. Their most famous finds were the Bamburgh Bones, discovered in the Bowl Hole, and now reinterred in St Aidan’s Church, in a crypt, in an ossuary, and there is an entire database about the individuals, and what their lives might have been like in seventh century Northumbria. It is certainly worth checking out. I mean, as a historical fiction writer, there is a lot of scope for a fabulous story there.
But the BRP aren’t just all about bones. They’ve also been trying to rediscover the secrets of Bamburgh Castle, a rocky outcropping on the Northumbrian coast, which shows signs of habitation dating back into the Iron Age. Now, they are a field school so volunteers can sign up to help them with the excavations, but this year they offered something else, a post-excavation week, which is much more my sort of thing. (I have excavated elsewhere, but I don’t much like getting dirty hands, so it was not much fun for me – I’m most certainly a ‘sit down’ and read the excavation report sort of historian.)
So, I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to all week, and what I’ve been learning.
Various views of Bamburgh Castle, from the cricket ground, from the windmill inside the castle walls, and from the Bowl Hole.
Day 1 – look at this year’s excavation site and also, finds recording
This year’s excavation siteSome of the finds made at the various sites, and also some coins found in the village of Bamburgh itself
Learning how to record finds did involve some experimenting with pencils and pen width – it’s important to get the right sort of pencil and pen!
Day 2 – tour of Bamburgh Castle interior (including the Last Kingdom exhibition) and the chapel, and getting my hands wet with some environmental sampling
I didn’t take many photos of my wet hands:) In true ‘historian’ style, I did not enjoy getting my hands dirty and wet:)
Day 3 Processing and cleaning finds and a talk about Saxon textiles as well as a demo – bone is animal bone!
You can really tell the difference between the early medieval finds and those from a more ‘modern’ layer. I did clean a lot of glass – I would say they were discarded milk bottles:) I forgot to take many pictures during the textiles talk but it was fascinating, and alas, I’ve been told that toggles are only found from the 1300s so I need to rewrite a bit of my current writing project.
Day 4 Site visits to Lindisfarne/Holy Island and Ad Gefrin/Yeavering
Thank you to the teams excavating at the two locations for sharing their experiences with us. You can find details of the two excavations online. Lindisfarne Dig Ventures. Ad Gefrin Trust. Lindisfarne is the site close to the ruined priory in the background. Ad Gefrin is essentially a field in a beautiful valley with the hill, Yeavering Bell, looking down on it. I also took a quick stroll through the museum at Lindisfarne Priory.
Day 5 Visit to the Bowl Hole, St Aidan’s Church and a talk by an osteoarchaeologist
The well-known Bamburgh Bones were discovered in the Bowl Hole – there’s little to see there now but overgrown weeds but the view from the Bowl Hole to the castle is important. The skeletons excavated from the Bowl Hole have now been interred in St Aidan’s Church in the village. You can visit the database for the Bamburgh Bones and learn about the individual skeletons. I’ve not included any photos from the osteoarchaeologist because I was too busy making notes, but it was fascinating to discover what can be discovered about the lives people led from their bones.
It was a fabulous week. Being allowed to ask as many questions as I wanted was fantastic, and I’d like to thank my fellow students, the Bamburgh Research Project Team, Dig Ventures, the Ad Gefrin Trust and all the specialists who shared their knowledge with us for contributing to the amazing experience.
Really, I wouldn’t think he’d do that. He’ll make some excuse about having no time, or some such. Oh wait, did Lady Cyneswith set this up?
Yes, she did, and I’ve already spoken to her. But tell me, do you know the king? You seem to know who everyone is.
Of course I do. I’m Rudolf. His old squire, and now member of his warband. Why?
Would you like to talk to us about his latest book?
Well, I suppose I have the time. If you’re quick, and I don’t get caught. I’m supposed to be showing young Hiltiberht the ropes, and Haden can be a real handful.
Tell me, what’s King Coelwulf like? As a warrior?
Bloody lethal. You don’t want to be facing off against him. I’ve never seen anyone kill so quickly. And the moves he can do? I wish I had even half of his skill. I mean, he says I’m a good warrior and all, but I make up for my lack of skill with speed. And he doesn’t have that because he’s so bloody …. Um, because he doesn’t need to do that. Sometimes, I swear the enemy make it look so easy it’s as though they’re falling onto his seax or sword.
He’s quite good then?
Better than good. I’ve never seen anyone fight the way he does. Well, apart from Icel, and Edmund, and maybe Hereman. But, certainly, the Raiders stand no chance against him.
