Politics, Plots, and Witchcraft-Stories of the Seventeenth Century

July 29, 2018 by Cynthia Ripley Miller Leave a Comment

Today on Historical Authors Across Time, Kate Braithwaite writes about the history, drama, and events of the seventeenth century. I’m so pleased to have her as a guest.

Discovering the Seventeenth Century

With plots and counterplots, royal marriages and infidelities, war and witchcraft, the seventeenth century has it all.

As a life-long reader of all kinds of fiction I always kind of had the idea that I would write a novel one day, but it was a hazy concept. I’ve read a lot of crime fiction and literary fiction and a wealth of historical novels too, but not with any emphasis on any particular period. And while I wanted to write, I really didn’t know what I wanted to write about.

The Affair of the Poisons

That changed when I came across a copy of The Sun King by Nancy Mitford. I had just had my first child and was in need of some non-fiction to give my brain a stretch. In Mitford’s book I learned about the Affair of the Poisons that consumed Paris and the court of Louis XIV in the late 1670’s. It was wonderful stuff – courtiers living in the opulence of Versailles but working hand-in-glove with the fortune-tellers, poisoners and abortionists of the Parisian underworld. A huge investigation took place, hundreds were arrested and the scandal reached right to the King’s bedchamber when prisoners implicated Louis’ glamorous long-term mistress Athénaïs, Madame de Montespan. After a lot of research, writing and re-writing, this story would become my first novel, Charlatan.

The Popish Plot

While working on that project, I came across some equally strange and concerning events taking place in London, at the exact same time. I had never heard of Titus Oates but when his name cropped up I took a little research side trip and learned that this previously unknown preacher caused chaos in England’s capital with false claims of a Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II. My second novel, The Road to Newgate, gets up close and personal with Titus Oates, one of the most infamous liars in English history, and charts the attempts of a writer, Nat Thompson, to change public opinion about Oates, even as people are arrested and executed on his say-so. It’s very much a crime novel, based on actual historical events of the Popish Plot, but it’s also about the relationships between the 3 narrators of the story: Nat, the determined writer, his young, naïve wife Anne, and their friend William who has a secret connection to Oates that he is afraid to reveal.

Women & Witchcraft

In the process of writing these two stories, I have learned a great deal about the seventeenth century and found that it’s a fantastic period full of potential stories just waiting to be written. It’s also just far enough back in history to be a world that feels very different from ours. In the early modern period, for example, women’s lives were starkly different: job opportunities were limited, as was access to education or rights to their own money and property. Women’s subservience to men was firmly part of religious teaching. Superstition influenced everyone’s lives, particularly in approaches to health care. In the seventeenth century, people still believed in the Hippocratic principle that four humours – black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood – needed to be balanced in order for a person to be in good health. The medical profession was the province of readers of Latin (largely men) but through tradition and folklore, many people relied on herbal medicine and rituals that seem nonsensical nowadays. In the new world in America and the old in Europe, superstition was challenged with cries of witch-hunt.

The Early Modern Period

Yet institutions we recognize today were developing. Political parties were forming in Britain and the upheaval that took place throughout the period resulted in the constitutional monarchy that continues to this day. This was, after all, the century when the British beheaded King Charles I, restored his son, Charles II and then rebelled against his brother James II when he inherited the crown. Literacy exploded and political and religious differences dominated the news sheets as well as consuming London society. People, however, although holding different beliefs and understanding of the world than we do now, were in many ways the same as they are now. Trial transcripts, diaries, letters and contemporary books and pamphlets reveal their voices and concerns and are fascinating sources for fiction writers.

THE ROAD TO NEWGATE – book blurb
What price justice? London 1678. Titus Oates, an unknown preacher, creates panic with wild stories of a Catholic uprising against Charles II. The murder of a prominent Protestant magistrate appears to confirm that the Popish Plot is real. Only Nathaniel Thompson, writer and Licenser of the Presses, instinctively doubts Oates’s revelations. Even his young wife, Anne, is not so sure. And neither know that their friend William Smith has personal history with Titus Oates.
When Nathaniel takes a public stand, questioning the plot and Oates’s integrity, the consequences threaten them all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Braithwaite was born and grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her first novel, Charlatan, was longlisted for the Mslexia New Novel Award and the Historical Novel Society Award. Kate lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and three children.
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Mithraism in Ancient Rome: A Soldier’s Religion

June 27, 2018 by Cynthia Ripley Miller 3 Comments

Today, I would like to welcome author, Pam Allegretto. She’s this month’s guest blogger at Historical Authors Across Time, talking about the god, Mithras, and Mithraism in ancient Rome. Learn more about Pamela at the end of this post.

