Part 2: The Queen's Vow Discussion Post

(Click for Read Along Schedule)

Part Two covers "An Unforbidden Union", years 1468-1474 and from pages 129 through 215.

It is indeed a new chapter for Isabella. Being initially third in line to the throne of Castile, and then set aside for her half-brother's heirs, Isabella had no real reason to believe she would ever have to rule over Castile. As we conclude Part 1, Isabella laments that "Castile had lost its hope."

Our discussion of Part 1 contemplates the legitimacy of Enrique's daughter, Enrique's kingship, and the fate of Alfonso.

Continuing the reading with Part 2, Isabella reflects, and realizes her duty to Castile, which conflicts with her brother's Enrique's wishes. The political upheaval is rampant, as sides are forced to be taken. And this is when Isabella's story really begins to shape and take hold of the reader.

How has your opinion of Isabella evolved during the novel thus far? As Isabella slowly realizes that her destiny is to unite Castile and Aragon, has this depiction of Isabella created more of a likable character for you? It certainly has for me.

At the end of Part 2 we have Torquemada guiding Isabella and I get the distinct feeling that things are going to be changing....

What are the parts of Part 2 that you enjoyed the most? Are you having difficulty slowing the pace to match the read along? I specifically stopped reading the book a few days earlier so that I could stay with the read along schedule. I am looking forward to picking it back up so I can see what Part 3 has in store for us!

Part 1: The Queen's Vow Discussion Post

(Click for Read Along Schedule)

Have you read Part 1 of The Queen's Vow? If so... what are your thoughts? If you have not completed Part 1, you can still participate today by sharing your initial impressions (and expectations) of both Isabella and the book itself.

And for comparison, have you read other works featuring Isabella?
What were your impressions of Isabella before you began reading the book? Do you think your opinion of her may change?

What of the relationships of the family of Isabella? Between Alfonso and Isabella, between Enrique and Isabella?

What about Enrique and Juana of Portugal, and their daughter? Do you question the legitimacy?

Did you find anything lacking in the storytelling of Part 1? Something you wanted to read a little more about? I remember reading of Isabella's mother (and her mental stability); and also a previous read showed Isabella as feeling destined to marry Ferdinand from an early age so this telling was a little different.

Marie's thoughts:
For the most part, I have viewed Isabella as an over-zealous religious fanatic because of the persecution she perpetrated. There was no tolerance on her part, but the times were so different during her reign. The level of piety was directly related to how she lived (and salvation at death), so a certain amount of understanding of many factors needs to be developed before laying judgement on Isabella.

I had previously read Castile for Isabella by Jean Plaidy, and By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan. These novels have helped shape my opinion of Isabella, but now Gortner's will help to humanize her a bit more as it gives me some understanding behind Isabella's nature.

Michelle's thoughts:
I too read By Fire, By Water and that book portrayed Isabella in a very bad light, which was to be expected based on the point of view it was told from...the very people Isabella persecutes with her expulsion of the Jews.

I have read the entire book already because I was on a book tour for it, but I will stick to the first section to go along with the read-along.  I found it fascinating that it seems all (or most) of the great queens seem to find their way to the throne having gone through great peril.  Isabella lived a very precarious period under her half brother, Enrique, while her brother was forming a rebellion.  In the book, her loyal companion likens it to divine providence that things continue to go in Isabella's favor.  Perhaps it's true.  What Gortner does so well is bringing across the human side of these great women.  One can't help but feel a connection with Isabella.

What I found ironic was the fact that Isabella and Fernando end up naming one of their daughters, Juana.  I realize that Fernando's mother's name was also Juana, but to use the name of her stepmother, Enrique's dreadful queen, seemed odd.  And yes, I do question the legitimacy of Juana and Enrique's daughter, although I have not read very much in regards to the history of this subject.

I do hope that you're enjoying this wonderful book!

********

The next discussion post: July 14, Saturday.
Scheduled to Read to page 215 (end of part II)

Gortner's writing style always makes me breeze through his works, so don't feel guilty if you read ahead (like me!). Just jot down some notes so you'll have them ready for the scheduled discussion posts.

