Who Was the OTHER Other Boleyn Girl?

I enjoy blogging on English Historical Fiction Authors. I've been a member since 2011! To coincide with the paperback release of The Tapestry, I turned to the Boleyn family and wrote about a woman who's long intrigued me, one who was born with the same name as Henry VIII's second wife.

Anne Boleyn, whose married name was Anne Shelton, got caught in the middle of a horrible family... well, the word "fight" doesn't begin to cover this, since Henry VIII set out to break the will of his eldest daughter, Mary Tudor, and may very well have considered having her killed. And Anne Shelton, who the king and queen were counting on to play the heavy, didn't want to do it.

To learn more, read my blog post here.

Bonus: I found an intriguing link between the Boleyn family and Prince William.

'The Tapestry' Goes On Sale as a Paperback Today!

I'm delighted to tell you that today, March 22nd, The Tapestry is available in paperback. The entire trilogy, The Crown, The Chalice and The Tapestry, is out in paperback, hardcover, ebook and audiobook.

Yes, I'm feeling emotional. This all began with the publication in 2012 of my debut, The Crown, which was fortunate enough to be an Oprah pick and earn reviews in Oprah, Parade, Entertainment Weekly, and Woman's Day. It's been a lot of work and, if you'll excuse the cliche, a roller-coaster ride: thrilling highs and teary lows. I'm very grateful to the team at Touchstone (S&S) and to the friends who supported me and the experts who helped me with fact checking. 

 Now it's the turn of The Tapestry!

About THE TAPESTRY:

April 1540: Henry VIII's Palace of Whitehall is the last place on earth Joanna Stafford wants to be. But a summons from the king cannot be refused! After her priory was destroyed, Joanna, a young Dominican novice, vowed to live a quiet life. That all changes when the king takes an interest in her tapestry talent. With a ruthless monarch tiring of his fourth wife and amoral noblemen driven by hidden agendas, Joanna becomes entangled in Tudor court politics. Her close friend, Catherine Howard, is rumored to be the king's mistress, and Joanna is determined to protect her from becoming the king's next wife—and victim. All the while, Joanna tries to stay ahead of a plot against her own life, directed by men in the shadows with power and access. Who can she trust—the constable who once saved her life or the friar she can’t forget? Wife or nun, subject or spy, Joanna must finally choose her fate.

Reviews:


“Nancy Bilyeau's passion for history infuses her books and transports us back to the dangerous world of Tudor England. Vivid characters and gripping plots are at the heart of this wonderful trilogy, and this third book will not fail to thrill readers. Warmly recommended!” (Bestselling author Alison Weir)


“Bilyeau’s rendering of the court and its diverse personalities and the very smells and sounds of the streets are intensely evoked. A lot of fun, and highly recommended.” (Historical Novel Society, Editor's Choice)

“Fans of the Tudor era, you’re in for a treat!” —InStyle magazine

“Illuminated by Bilyeau’s vivid prose, minor players of Tudor England emerge from the shadows.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"This final book in the Joanna Stafford series brings more mystery, danger and intrigue in Tudor England. Readers familiar with the story of Henry VIII and his many wives will recognize some of the events. However, Bilyeau gives us more. She provides historical detail of conditions in England and Europe and treats us to lesser-known possibilities and motives for the tragic events that unfold. Bilyeau creates a fascinating framework for this story of a popular historical period." —Romantic Times review

"This is a true historical thriller. It's a Tudor novel full of suspense, intrigue, brutality, and death, It's a well researched page turner. If you're looking for an exciting historical read, this will be on your list."—medievalists.net review 

“A master of atmosphere, Nancy Bilyeau imbues her novel with the sense of dread and oppression lurking behind the royal glamour; in her descriptions and characterizations . . . Bilyeau breathes life into history.”(Laura Andersen, author of The Boleyn King) 

