Sharon reviews Sheriff and Priest by Nicky Moxey

Today Sharon Bennett Connolly reviews Sheriff and priest, the fabulous new release from Nicky Moxey. The author has kindly offered an ebook as a giveaway. To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous story, simply leave a comment below of on our Facebook Page.

The winner will be drawn on 14th October 2017.
Good luck!

Wimer could have become a monk. Instead, his decision to become a Chaplain – to make his way in the wider world of men – has put his soul in mortal danger.

In 12th Century East Anglia, poor Saxon boys stay poor. It takes an exceptional one to win Henry II's friendship, and to rise to the job of High Sheriff of all Norfolk and Suffolk. Falling foul of the stormy relationship between Henry and his Archbishop, he is excommunicated three times, twice by Thomas a'Becket, and once by the Pope.

He also falls in love with the King's Ward, Ida. Before he plucks up the courage to do anything about it, the King takes her as his mistress, and Ida needs Wimer's support to survive that dangerous liaison.

Although he is eventually reinstated in the Church, his problems with his religious superiors, and his love for Ida, will guarantee him a place in Hell, unless he can find land and resources to do something spectacular in the way of penance...

Sheriff and Priest by Nicky Moxey is refreshingly original historical fiction novel, based on the story of Wimer, a chaplain who rose to become sheriff during the reign of Henry II. Well written, entertaining and informative, it is almost impossible to put down. Wimer is a lovable character with many foibles, who, as a friend of Henry II, finds himself a casualty of the growing conflict between the king and his stubborn archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket.

The facts behind the story are true, with fabulous literary embellishment making this an extraordinary novel and engaging read. It provides a fascinating portrayal of the final years of the Anarchy - the dispute between Stephen and the Empress Matilda - and the subsequent reign of Henry II from a unique viewpoint. There is a wonderful interweaving of local plots and national politics, with the author demonstrating an extensive knowledge of the period. History and fiction are expertly drawn together to create an engaging story, with events of the time, such as Hugh Bigod's feud with William of Blois over Surrey lands and Henry II's feud with Becket over the church both being drawn into the plot.

The whitewashed cob was warm and comfortable against Wimer's back. He re-read the last sentence again; the finer points of canon law just weren't sinking in today. He was finding the silence from Jean deafening. All these years, he'd had Jean's stream of consciousness as a constant background; now there was no chatter, the silence hurt like a missing tooth. Finally he gave up, carefully re-wrapped the book in its kid leather cover, and put it on top of the low wall. Jean was picking bits of straw apart with a determination bordering on manic.

"Come on, tell me what's wrong. You're so quiet it's hurting my ears."

 Jean threw down his handful of chaff and sighed. "It's my brother. I got a letter from him this morning. He says that it's time I stopped spending his money getting an education, he's got a business trip to Ipswich planned in September, and we're to go home to Rouen together. Oh, Wimer! He wants me to keep his accounts! What am I to do?"

"Well, you'd better write back and tell him that you can't add two numbers together the same way twice! He'll see for himself how dire your Latin is. Maybe he'll beg Bishop William to make you a monk and throw away the key to your hermitage."

Jean brightened. "Hey! Maybe I could become a monk. Then -"

He stopped, affronted, as Wimer fell over sideways laughing. "What's wrong with you? I could easily be a monk?"

"Jean - have you ever read the Rule of St Benedict? Especially the bit where he says that leave to talk should be given as infrequently as possible? You'd burst, the first day!"

From castle building to the inner workings of the office of sheriff, to the fickleness of kings and archbishops, and even the working theories behind trial by ordeal,  Sheriff and Priest is chock full of detail within the fascinating storyline. The wide fields of medieval England seamlessly give way to the corridors of power as Wimer negotiates his way through local and national politics. It's like having a peephole to the past, and being able to peer for a few hours into a world now lost.

In Sheriff and Priest the author has created a sympathetic character in Wimer, displaying his human frailties and fears which are heightened by the time period in which he lives. Wimer is fully conscious of the dreadful penalty of excommunication, both to his own soul and those who consort with excommunicates. Wimer is faced with the task of performing his secular job of sheriff, while reconciling it with his vocation as a priest. Unfortunately for him, his friendship with King Henry means he falls foul of Becket and has to come to terms with his unjust excommunication.

And while Wimer is the lead character, and a master creation by Nicky Moxey, he is ably supported in the story by the enigmatic Henry II himself, the wonderful Ida de Tosny, sometime lover of Henry II and later Countess of Norfolk, and a host of other characters, all exceptional in their depth and individuality.

