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The Lost Queen
1191 and the Third Crusade is underway . . .
It is 1191 and King Richard the Lionheart is on crusade to pitch battle against Saladin and liberate the city of Jerusalem and her lands. His mother, the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine and his promised bride, Princess Berengaria of Navarre, make a perilous journey over the Alps in midwinter. They are to rendezvous with Richard in the Sicilian port of Messina.
There are hazards along the way - vicious assassins, marauding pirates, violent storms and a shipwreck. Berengaria is as feisty as her foes and, surviving it all, she and Richard marry in Cyprus. England needs an heir. But first, Richard and his Queen must return home . . .
The Lost Queen is a thrilling medieval story of high adventure, survival, friendship and the enduring love of a Queen for her King.
Purchase Link - https://tinyurl.com/5n8ab2xv
Author Bio
Following a first degree in English and History, Carol McGrath completed an MA in Creative Writing from The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast, followed by an MPhil in English from University of London. The Handfasted Wife, first in a trilogy about the royal women of 1066 was shortlisted for the RoNAS in 2014. The Swan-Daughter and The Betrothed Sister complete this highly acclaimed trilogy. Mistress Cromwell, a best-selling historical novel about Elizabeth Cromwell, wife of Henry VIII’s statesman, Thomas Cromwell, was republished by Headline in 2020. The Silken Rose, first in a medieval She-Wolf Queens Trilogy, featuring Ailenor of Provence, saw publication in April 2020. This was followed by The Damask Rose. The Stone Rose was published April 2022. Carol is writing Historical non-fiction as well as fiction. Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England was published in February 2022. The Stolen Crown 2023 and The Lost Queen will be published 18th July 2024. Carol lives in Oxfordshire, England and in Greece.
Find Carol on her website:
In Search of Berengaria of Navarre
It is difficult to find the mysterious Berengaria of Navarre, Richard I’s Queen, partly because she was overshadowed by him, by the story of the third Crusade and that of Richard’s wars with Philip Augustus of France. She is elusive, too, because although the 12th century is a golden age of Chronicle writing, women were usually side-lined. I set out upon a quest in my search for this ‘lost queen.’
I knew some facts before I began my in-depth research for The Lost Queen. Richard the Lionheart had famously been betrothed for years to Alice, Philip Augustus’s sister. She was raised at the English court. Rumours emerged that Henry II had despoiled Alice. It’s a story evident in the movie The Lion in Winter about Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II. Philip Augustus, himself, was joint leader with King Richard of the Third Crusade of 1190-92 which aimed to free Jerusalem from Muslim control. Whilst the two kings were in Sicily, Philip was unaware that Alice was about to be jilted by Richard in favour of another bride who, escorted by the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine, was on her way across the Alps in mid-winter to her wedding with Richard. This research involved maps, stops and castles since I had to work out the route Eleanor and Berengaria took and translate this information into scenes filled with jeopardy. I created time lines and drew maps. I planned each chapter of this section extremely carefully. And when Philip Augustus found out the truth he was furious. He left Sicily for Acre determined to besiege and recover the port which had been captured by the Muslims and rescue it. Ironically, Philip became ill and returned to France and it was Richard who recovered Acre.
When Berengaria arrived in Sicily, it was the season of Lent. Her marriage to Richard was delayed but they were joined by Joanna, Richard’s beautiful sister who was the widowed Queen of Sicily. Richard secured Sicily leaving a new ruler the dwarf-like Tancred, in charge and set out for the Holy Land with an enormous fleet. There was a terrific storm in the Med and, as a consequence, his and Berengaria’s ships were separated. Berengaria and Joanna ended up marooned off the coast of Cyprus. The two queens were almost enticed ashore by the piratical Isaac Ducas Commensus. Richard rescued them in the nick of time. He took on Commensus, making the Greek a prisoner in silver chains, and Commensus’s very lovely daughter was placed in Berengaria and Joanna’s custody and care, a potential disaster. Berengaria and Richard marry in Cyprus.