"A rip-roaring Tudor adventure from Nancy Bilyeau! Novice nun turned tapestry weaver Joanna Stafford returns to the court of Henry VIII. She's that great rarity of historical fiction: a fiercely independent woman who is still firmly of her time. A mystery as richly woven as any of Joanna's tapestries." (Kate Quinn, author of Lady of the Eternal City)

"The Tapestry takes its history seriously, but that doesn't stop it from being a supremely deft, clever and pacy entertainment. This is Nancy Bilyeau's most thrilling - and enlightening - novel in the Joanna Stafford series yet." (Andrew Pyper, International Thriller Writers Award winner of The Demonologist and The Damned)

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The trilogy is on sale in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. The Crown and The Chalice are on sale in Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Poland, with publication of The Tapestry coming soon in Germany.

Leaving England Behind in My Tudor Trilogy

In my novels featuring Sister Joanna Stafford, a headstrong novice at a Dominican Order outside of London, the story leaves England not once but twice.

What? you may be thinking.

Isn't the point of writing Tudor fiction to dig deep into the excitement of the English court? Yes and no.

Obviously I'm interested in life at the court of Henry VIII, or I wouldn't have written these books. But there were fascinating monarchs living outside of England during the same period, from Valois to Hapsburg and many more. Rome, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Regensburg, Lisbon, Antwerp. There are locations both beautiful and terrifying to write about.

I received a reader letter last week that supported Joanna's journeys.

Hi Nancy:
Absolutely love your Sister Joanna books, so does my mom, who is 93. I’ve always been a history buff and really admire writers who have the ability to weave a novel around historical events and characters. You’ve definitely got that dialed in.  

I happened to pick up The Chalice, after reading the book jacket synopsis and discovered part of the story is set in Belgium, where I was born. Ghent to be precise. Needless to say I have been to Het Gravensteen, as a visitor, of course and the other locations you mention. Brought back some nice memories.

My mother was born in Germany (lived 11 years in Belgium after WW2) and she equally loves history. She liked The Tapestry a lot because part of the story is set in Germany. After reading The Chalice, I went out and bought both The Crown and The Tapestry . Awesome, awesome storytelling!!! 

For those who haven't read The Chalice, Joanna is imprisoned in Het Gravensteen in Ghent after she opposes the powerful. I picked her stone prison with care. It was built in 1180 by Phillip, count of Flanders, modeled after crusaders' castles. Later it became a center of the feudal court, a place of trials. The accused were held there before trial and sometimes tortured to wring confessions from them. There was no escape.

Eerie, isn't it? And that's the other reason I set my characters loose in my books. They are suspense-fiction, and thrillers need to move. Modern thrillers send characters around the world, by sports car, jet and high-speed train. Now those travel options aren't available to me in 1539. :) But with some imagination, my characters can set sail! To be honest, the chapters I've written in which Joanna is traveling to Antwerp, Ghent, Calais, Brussels, Regensburg or Heidelberg, sometimes on a mission and sometimes hurtling through them in fear of her life, are some of the most exhilarating to create. I feel more "free" somehow when my characters are set loose outside of England. I wonder if other historical novelists feel the same way...

My Family & the Legend of the O'Neills

When I was nine years old, I was pulled from class on St. Patrick's Day as the student who looked the most Irish at Daniel Webster Elementary School in Livonia, Michigan, and paraded around during a brief celebration. It wasn't just the green shirt my mother handed me for the day, it's my appearance: red hair, pale freckled complexion, and bluish-green eyes.

Now, I'm only part Irish. I'm also French, English, German, and Dutch. A typical American mix. The Irish descent comes through my grandfather, Francis Aloysius O'Neill. His grandfather immigrated from Ireland in the mid-19th century, settling in Indiana. My grandfather was an accountant who became a businessman in Chicago, the city of my birth.