Nicky Moxey has expertly recreated the medieval world to its smallest detail, drawing the reader in to its depths and taking them on a journey through Norfolk and the wider stage of England during the reign of one of England's most enigmatic kings. I cannot recommend  Sheriff and Priest highly enough, both for its entertainment value, its fascinating insight into the inner workings of the role of sheriff and the deeply personal connection that the reader develops with these vivid, wonderful characters.

About the Author: Nicky lives in the middle of rural Suffolk, UK, and is currently owned by a slinky black cat who's far too clever for her own good.  In her spare time, she's an amateur historian/archaeologist, and in non-work daylight hours is usually out on a field somewhere with a metal detector and/or a trowel. She has added quite a few things to the Heritage England Record and the Portable Antiquities Scheme; but what really fascinates her is the stories behind the artefacts.
She loves writing a series of short stories about Henry Baker, a boy who finds a magic pencil on the way to school - and who has lots of adventures as the pencil makes anything he draws, become real! He draws some historical artefacts, as well as things to get him out of the sort of trouble any 9 year old boy can find.
Her first historical novel is about the story of a local boy made good - Wimer the Chaplain was born in Dodnash in Suffolk of a poor Saxon family, but made it to be a confidant of Henry ll, holding down the job of High Sheriff for all Norfolk and Suffolk. Then he gave it all up and came home to found a Priory... finding the original site of that Priory (not where it's shown on the map) is still one of my proudest discoveries.
Sheriff and Priest is available from Amazon from 15th October 2017.

About the Reviewer: Sharon Bennett Connolly has been fascinated by history for over 30 years.

She has studied history at university and worked as a tour guide at several historic sites. She has lived in Paris and London before settling down back in a little village in her native Yorkshire, with husband James and their soon-to-be-teenage son.
Sharon has been writing a blog entitled 'History...the Interesting Bits' for a little over 2 years and has just finished her first non-fiction work, 'Heroines of the Medieval World'. The book looks at the lives of the women – some well known and some almost forgotten to history – who broke the mould; those who defied social norms and made their own future, consequently changing lives, society and even the course of history. It was published by Amberley on 15th September 2017. It is now available from Amberley, Book Depository and  Amazon.

Sharon can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Windsor Castle - part one - a brief history of the Castle in Mediaeval and Renaissance times.

Throughout its millennium plus history, Windsor Castle has always been a 'work in progress'. Four monarchs of England have made the most impression on it: William I, known more often as William the Conqueror, chose the location, founded the castle and established its rough outline and plan; Edward III rebuilt much of it in a Gothic style and established the royal apartments; Charles II transformed it into a Baroque Palace and lastly George IV, who restored a considerable amount of the exterior, altering it to conform with the then modern desire for a romantic castle ideal.

The two eras of history I will be concentrating on in this article are the ones within the time frame of the Mediaeval and Renaissance eras of English history. 

William I began building at Windsor around 1070 and his work was finished by 1086. The castle is one of a chain of fortifications around London and is situated in the only naturally occurring defensive position in this part of the Thames river valley, being 30 metres -  (almost 100 feet) - above the water. Windsor is the only one of this ring of castles to survive the assault of time.

Slightly later than our time frame, this is a model of defensive fortifications and lines of communication around London in the English Civil War.

Norman castles were built to a standard plan. An artificial earth mound supported a keep (motte),

the entrance of which was protected by a fenced yard (bailey). At Windsor, unusually, there were two baileys, an upper and a lower one, known today as the Upper and Lower Wards, one either side of the motte. The outer walls of the castle were surrounded by a ditch which only partially survives.

The moat as it is today

Although the castle was built to keep secure the western route to London, the proximity to a royal hunting forest and to London, made it an ideal residence. As early as 110, Henry I had living quarters there and his grandson, Henry II, built two sets of apartments, a state residence in the lower Ward and a small family lodging in the Upper Ward.

Fine examples of the Bagshot Heath Stone and yellow Bath stone in situ.

When first built, the castle was made from timber but Henry II began to replace the timber with durable stone. Much of it is built of Bagshot Heath stone and the Gothic details in yellow Bath stone. The interior is mostly finished with Bedfordshire stone.

The outer walls are punctuated by towers. Those ordered by Henry II are square whilst those from Henry III are D shaped.

Henry II towers 

The 'Warrior King,' Edward III spent £50,000 transforming the castle from a place of fortification to a Gothic Palace, reflecting his ideal of a chivalric, Christian monarchy. The Lower Ward was transformed by buildings for the College of St. George, founded in 1348. The Chapel that had been built there a century earlier had been dedicated to St Edward the Confessor, but it was Edward who first associated the Castle and the College with St. George, who was the patron saint of the new Order of the Garter.
(I will be writing about St George very soon) 

Part of the Quadrangle as it is in September 2017

William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester directed the extensive building works taking it to a level that was way and above that necessary for a purely defensive edifice. One particularly impressive example of this is the Great Range, overlooking the Quadrangle, accommodating the King's Great Chamber, St George's Hall and the Royal Chapel. This was lit by 17 tall arched windows and matching fortified entrance towers. This was intended to form a magnificent back drop for the spectacular tournaments and jousts held within the Quadrangle and also functioned as the castle's tilt-yard.

Moving on to the time of Henry VIII, at the time of his death, the king owned over 60 houses and palaces, travelling between his many residences. It was here at Windsor in 1522 that he received the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to conclude an alliance against France. The only really significant addition to the fabric of the castle ws his addition of a gate that bears his name at the bottom of the Lower Ward, through which visitors leave. 

A gate wide enough for King Henry VIII

Henry is buried in St. George's Chapel together with his favourite wife, Jane Seymour. It was a strange sensation to be standing at the grave of the king... I had very damp eyes 
often in that chapel.

Probably wise, but I would so much have
liked a photograph of my own.

Photo from 'Find a Grave'

Edward VI did not like Windsor and probably would have gone on to bring galleries and gardens to it had he lived long enough, but Mary I refaced many of the of the houses for the Military Knights in the Lower Ward  and her arms, together with the arms of her Spanish husband Philip, can be found hanging on the old belfry tower, known today as the Mary Tudor Tower, the residence of the Governor of the Military Knights.

By the time the first Elizabeth came to the throne, many parts of the castle were in drastic need of repair and a major building campaign was started in the 1570s. Henry VIII's terrace walkway was described as a 'verie great ruyn' and the Western end of the chapel was 'verie ould ruinous and far oute of order redie to fale down, ' (we all have days like that :-) ) The terrace walkway was completely renewed in stone with a very elaborate ornamented balustrade and the Royal Chapel was remodelled and fitted with stalls, a gallery and a panelled ceiling.

Elizabeth also added a long gallery in which to walk and admire the far off view to the north during poor weather  as she loved to be out in the air but hated to be 'russled by the wind'.

I will now conclude with some random shots of the castle....

Enjoy! 

Unless otherwise attributed, all photos in the blog together with the blog itself are by Diana Milne September 2017 © 
Image of Edward III from English Monarchs

Magna Carta Week: The Eternal Legacy of Magna Carta

The Eternal Legacy of Magna Carta

By Sharon Bennett Connolly

On 1 April 2015 Lincoln Castle reopened its doors after an extensive refurbishment. The renovations included a new purpose-built, state-of-the-art, underground vault for its most prized possession: one of only four surviving copies of the original 1215 Great Charter – the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta’s new home cannot fail to emphasise the importance of this charter in the history of not only England, but also the rest of the world. Two films - Magna Carta: Challenging the Power of the King and Magna Carta: Meaning and Myth – reconstruct the events leading up to Magna Carta and chart its significance through the centuries, respectively.

But what is Magna Carta? And what makes it so important?

In many ways, the reign of King John had been a continuation of that of his father, Henry II, and of his brother, Richard I, with one significant difference. Early in his reign John had lost the French part of the great Angevin empire: Normandy and Aquitaine were now held by France. In 1214 King John returned to England following his defeat by the French at the Battle of Bouvines. The battle ended the king’s hopes of regaining the lost empire.

Added to this catastrophe was the character and personality of John himself. By nature John was paranoid, secretive and distrustful. John’s cruelty is widely known. He is accused of killing his nephew and rival claimant to the English throne, Arthur of Brittany; he hanged 28 Welsh hostages (sons of rebel chieftains) and he hounded William de Braose and his family all the way to Ireland and back. De Braose’s wife and son died in one of John’s prisons, probably from starvation.

The History of William Marshal, a biography of the great knight and statesman, states of John: ‘He kept his prisoners in such a horrible manner, and in such abject confinement that it seemed an indignity and a disgrace to all those with him who witnessed such cruelty’.

Although John faced the fallout of Magna Carta, many of the injustices targeted by the barons can be seen in the reigns of his predecessors. Heavy taxes, arbitrary fines and the exploitation of wardships were long-established royal revenue earners. However, where Henry and Richard had a whole empire to exploit, John’s need for money had to be met by England alone.

Even John’s disagreement with the Church can see parallels in the reign of Henry II and his clashes with Thomas Becket. John opposed the election of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, and refused to allow his consecration. Pope Innocent III went so far as to excommunicate John and place England under interdict; in 1213 Philip II of France was even invited to depose him.

