My Love Affair With History by Rosemary Morris

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 Far Beyond Rubies by Rosemary Morris is set in England in 1706, during Queen Anne Stuart’s reign.

When Gervaise, who has returned from India, sees Juliana for the first time, he recognises her, but not from this lifetime…

My love affair with history, reading and writing began at a very early age. I agonised over the story of King Alfred burning the cakes and being scolded by a peasant woman. At about five-years of age I couldn’t come to terms with a king in a humble dwelling. In my opinion, Alfred should have been seated on a throne, dressed in sumptuous clothes, a gold crown studded with jewels on his head.

Aged ten I wept buckets over Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, seated on the stairs outside Traitors’ Gate at the Tower of London for fear she would be executed like her ill-fated mother. Later, I thrilled to Elizabeth’s famous speech which began: I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.

This article is a trip down a proverbial memory lane. I visualise myself in love with, and cheering for the dashing cavaliers, who fought for King Charles I of England, and booing Oliver Cromwell, who sanctioned regicide.

My head filled with the history of old England, I always chose to read historical fiction, first children’s books; later novels which – to name a few - included Jane Eyre, The Four Musketeers, Pride and Prejudice, Georgette Heyer’s historical romances and the Angelique series by Sergeanne Golonne.

Before I could write I made up short stories. As soon as I could I wrote down tales for my own entertainment. Eventually, I composed my first historical romance.

At long last, I studied creative writing. Imagination cannot be taught but the craft of writing can. My ideas for stories were always good but I needed to learn how to present them. As I wrote in my previous article, I completed the Open College of the Art’s writing course, read books on how to write, went on two Writer’s Holidays, joined The Romantic Novelists’ Association, The Historical Novel Society and a local writer’s group.

As well as reading fiction I read historical non-fiction from which I often get an idea for a novel. After I read William Dalyrymple’s book The White Mughals, I imagined a well-born younger son, who was packed off to India to serve the East India Company. Sent many miles up country to establish trade links, all the business was conducted by messenger. During his years at a Hindu court, isolated from Europeans, the hero of the novel, whom I named Gervaise, became a vegetarian and took an interest in Hindu philosophy. I then drew on my knowledge of India and Hinduism to enrich my novel, which I called Far Beyond Rubies.

When Gervaise first saw Juliana, it seemed as though he recognised her from a previous lifetime. After he found out that her half-brother claimed her inheritance and declared she and her young sister are illegitimate, he offered to help her.

By the time Gervaise had returned to England and met Juliana, James II’s younger daughter Anne had succeeded William and Mary. While writing Far Beyond Rubies I wanted the reader to be swept back into Queen Anne’s reign, to visualise the clothes, almost taste the food and understand India’s influence on Gervaise. To judge by reviews of the novel, I achieved not only this but, through the Juliana, revealed the Jacobite threat to the throne, and the clash of Anglican, Huguenot and Roman Catholicism, as well as a romance that touches my readers’ hearts.

https;//www.amazon.co.uk/Far – Beyond – Rubies-ebook/dp/B01MEBL3KX

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Published by Books We Love.

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Early 18^th century novels by Rosemary Morris

Tangled Love

Far Beyond Rubies

The Captain and The Countess

Regency novels

False Pretences

Sunday’s Child   Heroines born on different days of the week. Book 1.

Monday’s Child  Heroines born on different days of the week. Book 2

Tuesday’s Child  Heroines born on different days of the week  Book 3

17th Century Whitehall, Part I by Katherine Pym

Whitehall Palace

Whitehall Palace was a sprawling conglomerate of buildings that made no sense or order. Today, only the Banqueting House remains. 

Part I, A quick history:

In the 13^th century, Whitehall was called York Place. It was not a palace, but a mansion built by an archbishop between the cities of Westminster and London. It wasn’t too large then, but over the centuries, its owners added on to it which accommodated kings, queens, and their entourages when they visited York Place.

Sprawling schematics of Whitehall Palace

By the 16^th century, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, lived in it. He had expanded it to such a degree that it rivaled most of the king’s palaces. Besides the fact Wolsey was Catholic, and Henry now rebuked Catholics, to have a minion with a larger house than his did not sit well. King Henry stripped Wolsey of all power, then moved into York Place and renamed it Whitehall.

King Henry made his own changes. He updated it until it encompassed 23 acres and was the largest palace in Europe. He erected merriment buildings that included a cockpit (turned into a theatre during the reign of King Charles II), tennis court, and a tiltyard. There was the King Street Gate and Holbein Gate that allowed the Court to traverse from Whitehall to St James’ Park without ever crossing a public road.

Each king or queen thereafter Henry VIII added to Whitehall until in 1660 when King Charles II took residence there, it had become a rambling jumble of chambers, passageways, and staircases connected by uneven floors that amounted to more than 1,500 rooms. It was also a montage of architectural designs. 

Banquet House, the only piece left of Whitehall Palace

During Queen Elizabeth I’s time, the first of the Banqueting Houses came into being. Elizabeth I had a large chamber built of timber and canvas to house entertainments. It occupied the site of the current Banqueting House, until James I commissioned Inigo Jones to build a solid structure, which replaced the aging, and dilapidated building. This new one was completed by the end of James’ reign. It was large with windows on all four sides, an interior balcony that hugged the walls, and an undercroft that took up the entire base of the building.

King Charles I commissioned Rubens to paint the Banqueting House ceiling. He was given £3,000 and a gold chain for the effort. Rubens painted the canvases and sent them to England for installation on the ceiling, which finished in 1635.

Rubens’ work effectively put the Banqueting House out of business. It was feared smoke from torches and candles would damage the splendor, so a new reception room was built. This was placed beside the Banqueting House where most of the ceremonial functions took place.

Charles I was executed on a platform outside the Banqueting House. After this, Whitehall Palace emptied out during the Civil Wars, but once Cromwell became the new sovereign, Whitehall filled up, again. After Cromwell’s death, what remained of the Rump Parliament tried to sell the palace.

Then, with the Restoration of King Charles II, Whitehall became alive again. As with his father and grandfather, Charles II wanted to make changes to the already sprawling palace. He hired Sir Christopher Wren to make it more like Versailles, but all that planning never came to fruition. He did, however, make new and sumptuous chambers for his favorite mistress, Barbara Villiers, 1^st Duchess of Cleveland.

After Charles II died, King James II made changes in the forms of bettering his wife’s apartments, and adding a new chapel. By the time William III & Mary II took up residence in Whitehall, its importance was on the decline. King William suffered from asthma. The palace sat on the banks of the Thames, drafty and damp. He preferred Kensington Palace. By Queen Mary’s death in 1694, Whitehall was rarely used. 

Drawing of Whitehall Palace

In 1698, the great rambling palace of Whitehall burned to the ground. The only structures that remained were the Banqueting House, the Holbein and Whitehall gates. Today, only the Banqueting House still stands.

Next time, Other Stuff about Whitehall.

~~~~~~~~~~~  

Sources:

Adrian Tinniswood. By Permission of Heaven, The true Story of the Great Fire of London. Riverhead Books, NY, 2003

John Evelyn. Fumifugium: Or, The Inconvenience of the AER, and SMOAKE of London Dissipated. Together With some Remedies humbly proposed by J.E. Esq; To His Sacred MAJESTIE, and To the Parliament now Assemble. Published by His Majesties Command. London 1661

http://www.hrp.org.uk/learninganddiscovery/Discoverthehistoricroyalpalaces/thebuildinghistories/BanquetingHouse/WhitehallPalace

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