I learned about the Bloody Hand of O'Neill from my Uncle Frank, who followed my grandfather into business. Uncle Frank always took a lively interest in family history.  He told me that our family "crest" was a severed bloody hand in honor of a centuries' old legend. An ancient O'Neill king cut off his own hand. It was during a boat race--the winner would be given an island, and he hacked it off and threw it so he could be the first to "touch" a coveted island and thus win it for his clan.

Say what?

Having a pragmatic mind (on occasion), I got stuck on the proposition that someone cut off his hand mid-race and then, amid the shock, pain and blood loss, threw it a long distance. Even if it were possible, who would want to? We in the extended family of O'Neills can, it's true, perform acts not entirely in our best interest. Hand-severing mid-race is rather extreme.

                                                             Hugh O'Neill

I've long been proud of the achievements of Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, who gave Queen Elizabeth I such a hard time. He was a military strategist and skilled politician. If anyone's hand was to be hacked, it wouldn't be his.

Imagine my surprise when, several years ago, I did some idle Googling and found a wealth of family crests featuring a bloody hand.

The usual crest

More extreme!

A bit more poking about revealed re-tellings of the ancient king's self-severing. The stories vary dramatically. The O'Neill was actually an Irish mercenary on a Viking longboat closing in in Ulster and scooped the prize for himself through his hand toss. Or was he an even older clan leader who claimed the entire island of Ireland? A favorite theory: The hero in question was Niall of the Nine Hostages (a name that sounds like a joint brainstorming session between George R.R. Martin and Charlaine Harris), who lived in the Fifth Century.

According to the University of Notre Dame's O'Neill Hall:

"The furious race narrowed to two boaters and Niall, seeing his rival edging ahead, made a decision. He pulled out his battle axe, severed his left hand, and with his right hand threw it to shore, claiming the land for his descendants forever. The name O'Neill derives from 'uá Niáll.' "

To read the entire article, go here.

The O'Neill hand is actually the subject of an entire book published in 2007, Derek Lundy's The Bloody Red Hand: A Journey Through Truth, Myth and Terror in Northern Ireland. Its appearance holds a far greater importance than a symbol for one family. "The severed red hand still seems to be the perfect symbol for the province of Northern Ireland known officially as Northern Ireland," Lundy writes.

Or is it?

I found some articles published in recent years calling for a "reassessment of the ancient symbol." In other words, time to get rid of the hand.

Which I certainly understand. But at the same time ...  it's a shame.


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Dedicating my blog post to Uncle Frank.

Taking a Chance On An Indie Bookstore

I went to Virginia last weekend, to visit my mother in her memory-care unit and spend time with my sister, who lives nearby.

Seeing my mother, who doesn't know her grandchildren's names or ages or what day of the week it is, can be very hard. This is a woman who watched Wall Street Week in Review every Friday, traveled to China, read every serious political biography.  I follow my sister's guidance on coping with the visits, which is to surround them with positive experiences: a garden tour, a museum, a walk by the river. 

This time I suggested stopping by a bookstore I'd wanted to find for over a year: One More Page Books, in Falls Church. I met one of the managers at Book Expo America, when I signed paperbacks of my second novel, The Chalice, at the Mystery Writers of America booth, and she seemed nice.

"This is always a risk," I warned my sister on the way to One More Page in her car. Some independent bookstores don't care for historical mysteries and fail to order them. Once I took my tender-hearted young son along when checking out a literary bookstore in Manhattan. When the clerk snootily said "Oh, no," to my question whether they'd ordered my first novel from Simon & Schuster, he cried on the sidewalk later. "They don't like you," he said. I hastily pointed out that it's nothing personal. But I hadn't taken a family member along on one of my expeditions to brick-and-mortar land since that tear-stained day.

It was a cool, cloudy Saturday morning when we slipped inside One More Page. Feeling nervous, I made my way to the fiction shelf, zeroed in on "B," and spotted The Chalice. I sighed with relief. My work was there. I decided to "out" myself and say hello to the manager, not the same person I met at BEA. She couldn't have been friendlier, and we had a lively conversation about historical novels on her sales table, from books by Lyndsay Faye and Leslie Parry to Sophie Perinot and Stephanie Dray. This is a store that happily carries historical fiction. Whew! I hope that when The Tapestry paperback comes out, they will stock it too.

