I was planning on setting it in the 13th century, during the reign of Edward I. Mostly because my initial plot was set during the Welsh wars, but if I cut out the Welsh angle, then I can really set it Anytime Medieval. But I really need to do research on . . . everything.
I've been watching your discussions on this topic - I'd LOVE to be able to read a book in Medieval England which shows the minutiae of life!
I know! It's my prime motivation in writing this. I picked up one of the medieval romances I own today, and read the first chapter, and I had to put it down. The Norman knight in it, outfitted for war and presumably covered from head to foot in chainmail, is like leaping on and off his horse and running around like an Olympic sprinter. At one point, he picks up one of his men, who has fallen headfirst into a moat, by the ankle, and "with a flick of his wrist" flings him one-handed back onto land.
Oh, it hurt me to read that. Who is this guy? The Incredible Hulk?
Have you read the Catherine Levendeur novels by Sharan Newman? They're mysteries set in 12th-century France, and they are so good. Catherine is a student at Heloise's . . . um, thingy. Brain is not working right now. Anyway, the series has Heloise and Abelard, and their impossibly named son Astrolabe, and the books appear to be about medieval people in a medieval setting.
Sharan Newman is an actual medieval scholar, with degrees in it. She wrote "The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code" which was sort of a godsend amongst all that hoopla.
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I've been watching your discussions on this topic - I'd LOVE to be able to read a book in Medieval England which shows the minutiae of life!
I know! It's my prime motivation in writing this. I picked up one of the medieval romances I own today, and read the first chapter, and I had to put it down. The Norman knight in it, outfitted for war and presumably covered from head to foot in chainmail, is like leaping on and off his horse and running around like an Olympic sprinter. At one point, he picks up one of his men, who has fallen headfirst into a moat, by the ankle, and "with a flick of his wrist" flings him one-handed back onto land.
Oh, it hurt me to read that. Who is this guy? The Incredible Hulk?
Have you read the Catherine Levendeur novels by Sharan Newman? They're mysteries set in 12th-century France, and they are so good. Catherine is a student at Heloise's . . . um, thingy. Brain is not working right now. Anyway, the series has Heloise and Abelard, and their impossibly named son Astrolabe, and the books appear to be about medieval people in a medieval setting.
Sharan Newman is an actual medieval scholar, with degrees in it. She wrote "The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code" which was sort of a godsend amongst all that hoopla.