Synopsis – The Lost Queen
1191 and the Third Crusade is underway . . .
It is 1191 and King Richard the Lionheart is on crusade to pitch battle against Saladin and liberate the city of Jerusalem and her lands. His mother, the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine and his promised bride, Princess Berengaria of Navarre, make a perilous journey over the Alps in midwinter. They are to rendezvous with Richard in the Sicilian port of Messina.
There are hazards along the way – vicious assassins, marauding pirates, violent storms and a shipwreck. Berengaria is as feisty as her foes and, surviving it all, she and Richard marry in Cyprus. England needs an heir. But first, Richard and his Queen must return home . . .
The Lost Queen is a thrilling medieval story of high adventure, survival, friendship and the enduring love of a Queen for her King.
Author Bio
– Following a first degree in English and History, Carol McGrath completed an MA in Creative Writing from The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast, followed by an MPhil in English from University of London. The Handfasted Wife, first in a trilogy about the royal women of 1066 was shortlisted for the RoNAS in 2014. The Swan-Daughter and The Betrothed Sister complete this highly acclaimed trilogy. Mistress Cromwell, a best-selling historical novel about Elizabeth Cromwell, wife of Henry VIII’s statesman, Thomas Cromwell, was republished by Headline in 2020. The Silken Rose, first in a medieval She-Wolf Queens Trilogy, featuring Ailenor of Provence, saw publication in April 2020. This was followed by The Damask Rose. The Stone Rose was published April 2022. Carol is writing Historical non-fiction as well as fiction. Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England was published in February 2022. The Stolen Crown 2023 and The Lost Queen will be published 18th July 2024. Carol lives in Oxfordshire, England and in Greece.
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Carol McGrath Guest Post
Blondel and The Third Crusade
Blondel de Nesle is one of my favorite characters in The Lost Queen. I give him one of the four points of view I use to tell Berengaria’s story. Where does truth begin and fiction lie within this character. Blondel’s story is one that everyone appears to know although there are a variety of interpretations as to how a minstrel made his way through Germany and Austria in search of the missing Richard the Lionheart who vanished on his way home from the Third Crusade.
The usual story is that Blondel, a musician, trouvière, troubadour discovered the King on a quiet night as he sang a song beneath a Tower in an Austrian castle and Richard responded. This is a tale of universality, repeated generation after generation in adventure stories so often that it has become part of the consciousness of Historical truth. It is not as told but Blondel de Nesle really did exist within serious History, albeit shadowy and elusive. The evidence is in the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, a library in Paris. There a microfilm contains manuscript 5198. The actual document runs to 200 pages with spidery 19thC notes and index. It has decorated letters and immaculate black script, medieval music with square notes. This is one of the earliest song books in Western Europe and contains a century of songs by names long absorbed into the History of Poetry. They include the greatest of troubadours, the trouvières of Northern France. On P.88 the words in red say ‘Here ends the songs of Chastelain de Courci and here begins the songs of Blondel de Nesle. Thirty four songs are attributed to Blondel are held in total in Oxford, Partis, Sienna, Berne, Leiden and Modena.
These poets sang and wrote in old French about war and politics as well as romance with rhyming lines for music with a regular of syllables and music that matched at the end of lines. Richard I elicited stories of betrayal and noble failure, an atmosphere absorbed into The Lost Queen. Richard failed to recover Jerusalem for Christendom. Richard knew that although he could capture Jerusalem he needed a permanent solution and without that the city would fall to Saladin. Richard set out as the hero of a Europe united in faith and determination. He returned to a different situation having spent every penny including his sister’s dowry on the Crusade. As Advent 1192 turned into 1193 there was no sign of Richard’s returning ship. News came that he was a prisoner in Dürnsten Castle.
Troubadours sang and received news throughout Europe. They were collectors, editors and pedlars of gossip. They drummed up support for the Third Crusade and they accompanied it. Blondel was one of this elite group of musicians. Richard loved music and was an ablew singer and composer. He was a celebrated patron of musicians.
Here we come to the truth beneath the legend of Blondel. The Archbishop of Rouen , Walter of Coutances, chief Justicar of England, first minister, oversaw intelligence. He had an informal spy network and he obtained information through this including a private correspondence between the Emperor who held Richard prisoner and the King of France. He copied it to all the members of the Great Council of England. A letter revealed that Philip of France had invasion plans for England.
Troubadours were welcomed to the dourest and most far-flung castles with song especially during the Christmas period. Blondel a well-known musician making his way through Europe was likely listening, watching and sending messages to Rouen, Winchester and London. He may have been the source of the Archbishop’s next piece of significant intelligence, Richard’s precise whereabouts. If the events described in legend took place at Christmas there may be seeds of authenticity to the Blondel story. I like the idea of a musician disguised able to reveal the hiding place of a missing king, playing, not below a tower, but during a Christmas feast and Richard openly singing along.
To end, here is a possible song they shared on the occasion, if it really occured.
Your beauty, Lady Fair
None views without delight
But still so cold an air
No passion can excite
Yet this I patient see
While all are shunned like me.
Richard’s Response in Song
No nymph my heart can wound
If favour she divide
And smiles on all around
Unwilling to decode
I’d rather hatred bear
Than love with others share
Blondel’s Chanson III (A l’entrée de la Saison)
