Six Degrees of Separation: Shuggie Bain to A Rose for the Crown

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

I decided to make this exercise a bit harder for myself this month because I knew the starting point, and I knew where I wanted to end up. Normally, you just see where you end up, but by having the end in mind meant that it took me a few attempts to get from point A to point B, but I got there in the end!

The starting point this month is Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart which is a book I don't see myself reading any time soon. What I did know about that book is that it is set in Scotland.

The Shakespeare play Macbeth is often known as the Scottish play, so my next link is Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King which I read an enjoyed many years ago because you can't get more Scottish than that really.

A more recent read about a Scottish woman is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Moving away fromm Scotland, this time I am linking with the name Eleanor. Eleanor of Aquitaine  was queen of both England and France, the only woman in history to hold both of these titles. There are a number of books about her I could have chosen but I have chosen to use The Autumn Throne by Elizabeth Chadwick as my title. This is the final book in a trilogy about Eleanor.

Eleanor is part of the Plantagenet dynasty from whom the houses of Lancaster and York derived. In turn these were the two sides of the War of the Roses, which was part of the inspiration for A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin.

From fantasy inspired by the War of the Roses, I am turning back to history with The Rose of  York: Love and War by Sandra Worth. This is a story about Richard, Duke of Gloucester and his wife, Lady Anne Neville.

Another book about Richard, who eventually became Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings is A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith, which is where I wanted to end up because, well, it is Easter Sunday!

Next month's starting point is Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary.

Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith

From the award-winning author of A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, and The King’s Grace comes another masterful historical novel—the story of Cecily of York, mother of two kings and the heroine of one of history’s greatest love stories.


Anne Easter Smith’s novels are beloved by readers for their ability “to grab you, sweep you along with the story, and make you fall in love with the characters.”


In Cecily Neville, duchess of York and ancestor of every English monarch to the present day, she has found her most engrossing character yet. History remembers Cecily of York standing on the steps of the Market Cross at Ludlow, facing an attacking army while holding the hands of her two young sons. Queen by Right reveals how she came to step into her destiny, beginning with her marriage to Richard, duke of York, whom she meets when she is nine and he is thirteen. Raised together in her father’s household, they become a true love match and together face personal tragedies, pivotal events of history, and deadly political intrigue. All of England knows that Richard has a clear claim to the throne, and when King Henry VI becomes unfit to rule, Cecily must put aside her hopes and fears and help her husband decide what is right for their family and their country. Queen by Right marks Anne Easter Smith’s greatest achievement, a book that every fan of sweeping, exquisitely detailed historical fiction will devour.

Back in my pre blogging days I read and loved Sharon Kay Penman's Sunne in Splendour which was predominantly about Richard III. Reading that book sent me on a journey through lots of Ricardian fiction and one of my favourite reads at that time was Anne Easter Smith's debut novel A Rose for the Crown. In the nearly five years since I read that book, I had intended to read more from this author. With this new book, Queen by Right, I finally got around to actually doing so.

There can be no doubting whether Anne Easter Smith is for York or Lancaster when it comes to deciding which side she would have backed had she had to pick side in the war of the Roses, or at least there isn't much doubt based on the two books I have read so far. That should be sufficient warning to expect that York is good and Lancastrian is pretty much not!

Having now read most of this book, I must say I am a little amazed that we haven't heard more about Cicely's life before now. She has always been mentioned in books about Edward and Richard, her two sons who both ruled England, but Anne Easter Smith manages to give Cicely's story depth and interest all of it's own.

The novel opens with the woman who has been known as the Rose of Raby due to her beauty and also as Proud Cis for her bearing, grace and dignity. Now though, she is deep in mourning. Her beloved husband is dead, as are several of her other family members, and now she must find a way to carry on and support her remaining children.

Looking back retrospectively we see her meet and fall in love with her husband Richard and follow their lives together through their time in France and Ireland, parenting their many children and then to the conflict that pitted the Yorks against the formidable and nasty Margaret of Anjou, known through history as a she-wolf. Whilst battling for the rewards due to a man of his stature, Richard walks a fine line between loyalty and treachery against King Henry.

Of Cicely personally we meet a devout woman who believes passionately in the Virgin Mary. Her spiritual development is affected pretty early on as a result of the interactions that the book suggests she had with Jeanne de Arc. I am not sure that there is much historical basis, but with the timing all fitting, this part of the narrative has made it possible for the reader to view some of the most famous events of the time through the eyes of Cicely. Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of the death of the saint known to most of us as Joan of Arc.

As much as I have enjoyed reading this book, there are a couple of small things that I feel that I should mention. The first relates to Cicely and Richard's sex life. Whilst the scenes are not overly graphic in nature, I am not sure that we needed to be present for the conception of practically every child she had (and there were a lot!).  The second thing was that there appeared to be times where the author lost track of some of the characters, particularly the children, and keeping all of the key players straight in the conflicts later in the book was some times a little difficult. These are minor complaints though.