Don't forget, the author C.W. Gortner will be visiting the discussion posts at his leisure, so feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments. There will also be a small giveaway at the end of the read along for the most active participant.

An Honourable Estate by Elizabeth Ashworth

Please welcome the author of An Honourable Estate, Elizabeth Ashworth:

The Legend of Mab’s Cross

-Elizabeth Ashworth

Mab’s Cross is an old wayside cross that is now placed outside a primary school in Wigan, in the north of England. Worn by the weather, it isn’t much to look at and you might pass it by without a second glance if you didn’t know the story that was attached to it. The legend tells that Lady Mabel de Haigh walked barefoot to this cross from her home at Haigh Hall as a penance for her adultery.

The story is well known locally and came to the attention of the novelist Sir Walter Scott. He writes about it in the introduction to his novel The Betrothed.

“The tradition, which the author knew very early in life, was told to him by the late Lady Balcarras. He was so much struck with it, that being at that time profuse of legendary lore, he inserted it in the shape of a note to Waverley, the first of his romantic offences. Had he then known, as he now does, the value of such a story, it is likely that, as directed in the inimitable receipt for making an epic poem, preserved in the Guardian, he would have kept it for some future opportunity.”

There are various versions of the legend and the one which Sir Walter Scott drew on can be found in the Bradshaigh Roll, an ornamental pedigree drawn up by Randle Holme of Chester in 1647. It recounts how Sir William Bradshaw married Mabel Norris, the heiress of Blackrod and Haigh. After the marriage he was absent for ten years in the ‘holy wars’ and when he returned he found that Mabel had married a Welsh knight. On Sir William’s return the intruder fled, but William chased him and killed him at Newton Park where a red coloured stone still supposedly marks the spot of the murder.

In his preface, Scott goes on to discuss the real people and places associated with the legend. He says:

“There were many vestiges around Haigh Hall, both of the Catholic penances of the Lady Mabel, and the history of this unfortunate transaction in particular; the whole history was within the memory of man portrayed upon a glass window in the hall, where unfortunately it has not been preserved. Mab's Cross is still extant. An old ruinous building is said to have been the place where the Lady Mabel was condemned to render penance, by walking hither from Haigh Hall barefooted and barelegged for the performance of her devotions. This relic, to which an anecdote so curious is annexed, is now unfortunately ruinous.”

Although the story of Sir William and Lady Mabel is known as a legend, there is some truth in it. They were real people and are buried in a chantry chapel at Wigan parish church. Their effigies can still be seen there.

Another 19th century Lancashire novelist and historian, John Roby, who also wrote a version of the legend in his book Traditions of Lancashire remarked in 1829 that, “Time and whitewash have altogether defaced the effigies of the knight and lady on the tomb.” After that, some restoration work was been done. The effigy of Mabel was re-chiselled and a new effigy of Sir William was made.

The original Haigh Hall was demolished in the early 1800s to make way for a new house that can be seen today. Canon Bridgeman in his History of Wigan Church and Manor says that the original hall had a gallery, which was said to be haunted by the ghost of Lady Mabel, as well as a chapel and a confessional.

In the 1930s, Rev. T.C. Porteus, who was a local clergyman and historian, wrote a booklet called New Light on the Mab’s Cross Legend and in it Porteus compares the legendary stories with the historical events of the time.

Sir William was a Member of Parliament for Lancashire in the 6th, 8th and 19th years of the reign of Edward II – before and after his long absence from home. He was, at first, a follower of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and was named amongst the earl’s adherents in a pardon granted for the death of Piers Gaveston. But in 1315 he joined the Banastre Rebellion. Porteus points out that the seven years when William was absent from home coincide with the years from the failed rebellion of 1315 until the execution of the Earl of Lancaster as a traitor in 1322. An inquiry into the ownership of the lands at Haigh in June 1318, states that William Bradshaw had been outlawed.

