The Agincourt Bride
The Agincourt Bride is a classic fairytale of a princess marrying her prince and living happily ever after? I’m afraid not. It’s the true-life story of a medieval princess’s battle-royal against prejudice, abuse and treachery at the court of the mad King Charles VI of France.
In the early fifteenth century while the king is closely confined for his own and everyone else’s safety, there is only neglect, hunger and cold in the palace nursery for his young children, including his newborn daughter Catherine. Luckily her wet-nurse is a down-to-earth commoner called Mette who knows how to combat hunger and hardship and as Catherine grows the two form a deep bond and become lasting companions. It is Mette who narrates the story, bringing a refreshing ‘downstairs’ attitude to the intrigues and shenanigans of court life and giving her royal charge a healthy awareness of the commoner’s lot. Later, when France has disintegrated into civil war, Mette risks her life to help Catherine fight a personal battle against a predatory enemy and the result is as significant for England and France as the aftermath of their David and Goliath clash at the Battle of Agincourt. The rest, as they say, is history, which I hope readers enjoy as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Tell us about your research process into this historical novel.
I love the research. Delving into lives like Catherine’s, lived six hundred years ago, is like turning detective. Everything you find out from books, chronicles, documents and site visits goes into a metaphorical mind-mix and the excitement comes when you begin to fit it all together to make a coherent story. It’s a fictional jigsaw puzzle. This one has taken many years to come together because, like most women in medieval history, Catherine de Valois has been largely ignored by the exclusively male scribes and chroniclers. So you have to piece together the few mentions you find and fill in the gaps with your informed imagination – that’s why it’s called historical fiction.
Where did your interest in the Tudors begin?
While I do love the Tudors, I think their stories have been well told by many great writers and continue to be so – Hilary Mantel, CJ Sansom and Philippa Gregory have all ‘done’ them brilliantly. It is the pre-Tudor period I am interested in – where they came from and who were their ancestors? They were such a fearsome and powerful dynasty that I have sought to know where and from whom they acquired their fierce and extraordinary ability to rule. Catherine’s story shows the beginning of the process as she is not only the mother of King Henry VI but also the grandmother of Henry VII. So my interest began at school when I first came into contact with Princess Catherine in Shakespeare’s Henry V. But Catherine in the Agincourt Bride is, I hope, a far more developed character than Shakespeare’s simpering but engaging ‘Fair Kate’.
What is your writing background?
I’ve always written in one way or another. I used to bash away on an auntie’s old typewriter from the age of nine or ten and my first published piece was in a children’s magazine when I was about 13. It was rather a good story as I remember it, about an Australian ‘swagman’ and his sheepdog called Bluey. I spent much of my childhood in Australia. After school I studied English and Politics at university, became a BBC journalist on graduation and turned to news-writing, which is a bird of a rather different feather but still exercises the writing muscle. In my twenties I published a children’s historical novel called Rebellion at Orford Castle and, more recently, two adult rom-coms set in Scotland where I now live. But historical fiction has always grabbed me most and The Agincourt Bride is the third incarnation of the Catherine de Valois story that I have submitted for publication. The other two are tucked away in the big drawer with my other unpublished manuscripts. Is there a writer who doesn’t have such a ‘drawer’?
How and when did you decide that this story had to be told?
When I first read Shakespeare’s Henry V and decided there had to be more to Princess Catherine than a ditzy blonde who couldn’t tell her arm from her ‘bilbow’. Over several decades of determined effort I discovered there was a great deal more.
Which authors have paved the way for your work?
I read Anya Seton’s Katherine when I was fourteen and ever since then I have wanted to bring the medieval period to life in the way she did in that book. I go back and read it again regularly and my original copy is so well-thumbed that it has almost fallen apart.
Also at the 2012 conference of the Historical Novel Society I was not surprised to hear many of the contributors credit Jean Plaidy with inspiring their love of historical fiction. I, too share their admiration for her work and for the sublime Georgette Heyer, even though she shone in a period much later than the one I favour. Today Philippa Gregory’s novels have broken fresh ground, as have those of Sarah Dunant, Suzannah Dunn and Elizabeth Chadwick. Ellis Peters established the market for medieval whodunnits and when it comes to dual, or even treble-period fiction (sometimes known as time-slip), no one can compare with Barbara Erskine.
Do you write in any genres other than historical fiction?
I have published YA and contemporary romantic fiction but at the moment my ‘historical friends’ obsess me.
What do you most like to read?
When I’m not reading other historical fiction I like crime novels. Ian Rankin, Peter James, PD James and particularly Dona Leon’s Guido Brunetti novels set in my favourite city – Venice.
I also very much like Rose Tremain but then she writes brilliant historical fiction as well. I just like reading!
What is next for you?
I have just sent the sequel to The Agincourt Bride off to Harper Collins – called The Tudor Bride, it is about Catherine’s second marriage and the birth of the Tudor dynasty. It’s the other half of the life of someone who has become a fascinating fifteenth century friend, to be published a few months after the first.
Now I have started to research my third novel for HC, due for release in 2014. In period it starts more or less where The Tudor Bride ends and plunges into the agonising internecine Wars of the Roses, concentrating on Cecily Neville, the matriarch of the Yorkist faction and mother of Edward IV and Richard III. My goodness she led an eventful life – I can’t wait to write it and for you to read it!
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