I know I haven’t replied to the recent comments on my blog, and I apologize! I read everyone’s comments and appreciate them immensely, but I’ve been busy these past few weeks with deadlines of various sorts. I’ll try to be better about replying.
I did want to mention that I’ve put copies of Her Highness, the Traitor up for a giveaway at Goodreads. Anyone from the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia is welcome to enter. The giveaway ends on April 2. You will have to join the Goodreads site to enter, and the Goodreads staff chooses the winners.
In my spare moments, I have had some fun on Pinterest. You can see the board I created for people, places, and things in Her Highness, the Traitor here.
And finally, longtime readers of this blog will remember that I’ve done a number of posts about Elizabeth Woodville and her family. After years of bemoaning the fact that there’s no published nonfiction book about the entire Woodville family, save for a hostile and poorly researched one written by a fervent admirer of Richard III, I finally decided to stop whining and write one myself! My proposal has been accepted, so look for more details in the coming months as the project develops. In the meantime, here’s my Pinterest Woodville board.
Yes! A biography of Woodville family is a great idea 🙂 I am looking forward. I read David Baldwin’s biography of Elizabeth Woodville and I enjoyed it, what do you think about this book?
Good luck and have a great weekend!
Sylwia
Good luck with your book on the Woodville family! They were ambitious family that succeeded (albeit briefly) in the frequently brutal world of late 15th century politics. They were very cultured and well educated, and they played the game of power like every other noble family at the time. It’s about time that someone write an accurate and fair biography about them. Given that they were such a large brood, you certainly have your work cut out for you!
I think that some Ricardians, in their unending quest to rehabilitate their hero, have created their own “black legends”- a set of myths and accusations that have as little basis in fact as the myths and accusations against Richard III. Two of those “black legends” are Elizabeth and Anthony Woodville.
Many congrats on the book proposal being accepted! Can’t wait to read it. I agree with what Caroline said – it annoys me a lot that Ricardians malign Elizabeth and her family so much, and I find it hypocritical.
I like the Pinterest idea! BTW, ‘Jane’ is carved several times in the Beauchamp Tower, and it has been put forward Northumberland carved it for his own wife.
Can’t wait for ‘Her Highness, the Traitor’, and now comes the good news that you are writing a book on the Woodvilles – wonderful!
Thanks, Anjere! I don’t think Northumberland could have done the carving, though, as he’s not recorded as being in the Beauchamp Tower. The anonymous Tower chronicler wrote that he was housed “in the gate anenst the water-gate.”
Well, the famous Dudley family carving was commissioned by Northumberland, and that is in the Beauchamp Tower. The Tower above the Watergate Tower is St Thomas’ Tower (Cranmer was housed there to start with) – I haven’t checked sources, but I thought with the carving being there, Northumberland was. There is more than one ‘Jane’ carving as well.
The sentence in the Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary mentioning Cranmer’s being housed in St. Thomas’s is the source which states that Northumberland was housed there before Northumberland’s death (p. 27):
http://books.google.com/books?id=mBQpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=beauchamp&f=false
ah, I see you have sourced the famous carving as being commissioned by Northumberland’s son.
I look forward to the book with great interest. Hurry Up! 🙂
Look forward to seeing the book – the whole family deserves a book not just Elizabeth and occasionally Anthony, even Elizabeth’s sons by her first marriage played a part in the royal history (I’ve just finished Sisters who would be queen by Leanda de Lisle) – the whole family deserves their chance in the sun!
Oh and after that can I suggest a stray to the other side and a book about the Beauforts 🙂
Susan, congratulations on your proposal…I look forward to learning more about your work…from one who is writing in the 12th century herself!
Are you trying to goad me Sue? I don’t live in Woodville Road for nothing !!!!
Joking apart I’ve picked up some time ago that one of the postgraduate students of Southampton University Lynda Pidgeon is researching the Woodville family.
So why am I am so interested in the medieval historians of Uni Soton (short form for Southampton)? Can I plead the Fifth Amendment on that one?
Sorry Sue Forgot to pass this on http://www.woodvillles.org.uk