The League of Franche-Comté (2)

The League of Franche-Comté (2)

On 8 February 1297 Adolf of Nassau, King of Germany, assembled the nobles of Burgundy at Koblenz. These were Jean de Chalon-Arlay and his associates, those men who had refused to accept the count of Burgundy’s sale of his inheritance to the king of France, Philip le Bel. Instead they were loyal to the Holy Roman Empire and wished to hold their fiefs direct from Adolf.

Adolf rewarded his followers with lands taken from those Burgundians loyal to France. The count of Bar, Henri III, was given the fief of Guyot de Jonveille, and those confiscated from Jean de Bourgogne as far as Conflans in the châtellenie of Vesoul. In revenge Philip confiscated Bar’s townhouse in Paris and gave his lands in France to Charles of Valois. Tit-for-tat.

Two days earlier Henri had received subsidies from his father-in-law, Edward I, brought by the bishop of Coventry and Jean de Berwick. He was therefore a key member of the Anglo-German-Burgundian alliance against the French. On 6 May, he gave to Guillaume de Remoiville, one of his vassals, the land of Maxey-sur-Vaise on the express condition that Guillaume fought the king of France.

The League of Franche-Comté (1)

Otto IV, Count of Burgundy (1248-1302). His highly personalised style of armour is derived from a series of sketches commissioned by his wife for Otto's tomb in 1312, a decade after his death. The tomb hasn't survived, but the sketches have, so it appears Otto really did wear a metal lizard on his head.

Described as of weak character, spendthrift and debauched (sounds like fun), Otto had little interest in being a count and in 1295 sold Burgundy to Philip IV for a lump sum of 100,000 livres tournois and an annual fee of 10,000 livres in rents. This enabled him to live as Philip's pensioner at the French court, and be as debauched as he pleased with zero responsibility.

When the nobles of Franche-Comté (eastern Burgundy) learned that Otto had flogged his inheritance - and hence their independence - to the king of France, they formed a solemn league and covenant and declared they would never swear homage to Philip or his heirs, or give up their rights to the French crown.

George RR Martin, the Wars of the Roses and me...

I want to talk a little about what influenced me to write The White Hawk, which will be available as a free download on Amazon on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Since this is my blog, I shall!

By God, I love the power.

Besides my lifelong passion for medieval history, and the more recent desire to divert that passion into writing fiction (the other option being re-enactment, and standing in a muddy field in a suit of armour pretending to be the Duke of Somerset ain't my thing), the major inspiration was "A Song of Ice and Fire", George R.R.Martin's brilliant fantasy series.

                                 

Some free advertising

There are many good reasons to love this series, but for me it is the power politics and vicious intrigue between the various 'Houses' of Westeros that make the books so compelling. Frank Herbert pulled off a similar trick with the Great Houses of Atreides and Harkonnen in the first couple of Dune novels.

Westeros is essentially a late medieval environment, and the noble families of Stark and Lannister etc are fantasy versions of the medieval dynasties that fought like rabid dogs over the crowns of England and France in the Middle Ages. The bloodstained doings of the Plantagenets and Capets seem to be particular inspirations, no more so than the vicious round of aristocratic infighting remembered as The Wars of the Roses.

This era has always provided ideal breeding grounds for fiction, and I'm by no means the first author to have the bright idea of writing a series of novels set during the period. I did want to avoid writing about the various kings and nobles, or at least relegate them to secondary roles. The answer was to invent a fictional family.

Thus the Boltons were born. The obvious template for them was the Pastons, the real-life Norfolk family who left an invaluable record of their time in the form of the famous Paston Letters. This remarkable cache of letters provide us with a snapshot of minor English gentry and their trials and aspirations during the late fifteenth century.

One of the Paston letters

The Boltons are from a similar background to their real-life counterparts, though they have their home in Staffordshire rather than Norfolk. Like the Pastons, they have their sights set on climbing the social ladder.

They also have a number of problem sons. Richard, the eldest, is vengeful and unstable, and his brother James a corrupt and drunken cleric with a taste for local widows. Their mother, Dame Elizabeth, has her hands full keeping the family together. Dynastic civil wars are repeated on a local level, and the Boltons frequently find themselves having to defend their property and their lives. The Boltons often make terrible mistakes, fall in love with the wrong people, and fight on the wrong side during many of the epic set-piece battles fought to decide the future of England.

