Showing results by author "J.P. REEDMAN" in All Categories

In the days coming up to Christmas, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later to be Richard III) seeks shelter in York from a snowstorm that has blocked the roads into Middleham. As usual, he stays with the Austin Friars at the Lendal, with their massive library of precious books. Normally, he would enjoy his visit with the Friars, but this time, he is worried that he will not make it home in time for the Christmas Feast with his wife Anne, his small son Edward, and his friends, Francis and Nan Lovell. He prays for a miracle--and soon the skies begin to clear and the snow melts. Anticipating an ...

Eleanor of Provence, bright, beautiful, intelligent--married as a young girl to the much older Henry III, King of England. A marriage surprisingly happy, with the king pouring wealth upon his young wife's relatives...incurring the wrath of the Barons. Eleanor, devoted mother, who fought the will of the monks to stay in a monastery and nurse her sick son, the future Edward I. Eleanor, caught in court intrigue, with the powerful, disturbing Baron, Simon de Montfort, looming at every turn--friend or foe? Or what else? Eleanor, attacked while on a barge passing under London Bridge, as the ...

In 15th century England, there are two cousins, both the daughters of dukes, both widowed young, both the mother of sons called Henry. Both are named Margaret Beaufort. One Margaret’s son will be a future King. The other one’s son will be an infamous rebel. The ‘other Margaret Beaufort’ is the daughter of Edmund, Duke of Somerset. Proud and temperamental, Edmund’s bitterest enemy is Richard, Duke of York. Rumours swirl about Edmund—Is he to blame for losing many English territories in France? Is he the true father of Queen Margaret’s baby son, Edward of Westminster? Tensions ...

Daughter of a Scottish king and an Anglo-Saxon princess, Edith is sent to her Aunt Cristina, the Abbess of Romsey for her education. Cristina is harsh and unkind and tries to force Edith to wear a nun's veil, first as a disguise and then permanently, but Edith is enraged and tramples it on the ground. She begs her parents to move her from Romsey to the grand Abbey of Wilton and for a while Edith's life is calm and fulfilling--but then the suitors begin to come. Most fearsome of all is the King, William Rufus, with his fierce mismatched eyes, florid face...and evil reputation. More ...

I RICHARD PLANTAGENET: PART TWO LOYAULTE ME LIE Sequel to Tante le Desiree but also a stand-alone book in its own right. 1483. King Edward IV is dead. The Woodvilles have the Great Seal—and the treasury. In the north Richard Duke of Gloucester receives word of his brother’s unexpected death from Lord Hastings, who advises him to get to London and take possession of the new young King. Riding into Northampton, Anthony Woodville, guardian of Edward V, is implicated in a plot to ambush Richard upon the road. He is arrested and Edward V taken into care by Gloucester and the flamboyant and ...

I, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, PART ONE : TANT LE DESIREE (I have desired it so much.) 1471 : THE BATTLE OF BARNET. He is eighteen.It is his first battle. He is wounded…he is Richard of Gloucester, the King’s youngest brother. With the Kingmaker slain, Richard and his brother Edward IV go on to ultimate victory at Tewkesbury. The Old King Henry dies in ‘mysterious circumstances’ in the Tower and York’s claim is secure…Richard wants to marry Anne Neville, the Kingmaker’s daughter, but his brother George stands in his way and hides her in a London tavern… Not all the feuds are on the...

In a world where loyalty is tested and power is fleeting, young Ela, only child of the Earl of Salisbury, finds herself swept out of England after the death of her father to the opulent courts of Richard Lionheart. Betrothed to William Longsword, the King's illegitimate brother, she navigates a life filled with danger and ambition. As King John’s tyranny looms, Ela's love for William and their growing family face relentless threats. When war strikes and William is presumed lost at sea, ambitious suitors circle like vultures. Will Ela’s unwavering spirit endure, or will fate tear them ...

A MAN WHO WOULD BE KING : The Duke of Buckingham and Richard III November 2 1483. As Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham stands on the scaffold of Salisbury Market Square, accused of high treason, he reflects on his life during the turbulent era of the Wars of the Roses. After the death of his grandfather, the old Duke, Henry (known as Harry) is sent to the court of the new King Edward IV and placed into the household of his Queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Harry, coming from a rich and noble line, is considered a a “prize catch” for the Woodvilles, and soon he is forced, aged ten, to marry ...

Melior the Wisewoman lives in the woods near the Vale of Rollendri. When her companion and mentor, Old Agg, dies, she is approached by the denizens of the Faerie kingdom, who tell her that she is in great danger--that a barbaric King called Gorangon is on his way hence with an army to claim the entire shire as part of his kingdom. Melior is uncomfortable and afraid to listen, for Agg told her the Faefolk are amoral and not to be trusted...but the King with his warband and iron sword is equally fearsome, if not even worse . Reluctantly, she agrees to let the Fae help her against the might of...

“The arrow swift to wound is already drawn from the quiver ; soon will the blow be struck ...” Robin of Locksley joins the annual village games, signifying the ancient battle between the ‘Lord of the Hood,’ and The Dark. A night of good cheer turns to terror as soldiers arrive to arrest Robin’s foster father, accused of poaching and witchcraft. During a struggle between Robin and a Norman master, the lord is killed and Robin made “wolfshead” – a term for a hunted man with a price on his head. Joining with his cousin Scarlet, John Little and Much the Miller's Son, they must ...

