Fun Fact: James I of Scotland, was captured by pirates in 1406 (James was 11 years old). The pirates turned him over to Henry IV (played by Jeremy Irons in The Hollow Crown Series). (He was the first Plantagenet to speak English as his first language). James' father, Robert III, died and the uncrowned king of Scotland remained in captivity for 18 years. He fought with Henry V (played by Tom Hiddleston in The Hollow Crown Series) in France (see last week's post), and married Joan Beaufort just before his release in 1424. His re-entry into Scottish affairs was anything but smooth. He began by attacking his closest rival kinsmen to secure his position. He was eventually assassinated in February 1437. Joan was wounded but escaped to their son, James II, at Edinburgh Castle. James II was six years old. As for the assassination details, James and Joan were at Blackfriars monastery at Perth, and were at least temporarily separated from their servants. When the conspirators (about 30) entered the building, James learned of the conspirators' presence and attempted to escape through the sewer drain, but the drain, which passed beneath the tennis court, had been blocked off to prevent the loss of tennis balls (apparently on James' own orders a few days earlier). Double fault for James--Advantage murderers; I believe this was the first tennis related fatality, and it raised quite a stink.
James II was actually the younger of twin brothers. The older twin, Alexander, had died before his first birthday. James II was crowned in 1437. In 1449 the nineteen year-old married Mary of Guelders, the daughter of the Duke of Gelderland (Check this out for a dance of Gelderland). James II was nicknamed Fiery Face because of a vermilion birthmark upon his face. This is the same James that, as I mentioned I don't know how long ago, stabbed William Douglas 26 times and threw him out of a window. James II was a proponent of artillery and was killed in 1460 while besieging Roxburgh Castle when a cannon near which he was standing exploded. His son, James III was killed in 1488 either during or after the battle of Sauchieburn. James IV, son of James III was --- actually, he deserves his own fun fact post.
The above led me to consider whether the Stewart kings might be good candidates as real-life models for Tolkien's Stewards of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings. Previously I had speculated about the Kings of Numenor as the Plantagenets. Not only did I suggest that there was probably no merit to that idea at the time. I've since been reminded that Tolkien was not a big fan of the French and eschewed French terms in his writing. The true kings to represent Aragorn and his predecessors could not be the Plantagenets. As to the Stewarts for Stewards, probably the only similarity is in the similar spelling of Steward, and the Stewart spelling of Stuart.
If there's no similarity, why do I even bring it up? Well, there might be more good reasons that I haven't taken the time to consider. This all started with a fun fact about another royal person being captured by pirates and I arrived to this point by chance. I should have thought more about it before I posed the question. So I may come back to this another time. In the meantime, the lesson is that history is certainly as interesting as fiction, and fiction with some basis in history may make for the most interesting reading.
Such a statement naturally leads me to an update on the progress of my alternate history flintlock fantasy Clamorous Harbingers, book 3 in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series. Here's another piece of the cover.
I have passed the 85,500 word mark. It looks like about 100K words at the finish. I had thought about writing the ending and working to it, but did not do that. I'm glad I didn't choose that option because some new ideas have emerged about exactly how the book (and the series) will end. I like the new ideas. The end will be an ever bigger spectacle than I had originally planned--and it will set up the successor series, tentatively called Wings of Rebellion.
Last time I offered some constructive criticism for authors doing readings of their books. Here's me reading the first chapter of Threading the Rude Eye -- and it's obvious to me that I learned almost nothing from my own instructions.
And here's the last third of the chapter, as I didn't realize that I wasn't pausing the video, but actually terminating it. I had to create second video to finish.
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Finally, last time I did a short review of a book so distasteful to me that I didn't name either the book or the author. I continued my search for more flintlock fantasy, and I am pleased to praise a book today. Old Nathan by David Drake.
The book is a series of sequential short stories about Old Nathan, the cunning man. (I had to wonder if it was a source of inspiration for DJ Butler's and Aaron Michael Ritchey's The Cunning Man). The dialog is written to reflect the Tennessee back woods manner of speech at the time (I guess). It was a little off-putting, but not difficult to follow, and I got used to it fairly quickly. Old Nathan has some interesting abilities which include speaking with animals and creating various spells for given situations. Each story reveals more about Nathan and his history, as well as his neighbors and their problems. Nathan and his bull Spanish King have similar story arcs, which helps prepare the reader for the rather foreseeable conclusion, but the desire to see how it happens presses one to finish the tales.
The book came up in my flintlock fantasy search, but the flintlock rifle doesn't play much of a role. Nevertheless, I wasn't disappointed. I noticed several 1, 2, and 3 star reviews on Amazon. Interestingly enough, one of the 1 star reviews called it "very good" and gave it other compliments. Perhaps that reader doesn't understand the rating system. Most of the complaints were about the dialect, so it may bother some more than others. I rate it four out of five powder horns. It's still available for FREE on Amazon.
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