Book One of the planned three-part series climaxes with the Battle of Towton. This was a holocaust of a battle, perhaps the most dreadful slaughter ever committed on English soil, in which a significant percentage of adult males in England were massacred. 

The Battle of Towton. Nowhere near as much fun as it looks. 

This delightful affair was fought on a freezing hillside in Yorkshire in the middle of a snowstorm. To describe the sheer uncompromising horror and brutality of Towton was a major challenge, and hopefully I managed to convey it to some degree. The result of the battle has a major impact on the fortunes of the Boltons, as well as the kingdom in general, as readers can discover in Book Two...

Below is a link to the Kindle and paperback versions of the book, with the splendid cover art for the Kindle version done by my good friend and co-writer Martin Bolton:

The White Hawk on Kindle and paperback

Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments at Davidpilling56@hotmail.com

Sticking the feathers back on The White Hawk...

Book One of my intended trilogy set during The Wars of the Roses, The White Hawk, has just been revamped slightly (a new cover, designed and painted by my good friend and sometime co-writer Martin Bolton) and re-published via the folks at Draft2Digital: this means the book is now available as an ebook on Barnes & Noble and Kobo as well as on Amazon. I also hope to soon make it available on itunes.

See below for the new cover, a link to the book on Amazon, a plot description and a couple of nice reviews taken from Goodreads!

Links:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Reviews:
"The White Hawk takes place during fifteenth century in England and explores two rivals-Lancaster and York-who is at civil war with each other and is tearing the country apart. Henry VI is king and is unable to prevent these tragic events. He has no stomach for politics and is too weak to fight. This story also, follows the Bolton's, a family who is caught up in this civil war and struggles to survive. They are loyal to the house of Lancaster and as the story begins with a battle scene-lives are lost, families are torn apart and revenge for the death of love ones takes hold and bad decisions are made and more lives are destroyed. 

One of the first things about, “The White Hawk” that I was impressed with was the opening scene-a battle-very dramatic and detailed. Pilling gives you a clear picture of war, revenge and continuous political instability throughout this period. As the plot unfolds and his characters come to life-I was enthralled in such a way- I found myself holding my breath and clinching my teeth anticipating what is going to happen to next. 

Pilling gives the reader a tremendous amount of history and he depicts medieval history brilliantly. One can tell he does his research and takes his findings seriously. I highly recommend this absorbing book to anyone who enjoys this period of time and who is looking for well-written historical fiction. 

- Stephanie Hopkins (link to my interview with Stephanie on her blog: Interview)

"Mr. Pilling approached me a while back asking if he could write a guest post to promote his book, The White Hawk Book One: Revenge. What he told me of the story piqued my interest as a former history major and general history nerd, and so I accepted (the post can be viewed on my blog at astheplotthickens.blogspot.com). He also offered to send me a free copy of the ebook so I could read and review it. Of course I'm never going to turn down a free book, especially when the story catches my eye and the author is such a nice guy.

It took me awhile to actually get around to reading the book, thanks to my Kindle deciding to go missing, but when I was finally able to start reading, I got sucked right in. The White Hawk is set during the Wars of the Roses, and tells the story of the feud between the houses of Lancaster and York. Though it's not a period in history I'm overly familiar with, I could tell right away that Mr. Pilling did his research. Over the course of my reading, I went back and did some research of my own on certain points that intrigued me, and as a former history major, I must say that it's some damn good historical fiction.

The characters are very well written and have believable motivations, and I found myself falling in love with the Boltons right away, particularly Mary. I was reminded of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, not so much by the content of the story or the writing, but because it tells the story from multiple points of view from each faction, a technique that I, personally, quite like. A lot of characters in one story can put off some readers (and that's one reason it takes me so long to get through A Song of Ice and Fire), but Mr. Pilling does a wonderful job of pulling everything together. I was never once confused by who was who or which house fought for which side. 

Some people tell me that they don't like historical fiction because it seems so dry, but this definitely isn't the case with The White Hawk. The story moves very quickly and sucked me right in, and it was never dry at all. Despite the huge range, both in time and geography, no part of the story seems disconnected from the rest.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anybody that has even a passing enjoyment for historical fiction, a story with plenty of action and a bit of political intrigue, and well-written characters. Fair warning, though--the ending will definitely make you crave part two! Pilling gives the reader a tremendous amount of history and he depicts medieval history brilliantly. One can tell he does his research and takes his findings seriously. I highly recommend this absorbing book to anyone who enjoys this period of time and who is looking for well-written historical fiction." 

- Jennifer White