This week, I was very fortunate to be able to go to Somerset. My husband celebrated his fortieth birthday last weekend and we were given a two night stay in East Bower, Bridgwater. It couldn’t have been more perfect because, as some of you know, I have been working on a novella about the Duke of Monmouth for… Read on
[This is available as a podcast on iTunes] He was unquestionably one of the handsomest of the Stuart men. Tall, dark, and seductive, James Crofts, later James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, was born in Rotterdam, the Dutch Republic, on the 9th of April 1649, to an exiled King Charles II and his mistress Lucy Walter. James had a… Read on
During my research for my novella about Monmouth and Henrietta Wentworth, I have been wading through tons of newspapers from 1680-1699, and I came across this a few weeks ago in the adverts section of Post Man and the Historical Account (London, England) for Tuesday, September 14, 1697, Issue 370, and I thought it worthy of posting here:… Read on
The following excerpt is attributed to Andrew Marvell: I sing a Woofull Ditty Of a Wound that long will smart-a Given (the more’s the Pitty) In the Realme of Magna Charta: Youth! Youth! thou’dst better be slaine by thy Foes Than live to hang’d for cutting a Nose. Our good King Charles the Second Too flippant of Treasure… Read on
One of Charles II’s earliest great passions, Lucy Walter, sometimes Lucy Barlow, a Royalist exile of Welsh ancestry who became his bedfellow (possibly his wife) and then the mother of his son, James, the future doomed Duke of Monmouth. Lucy, born around 1630, was considered to be a stunningly beautiful, but quite vapid, woman. The image that has comes… Read on
The Duchess of Bolton looks vaguely familiar, does she not? If she does, it’s because she has a look of her father, the handsome Duke of Monmouth. This beautiful young lady married the 2nd Duke of Bolton in 1697. In the course of researching the lives of those connected to the doomed Duke, I found this charming image… Read on
John Evelyn is my favourite diarist of the 17th century. Why? He calmly noted things that happened, what he observed, with none of the high marital drama that Samuel Pepys recounted in his diary. Also, he was far more prolific in his writing than the far more popular Pepys – he travelled extensively for a man of his… Read on
I’ve been researching Henrietta Wentworth in more depth since beginning my novella about her relationship with the Duke of Monmouth. I find her fascinating, though some of my peers seem quite happy to brush her off as “dull.” I don’t see that, I see a woman who did what other women could not do – have a truly… Read on
This is one of my favourite pubs in London because it’s a good place to get some pub grub, well-kept real ale and the location…the location is amazing! It’s right on Tower Hill, with a view of the Tower of London, next to Tower Hill tube station and the gloriously beautiful Trinity Square (one of the best bits… Read on