While conducting research for my World War 2 novel Bridge of Sighs and Dreams,I wanted to incorporate some of the ancient underground caverns used by the Resistance to smuggle Italian Jews out of Rome in order to avoid Nazi arrests. The caverns that most interested me were those created by the Worshippers of Mithras.

Who was Mithras?

Mithras is the Latin (and Greek) form of the name of an ancient Iranian god, Mithra. Mithraism began to spread throughout the Roman Empire in the first century AD.
Mithraism’s strongest appeals were its doctrines of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the belief that through Mithra’s help, the faithful would reach heaven. However, the key “secrets” of this “mystery cult” are unknown, as no written sources by members survive. It has been determined that the faithful pledged good moral conduct and brotherly respect regardless of social standing. Slaves and manual laborers might stand higher in the congregation than the aristocracy. Mithraism began as the religion of the poor and servile classes until the second century AD when it was taken up by the Imperial Court and educated classes. Members of the Roman army comprised a large portion of the membership, (some refer to Mithraism as the “soldier’s religion”). As a seemingly all-inclusive religion, Mithraism lacked one large demography: women.

Temples of Worship

Temples of Mithras (Mithraeum) were dug below ground or converted from natural caves. Mithraic temples were common throughout the Roman Empire where Roman legions had been stationed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain, and along the Rhine/Danube frontier. In addition, Mithraic temple ruins have been discovered in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.

Because the Mithraic Temples were built underground, their contents and rich iconography have remained well preserved. In every Mithraeum the centerpiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull: an act called the tauroctony. The image may be either a relief or a freestanding statue with or without accompanying iconography. Mithras is always depicted clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap, kneeling on the bull and holding it by the nostrils with his left hand, while stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder away from the bull. In some wall iconography, Mithras faces toward the figure of Sol. There are contradictory schools of thought as to the meaning of the tauroctony. One is that the figures represent characters out of Iranian mythology; another premise is that the characters are a series of stars and constellations.

Christianity and Mithraism

It is believed that the rise of Christianity doomed Mithraism due partly to the elaborate initiation rites that limited its numbers of adherents, and to its exclusion of women. Emperor Constantine merged Mithraism with Christianity. Even though he declared himself a Christian, he maintained his ties to the Mithra cult. He retained the title “Pontifus Maximus”the high priest. On his coins were inscribed: “Sol Invicto comiti” which means, “committed to the invincible sun.” This new blend of the two faiths, he officially proclaimed as Christianity.

To read more about this fascinating religion, I recommend: The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries by David Ulansey, and Life in Ancient Rome by F.R. Cowell. Further information and excellent photographs of Mithraic iconography can be found online at the Wikipedia free encyclopedia.

Bridge of Sighs and Dreams by Pamela Allegretto

Nazi-occupied Rome sets the stage for Bridge of Sighs and Dreams, where the lives of two women collide in an arena of deception, greed, and sacrifice.
Following an allied attack, Angelina Rosini flees to Rome from her bombed-out village and a ruthless Nazi officer bent on revenge. In Rome, the spirited portrait artist channels her creativity into the art of survival for herself and her young daughter. Unwilling to merely endure, and armed with ingenuity, wit, and unyielding optimism, she enters the shadow world of the Resistance where she zigzags through a labyrinth of compassionate allies and cunning spies.

Meanwhile, Lidia Corsini quenches her lust for power and wealth by turning in Jews to the Nazi Police attaché with whom she has formed an alliance. Her spiral into immorality accelerates as swiftly as the Jewish population dwindles, and soon neither her husband nor her son is immune to her madness.

Once Angelina discovers the consequences of Lidia’s greed, she conspires to put an end to the treacheries; but in doing so, she becomes the target of Lidia’s most sinister plot.