I hear he even camps in the woodlands and forests? It’s not really the sort of thing a king should do, is it?
Now, you see here. He was a warrior long before he was king. King Coelwulf only has one aim, to kill all the Raiders. To drive them from Mercia and make sure they don’t come back. He’s not into all that fancy clothes, and court etiquette, or sleeping in a bed of silk sheets. They’d be too damn cold, anyway. He’s told me. No, the king of Mercia is a damn warrior, and the only man capable of defeating the Raiders, and the Welsh, if it comes to it.
And, have you read the new book?
Got no time for reading. I’m sure King Coelwulf told you that, and he’s right. I’d like a good night’s sleep without interruption more than I’d like to read a book. Maybe a scop could tell the tale. But, that would be Edmund and I’d have to listen to him tell the tale. He’s good, of course he’s good, but he probably wouldn’t mention me as much as I might like.
To all the young lads who do read the book, what would your advice be? How could they get into King Coelwulf’s warband?
Well, they should probably have joined it a while ago, and at the moment, there’s a few squires that need training up, so there’s no room, not for a while. So, I’d tell them to wait, and while they’re waiting, learn a few things, like how to clean saddles and seaxs. It’s a mucky job, but someone’s got to do it. And with King Coelwulf, you’ve got to earn his respect first. And then, well, once you’ve got it, you’ve got to keep it. A hard man, but a great man. Mercians should be pleased with their king. He’ll keep them safe, or he’ll die trying. You didn’t find the old king doing that. Far from it in fact. He’s scuttled off to Rome, or somewhere like that. Gone to pray for his soul. He’s got a lot to need forgiveness for, abandoning his kingdom like that.
Oh, sorry, I’ve got to go.
And there you have it. A few words from Rudolf, King Coelwulf’s old squire. I hear he fights incredibly well, and offers some important advice for any would be members of the king’s warband.
With a snazzy new cover, and with its sibling to arrive in the coming months, I’ve taken the decision to move The Custard Corpses to a wider audience in ebook format, so readers on Kobo, Apple, Nook and other retailers accessed via the Ingram distribution option, as well as Amazon, can now enjoy my twentieth-century mystery, set in the 1940s.
Here’s the blurb
A delicious 1940s mystery.
Birmingham, England, 1943.
While the whine of the air raid sirens might no longer be rousing him from bed every night, a two-decade-old unsolved murder case will ensure that Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is about to suffer more sleepless nights.
Young Robert McFarlane’s body was found outside the local church hall on 30th September 1923. But, his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.
But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason, and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years, the chance to finally solve the case, while all around them the uncertainty of war continues, impossible to ignore.
Or you can buy paperback and hardback copies directly from me. Visit my SumUp store.
If you’ve not yet tried one of my ‘modern’ mysteries, then check out my series page on the blog to discover why I decided to write something so very different to everything I’ve ever written before.
The thrilling new historical adventure from New York Times bestselling author Boyd Morrison and expert medievalist Beth Morrison. Fox and Willa find themselves on a dangerous quest for the treasure of the Templar Knights.
A Perilous Quest. A Deadly Legacy.
Italy, 1351. English companions, knight Gerard Fox and the resourceful Willa, have come through a death-defying journey across war-torn Europe. Now looking towards a future together, they must first find a way to reconcile with their difficult pasts.
In a small village between Florence and Siena, Fox and Willa are caught up in a deadly ambush. After rescuing Luciana, the target of the attack, they take refuge in her opulent villa and learn her heartbreaking story – a tale of loss, deception, and a burning desire for freedom.
Soon, Fox and Willa are involved in a perilous quest to save Luciana’s family legacy. To do so, they will have to solve a mystery that points the way to the fabled lost treasure of the Knights Templar.
The Last True Templar is a thrilling journey through fourteenth-century Italy, taking our two heroes to Siena, Florence and Venice (and somewhere else, but spoilers) as they attempt to assist Luciana in her bid to finally solve the mystery of her father’s last letter, sent to her over forty years ago, and which it’s believed, will lead to the lost Templar treasure.
And they’re not alone, for as with all good thrillers, there is another side to this story, and someone else wants to get their hands on the Templar treasure just as much as they do: Luciana’s ruthless husband.
This is an Italy in recovery following the devastation of the Black Death, where few, it seems, have been left unscathed. Ironically, two Englishmen, Gerard and Armstrong, are most involved in the hustle and bustle of the quest, with the aid of some quick-witted and intelligent women.
