A Bygone Era

I was visiting one of my favorite websites and discovered this little treat, that I just had to share with my readers.




A new look at a bygone era.

Daughter of York re-visits many of the characters from "A Rose for the Crown," as we follow Margaret, sister of Edward IV and Richard III, from the court of England where, as a pawn in Edward's political schemes, she is kept single until she is 22, when a Burgundian alliance is forged through her marriage to Charles the Bold, the new Duke of Burgundy.

Despite fulfilling her duty to her new country with intelligence and aplomb, Margaret never forgets she is an English princess and a daughter of the House of York. Her homesickness is exacerbated by having to leave behind the love of her life. Fate brings them together rarely after she becomes duchess to a man she only met a week before her marriage, and whom she discovers suffers from such a grandiose view of his place in history that he is capable of great cruelty towards anyone who stands in his way. He also prefers spending time on a battlefield than at home with his wife. She finds solace in the bond she forges with her new young stepdaughter, her friendship with William Caxton, learning to rule her new country, and her unusual confidante, a dwarf named Fortunata. But once in a while, she breaks the rules in the arms of her one true love...






Rose for the Crown takes place during England's Wars of the Roses, a civil war during the late fifteenth century between the royal houses of York and Lancaster, the white and the red rose respectively.

My protagonist is fictional Kate Haute, poor relation to a well-connected family, the Hautes of Ightham Mote in Kent, cousins to Edward IV's queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Richard Haute takes her in to be companion to his daughter. At thirteen, Kate is married first to a wealthy old merchant, who dies two years later. She is then given permission to marry the boy of her dreams, George Haute, a distant cousin of the Kent Hautes and he takes a happy Kate to his home in Suffolk. Her happiness is short-lived, however, and George is a disappointment. George's patron is Sir John Howard, later Duke of Norfolk, and thus Kate becomes acquainted with his new wife, Margaret, soon to be Kate's closest friend.


Through the Howards, she meets and has a five-year liaison with Richard, duke of Gloucester, later Richard III. During the four years before Richard's marriage to Lady Anne Neville, Kate and Richard have three illegitimate children.

Richard's story becomes the focus of the book once he is king, with Kate helping him through several crises and her love and loyalty buoying him at these times. She is on Bow Bridge in Leicester when he rides out with his army to Bosworth Field, and she keeps vigil over his body upon its return to that city following the house of York's defeat at the hands of Henry Tudor.


To read more about these books.
Go to http://www.anneeastersmith.com/