"HMS Victory" by Nicol Haarrity

"Books I'vve Read, #1" Nicol Harrity

See if you can identify them.
The Confession of Piers Gavveston
The Traitor's Wife
Time and Chance
Queen of Swords
Lords of Vaumartin
Lords of the North
Dancing in Chequered Shade (unreleased)

"Le Beau Soleil" by Nicol Harrity

acrylic yarns

The Count Who Ran Away

Imaginary portrait of Raymond IV of Toulouse, by Merry-

Joseph Blondel, 1840s, Salles de Croisades, Versailles.

          Raymond IV of Toulouse, also called Raymond Saint-Gilles, was one of the first to respond to the call of Pope Urban to travel to Jerusalem to recapture the Holy Land from Muslim control. He was born in 1041 or 1042 and was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne, and Margrave of Provence. He was the oldest and richest of the leaders of the First Crusade, for which he left in 1096.
          When rumors spread that the city of Antioch was deserted by the Seljuk Turks Raymond took his own army to occupy it. This infuriated Bohemond of Taranto, the official leader of the crusade who had wanted it for himself. It turned out the Turks still occupied the city, however, and only after a long siege could the Crusaders take it. It was 1098, and soon thereafter Raymond became ill and was unable to fight when the Turks laid their own siege to the city. It was during this period that a monk named Bartholomew had a vision of the lance that had been used by a Roman soldier to pierce Jesus Christ's side while on the cross, which he said was buried deep under the floor of a church in Antioch. When the floor was lifted and the dirt under it excavated, there was indeed an old lance buried there, which heartened the Crusaders when the siege was most severe. Their morale was raised by the miracle, and they were able to route the Turks.
          The remainder of the First Crusade was characterized by rivalries between Raymond and Bohemond and other leaders. Bohemond seized and held onto Antioch, while Raymond refused the crown of the Kingdom of Jerusalem when it was offered to him. He took advantage of the hostility against Bohemond that the latter caused by breaking his agreements with the Byzantine Emperor Alexius, Raymond allied himself with Constantinople.
          That was where the Crusade of 1101 found him. While the Christians had control of much of the Holy Land, including Jerusalem, they were beset by Muslim forces, and called upon the new Pope Paschal to send more armies to defend their sovereignty. A variety of forces arrived in Byzantium, and Alexius made Raymond their leader. The single largest group was made up of non-combatants from Lombardy. They were devoted to Bohemond, who had in the meantime been captured and imprisoned in the northeast of Turkey. The Lombards demanded that Raymond free Bohemond, which was about the last thing he wanted to do. He was forced to comply because the combined forces would not have been able to defend themselves on their trek to the Holy Land if the sizable force of Lombards left them. By the time the crusaders arrived at the Plain of Merzifon, they were thirsty and starving. They encountered the Turks there. The battle went so badly for the crusaders that Raymond deserted them, followed by the other leaders of the crusade, with the result that the Lombards and most of the other soldiers left behind were massacred by the Turks. Raymond returned to Constantinople where he discovered he had lost the friendship of the Emperor for failing to fulfill promises he made.
          He sailed to Antioch in 1102 where he was promptly arrested for deserting the pilgrims at Merzifon and failing to rescue Antioch's ruler, Bohemond by Tancred, who was temporarily in charge. He was released when he promised no further aggression against Antioch, but with Alexius's renewed help he attempted just that. He died in 1105 before his coveted Tripoli was captured.

Cartoon: Alexius to Raymond, "I thought we understood

each other.  Toulouse is your name, not yoru quest."

Raymon of Toulouse is a character in nan hawthorne's Beloved Pilgrim which tells the story of the doomerd Crusade of 1101.  See book on left.

Making light of the Dark Ages: Identifying Harold's Body

Edith Swanneck visits the Hastings battlefield to identify the dismembered body of Harold Godwinson.

"That bit looks like Harold.  Oh, and

that one one over there.  Which one?

Oh yes, that one is Harold too.  That? 

I don't know who that is."

Hood-winked: A Quartet of Robins and Marians

I am re-posting this article which has seen the light of day at least twice before because one of the novels mentioned is the sequel to novel I am reading now.. and being knocked off my feet by, Jennifer Roberson's Lady Of The Forest. More about that in the next post. In the meantime, I invite you to be Hood-winked again.

Originally posted 10/22/08.
Being as the 1950s British television series The Adventures of Robin Hood was what brought me to adore medieval England, it has been of some interest to me that books I have been reading of late have Robin Hood as a character. What's more, each of the portrayals has been so unique, I just can't prevent myself from writing about this. I know there are many more examples, and I would love to hear about them in the comments to this post. These four are just my latest encounters of a divres kind.

Lady of Sherwood
Jennifer Roberson
Kensington (August 1, 2000)

The sequel to Lady Of The Forest has Marian living tenuously in her father's manor just as Robin comes home from the Crusade just after King Richard's death. This is the standard Robin Hood, portrayed as a historical character but sensitively and appealingly. To put it another way, he's a real guy and a nice one at that. He fights the bad guys and wins and his Merry Men are there as loyal friends of both him and Marian. Lots of romance.