This story is well-grounded in the historical architecture of the time, as our characters race to solve clues, riding from city to city, some loyal to Luciana’s husband and some to Luciana, all needing to look at or visit various important buildings – many of the well-known ones still being built, or heavily renovated. There is intrigue aplenty. Those characters trying to stop Gerard, Willa, and Luciana are ruthless and ambitious, and all this while Gerard and Willa are trying to determine their future.
Throughout the narrative, there’s quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in time. I’d prefer the flashbacks to occur before the characters reveal what happened, as they are somewhat irrelevant.
This is book 2 in the series – I haven’t read book 1 – I don’t necessarily think you need to read the first book to enjoy this one, as we’re given snippets of what’s happened before, but this is very much an isolated ‘quest’. And I did enjoy it. The Last True Templar is very much in the mould of a Dan Brown thriller, only set in the distant past, with an eye to what the cityscapes would have looked like in 1351, and with three feisty women to ensure the narrative never gets bogged down in more purely violent bouts between our two sides.
A rollercoaster of a journey, it’s sure to appeal to fans of historical fiction, historical mysteries and old-fashioned action and adventure stories- (as well as to fans of The Curse of Oak Island:))
About the author
Boyd Morrison is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twelve thrillers, including six with Clive Cussler. His first novel, The Ark, was an Indie Next Notable pick and was translated into over a dozen languages. He has a PhD in industrial engineering from Virginia Tech.
Beth Morrison is Senior Curator of Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She has curated major exhibitions including ‘Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500’, and ‘Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World’. She has a PhD in the History of Art from Cornell University.
I’m delighted to welcome Rosemary Hayes and her new novel, The King’s Command to the blog.
INSPIRATION AND RESEARCH FOR MY NOVEL ‘THE KING’S COMMAND’
Carving above French Church in London
I’d always known that I had Huguenot ancestors but had not given it much thought until a cousin mentioned that they had been driven out of France for their religious beliefs. This sparked my interest and I decided to find out more.
My ancestors – the facts
Many of those who try to trace their Huguenot roots find the process laborious and frustrating, coming across contradictions and going down blind alleys, but I was lucky. A lot is known about my Huguenot forebears, Lydia and Samuel La Fargue. They feature in the Annals of the Huguenot Society and some meticulous research was done on them by an Edwardian ancestor of mine, so I had a head start.
I knew where they lived in France; in a small town in Gascony, not far from Bordeaux, originally called Castillon-sur-Dordogne and now called Castillon-la-Bataillie. I knew what they did (they were predominately lawyers, physicians and minor nobles) and that they were friends with other prominent Protestant families in the region with whom they inter married and socialised. In the baptism records of the time, it can also be seen that they were godparents to one another’s children. The Edwardian ancestor states that they lived just outside the town centre in ‘the pleasant faubourg’ and, although I found no evidence of this, it seems likely to be true. They also owned land in the plains South of the town.
So, they came from the bourgeoisie, were committed Huguenots, following the teachings of Calvin, and their own ancestors had fought against the Catholics in the sixteenth century Wars of Religion.
I also knew that Lydia, Samuel, their surviving children and Lydia’s widowed mother left Castillon and fled to Geneva in 1690. And also, intriguingly, that Samuel returned alone to Castillon in 1692 where he died, aged 32, on the very day on which he converted to Catholicism. He may, of course, have died from natural causes, but these were turbulent times, so who knows? I did discover from local documents that he had returned to try and reclaim forfeited property.
After his death Lydia, her children and her mother then left Geneva for London and settled in the pleasant village of Hammersmith where there was a small Huguenot community. Lydia’s only surviving child, Elias, became a Church of England vicar in Lincolnshire and is my direct ancestor.
Why did the Huguenots flee France? A brief background
The wars of religion between Protestants and Catholics raged in France during the second half of the 16th century where hatred ran deep, armies were raised and atrocities committed by both sides. These wars were finally brought to an end through the actions of King Henry IV. Henry, originally a Protestant, was a pragmatist. In a bid to unite the country he converted to Catholicism, reportedly saying “Paris is well worth a mass” and promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598) which granted official tolerance to Protestantism, and for eighty years or so the Huguenots thrived.
Henry’s successors, however, were far less tolerant of the Huguenots, destroying their strongholds and breaking up their military organisation and when the young Louis XIV finally took control of his throne in 1661, he vowed to make France a wholly Catholic country and wipe out the ‘false religion’ of Protestantism once and for all. During his reign, the Edict of Nantes, which had protected Huguenots for so long, was revoked and their lives became impossible.