‘Small, very talkative, ready enough to do evil, shrewd and jocular, extremely cruel and daring.’ Orderic Vitalis on Mabel de Belleme. Mabel is the daughter of William de Belleme, known as Talvas, the Hard Shield, for his fierceness in battle…and at home. When William murders Mabel’s mother, he is expelled from his castle into exile—but Mabel follows him loyally, despite what he has done. As the Belleme fortunes gradually return, Mabel is married to an upstanding young lord, Roger de Montgomery, a close friend of the new Duke of Normandy—William, who will one day become the ...

Feast of the Innocents : A Christmas Tale of Richard III and his Son - It is Bleak Midwinter, and a snowstorm engulfs Middleham Castle. Young Edward finds himself spirited away by a mysterious old woman. What could she possibly want with the young heir of the Duke of Gloucester? A short Winter story, featuring a heart warming tale of father & son, and a woman's grief for her long dead child from the best-selling author of "SACRED KING" and "I,RICHARD PLANTAGENET.. Approximately 45 pages

One thundery day in 1909 a Bronze Age burial mound was opened near the sleepy little town of Marlborough. Soon Violet's nights would be disturbed by scratching and tapping. By a horrible, skeletal face pressed to the window. What did the creature want from a staid old widow? Could Violet ever send this unwanted nightly visitor to eternal rest? A gentle ghost story based on Wiltshire folkore. Approximately 8000 words

In the turbulent clashes for England's throne, Eleanor Talbot finds herself newly widowed and entangled in a dangerous secret. After a clandestine marriage to Edward, the young, handsome, newly proclaimed King, she believes love can conquer all. But after the blood-soaked battles of Mortimer’s Cross and Towton, Edward's heart strays to another widow, the captivating Elizabeth Woodville, whom he also marries in a clandestine rite. A few months later, he announces her as his new queen. As Eleanor grapples with Edward's betrayal and seeks solace in her faith, her past threatens to unravel ...

In the depths of winter, Sir Ralph Percy holds the castles of Dunstanburgh and Bamburgh for the Lancastrians. Queen Margaret of Anjou has fled into Scotland, and no one knows if or when she will return with another army. Supplies are low and the snow is falling. Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, brings his forces to Dunstanburgh first, circling the fortress in a ring of steel. He attempts to cajole Ralph into a surrender with the promise of a second pardon from King Edward. Ralph is not certain...and he is not ready to surrender just yet... A short story 10,000 words long, based on true ...

Twelfth Night has come to Minster Lovell Hall. Francis Lovell and his wife Nan Fitz Hugh have arranged a fabulous celebration to entertain their friends, Richard Plantagenet and Anne Neville, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. The feast is served in splendour, the Mummers arrive to perform the traditional play with much jollity and hi-jinks, and the Lord of Misrule is crowned. But when a strange, mysterious storyteller arrives calling himself Jack Rhymer, the evening takes on a darker tone...as he tells the haunting tale of the Mistletoe Bride, a maiden who vanished at the old hall upon ...

Edmund is the second son of Richard, Duke of York. Whisked away to Ireland as a child in troubled times, his best friend is his brother Edward, a year older, with whom his shares a special bond. Later, the family returns to England and the boys begin knightly training at Ludlow Castle, where they encounter bullying and intrigue as they grow from children to young men of royal blood and high destiny. Their father strives for peace but his motives are always questioned, and his enemy, Edmund Beaufort, fills the sickly King Henry VI's ears with slander and lies. Peace will not last. St Alban's...

Ilmarinen-wanderer, adventurer, journeyman, thief. Swordsman, archer, rescuer of those in need. A pale, grey-eyed youth with an unknown past, who was raised in a humble village but has the bearing of a king and the heart of a lion. Essarndaon-A land of beauty and terror--and the terror is gradually overcoming beauty. Villages are besiged by the Unseelie Court--mound-dwellers, cannibal giants, winter witches, serpent-maids and Bloodcaps who die their hats in human blood. Ilmarinen son of Ilmatar will battle them all and win with prowess and with wit as he seeks his destiny in a land which he...

Myles Phillipson, the local magistrate, is eager to obtain the lands of Kraster and Dorothy Cook by any means necessary. He frames the couple for theft and sees that they are hanged. But on the scaffold Dorothy curses him. He might build his mansion on the lakeside where the Cooks' house once stood, but he would never know a moment's peace from that moment on. Myles is a practical man, not given to superstition, but when he holds a banquet in his newly built stately pile, he hears noises from upstairs--rolling and bouncing, and then demonic laughter. On the wall, the shadows of two macabre ...

The spell-bound crown of Cumbria comes to Dunmail after his father Owain is slain at Brunanburh, but he soon learns the Saxon, King Edmund, covets it for himself and has paid a wicked sorcerer who dwells in a cavern in Gilsland Forest, guarded by three white demon-wolves, to manipulate the spells so that Edmund can claim the powerful talisman of kingship. Dunmail must find the sorcerer and destroy him, battling his fearsome wolves...but is the King too late? Battle looms amidst the fells. Briton fights Saxon invader on the blood-stained slopes while the tarn below waits--the only vault that...