13th Century warfare, image from the Morgan ‘Crusader Bible’, c.1244-1254
As with so many things over the last few years, my plans and priorities have changed considerably since 2019. Back then, shortly after completing my ‘Twilight of Empire’ novels, I was planning a new series set a century later, during the period leading up to final collapse of the Roman Empire in the west. But soon I found that the project was proving to be almost as vast as its theme, and I needed to strike out in a different direction. I still intend to write my ‘fall of Rome’ series one day, but lately I have found myself entirely consumed by a different period of history altogether.
Image from an Italian manuscript, c.1230-1240
My fascination for the medieval world goes back almost as far as my love of the Romans. (A while ago, in fact, I was idly imagining a meeting between the two). But recently I’ve taken the opportunity to immerse myself in it entirely, while working on the first of a trilogy of novels, due for publication early next year.
The setting for these new books is the mid 13th century – arguably the highest point of the Middle Ages, a time of chivalry and heraldry, castles and tournaments. Also a time of great violence and political upheaval in England, when the most brutal passions of all levels of society were unleashed.
The conflict known today as the Second Barons’ War, when Simon de Montfort and a cabal of rebel noblemen challenged the power of King Henry III, forms the background to the events of the novels. Featuring two of the bloodiest and fiercest battles in English medieval history, as well as the kingdom’s longest and most bitterly-contested siege, the war provides a vivid setting for tales of action and adventure. But as with most civil wars, the lines between friend and foe, loyalty and treason, were often dangerously uncertain. And from that uncertainty, characters take shape and stories grow.
Before writing about a new historical period, of course, I have to understand it. Not just the events of the day but the people of day as well: what they wore and ate, how their ordered their time, what they thought and believed, and how they might have expressed those beliefs. My research into the world of 13th century England has led me to material far richer and deeper, far bloodier and darker, than anything I might have assumed from a casual acquaintance. I have read everything I could find on subjects ranging from warfare to health care, religious observances to ideas of the cosmos. I have discovered how to shoe a horse, unmake a stag, shoot a trebuchet and cheat at a tournament. It’s been a tremendous journey of imaginative exploration, and still I feel that I’m only just beginning.
Image from the Queen Mary Psalter, c.1310-1320
Battle Song, the first novel of the trilogy, is due for publication on the 30th of March 2023 – still quite a long wait, but for all the glacial pace of the publishing world, time is moving very fast these days. And with a new publisher (Hodder & Stoughton), a new editor and a new publicity department behind me, I’m looking forward to launching the new book into the world.
And perhaps, a few years down the line, I’ll find my way back to the fall of Rome once more…