Unless they denied their faith, they would forfeit their property, be unable to practise their professions or trades and their children would be forcibly removed from them to be brought up as Catholics. They were banned from holding gatherings, even in private, and their temples were destroyed. Yet they were not allowed to leave the country; the King did not want to lose the skills of these hardworking and successful people.
here destruction of Huguenot temple
Hardly surprising then, that many converted and many fled despite the penalties if they were caught.
Huguenot women in prison
The fiction
It has been an intriguing journey finding out about my ancestors and, more generally, about the circumstances which forced Huguenots like them to flee France. My book ‘The King’s Command’ is based, very loosely, on their experience. I have set the story in Castillon, called the main character Lydia (or Lidie, as she was known by her family) and her husband Samuel, but a lot of the other characters are fictional, as is the account of Samuel’s death and Lidie’s escape. I know nothing of the family’s actual escape to Geneva but night travelling was common. There were ‘Huguenot Trails’ known only to those within a trusted network, safe houses along the escape routes, false identities adopted and bribes paid. There were also plenty of financial rewards offered to those betraying Huguenots and to soldiers finding stowaways, with spies and informers everywhere, so any escape would have been fraught with danger.
In my story, I have made Lidie stay in Castillon and then escape not from nearby Bordeaux, which was heavily guarded, but from a little port called La Tremblade a good way up the West coast. Many Huguenots did escape from here and I used, as background, a contemporary account of one such escape, cranking up the tension as the family tried to avoid detection.
To add to the tension, I made the King’s dragoons visit Castillon to try and force unconverted Huguenot households to abjure. I don’t know if this is true, but certainly there were plenty of reports of this happening in the region.
dragoon forcing Huguenot to sign abduration papers
I also made Samuel die a violent death as a direct result of his association with Claude Brousson, a Protestant lawyer and preacher who fought tirelessly for justice for the Huguenots. Brousson had to flee for his life to Switzerland and then, very bravely, returned in secret to become part of the Church of the Desert, in the wild and mountainous region of the Cevennes, where he preached and gave succour to his fellow Protestants. He died a martyr and hero but he is largely forgotten now and I felt he merited some recognition.
In reality, once Lidie reached London, it seems that she led a very quiet and worthy life, centred on the French church in Hammersmith, but I decided to make her lively and vivacious with a strong character and a love of fashion and of the new silks being made in Spitalfields. I also invented for her a naughty surviving daughter, a new romance and another child from a (fictitious) second marriage.
In her will, Lidie left the bulk of her estate to her son Elias and the rest to the French church in Hammersmith and the French poor of London. It seems that she was still relatively well off and it is known that she brought with her from France some family portraits (presumably taken out of their frames and rolled up), some small pieces of family silver and the La Fargue seal.
The Huguenots were hardworking and talented people and they integrated so seamlessly into their adopted countries that, generations on, it is easy to forget the circumstances which forced them to flee their native France in the 17thcentury.
Thank you so much for sharing your fabulous post.
Here’s the blurb
16 year old Lidie Brunier has everything; looks, wealth, health and a charming suitor but there are dark clouds on the horizon. Lidie and her family are committed Huguenots and Louis XIV has sworn to stamp out this ‘false religion’ and make France a wholly Catholic country. Gradually Lidie’s comfortable life starts to disintegrate as Huguenots are stripped of all rights and the King sends his brutal soldiers into their homes to force them to become Catholics. Others around her break under pressure but Lidie and her family refuse to convert. With spies everywhere and the ever present threat of violence, they struggle on. Then a shocking betrayal forces Lidie’s hand and her only option is to try and flee the country. A decision that brings unimaginable hardship, terror and tragedy and changes her life for ever.
‘One of the very best historical novels I have ever read’
Sandra Robinson, Huguenot Ancestry Expert
Buy Links:
This title is available to read with #KindleUnlimited.
Rosemary Hayes has written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes in different genres, from edgy teenage fiction (The Mark),historical fiction (The Blue Eyed Aborigineand Forgotten Footprints),middle grade fantasy (Loose Connections, The Stonekeeper’s Childand Break Out) to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books. Many of her books have won or been shortlisted for awards and several have been translated into different languages.