Bridge of Sighs and Dreams is a story of betrayal, dignity, and purpose that highlights the brutality toward Italian citizens, under both Mussolini’s Fascist regime and the Nazi occupation, and illustrates the tenacity of the human spirit.

About Pamela Allegretto

In addition to her historical fiction: Bridge of Sighs and Dreams, Pamela’s traditionally published books include L’Alba di Domani, and Immaginiboth are dual-language poetry books written in collaboration with Luciano Somma, two-time winner of Italy’s Silver Medal of the President of the Republic. Her translations are included in four other dual-language poetry books. Her writing has appeared in Italian literary journals that include: The English Anthology of The Italian-Australian Writer’s Literary Academy, Omero, La Mia Isola, and Poeti Nella Societa`.Her art is collected worldwide.

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The Late Roman Army & The Barbarian Conspiracy

March 3, 2017 by Cynthia Ripley Miller 2 Comments

Reorganization of the Army

The following is a guest post by Brian Kitchen. Learn more about Brian at the end of this post.

The late Roman Army in Britain bore very little resemblance to the army of the Emperor Claudius, which had conquered the island in 43ad. By the late 4th century, the time I write about in my ‘Divided Empire’ series of novels, there had been a complete reorganization of the army.

The army in Britain no longer relied solely on the Legions based at York, Chester, and Exeter and auxiliary regiments based in forts throughout the island, which had previously composed the army which had for centuries occupied Britain.

The enemy that the Roman army was now facing was no longer the people of the island it had occupied, but barbarian enemies that were raiding its shores and the forces to meet this new challenge had to change.

From the third century, Britain had periodically suffered raids and incursions from the Empire’s barbarian foes. The Roman historian Eutropius wrote that during the 280s the coasts of Belgica and Armorica (modern day France, Belgium and the Netherlands) were ‘infested with Franks and Saxons’.

To meet the new threats to Britain, a chain of forts was built along the eastern and southern shores of Britain, with some also being built along the west coast too. The forts at Cardiff and Caer Gybi (Anglesey, Wales) may be part of this chain. The Notitia Dignitatum a late Roman Document which lists the army commands in Britain, has the commander of the garrisons of this chain of forts, now known as the ‘Saxon Shore’ command, listed as the Comes Litoris Saxonici per Britanniarum.

In the north of Britain, the army command there had also been reorganised with the forts of Hadrian’s Wall and northern Britain, now coming under the command of the Dux Britanniarum. A chain of signal stations was built along the north-east coast of Britain, the foundations of one of them can still be viewed at Scarborough Castle, Yorkshire.

The Barbarian Conspiracy

The threat to the security of the island was so serious, that the Emperor dispatched a task force from his field army to Britain to assist in restoring order. It is because of this raid that some historians believe that a further new military command was set up in Britain, under the command of the Comes Britanniae.

A listing appears in the Notitia Dignitatum listing the forces under his command, six cavalry regiments and three of infantry, a mobile task force equipped and ready to move throughout Britain to wherever it was required.

Towns which previously hadn’t been walled before, were also now walled and towers for artillery were added to existing walls. The Multangular Tower which can be viewed in the Museum Gardens in York is an example of the kind of towers which were built to strengthen defences.

Above is a Multangular Tower in YorkDuring the fourth century, the Picts from the north of Britain, the Scots and the enigmatic Attecotti from Ireland and the Franks and Saxons from the continent had plagued Britain with a series of raids. The raids culminated in 367ad in what is known as the ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’, when the Picts, Scots, Attecotti and Saxons made a combined attack on Britain. During the fighting, the Dux Britanniarum was killed, along with what it is thought to have been the Comes Litoris Saxonici.

A lot of the troops now deployed to defend Britain were Limitanei, troops who were stationed in frontier districts, like in the forts along Hadrian’s Wall.

Some historians have suggested that these Limitanei troops may have been part-time soldiers, who were given land to farm during peacetime, being called up for duty when danger threatened.

The Later Roman Army

So, what of the other forces of the Roman Army in Britain, where were they based and what was their composition now? The Roman soldier of the 4th Century looked very different from the Roman Legionary of the early empire. By the late 4th Century the army comprised of more cavalry units than infantry, arising from the need to move quickly to wherever the raiders struck.