For the most part, we are given a fascinating glimpse into the life of a woman who is ancestor to nearly every king or queen of England since her death, was mother to two kings, and who seems to have left more of an imprint in the pages of historical fiction than a lot of other women of her time.

Luckily for me, I have two more of Anne Easter Smith's books sitting on my shelf that I can go back and read!

This book counts towards the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Thanks to Amy from Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for organising the blog tour that this post is part of and for arranging for me to receive an e ARC. Head over to Historical Tapestry for your chance to win a copy of this book!

A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith

This book was Book of the Month for June over at Historical Fiction Forum. I haven't gotten around to May's book yet, so I thought I should probably read this month's book, and I am certainly glad that I did!

AN UNFORGETTABLE HEROINE,

A KING MISUNDERSTOOD BY HISTORY,

A LOVE STORY THAT HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD

In A Rose for the Crown, we meet one of history's alleged villains through the eyes of a captivating new heroine -- the woman who was the mother of his illegitimate children, a woman who loved him for who he really was, no matter what the cost to herself.

As Kate Haute moves from her peasant roots to the luxurious palaces of England, her path is inextricably intertwined with that of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Although they could never marry, their young passion grows into a love that sustains them through war, personal tragedy, and the dangerous heights of political triumph.

Anne Easter Smith's impeccable research provides the backbone of an engrossing and vibrant debut from a major new historical novelist.

Richard III is known as one of the most villainous kings of England, mainly because whilst in his care the two princes in the Tower, his nephews, disappeared without a trace. He was the last Plantagenet king, and had his throne taken from him by the first of the Tudor kings, Henry VII. He was portrayed in a negative way ever since the time of the Tudors, with Shakespeare especially getting in on the act. There are quite a few people out there who believe that this reputation is undeserved, and that he is a king that has had bad PR over the years. The author of this book is a member of the Richard III society and it is therefore inevitable that she would portray him in a mostly positive light, but hers is not the only one out there that portrays him in this way. One of the best books I have read with Richard III as subject is Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman...awesome book!

Before we come to know Richard, we firstly meet a young lady by the name of Kate Bywood, who is a lovely looking country lass, with the very bad habits of telling everyone what she thinks, and asking too many questions. We follow Kate for many years, getting to know her as she lives both at her family home, and then when she is given the opportunity to travel to Ightham Mote to become companion to a member of her family. She is married at quite a young age to a much older man, and widowed a short time later, making her an independent woman, with a regular income. Along the way we also meet some of the people that will become incredibly important to her, including Margaret Howard, wife of John Howard...a man on the rise within royal circles, and who eventually played a huge role in the reign of Richard III.

When it comes to be time for Kate to marry again she is delighted when she is to be married to George Haute, a very handsome young man, who is in service with the Howards. However, it becomes very clear early on that whilst Kate thinks she loves George, George's reasons for marriage are less honourable. Kate is resigned to another marriage that is less than fulfilling. Into her unhappy life comes the youngest brother of Edward IV, Richard of Gloucester, and there is an instant connection between them. As their paths occasionally cross, everything is building up to their inevitable relationship.

Young Richard of Gloucester is portrayed as a man who values loyalty more than anything, and who is valued for his own loyalty by his brother, something that is not always forthcoming in royal families (their brother, Duke of Clarence was executed for treason against Edward IV). For Richard and Kate, they cannot often be together, but when they are the time spent is precious, and even more so when Kate bears him two children. Richard is, however, a man of honour, and so when the time comes for him to marry for duty, they agree that their time as lovers has to end, but not before Kate once again finds herself with child.

Following the death of Edward, Richard is first appointed as regent to the young King Edward V, and then eventually is declared King in his own right. Kate's two older children are acknowledged by Richard and even taken into his own household by him and his wife Queen Anne, and Kate is separated by the social chasm between them as they begin their lives as young royals. She is not however ever separated from them emotionally.

The connection between Kate and Richard is a strong and loving one, and as Richard deals with the difficulties of being king, Kate is able to provide him with support in a way that no one else can, especially when his two young nephews are taken care of! She is also able to help out some of her closer friends and relatives as a result of her own influence with him.

So, what basis in fact is there? What is known is that Richard has at least two illegitimate children before his marriage that he acknowledged and had living in his own household. On the eve of his death it is thought that he acknowledged a third child as well. As to the identity of the mother(s), that is not known, so the author has taken some information found in the history records and woven her story around them. She suppposes that given that Richard was quite unusual in that he was completely faithful to his wife (quite the opposite of his older brother!), that it was likely that Richard had had such a loving relationship with someone that he was fulfilled in a way that no mistresses could compete with. How true that supposition is .... who knows, but it does make for a very solid and compelling read.

The author takes the facts that are known, along with details of daily lives across a cross section of society, and weaves them into a narrative that is compelling without being dry as some historical fiction can occasionally be.

An extremely satisfying and enjoyable read, and a recommended read to anyone interested in reading about the English royal history before Tudor times.

Rating 4.5/5