In 1319 Lady Mabel stated that her husband was dead. She is said to have married a second husband, but there is no documentary evidence and the suggested identities of the man range from ‘a Welsh knight’, Sir Henry Teuther, Osmond Neville to Sir Peter Lymesey, who is mentioned in the 1318 enquiry when Mabel is described as ‘intruding’ on the lands – in other words refusing to give them up.

After the execution of Thomas of Lancaster, Sir William Bradshaw received a pardon from the king and returned home, taking up his seat in parliament once again in 1328. The matters of Lady Mabel’s bigamous marriage and her subsequent penance remain open to speculation. Whether she did walk barefoot to the stone cross, once, or even weekly, is not known for sure. But as Sir Walter Scott and I agree, it’s a wonderful story for a novelist.



*Elizabeth Ashworth’s novel An Honourable Estate, based on the legend of Mab’s Cross in now available as a paperback and an ebook from Amazon.

http://www.elizabethashworth.com/

Pitfalls of Quick Writing by Amy Croall

Please welcome author Amy Croall:

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been writing. Even at ten years old, I’d concoct stories with my father about ducks and frogs playing in the swamp and making life-long friends. Since then, writing has come a long way. I am almost always bogged down with “rules” and such relating to what can and can’t be done, what should be included in a book and what shouldn’t.

But there’s only one piece of advice that I’ve taken with me through everything I’ve done—you must write what you know.

As writers, we’re expected to be experts on the subjects we write. Therefore, writing what you know is an amazing piece of advice and the only rule to which I submit myself.

My debut novel, A Cure for the Condition, released on June 1, 2012. It is available on Kindle, in print, and coming soon to Nook. I began writing the book in December of 2010, and was finished with it mere months later. It made me proud. It was my baby. But beta readers ripped it apart, and naturally, because I knew nothing about history.

A Cure For the Condition

So, what did I do? I went back to my roots, consulted my father who has a Bachelor’s in History, and buckled down to do some hard-core research. After a year of revisions and beta readings, the book was solid, informational, and historical. Now, it’s accurate with the subtlest touch of fiction and romance, taking place over a span of two decades in the Late Victorian Era.

When seventeen-year-old Catherine assumes the throne as Queen of Cannary following her mother’s murder, she is forced to punish the man she loves, but when she develops a serious heart disease, the only cure for her condition may be the truth.


This being said, writing what you know is important—it’s necessary. If I were a historian, this book would have been flawless the first time around. But because I’m not my father, I had to do a year’s worth of research to get it there. I can happily say that it is, now, sparkling. And all thanks to the people who mean the most in my life. Thank you, all!



Buy A Cure for The Condition

Amy Croall lives with her husband and cat in the mountains of Northern California. To her husband, she dedicates all her success, because, without him, Malcolm and Catherine would never have been born. Please visit her website or blog for more information on her debut novel, A Cure for the Condition.

www.amycroall.com
www.amycroall.blogspot.com

The Concubine Saga by Lloyd Lofthouse

 E-book released June 2011

Paperback released March 2012

Please welcome author Lloyd Lofthouse to HF-Connection! I asked him what is the driving force behind his work, and what was the message he wanted to convey?

~~

In 1999 and 2000, as I was reading "Entering China's Service, Robert Hart's Journals, 1854 - 1863", published by the Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, my curiosity was aroused by two aspects of Sir Robert Hart's life (1835 - 1911).

First, Robert's early years in China, in his own words, made it clear that he was a conflicted individual—torn between the morality of his religious Victorian upbringing and the lusty temptations that life offers a young man through his often red-hot adolescent libido.

In China, that temptation turned out to be women he found extremely attractive and the fact that "Chinese women were for sale in unlimited supply," at a reasonable price.

Robert grew up in Northern Ireland near Belfast the oldest of twelve children. His father was a merchant and a Wesleyan pastor, a religion that saw women as equal to men at a time when women were mostly the property/chattel of men the world over.

How devout was Hart's father?

At the dinner table each day, as the food sat steaming in front of the hungry children, the father would ask each child what they had done for God that day. No one ate until all of the children answered.

In addition, Robert was the oldest and was expected to set an example for his younger siblings.