Heavier cavalry, such as the armoured Cataphracts and Horse Archers were being increasingly deployed. The weapons and armour of the troops was very different to that of the legionaries and auxiliaries of the earlier empire.

Some infantry now wore no armour, relying on their shields for protection and missile-type weapons like the Plumbata and dart-type weapons were commonly used. A lot of the forts in the interior of Britain were abandoned and more troops were now based in the towns and cities.

In the Roman town of Viroconium (modern day Wroxeter) evidence that troops were based there has been found during excavations, with Plumbata being found in the ruins of the basilica there. For all these changes however, the Western Roman Empire eventually fell to the barbarians and although Britain held out into the 6th century it too also eventually fell.

Brian J Kitchen – Author Bio

I live in Burton upon Trent, England and am married to Lynne and have a son, Mark and two tortoise shell cats, Tansy & Zoe. I enjoy walking in the countryside, photography, reading, writing, visiting museums and historic sites & buildings and supporting Burton Albion.

I first became interested in the history of Roman Britain as a child and loved the ‘Eagle of the Ninth’ trilogy of novels by Rosemary Sutcliff. When I was older I read & studied all that I could about the history of the period, visiting many museums and archaeological sites to further improve my knowledge.

I’ve always had a passion for writing and when I retired from Local Government service, I wrote a column in our local newspaper for two years and also decided to write novels set in late 4th Century CE Roman Britain. The first of the Flavius Vitulasius Novels, ‘Divided Empire’ is my first published novel, but there are many more to come. I hope that you enjoying reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.

Should you wish to know more about Flavius & his friends, please visit my website, Facebook, and Twitter pages:

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In Search of the Real King Arthur with Mary Anne Yarde

February 8, 2017 by Cynthia Ripley Miller 4 Comments

The following is a guest post by Mary Anne Yarde. Learn more about Mary Anne at the end of this post.

I have been fascinated with the life and times of King Arthur and his Knights of The Round Table since I was a child — I guess growing up a stone’s throw from Glastonbury (The Ancient Isle of Avalon) may have had something to do with that.

My book series, The Du Lac Chronicles, tells the story of what happened after the death of Arthur, and continues the story of his Knights and their sons. But to write about the end of Arthur’s reign, I needed to know about the beginning. A not so easy task, it turned out.

The history of a historical Arthur is not written in stone but is, instead, engraved in folklore and that brings its own set of challenges.

Firstly, where did he come from? Well, that is an easy question to answer…

King Arthur was English. No, he was Welsh. Arthur was Scottish. He was from Brittany.

Digging up folklore

Which is right? Arthur is so famous that everyone wants to claim him and, over the years, there have been many names thrown out there as to who he really was. But we mustn’t forget that when we are dealing with Arthur, we are digging up folklore, and that is not the same as excavating relics. We can make Arthur fit wherever we want him to, and that is where the problem lies. It is very easy to make mistakes, and I have read many books that claim to have found the real Arthur, only they haven’t, it is just a theory, sometimes a very shaky one.

The same can be said for Arthur’s famous castle, Camelot. There have been many “possible locations” of one of the most famous castles in history. Tintagel, Cadbury Hill, Caerlaverock Castle, have all been put forward, and recently it has been suggested that a small Roman fort at Slack is where the real Camelot once stood. However, during all this excitement and discoveries we have overlooked a fundamental issue — there was no Camelot. It was an invention of a French poet in 1180! How can you look for something that was never there to begin with?

King Arthur statue at Tintagel Castle, by Rubin Eynon

The Dark Ages, in which my books are set, are equally challenging to research because there is a lack of reliable primary resources. What was written down was written down for a purpose and that purpose was usually politically motivated, which in itself is fascinating, although not so helpful. Now, in these early texts when Arthur is mentioned, there is nothing about him being a king. Nennuis describes him a warrior on par with Ironman, but no mention of a crown.

Monmouth: King Arthur’s greatest ally

It isn’t until the 12th Century when Geoffrey of Monmouth writes his great work that the Arthur we know is born. Monmouth’s work, which was supposed to be an accurate account of British history, is in fact, one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. Monmouth is borrowing from folklore — although he did keep mentioning something about a lost manuscript that he found and then conveniently lost again when asked to share it! It is folklore that drives the legend of Arthur and his Knights’ forward, and I think that is important as it tells a great deal about the time in which these stories are told.

