REVIEW: Tudor Christmas Tidings by Blythe Gifford, Jenni Fletcher, and Amanda McCabe
Make Merry at Court
…with three Tudor Christmas stories!
In Blythe Gifford’s Christmas at Court, Sir John Talbot and Lady Alice’s secret betrothal must wait until Henry Tudor claims the throne. Next in Secrets of the Queen’s Lady by Jenni Fletcher, the lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves is unexpectedly reunited with a handsome—younger—diplomat at the palace’s festivities! And in His Mistletoe Lady by Amanda McCabe, Catherine seeks help from a mysterious Spaniard to free her father in time for Christmas!
Review
Not long ago I watched the documentary “Tudor Monastery Farm at Christmas” in which historian Ruth Goodman and two archeologists recreated the way that (okay, more ordinary) English subjects would have celebrated the festivities then. ‘Tis the season for holiday novellas and in my search for something other than the standard Regency or Victorian offerings, I spied this. Perfect timing, ‘eh?
Christmas at Court by Blythe Gifford starts before Henry Tudor has even gained the throne. In an age of arranged marriages, Alice and John are no exceptions. But their betrothal is far more than that and is arranged by more powerful people than merely their parents. Theirs is to be a life or death pledge of support for an upstart claimant to the throne. First however, they must mask their true intentions from a tyrant who is rumored to have already murdered his nephews, might be poisoning his sickly wife, and has brought his bastardized niece to court. Unsure of whom they can trust in this toxic court, Alice and John must weigh each word and action before a paranoid king – and each other.
I liked the way the story puts John and Alice in close proximity yet demands that they try and keep their distance from each other. Can they trust the other and the feelings that might shine from their eyes. Are the searing kisses they share true or merely a cloak of potential betrayal? Kudos for the traditional Christmas celebrations that are shown as well as how important religion was in the time. B
Secrets of the Queen’s Lady by Jenni Fletcher was already giving me good vibes before I started it: a younger man in love with a woman eight years older plus there is Anne of Cleves (who I always thought had a lucky escape even if she could never marry again) as a secondary character! Lady Philippa Bray, only one year widowed, is the one to meet Sir Christopher Lowell when he arrives at Richmond Palace with a can’t-be-turned-down invite from King Henry and his new darling, Queen Katherine Howard. The King wants his “beloved sister” to join the Christmas revelries at Hampton Court Palace.
Kit Lowell is bowled over to see the woman who kindly helped him find his way around at Court and to whom he’s compared every woman he’s met since then. She’s still the lovely and charming woman he remembers but Pippa hides a secret about her first marriage. During their walks and conversations, Kit dares to hope that she might see in him a man devoted to her and willing to over-set his family’s ambitions for him if she’ll only say “yes.” Can she risk allowing another man control over her?
So who wouldn’t want a cute, young, intelligent, well spoken man who promises to love you and show you the world if only you’ll come away with him? Pippa’s come through to the other side of marriage with freedom that only widows had in the 16th century. She doth protest much against her feelings for Kit but it’s understandable when she explains her life to him. Her “noes” are also partly for his benefit as younger sons were often beholden to the head of the family. I enjoy it when historical heroines have agency within the truth of whatever age authors choose to put them in and Pippa manages it – with a teensy bit of encouragement from Lady Anne and help from an unlikely source to find her totally wonderful beta hero. But I think they need to work on getting married sooner rather than later. B+
His Mistletoe Lady by Amanda McCabe rounds out the unusual Tudor setting novellas with a story set during the opening year of Queen Mary’s reign. Lady Elena Greaves and her daughter Catherine (named for the Queen whom Elena accompanied from Spain) are traveling to the royal court in London to plead for husband and father Sir Walter who is imprisoned in the Tower for his part in the Wyatt Rebellion.