John finally came to an agreement with the Church in May 1213, swearing that the liberties established under Henry I would be strictly observed and allowing Langton to take up his post as archbishop. However, John broke his oath almost immediately and Langton became one of the leaders of the opposition to the king.

The barons’ objections to John were almost beyond number. He had failed to face the French and had lost not only his family’s Continental possessions, but also those of his barons. Few had forgotten his treachery against his brother – his attempt on the throne whilst Richard was away on Crusade. His barons even complained that he forced himself on their wives and daughters.

The barons had had enough.

The rebels were ready to fight. After occupying London they made one final attempt to prevent war, presenting the king with a list of their demands.

Following further negotiations a long detailed document was produced, dealing with particular grievances of the time and with injustices in general. It touched on the whole system of royal government. And it was granted to ‘all free men of the realm and their heirs forever’.

Magna Carta

Of its 63 clauses, some terms were asking for immediate remedies, such as the removal of corrupt administrators and the sending home of foreign mercenaries. The clause stating that fighting outside of the kingdom could not be imposed by the king was a reaction to John’s recent attempts to force his English barons to help him recover his Continental domains.

Others had long-term aims. The document sought to guarantee the privileges of the Church and the City of London. Restrictions were placed on the powers of regional officials, such as sheriffs, to prevent abuses. The royal court was fixed at Westminster, for justice to be obtainable by all, and royal judges were to visit each county regularly. Taxes could no longer be levied without the consent of the Church and the barons.

Clauses included the fixing of inheritance charges and protection from exploitation for under-age heirs; the king was to take only what was reasonable from an estate (although ‘reasonable’ remained undefined). From henceforth a widow was to be free to choose whether or not to remarry and her marriage portion (dowry) would be made available to her immediately on her husband’s death. Another clause sought to prevent the seizure of land from Jews and the king’s debtors.

Magna Carta even went so far as to regulate weights and measures. It also reduced the size of the king’s forests and limited the powers of forest justices.

Although most of the 63 clauses of Magna Carta are now defunct, three still remain as major tenets of British law, including ‘to no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice’. That no person could be imprisoned, outlawed or deprived of his lands except by judgement of his peers and the law of the land has remained the cornerstone of the English legal system ever since.

Magna Carta was sealed at Runnymede, Berkshire, on 15 June 1215. John ordered that the charter be circulated around the towns and villages.

As a peace agreement between King John and his rebellious barons, however, it failed miserably. By July John was appealing to the Pope for help. Pope Innocent III’s response arrived in England in September. The treaty was declared null and void; it was 'not only shameful and demeaning but also illegal and unjust'. By the time the letter arrived in England, the dispute had already erupted into the Barons’ War.

Deciding they could no longer deal with John’s perfidy, the rebel barons invited the King of France, Philip II, to claim the throne. Philip’s son and heir, the future Louis VIII, accepted the offer. Having landed on the south coast, he marched for London, where he was proclaimed King of England on 2 June 1216.

John’s fortuitous death at Newark in October 1216 turned the tide against Louis and the rebels. The highly respected knight and statesman, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was appointed regent for John’s nine-year-old son, Henry III. Marshal’s staunch loyalty was renowned throughout Europe; he was the embodiment of the chivalric code. Many barons who had previously sided with Louis saw the opportunity to come back from the brink, and rally around the young king. Marshal reissued Magna Carta and faced and defeated the joint French and rebel army at Lincoln on 20 May 1217.

Afterwards, the English were able to dictate peace terms to Louis, and the French went home. Magna Carta was issued a third time, along with a new Forest Charter (also on display at Lincoln Castle). Its reissue in 1225, on Henry III attaining his majority, is the one that made it onto the statute books.

The Legacy of Magna Carta

It is hard to overstate the enduring significance of Magna Carta. Although it was initially a document conceived by rebel barons, the regents of Henry III exploited Magna Carta as a royalist device to recover the loyalty of the rebel barons. However, once it was issued it was used as a curb to all regal excesses. In 1265 it was invoked to create the first parliament.

By the late 1200s Magna Carta was regarded as a fundamental statement of English liberties.

Magna Carta set the precedent for future reform programmes, such as the Provisions of Oxford of 1258, the Ordinances of 1311, the Petition of Right of 1628 and the Grand Remonstrance of 1641.

The influence of Magna Carta has spread far beyond England’s shores. It can be seen in the United States’ 1791 Bill of Rights, in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.

Although a failure in the short term, in the long term, Magna Carta established defined limitations to royal rights, laying down that standard to be observed by the crown and its agents.

It is the closest thing England has to a Constitution.

*********

Sharon Bennett Connolly has a lifelong fascination with history, and has recently discovered a love of writing. She has combined these two in her blog, History…the interesting bits!