Elizabeth St John's latest novel is released today...
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| Elizabeth St John |
Written in their Stars...
While researching the concept for Written in their Stars, I quickly discovered that three women within my family had a significant influence on the outcome of the British Civil Wars and the Restoration of King Charles II. And when I dug deeper, and mapped their activities and the intersection of major historical events, I realized that these women — in effect part of the “Shadow Court” — were able to influence the powerful men of the times in their policies and behaviors. Central to their lives was the conflict of building a commonwealth or restoring the monarchy, and each woman was prepared to sacrifice everything for her beliefs.
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| Lucy Hutchinson |
The three women — Lucy Hutchinson, wife of Regicide Colonel John Hutchinson; Frances Apsley, wife of Lucy’s brother Sir Allen Apsley; and Anne “Nan” Wilmot, Countess of Rochester, Lucy and Allen’s cousin, were best friends and fierce opponents. Lucy supported the execution of the king and the establishment of the commonwealth, while Frances and Nan were fervent Royalists and worked to bring King Charles II home from exile in Paris.
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| 'Nan' Wilmot |
My novel covers the time from the execution of Charles I through the exile of Charles II in Paris, where Frances and Sir Allen joined him, to the uprising led by Nan’s husband, Henry Wilmot, Earl of Rochester; and on to the inevitable restoration of King Charles and his determination to exact retribution from his father’s murderers. Needless to say this threw the women into immense conflict, and the eventual outcome proved that love and family can overpower even the strongest of political beliefs.
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| Frances Apsley |
Unearthing that Nan, Frances and Allen worked as 17th century spies certainly revealed a number of surprises that were secrets in my characters’ world, and great discoveries within my family tree. Code names for Allen Apsley, Ned Villiers, Edward Hyde and the king himself; confirmation of spying activities for the Sealed Knot; and a surprise appearance by Barbara Villiers, the king’s mistress, in pleading for regicide John Hutchinson’s life, were all great finds. And along with whispers of their spying activities came other hints of hidden lives. Perhaps the most intriguing was the rumour of an illicit affair between Allen Apsley and his cousin Nan Wilmot. That finding created a wonderful opportunity for a subplot, and I enjoyed creating the fiction around the fact.
Access to their letters and diaries, Sir Edward Hyde’s records at the Bodleian Library, and other primary research from the Friends of Lydiard Park made for great discoveries, and inspired my writing. It is one thing to study their activities within published biographies; and quite another to touch their documents and read their own words, their fears and excitement, and contemporary accounts. Most poignant was reading of their struggles and knowing what they didn’t — their destinies.
© Elizabeth St. John
© Elizabeth St. John
Written in their Stars
London, 1649. Horrified eyewitnesses to King Charles’s bloody execution, Royalists Nan Wilmot and Frances Apsley plot to return the king’s exiled son to England’s throne, while their radical cousin Luce, the wife of king-killer John Hutchinson, rejoices in the new republic’s triumph. Nan exploits her high-ranking position as Countess of Rochester to manipulate England’s great divide, flouting Cromwell and establishing a Royalist spy network; while Frances and her husband Allen join the destitute prince in Paris’s Louvre Palace to support his restoration. As the women work from the shadows to topple Cromwell’s regime, their husbands fight openly for the throne on England’s bloody battlefields.
But will the return of the king be a victory, or destroy them all? Separated by loyalty and bound by love, Luce, Nan and Frances hold the fate of England—and their family—in their hands
The third book in The Lydiard Chronicles series, Written in their Stars, is a true story based on surviving memoirs, letters and court documents from Elizabeth St.John’s family history.
Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. A best-selling author, historian and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them - in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their imprint. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story...
Amazon: https://geni.us/MyBookWITS
How fabulous for you to find such important characters within your own family history - and be able to write abut them! Thank you for sharing and thank you Helen for hosting
ReplyDeleteA treasure house of family history. Looking forward to reading your new book, Elizabeth.
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