My books are not just set in Britain but Brittany and France as well, so I needed to have a good understanding of what was happening in these countries in the 5th Century in order to keep the history real in the telling. Before we look at any of these countries we need to look at the powerhouse of the world at this time, and that was the Roman Empire. However, the golden age of the Roman Empire was almost over; she was politically unstable and was withdrawing her forces from far-flung provinces such as Briton, to defend her borders.

Blood, war, and marriage

But this dawning new era brings some of the most fascinating historical figures that ever lived. These were the days of men such as Clovis. Clovis won a decisive victory against Rome, at the Battle of Soissons in AD 486. But, Clovis’s ambition didn’t stop there. Roman Gaul and parts of Western Germany fell to him as well. He forged a new empire through blood, war, and marriage. He made Paris the capital of his new kingdom, and he was the first King of a united Frank (France).

The Saxons and the Angles crossed the South Sea (The English Channel) to take advantage of vulnerable Britain who, since the Romans had left, had split back into various smaller kingdoms. There was much infighting and unrest, it was the perfect opportunity for the Saxon’s to come over and stake their claim.

Brittany, like Britain, wasn’t one united country, but many, and they were a race of warriors. While they were busy fighting each other, they missed the real threat to the kingdom, which eventually would be their undoing and they would find themselves at the mercy of Frank.

While all this is going on, the Church is creeping into the crevices, and spreading the word of God and, what could be consider of equal value, one language — Latin. It could be argued that it was the Church that united Britain in the end.

The good king that never left their side

This was a time of great unrest and change, but one thing remained constant for the general populous and that was storytelling. Arthur may well have been a general but folklore made him a Christian King and gave him a castle full of noble knights. Arthur and his Knights (most of them anyway) cared about the people they represented. Arthur was a good king, the like of which has never been seen before or after. He was the perfect tool for spreading a type of patriotic propaganda. Arthur was someone you would want to fight by your side. But he also gave ordinary people a sense of belonging and hope. He is, after all, The Once and Future King.

Larger than real life

I have tried to show what life was like in the 5th Century in my books, but I have been heavily influenced by folklore, because when you are dealing with this period in history you cannot dismiss it. Brittany, for example, is terribly difficult to research historically, but when it comes to folklore she is rich and if that is all she is going to give us, then so be it. Folklore is its own special brand of history, and it is often over looked by historians which I think is a shame. You can tell a lot about a people by the stories they tell, and people are still fascinated by this larger than life King, which I think says it all. Arthur may well have been a general, or a knight, he may have been English, he may not, but it doesn’t matter because his story is timeless, it will never grow old.

Book Blurb for The Du Lac Devil (Book 2 of The Du Lac Chronicles)

War is coming to Saxon Briton.

As one kingdom after another falls to the savage might of the High King, Cerdic of Wessex, only one family dares to stand up to him — The Du Lacs.

Budic and Alden Du Lac are barely speaking to each other, and Merton is a mercenary, fighting for the highest bidder. If Wessex hears of the brothers’ discord, then all is lost.

Fate brings Merton du Lac back to the ancestral lands of his forefathers, and he finds his country on the brink of civil war. But there is worse to come, for his father’s old enemy has infiltrated the court of Benwick. Now, more than ever, the Du Lac must come together to save the kingdom and themselves.

Can old rivalries and resentments be overcome in time to stop a war?

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About Mary Anne Yarde

Mary Anne Yarde is an Award Winning author of the International Best Selling Series — The Du Lac Chronicles. Set a generation after the fall of King Arthur, The Du Lac Chronicles takes you on a journey
through Dark Age Briton and Brittany, where you will meet new friends and terrifying foes. Based on legends and historical fact, the Du Lac Chronicles is a series not to be missed.

Born in Bath, England, Mary Anne Yarde grew up in the southest of England, surrounded and influenced by centuries of history and mythology. Glastonbury–the fabled Isle of Avalon–was a mere fifteen-minute drive from her home, and tales of King Arthur and his knights were part of her childhood.

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