My sister snapped a picture, and we were back in the car, on our way to see our mother. It was still a tough visit. Afterward, we headed for the National Gallery in Washington DC, and I tried to soothe my troubled soul by looking at Rembrandt and Holbein. 

But I'm grateful to One More Page, for starting the day with a feeling of warmth and welcome. It's not only for professional reasons that I support the independent bookstores, a vital force in the health of the publishing industry. It's also because personally, it feels nice to be part of their world.

Guest Post: The Lusitania Cover Up

I'm pleased to welcome Greg Taylor to my blog today, to share with us the secrets of the Lusitania. Greg's book won the M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction last year.

The Lusitania Cover Up

Nearly 100 years after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania the truth came out

By Greg Taylor

On May 1^st 2015, the British government archives at Kew released declassified documents.  What documents are kept secret?  Those which are dangerous or embarrassing to the government.  In the case of documents related to RMS Lusitania released on May 1^st 2014, both are true.

The sinking of the Lusitania was the 9/11 of its day.  On May 7th 1915, the 31,550-ton Cunard Liner was en route to Liverpool from New York with 1,959 souls aboard when a German U-Boat torpedoed her just 11 miles off the coast of Ireland.

Everyone is familiar with the tale of the Titanic but what about the Lusitania?

She was launched into the River Clyde to the strains of “Rule Britannia” on June 7 1906, the largest moveable object ever created by man.  On the Lusitania rested the hopes of the Empire and Cunard Lines that Britain would reclaim from the German liners the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic, which she did on her third Atlantic crossing with a speed of 23.99 knots.    

In 1915, the Lusitania was the fastest most luxurious ship making the transatlantic run.  When she sailed from New York on May 1st 1915, the New York Times and other papers carried a warning from the German Embassy. Everyone ignored it - confident the fastest ship in the world could outrun any German submarine that might dare to threaten a passenger liner travelling from a neutral country.

The U20 spotted the Lusitania on the 7^th of May, the last day of her crossing.  The submarine nearly lost her due to the liner’s superior speed but a last minute change of direction gave the U20 an excellent shot.  After being hit by a single torpedo, the Lusitania sank in eighteen minutes at a list so severe that only eight of the forty-two lifeboats were launched. Due to the thirty-degree list, the lifeboats on the port side smashed into the decks below, while those on the starboard side hung eight feet from the doomed ship. 

Kapitänleutnant Schwieger, who ordered the torpedo strike, was shocked when he saw through his periscope a second, much larger explosion.  He refused to permit his crew to look at the drowning passengers of the Lusitania. 

To this day, experts continue to debate the cause of the second explosion that sealed the Lusitania’s fate after the torpedo struck. Imperial Germany immediately claimed the ship was loaded with explosives destined for the front.

During the official inquiry into the sinking of the Lusitania, the Admiralty manipulated testimony so that Lord Mersey reached an erroneous conclusion that multiple torpedoes struck the ship.  The Admiralty knew Kapitänleutnant Schwieger had fired only a single torpedo but it was important to blame only Imperial Germany since the Admiralty had withdrawn the Lusitania’s escort ship. It was also known that First Sea Lord Winston Churchill had remarked that the loss of an ocean liner such as the Lusitania might help bring American into the war on the side of Britain. 

What was in the documents released at Kew on the 99^th anniversary of the sinking? 

Under the 30 Year Rule, the British National Archive released internal memoranda between the Commonwealth Department and Ministry of War that showed that in 1982 the Government was concerned that divers to the Lusitania wreck were at risk because the wreck contained explosives.  One of the memos went so far as to say that this disclosure might “blow up on us all”.  The British government was worried about ramifications for British-American relations because the discovery of explosives on the wreck would imply the Lusitania had been a legitimate target.