In fact, as a young man first attending the Queen's College in Belfast, Robert expressed a desire to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Wesley Pastor.

However, that changed while he was living in the dorms at the Queen's College. At age of 15, he found Belfast women and drink a temptation he could not resist, and he had a number of affairs with loose young women. The conclusion of that episode in his life was a dose of syphilis diagnosed by the family doctor and what was probably an embarrassing family scandal, which caused Robert to change his goals. As soon as he graduated from college, he applied to become an interpreter for the British Consulate in China, as far from Ireland as he could flee. In those days, China might as well have been on another planet.

For his first year in China, Robert, although tempted by the easy access to reasonably priced women, managed to resist, but on the voyage from Hong Kong to Shanghai in 1854, he made friends with Captain Dan Patridge, who was the principal agent in China of the wealthiest British opium merchant in the world. The good captain offered Robert an invitation difficult to resist—stay the summer with Partridge and his flock of concubines in a cooler, more comfortable location in China.

In the early 20th century, Robert burned the journals that covered that summer with Patridge and the next two and a half years, which also covered his early years with Ayaou, his concubine.

This almost secret affair with Ayaou was the second aspect of his life in China that aroused my curiosity. Before Robert died, he attempted to erase any evidence of his romance with Ayaou and directed his family and friends, after his death, to burn the surviving journals and all of the personal letters he had written to them—a request that was ignored.

Since I was raised as a Catholic, attended a private Catholic grade school and my mother was extremely spiritual and religious, I identified with Robert's guilty struggle with his adolescent libido and the temptation that comes with it. Then, on page 154, the Harvard scholars that compiled and edited Robert's surviving journals wrote, "We may surmise that Hart's years of liaison with Ayaou gave him his fill of romance, including both its satisfaction and its limitations."

I was curious about the love story that Sir Robert Hart wanted to hide from the Victorian world he grew up in.

Not only did I want to breathe life into the intimate details of this passionate, lusty romance, but I wanted to know who Ayaou was and to do that I had to learn about Chinese culture and its history until 19th century China also became a character in my novel, "The Concubine Saga".

~~

You can buy a signed Limited Edition of The Concubine Saga on the author's website.  (View the book on Amazon)

Leave an approved comment on one or more Blog posts found at Lloyd Lofthouse.org or iLook China.net
between May 30, 2012 and June 30, 2012 during "The Concubine Saga" Web Tour and automatically be entered into a drawing to win a limited edition, signed and numbered hard-cover copy of the novel.
(NOTE: only one limited-edition, hard-cover copy is available to give away)


Synopsis:

No Westerner has ever achieved Robert Hart's status and level of power in China. Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Hart became the "godfather of China's modernism," inspector general of China's Customs Service, and the builder of China's railroads, postal and telegraph systems and schools. However, his first real love is Ayaou, a young concubine. Sterling Seagrave, in Dragon Lady, calls her Hart's sleep-in dictionary and says she was wise beyond her years. Soon after arriving in China in 1854, Hart falls in love with Ayaou, but his feelings for her sister go against the teachings of his Christian upbringing and almost break him emotionally. To survive he must learn how to live and think like the Chinese. He also finds himself thrust into the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, the bloodiest rebellion in human history, where he makes enemies of men such as the American soldier of fortune known as the Devil Soldier. During his early years in China, Robert experiences a range of emotion from bliss to despair. Like Damascus steel, he learns to be both hard and flexible, which forges his character into the great man he becomes. Full of humanity, passion, and moral honesty, The Concubine Saga is the deeply intimate story of Hart's loyalty and love for his adopted land and the woman who captured his heart. Historical fiction potboiler, yes. But where The Concubine Saga truly shines is its thought-provoking passages on relationships, attitudes and cultural differences. The heated dialogue between Hart and Ayaou will especially touch a nerve for any westerner who has ever lived and loved in China…" Thomas Carter, photojournalist and author of "China: Portrait of a People"

Many thanks to Teddy Rose of Premier Virtual Author Book Tours who organized the tour for us.