This is the point at which I looked closely at primary source material, at Roger of Howden’s Gesta ( Life of Richard I) a contemporary account, and at Ambroise’s History of the War, the Estoire. Howden describes Berengaria as a lady of sound sense, intelligent, lovely to look upon. He speaks of how the marriage was designed to bring safety to the southern borders of Aquitaine, of the preoccupation with Pyrenean matters and the fact that Richard spent time when Duke of Aquitaine on the borders of Navarre and Aquitaine. It is possible, Howden claimed, that Richard had met Berengaria years before their marriage. He certainly knew her brother, Sancho, who supported Richard’s campaigns following his return from the third Crusade. Howden also tells the story of a reconciliation between Richard and Berengaria much later saying Richard made penance, confession and communion for his terrible sinful behaviour. The jury is out on Richard’s sexuality but gossipy Howden hinted at something long before between Philip and Richard in their youth. Touchingly, Roger Howden tells about how Richard requested that Berengaria build them a private retreat at Thorée in Western France. Sadly, according to Howden, their reunion in 1196 was ‘replete with hope deferred’. Richard returned to campaigning and, despite a peace treaty, he died in 1199 at Chalus-Chabrol, during a siege he had begun, when a member of the garrison shot at Richard using a crossbow and after lingering for five days the King died. It was Eleanor who was summoned to be with him, not Berengaria. Reading between the lines in source material, I really did sense resentment between Berengaria and Eleanor.
Amboise describes the royal wedding between Berengaria and Richard in Cyprus in superb detail, right down to the colours they wore. He also was a great source of information on the Crusade march along the coast to Jaffa. His detail is fabulous. He tells how Richard went back to Acre to bring Berengaria and Joanna south to Jaffa. I used both Blondel’s and Berengaria’s points of view in this thrilling section informed by Ambroise and secondary sources. I read about life for royal European women in The Holy Land. It was rich and colourful.
Berengaria lived at the time of troubadour culture. There were troubadours on the Crusade, many such as Blondel, were attached to various leaders. It was another fruitful source of research. Berengaria was, for instance, mentioned in song as ‘the frozen heart’, not, I add, by Blondel de Nesle, but by a French troubador. This suggests to me she was aloof and self-contained. There was a steady stream of visitors, pilgrims, churchmen, troubadours to her father’s court in Navarre. She would have spoken Latin and Occitan and likely some French as well as her native language. Royal women in Navarre learned about politics and were remarkable for their strength, respectability and independence. It provided another fascinating piece of research into her background and character.
Berengaria could never be a normal noble wife because of circumstances and because she and Richard never established a real home together. They were too often apart. Sadly, they never had children together but he never tried to set her aside. We cannot know if Richard truly fell in love with Berengaria. Ambroise states that Richard had fallen in love with Berengaria ‘a long time previously, when he was Count of Poitou.’ It is a comment supported by Howden. After Richard’s untimely death, Berengaria lived as a widow with tenacity and resilience, refusing to remarry, fighting with King John for her dower rights and lands. She lived in the Angevin heartland where she settled in Le Mans and was known as ‘The Lady of Le Mans’. Her name is commemorated in a variety of colourful tourist attractions in Le Mans where she is remembered as the benefactor of the many churches and convents for which the city is famous.
About forty miles north of Fontevraud, where Richard, Eleanor, Henry II are interred, we find Berengaria in the abbey of l’Epau, the last of the Cistercian foundations in Maine. Her tomb is in the chapter house with a recumbent effigy upon it. This is a crowned queen, with solemn features and loose flowing hair, like a bride. She holds on her breast a book with her own image in relief on its cover. Her feet rest on a watchful lion and beneath him we see a small hound, the traditional symbol of faithfulness and loyalty. She founded the Abbey a year before her death. Berengaria never visited England and she remains a mystery, the most elusive of queens, but one with a superb story. Berengaria is England’s lost queen.
(note: Helen has not read this title)
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