A new book, Lusitania R.E.X, weaves fiction around the known facts to create a plausible explanation of some of the mysteries surrounding the sinking. The story is centred on one of the wealthiest men in the world, Alfred Vanderbilt, who lost his life after giving his lifebelt to a woman passenger. This historical fiction is replete with spies, secret societies and superweapons, as well as millionaires, monarchs and martyrs.  In the book, Alfred and his fellow members of Skull and Bones, a Yale secret society that in 1911 included the President of the United States, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Treasury, have taken a secret cargo aboard the ship.   The story unfolds on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in settings that range from gilded palaces and the Lusitania to the blood-soaked trenches of Ypres. 

To learn more, go to:

Amazon: http://mybook.to/greglusitania

Website: http://www.lusitaniarex.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GregTaylor_LUSI

Valentine's Day, Third Century Style

By Nancy Bilyeau

Believe me, I would like to be able to deliver a sweet and touching historical anecdote. I tried. I really did. But you don't find hearts and flowers when you get to the beginning of the story of Valentine. You find martyrdom, imprisonment, plague, and death by clubbing. It's hard to conceive of anything less romantic than death by clubbing.

The Catholic Church distanced itself from St. Valentine's Day a while ago, and not because of any sort of distaste for chocolate hearts or hand-holding. The evidence that there really was a person who committed acts worthy of sainthood is fragmentary. Valentine is one of the "saints whose cult is larger than themselves, so to speak," according to Richard McBrien's Lives of the Saints. In 1969, the Pope quietly dropped Valentine's Day from the official calendar of saints' days.

The consensus seems to be that Valentine is based on a Christian priest of that name who lived in Rome when the official religion was still pagan, during the reign of Claudius Gothicus, from 268 to 270 AD.

This was not a proud time in the history of the empire. Rome did not decline steadily from the glorious reigns of Julius and Augustus Ceasar to the crumbling under Honorius in 423 AD. There were peaks and valleys. This was a valley. Emperors rapidly succeeded each other through assassination in the mid-Third Century. There was death by poison, death by strangulation, death by hanging, death by being dragged naked from the back of a chariot through the streets. The year 238 AD saw six different emperors.

Claudius Gothicus, the Ceasar who would, legend has it, confront Valentine, was born a peasant in what is now Bosnia and rose rapidly through the ranks of the army. He was popular with the soldiers, a very tall man who liked to fight. His specialty was knocking out the teeth of an opponent, including, once, an opponent's horse. He played a key role in the assassination plot that eliminated Emperor Gallenius in Milan. The Rome that Claudius took charge of was near-bankrupt, with rebel populations causing lots of trouble in German and France in the West, and Syria in the East. Claudius desperately needed more soldiers in the Army, and he tried to officially discourage men from marrying.

As the story goes, Claudius heard that the priest Valentine was busy marrying young Christian couples. Marriage was frowned on, Christianity forbidden. Valentine was arrested, unsurprisingly. Pressure was put on the priest to abandon his faith; he refused. The emperor decided to visit Valentine in prison. During this meeting, instead of being meek and obliging, Valentine tried to convert Cladius to Christianity. Disgusted, the emperor ordered his execution. Valentine was clubbed to death and then beheaded.

Three centuries later, long after Claudius died of the plague, a pope declared February 14th Valentine's day. One theory is that the Catholic leaders really wanted to banish the mid-February fertility celebration of Lupercalia. (What happened during Lupercalia? Let your imagination run wild and you still haven't come close.) Naming the day in honor of the martyred Valentine seems a wee random today. Nonetheless, the new holiday stuck, and in medieval times, all sorts of romantic stories were told.

Did any of these sweet tales have anything to do with the Third Century Valentine? Only one, that the night before the rebellious priest was to be executed, he wrote a letter to the daughter of his jailer, and signed it "Your Valentine."


The first Valentine's Day card was born.