Arriving there, Elena is embraced by Queen Mary for her loyalty to the Queen’s later mother while Catherine is introduced to a lady-in-waiting, Jane Dormer. Catherine is not only thrilled to see the glittering court during the festivities but also to get a chance to meet the Spanish courtiers who are there with the Queen’s husband, Phillip of Spain. One man in particular catches her eye with his gentlemanly manners and handsome face. Don Diego de Vasquez finds Catherine lovely but once he learns who she is, he knows he ought to keep his distance. He can’t allow anyone to interfere with his reason to be in England. Of course, all this soon goes by the wayside as Diego and Catherine meet and begin to fall in love. Oh, but what about the plotting in the works?
I must admit to at first being mildly uncomfortable with the viewpoint of the Catholic courtiers and Mary Tudor because, well … Bloody Mary. True at this point I don’t think the burnings had begun (nor is this in the plot at all) but … Bloody Mary and now looking back, we know what’s coming. Still, I ended up being interested in how so many people were (or at least acted as if they were) happy that the Reforms initially forced on England were being swept away and the old religion brought back. The inclusion of actual historical figures as secondary characters was also a nice touch, too. I know that many of these people will need a bolthole to escape England once Mary dies so it’s nice that so many of them appear that they will have one. The romance is a little fast but overall, I ended up enjoying a Tudor setting that is little used. B-
~Jayne
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The first story sounds interesting but I just can’t read a story where Richard III is once again the stereotyped villain – I read Josephine Tey’s “The Daughter of Time” at an impressionable age and can’t see Richard as the monster in the Shakespeare play. The city of York mourned his death thus: “This day was our good King Richard piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city” — hardly words you’d expect for a tyrant and issued at a time when it was dangerous for them to do so (his enemy had won). Plus, I don’t think rumors of the princes’ death started till Henry VII was king, and it was Henry who put to death anyone who he deemed a threat, especially if they were Plantagenet. I know I should be able to ignore this as Jayne said she was able to do with the story about (Bloody) Mary, but, to repeat, I was at a very impressionable age when I read Tey’s book.
OTOH, the second story sounds very good and exactly my kind of catnip, so I may succumb and buy the book anyway.
@Susan/DC: It’s interesting, Rebecca Brandewyne had a 1980s romance where Richard III was a good guy too. I don’t recommend it at all; like many single title 1980s romances, there was rape and I disliked the book even back then. But her take on Richard III stuck with me. I wonder if she’d read The Daughter of Time.
@Susan/DC: I’ve read books and articles that fall on both sides of the “did he or didn’t he?” divide about Richard III and knew he would probably be some defenders here. The way Gifford chose to write the story is totally on the villain side and I can see why that would bother you just as having Mary be shown in a positive light made me squirm a little. But yeah, the second one is a nice choice of an unusual choice of queen plus an older woman/younger man romance.
@Janine: Years ago I read a book about the York brothers that showed Richard in a positive light but maybe that was to show what a shit his brother the Duke of Clarence was. Maybe the author was Molly Costain Haycraft?
@Jayne: I’ve never heard of her or of the book.
@Susan/DC: Blythe Gifford tweeted that emissaries from England sent damning reports about Richard while he was still king. I have a historian friend in who has commented on the tower murders in one of my Goodreads groups. I will see if I can get her permission to post what she had to say.
Okay, my friend (a retired history professor) has given me permission to post what she said and here it is:
Just chiming in here to say that I live just outside York, and Richard is still very well regarded here. If he killed (or, rather, ordered to be killed) the princes, then he had a very good reason – to prevent them from being a rallying point. Although I have heard some persuasive arguments that the boys may well have been very ill and have died of natural causes; Richard being prevented from announcing their deaths because of the accusations that would surely result, of his having had them killed.
We still have a Richard III Society – a bit like a fan club…
Thanks to Janine for posting her historian friend’s comments. I have a feeling that the truth is somewhere in between when assigning innocence and guilt. But, as I said, I was quite impressionable and can’t bring myself to believe Richard was a total villain. The list of people Henry VII put to death is even longer than Richard’s, but since Henry won the crown he and his people got to write the history.
Susan, I understand completely—first impressions are long lasting. And most people are not pure evil, they have shades of gray.
More from my historian friend. She mentioned a book called The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn and said that while she hasn’t read it, she has heard it’s good. And she said this: