On the night of 4 April 1793, two lovers were preparing to compel a cleric to perform a secret ceremony. The wedding of the sixth son of King George III to the daughter of the Earl of Dunmore would not only be concealed – it would also be illegal.Lady Augusta Murray had known Prince Augustus Frederick for only three months but they had already fallen deeply in love and were desperate to be married. However, the Royal Marriages Act forbade such a union without the Ki...

This biographical history of the English Civil War profiles the lives and ultimate fates of the nearly 60 men who sentenced their king to death.On January 30th, 1649, King Charles I was executed on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House of Whitehall. The parliamentarian High Court of Justice declared him guilty of treason, disregarding the Divine Right of Kings. Fifty-nine commissioners signed his death warrant.These killers of the king were soldiers, lawy...

"Bust[s] some commonly held myths that have built up about Richard III over the centuries, most coming from Shakespeare's famous play . . . eye-opening." —Sarah Bryson, author of La Reine Blanche: Mary Tudor, a Life in LettersKing Richard III remains one of the most infamous and recognizable monarchs in English or British history, despite only sitting on the throne for two years and fifty-eight days. His hold on the popular imagination is largely due to the...

Award-winning author of "Farewell My Life" writes a saga about the Yorks, Lancasters & Nevilles, whose family feud inspired "Game of Thrones."When Robert Baratheon died suddenly after a boar hunt, he left two young sons and an alarming wife.When Edward IV, King of England, died suddenly after a fishing trip in April 1483, he left two young sons, a dangerous wife, and war broke out, the Yorks (Starks) battling the Lancasters (Lannisters.)"Thwarted Qu...

Just before taking her vows, Sister Gilda, along with Lord Justin, King Louis’s counselor, is given a task: investigate grounds for the annulment of a marriage between Count Cedric and Lady Mariel. Together, they discover that Mariel believes she actually married Cedric’s younger half-brother Phillip—Cedric’s surrogate—at the marriage ceremony, and that Cedric plans to marry Lady Emma as soon as the annulment is granted. Emma and Phillip, meanwhile, have declared their love for each other....

Beaulieu Delhomme, a piano tuner, faces the guillotine for committing treason against the newly elected French president due to his part in the bloody worker uprisings in 1848. The one person who could save him from this fate is his former arch-rival, the celebrated author, George Sand. The plot leading to his imprisonment revolves around the triangle of composer Frédéric Chopin, his lover George Sand, and Delhomme, Chopin's loyal piano tuner. Both Sand and Delhomme compete for the attenti...

In 1661 Madrid, Ana is still grieving the loss of her husband when her niece, sixteen-year-old Juliana, suddenly vanishes. Ana frantically searches the girl’s room and comes across a diary. Journeying to southern Spain in the hope of finding her, Ana immerses herself in her niece’s private thoughts. After a futile search in Seville, she comes to Juliana’s final entries, and, discovering the horrifying reason for the girl’s flight, abandons her search.In 1992 Missouri, in her deceas...

One of Open Letters Review's Ten Best Historical Novels of 2020; First Place Winner, 2021 Chaucer Award for pre-1750s historical fiction"Highly recommend both as a standalone and series read. Wertman's work is among the best Tudor fiction on the market" - Historical Fiction ReaderHis mother Jane Seymour died at his birth. Now his father, King Henry VIII, has died as well. Nine-year-old Edward Tudor ascends to the throne of...

"A great book to introduce you to three fascinating sisters whose marriages during the reign of the infamous Edward II transformed England." — Adventures of a Tudor NerdThe de Clare sisters Eleanor, Margaret and Elizabeth were born in the 1290s as the eldest granddaughters of King Edward I of England and his Spanish queen Eleanor of Castile, and were the daughters of the greatest nobleman in England, Gilbert "the Red" de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. They grew...

This account of two strong medieval women and their relationship " thoroughly engrosses you in a story hundreds of years past" ( Seattle Book Review).Born in 1223, Eleanor of Provence has come to England at the age of twelve to marry the king, Henry III. He's sixteen years older, but was a boy when he ascended the throne. He's a kind, sensitive sort whose only personal attachments to women so far have been to his three sis...

"[A] tantalizing and beautifully researched book . . . Anyone emboldened by the #MeToo movement to come forward owes a significant debt to Pollard." ―Karen Abbott, The Washington PostIn Bringing Down the Colonel, the journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely nineteenth-century women's rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her "ruined," Pollard brought the man—and the hy...

First Place Winner, 2020 Chaucer Award for pre-1750s Historical Fiction"The novel's sweeping historic detail and bewitching blend of rivalries and romances will dazzle devotees of Tudor England" - Publishers WeeklyAfter the tragic romance of Jane the Quene, this second book in the Seymour Saga takes a dark turn through an era in which King Henry VIII descends into cynicism, suspicion, and fits of madness -- and in which mi...