My Father, My Enemy: Juliane, Daughter of Henry I
(Medieval Babes: Tales of Little-Known Ladies Book 6)
By J.P. Reedman
Publication Date: 25th November 2019
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 182 Pages
Genre: Historical Biographical Fiction
Juliane Fitzroy is the illegitimate daughter of Henry I--one of his twenty-two bastards.When her father weds her to a young Norman lord, Eustace de Breteuil, she thinks she has done well in life for the daughter of a Saxon concubine.But Eustace wants a castle he cannot have. He starts hostilities with its castellan, Ralph Harenc, egged on by the dubious Amaury de Montfort.To keep the peace, King Henry orders a hostage exchange between Eustace and Ralph. Juliane's pretty young daughters for Ralph's son.In a drunken rage, fuelled on by Amaury, Eustace breaks the truce and blinds Harenc's boy. Furious, the King allows Ralph to take his own brutal vengeance upon Henry's own granddaughters.Crazed with grief, Juliane plots revenge for the maiming of her children.The Wheel of Fate spins. The King must die, his own daughter judge, jury, executioner...
Pick up your copy of
My Father, My Enemy: Juliane, Daughter of Henry I
J.P. Reedman
J.P. Reedman was born in Canada but has lived in the U.K. for nearly 30 years.
Interests include folklore & anthropology, prehistoric archaeology (neolithic/bronze age Europe; ritual, burial & material culture), as well as The Wars of the Roses and the rest of the medieval era.
Connect with J.P. Reedman:
Thanks, Mary Anne!
ReplyDeleteI love novels that tell the stories of those that are, perhaps forgotten is to strong a word, but overlooked. This especially applies to the women of this era, unless they do something drastic to make them be remembered - although if memory recalls, I think Juliane almost shot her father with a cross bow, I can't quite remember all the details! I will definitely be checking out you novel, as I would certainly like to find out more about Juliane.
ReplyDeleteYes, that was Juliane. She declared war on him, he brought an army to the castle and she let him in to 'talk' ...and grabbed a crossbow. There were some pretty fierce women in Norman France (although Juliane's mother may have been English) -- another is the infamous Mabel de Belleme, the subject of another of my novels. In fact, such a good character, she's appearing in a second book as a subsidiary character!
DeleteYour book sounds like an incredibly emotional read. I know the past is a foreign country and all that, but to take things out on children. Absolutely wicked.
ReplyDeleteIn the earlier Middle Ages, this seemed an all too common way to deal with a captured enemy's heirs. I believe Henry I did it in this case because there had been a promise of safety for the boy who was blinded by Juliane's husband, so this was the punishment on the family. If he hadn't done it, it would have seemed like his laws were for some but not others. Horrifying, though!
DeleteI have added your book to my to-read list.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteHenry I made a better king than Robert would have, I do believe he was the right man for the throne. However, and there is always a however, what he did to his grandchildren was abhorrent and , I can totally understand the whole cross bow incident.
ReplyDeleteYes, he did make pretty good laws for the time, and his queen was also a great helper of the poor and tried to ease some of the tensions between Saxon and Norman. Robert always seemed a bit feckless; funnily enough, I was in Devizes yesterday, a town where he spent a lot of time imprisoned.
Delete