Rosemary has travelled widely but now lives in South Cambridgeshire. She has a background in publishing, having worked for Cambridge University Press before setting up her own company Anglia Young Books which she ran for some years. She has been a reader for a well-known authors’ advisory service and runs creative writing workshops for both children and adults.
Rosemary has recently turned her hand to adult fiction and her historical novel ‘The King’s Command’ is about the terror and tragedy suffered by the French Huguenots during the reign of Louis XIV.
Social media influencer Crystabel Hughes is determined her wedding to Giles Preston Smythe will be the talk of the town. No matter the cost or the upset, nothing will stop this wedding!
A cheating groom…
But for Alexi Ellis and the rest of the staff at Hopgood Hall, Crystabel’s demands are becoming increasingly extreme. And when Alexi spots the groom getting up close and personal with one of the bridesmaids, she fears trouble is only a bouquet toss away.
A killer bride caught red-handed?
And Alexi’s fears are confirmed when the groom is found dead on the night before the wedding, stabbed through the heart – the person holding the dagger. his beloved bride-to be Crystabel.
Hopgood Hall doesn’t need any more bad press, but the race is on to find the killer and close the case before Crystable live streams her dilemma.
Can Alexi, Jack and Cosmo find out why Giles was killed? And, more importantly, can they stop the killer before they strike again?
Perfect for fans of Faith Martin, Frances Evesham and Emma Davies.
A Marriage to Murder For is the third book in the Hopgood Hall Murder Mysteries. You don’t need to have read the two previous books, but if you are planning on doing so, there are some spoilers for the earlier books.
This time, our intrepid duo find themselves with a murdered groom on their hands in what seems to be an open and shut case, but which of course, proves to be anything but.
The series has so far tackled celebrity chefs, and this time moves to ‘influencer’ territory with a televised wedding. But all is not paradise between the couple, and as the story evolves, there are many, many secrets to uncover.
I really enjoy this series of books. Alexis and Jack work well together, and the author offers a tight and well-constructed story – with just enough hints for the reader to ‘almost’ know what’s happening, but still with a mighty ‘big reveal’ in the closing moments.
A thoroughly enjoyable, tightly-plotted and enjoyable cosy mystery.
Evie Hunter has written a great many successful regency romances as Wendy Soliman and is now redirecting her talents to produce dark gritty thrillers for Boldwood. For the past twenty years she has lived the life of a nomad, roaming the world on interesting forms of transport, but has now settled back in the UK.
The hero of the Mercian Ninth Century Series, King Coelwulf, has not been treated kindly by history.
He appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (the main narrative source for the period) as a ‘foolish king’s thegn’ (in the ASC E Version, although not in the older A version) and not actually a king at all.
´Here the raiding army went from Lindsey to Repton and took winter-quarters there, and [[874] drove the king Burhred across the sea 22 years after he had the kingdom; and conquered all that land…And the same year they granted the kingdom of Mercia to be held by a foolish king’s thegn, and he swore them oaths and granted hostages, that it should be ready for them whichever day they might want it, and he himself should be ready with all who would follow him, at the service of the raiding-army. (A) 874 [873]
´Here the raiding-army went from Lindsey to Repton, and there took winter quarters, and drove the king Burhred across the sea 22 years after he had the kingdom, and conquered all that land. And he went to Rome and settled there, and his body lies at St Mary’s church in the English Quarter. And the same year they granted the kingdom of Mercia to be held by Ceolwulf, a foolish king’s thegn.’ (E)874 [873] (Both quotes from M Swanton ed. and trans. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles).
His ‘reign’ has been explained as being entirely dependent on Viking overlords who really ruled Mercia, from their ‘base’ at Repton. He was a ‘puppet king,’ a sop to assist the independent Mercians as they struggled to come to terms with their new warlords.
The survival of two charters, carrying Coelwulf’s name, and witnessed by the ealdormen and bishops of Mercia, have not been given the attention they deserve because they suggest a different interpretation to that of King Alfred (the Great) single-handedly defeating the Vikings, and making ‘England,’ as does the discovery of the Watlington Hoard of coins which suggests that Coelwulf and Alfred were ruling jointly.
So, if we put aside the problems of what Coelwulf did, or didn’t achieve, who might he actually be, and why might he have been named as king?
