I am a historian who loves research and nothing gives me greater pleasure than finding facts that I can use in my books. I can spend days down various rabbit holes all for one line or just so I can imagine the scene perfectly in my head. I have pages of notes on things that never make it into my story but it means I can write with a bit of confidence and a dollop of poetic licence. Historical fiction should wear its history lightly.
Choosing the Tower of London as my setting opens up a wealth of facts to be woven into fiction. I spoke to an agent just before I decided to independently publish and we were discussing the premise within the book where every scene pretty much takes place within the Tower’s walls – give or take a couple of chapters. The agent said this was problematic because it was too much of a coincidence that so much happened just in the Tower. However, all the historical events described in my book did happen – no coincidences apart from my characters happening to live there – and I think the wealth of Tower source documents – books and otherwise- back me up. When it comes to Tower history I don’t need to make it up - it was already there for me to find. Oh, and the same agent also disputed my claim that it was probably the most haunted building in England – show me another place with more rights to this title (in England) and I’ll raise you the 1,000 plus dead buried under the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, I will throw in Anne Boleyn and a couple of other murdered queens and we can take it from there!
Anyway, back to facts. Firstly, the Tower itself as a building. I have a diagram of the Tower on my wall taken from an old Tower guidebook and it handily codes the walls and buildings per the monarch that built them so I know exactly which building etc was there in the period I am writing. The building work taking place under Henry III is pertinent to my plot and walls go up and down accordingly.
There is archaeological evidence that the original entrance may well have been where the Beauchamp Tower stands today, therefore when Will enters in chapter two he comes from that side. The entrance we use today was not built during Henry’s time and Water Lane was in fact under water! The Tower guidebook and official history has very useful imagined illustrations of how the Tower would have looked over the years and I have used these to help me world build. I also studied the History of the King’s Works which was commissioned in 1950s by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works – it is a set of architectural plans which tell the story of public buildings in England from the Middle Ages up to the middle of the 19th century, colour coded to demonstrate the dates of additions to structures such as the Tower, Dover Castle and the Palace of Westminster.
And then I immersed myself in the extant buildings we see today. Here is where I get lucky – I know some amazing people who work at the Tower through my volunteering and these guys know their stuff. When I first discovered Maude, the records stated she had been held in the North-East turret of the White Tower (the only round one – round because it holds the staircase which would at one time have been the only staircase to go up the entire height of the building). The turrets are not accessible to the public but I knew a man that can so to speak. So I messaged Craig and said ‘Can you get inside the turrets? I am interested as to what they look like inside’ and he immediately offered to show them to me. Seeing inside the round turret, in particular, really helped me visualise that confined space, the view Maude would have had over a very different London, the coldness (there are no fireplaces and the narrow slits would have been open to the elements) and the isolation. I also got to go on the roof and get a real sense of the White Tower and that incredible view – another experience I could draw on for a scene within the book.
On another quiet day, Ana, one of the most experienced White Tower warders took me around and pointed out lots of the original features, described how the rooms would have been used, the role of the Royal Apartments, the Black Hall in the basement – I had to cut so much of her information from the original draft but there is a lot still in there though recollections may vary where I have used a room in a different context to the original usage. There is also a huge, heavy, detailed book on the White Tower edited by Edward Impey, one time curator at the Tower – my second-hand copy is bizarrely signed by Prince Michael of Kent!
As a volunteer I have been stationed for several hours in Henry III’s apartments in the Wakefield Tower and I have been able to truly soak up the atmosphere of that oddly shaped room with its colourful chapel. Spending time there gives you a perspective of what he would seen from his windows – you really are sitting amongst history. Point to note the vaulted ceiling was added later so in my mind I had to board it up!
Returning to the written word, I must mention the mischievous chronicler Matthew Paris, the media of his day, who is such a godsend to writers like me. Paris was a Benedictine monk in the thirteenth century and his chronicle Chronica Majora spanned two decades 1240-59 and used sources such as royal letters, exchequer records and papal documents as well as having a host of personal acquaintances such as Henry III himself. The chronicle is a wealth of information. All the phenomena such as the comets, the floods, the famine described in the book comes from Paris as does his descriptions of clothes, people, and occasions.
When I started to research Isabella of England, I chanced upon a journal article by Benjamin L. Wild titled The Empress’s New Clothes: A Rotulus Pannorum of Isabella, Sister of King Henry III, Bride of Emperor Frederick II. In the article he describes a remarkable document from 13th century still available in the National Archives – it is one of the wardrobe accounts from Henry’s reign. Wild lists the entire roll as an appendix with translation and it details various garments that were made for Isabella to take ‘across the sea’ for herself, her new imperial household and various others associated with Frederick’s court. The roll is the earliest surviving document to record wedding paraphernalia for an English royal bride. It even names her servants – some of whom pop up in Tower of Vengeance and it describes materials I have never heard of (spell check was not a happy bunny with some of them!). There was so much wonderful information I could have fainted with delight….
And then of course waving at me from my bookshelf where it nestles with various other Tower books is Brian A Harrison’s The Tower of London Prisoner Book – this is a goldmine for authors like me. Suffice to say Brian was a Yeoman Warder from 1977 to 1998. He is no longer with us so I cannot tell him how grateful I am for this book but I have managed to connect with his family on Facebook which has been a joy.
I also use numerous books from the shelves of the London Library where I am currently writing this at my favourite desk. My loan history ranges from the history of alehouses to medieval jewellery, to poison, to opium addiction, to slavery depending on which book I am researching. At the moment I have a pile of books on Walter Raleigh which may seem a bit random but I contribute to the Tower volunteers newsletter Tower Tales each month in a section called History Corner and you can guess whom I am writing on this month – another rabbit hole to pop down!
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