Shield of Three Lions: A Novel
Pamela Kaufman
Three Rivers Press (July 23, 2002)

Robin and Marian are minor characters in this one, but would they leave an impression? Sure would! (Sorry..) The heroine/hero/heroine comes back to England after spending, um, time with King Richard in the Holy Land, and on her journey is waylaid by Merry Men north of Nottingham. First she meets Marian, installed in a sweet little cottage, quite the airhead, telling her about how Robin and she are betrothed but that he believes in abstinence before marriage. Of course, when the heroine meets the guy later that evening he puts moves on her, revealing himself as quite the cad, a womanizer taking advantage of superstardom. Not a nice guy, unless you like that sort of thing. I have to admit to having my sensibilities offended -- not all that seriously -- with this rather casual portrayal of my hero.

Pride of Kings
Judith Tarr
Roc Trade (September 5, 2001)

This is one of Judith Tarr's "say what?" novels, fantasies where cultural expectations -- at least mine -- get mind-boggled. I had read her earlier book, Rite of Conquest, in which she portrays William of Normandy as the, ahem, savior of Britain, and Harold Godwinson, a personal favorite of mine, as the feckless (her word) champion of keeping England in chains... say what?! In this one, King John is the Good Guy.. again say what?! I had thought the one commonplace in historical fiction was that John was always a jerk. I have to say though that Tarr's fantasies are quite well done, engaging, and in this one she did a wonderful job with John, making him the Good Guy but not a nice guy.

But I digress... Robin Hood in this one is a three foot tall pointy toothed leader of the wild magic that wants to destroy the worlds -- all of them.. no mention of Marian, fortunately for her I think. He is clearly a nasty S.O.B. and his Men not only not Merry but not even MEN.. humans, that is.

The White Cutter
Davidson Pownall
Random House Value Publishing (February 22, 1992)

Now this book gives us the most peculiar Hood of all.. not Robin, as he is only called "Hood" here and there is no sign of Marian whatsoever. The story itself is about a young boy who is a mason, and a Freemason, and how he is manipulated as part of an experiment by the four "true rulers" of England.. interestingly, Tarr's books also have a Four Guardians. The comparison ends there, as here they are King Henry III, Simon de Montfort, the Bishop of Lincoln Robert Grossteste, and Henry de Rains, the King's mason. The writing is lovely, with lots of architectural terms used in a literary way.

But as soon as Hedrick enters Sherwood, it gets weird -- and I don't mean "wyrd". At first I thought what I was going to say in this article was that Hood turns out to be some kind of guru who has his rather socialist society doing a Cult of Personality gig. For instance, he is conducting social engineering experiements with how many wives is the correct number. Then you find something out.. spoiler here, so read on at your risk.. that Sherwood is the king's secret second kingdom, starting with Henry II, and his character changes with the character of each King. Henry III is part of this cabal of social experimenters trying to seed a new world order of architecture that will lead to peace and joy and other good stuff. The experiments are reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps.. and Hood is the cold-blooded Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to the King behind the curtain.

From a legend made flesh, to something out of Playboy, to a beastlike demon, and finally to a sort of medieval Dr. Memgele, you gotta admit the guy sure tickles authors' imaginations. As I tried to pull every live body in my neighborhood to play Robin Hood with me - I was Robin, of course - I certainly never suspected my lifelong hero would be put through this many changes!

AnotherHistorical Shaggy Dog Story

I pride myself on my ability to write these up and provide a cartoon illustration. It is a wise thing to take pride in simple pleasures, n'est-ce pas?

Pompeia, the wife of the great Roman general Julius Caesar, was well known for her beauty and her matronly virtues. But did you know she was also known far and wide for a remarkable berry she owned that had been passed from generation to generation in her family and was said to have been given to her distant ancestor by Ceres, the Earth Goddess, herself?

Yes, it was an astonishing piece of fruit, a huge, purple, shiny blackberry that pulsated with light. People came from all parts of the Roman Empire just to see Pompeia's berry. To accommodate the crowds, Julius Caesar caused a marble shrine to be built with open sides so that all who came could regard the berry where it sat on its gold and marble pedestal.

Every day people would come to gaze at the magnificent blackberry, and they would shout,

"How beautiful it is!"

"How large it is!"

"Blessings on the honorable house of she who owns the admirable berry!"

One night, long after viewing hours, the priestess who looked after the berry heard a sound of sandals on the marble floor of the shrine that housed Pompeia's berry.

"That is odd,' she thought. "Everyone knows that visiting hours are day time only." She went to accost the trespasser and tell him to come back during the day.

She found a man standing by the berry's pedestal. Ye gods! He had the berry right in the palm of his hand!

The priestess called to the man, "Sir, put down that berry! You may not touch it. Come back during viewing hours. Then you may look at Pompeia's berry all you wish and join in on the clamor of praise for the sacred fruit.."

The man turned to her with an evil gleam in his eye. "Foolish woman! I came to seize her berry, and not to praise it!"

And he put it in a sack and ran away.

---