Coelwulf’s name leads historians of the period to suggest he was a member of a branch of the Mercian royal family whose last ruler was King Coelwulf I, who ruled in Mercia from AD821-823. He succeeded his brother, Coenwulf, who ruled from AD796-821. They were descended from the brother of the mighty seventh-century king, Penda, most famously known for being pagan, warlike and terrorising the Northumbrian kingdom during its ‘Golden Age.’ (Read about Penda and the Northumbrian kingdom in my Gods and Kings trilogy). He was therefore a member of a long-lived ruling dynasty that could trace its descendants all the way back to the early 600s.
This identification of Coelwulf helps to explain why he was accepted as king following King Burgred’s abdication. He was no foolish king’s thegn. He was a member of a ruling dynasty, who, for one reason or another, were no longer the ruling family in Mercia in the 870’s. (And what was happening in Mercia before the 870’s is just as fascinating as what came after it – you can read about that in The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles).
Lambing season always brings the unexpected… But no one expected murder
Jude Gray never thought she’d find herself widowed and running a working farm full-time, but here she is, living in the small Malvern village her husband Adam spent most of his life in.
After a particularly gruelling lambing season, she is looking forward to some time off, but there’s no rest for the wicked, especially when she finds the body of one of Adam’s oldest friends on her farm.
Unimpressed with the local constabulary’s efforts, Jude starts an investigation of her own. But as the body count rises, danger creeps ever closer to Malvern Farm.
A killer is on the prowl. And all that stands in their way is one woman – and her dog.
My Review
Murder on the Farm is a really intriguing contemporary mystery set in the Malvern Hills during an early lambing season.
What begins with a wedding ends in tragedy for our main character, Jude Gray, as much of what she thought to be true begins to unravel around her.
Jude and her sister are both great characters in the first book in this new series. I found myself completely caught up in the mystery and read it over a space of a few days. There’s some excellent misdirection, and as a reader, I was quite convinced that I knew who the culprit was, not once, but twice, only to be proved entirely wrong.
A fabulous start to a new contemporary mystery series, offering an assured and well-plotted tale against a majestic backdrop. I look forward to reading more.
Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children, and is now writing a new cosy crime series set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up.
For the first time ever, I’m on a podcast. Come and listen to me talk to the fabulous Jenny Wheeler about all things Saxon, and just what I really think of the term ‘the Dark Ages.’
Listen on The Joys of Binge Reading website, where you can also find links and a transcript of the podcast, or via Spotify below, and be sure to check out the other fab authors Jenny has featured on the podcast.
If you’ve read a few of my books, you’ll know that I don’t very often venture into the Saxon lands on the north-west coast of England. (I know that Ealdorman Leofwine visits there in his second book, but I didn’t know better then). There’s a very good reason for this. I am, quite frankly, a bit scared to do so. Mainly because I don’t feel as though I can get a firm understanding of what was happening there during the Saxon era. (I would say the same about Cornwall/Devon – and that’s because there are various references to the area coming under Saxon control – only to be repeated a later period, so it clearly didn’t happen when some of the sources say it did).
Some research will highlight the Norse element of the area, and others will call it Cumbria, or Northumberland. And in the 830s, before the main ravages of the Viking raiders, it feels very unknown to me.
But, in Protector of Mercia, I do take young Icel to the north-west – no doubt to test myself and to see if I could do it.
I think we can start with Chester, which admittedly, would probably have been classified as being in Mercia. Chester, a former roman site, is well-known, even now there are standing Roman ruins. Admittedly, what Chester might have been like in the 830s is more difficult to pin point – so I had a bit of fun with that.
And after Chester? What then? I like to make use of old maps when I’m trying to reconstruct the past (the one above is a road map, so looks a bit unusual). Yes, they’re still positively modern but I find it easier than using Googlemaps where there’s too much ‘modern’ to look at. The starkness of antique maps isn’t always quite as extreme as on the map below of Cheshire from 1835 which shows the voting hundreds but there’s always something of value in them, even if its just revealing where the rivers are in relation to settlements – if you use Googlemaps you might become distracted by canals and other, much later, attempts to control rivers.
Indeed, we almost go from one extreme to another when looking at the map for Cumbria or Cumberland as the map calls it. This is from 1895 so is much more modern.
But it’s the map below that should put the problems into context. This is a snippet from Britain in the Dark Ages, an Ordnance Survey map from 1966, which shows just how stark the landscape might have been (I don’t doubt that we should, hopefully, know a bit more in the intervening 50+ years).
So, there’s not a lot to go on, and I’m sending poor Icel north-west, so it’ll be interesting to see what he discovers.
Protector of Mercia is released today, 5th September, in ebook, audio and paperback. The hardback will be ready soon.
MJ Porter 