My latest France’s Splendid Centuries post focuses on Emma of Limoges who was kidnapped by Vikings. https://www.facebook.com/FrancesSplendidCenturies/posts/pfbid022ARv2yicRUwt3SJQMQRqTyPR6GAywLjVKMxoqLaQLQokjBcoU2DmLwBTtuBPbHg9l
Category: History
Imagining medieval combat
My latest research post on a visit to medieval reenactors: https://traceywarr.substack.com/p/stumps-of-lances-with-silken-streamers
The History of La Guepia
I’ve been posting a series on Facebook on the history of my home village in southwest France. La Guepia Part 1: An Overview La Guepia Part 2: The Albigensian Crusades and the Cathars La Guepia Part 3: The Hundred Years War La Guepia Part 4: The 16th-Century War of Religions
Murder in the Family
I’ve just posted on murders in the family of Almodis de La Marche on my Substack, Trobairitz Sleuth.
Cathars and Castle
I have been researching and writing a series of posts on the local history of the village where I live in southwest France. You can read them here: A Short History of La Guepia Part 1 An overview of the history of the area. A History of La Guepia Part 2 Charting the Albigensian Crusade…
Advent Calendar for History Fans
I am participating in an online Advent Calendar with daily entries throughout December by history and historical fiction writers, led by author Tony Riches. Watch out for my contribution on Christmas Bells later this month. Here are the first entries – what’s behind today’s door!: 1 December Tony Riches on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol…
Female Lords in Medieval Occitania
‘In the 11th to 13th centuries, in the Occitan-speaking territory of what is now known as southern France, a significant proportion of lords—10 to 12%—were women.’ Head to France’s Splendid Centuries Facebook page to read my guest post on Female Lords in Medieval Occitania. I am presenting a talk on Almodis de La Marche, countess of Toulouse…
Quicksand
The spectacular Romanesque abbey on Mont-Saint-Michel island off the coast of Normandy is marking its 1,000-year birthday this year, with President Emmanuel Macron among those visiting for the celebrations. Nine hundred years ago, Henry de Normandy (a major character in my Conquest trilogy of novels) played a significant role in Mont-Saint-Michel’s history. Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey was…
Helen of Wales
Shortly after Christmas, 1106,* the Norman steward of Pembroke Castle in Wales, Gerald FitzWalter, and his wife, the Welsh noblewoman Nest ferch Rhys, were invited to feast with Gerald’s bitter enemies King Cadwagn and his son Prince Owain. Cadwagn gave lip service to the Norman king but Owain was one of the lead rebels harrassing…
King and Lover
On this day, 887 years ago, King Henry I died after eating too many lampreys. Henry was the youngest son of William the Conqueror. He took the throne of England and Wales in 1100 after his older brother King William II (Rufus) was killed in a hunting accident in the New Forest. Henry was a…
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