Funk-N-Fiction

Today we’re welcoming historical fantasy, science fiction/urban fantasy, & mystery author Nancy Northcott to share a bit about something that makes her happy — her passion for history (real history, and the history she builds into her stories!)

Jennifer, thank you for having me as your guest! Hi, everyone!

Every once in a while, a special opportunity lands on a writer’s desk. One landed on mine earlier this year when I was invited to contribute a story to an anthologyhonoring King Richard III. All proceeds from the sale of the anthology, A Spirited and Most Courageous Prince, go to the Scoliosis Association UK. My story, “The Banbury Road,” deals with an important moment involving Richard, who was then Duke of Gloucester, and his older brothers, King Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence. It’s special to me for a couple of reasons, not including my general history nerd tendencies.

It’s no secret that I think Richard III got a raw deal from history, in part due to the Tudors who followed him and in part due to William Shakespeare’s Richard III. I’ve enjoyed giving presentations about King Richard and that conflict to college classes studying the play. It’s a terrific story, and the Richard in it is a gripping character, but he’s a far cry from the actual man. I like to remind everyone that Shakespeare was a dramatist, not a historian, and he made stuff up for a living. So I welcomed the chance to write about the king in a way that avoids the spurious Shakespearean cloud.

The second reason this project is special to me is that I have scoliosis. I was diagnosed with it when I was eleven and had a spinal fusion in my thirties. King Richard also had scoliosis, though his was in a different area of his spine than mine and was worse than mine. Of course, the remedy of a fusion wasn’t available to him in the 15^th century. And just so everyone knows, he did not have a humpback. Scoliosis causes a sideways curve. It shifts the torso out of alignment and makes one shoulder higher than the other, but that’s not the same as a humpback. Those come from kyphosis.

This is my first story that’s both historical and grounded in our world, with no romance or magic involved. It’s about the relationships of those three brothers.

The Wars of the Roses were an incredibly complex series of conflicts. As power shifted between the royal houses of York and Lancaster, so did the allegiances of various noblemen. The American Revolution is sometimes called The Cousins War, with Great Britain and the US as the cousins, but the Wars of the Rose , also known by that term, literally did involve cousins. The major claimants at the various stages were all descended from Henry III. When I give my presentations, I put up a genealogical chart and share my opinion that the Wars of the Roses happened because Henry III didn’t keep his codpiece laced. (This is an example of 15^th-century armor from a display at the Wallace Collection, London.)

My story is set in April 1471, in one of the later phases of the conflict. Edward IV’s former ally, the Earl of Warwick, resented that his influence over the king was waning. He and the ever-greedy George, Duke of Clarence, had joined forces and had rebelled against King Edward, even driving the king into exile in Burgundy with their brother Richard and some others. Edward and Richard’s sister Margaret happened to be Duchess of Burgundy.

Meanwhile, Warwick and Clarence couldn’t win the support they needed from the English nobility. If Edward returned and vanquished them, they were looking at execution as traitors. In desperation, they formed an alliance with Margaret of Anjou, queen to Henry VI, whom Edward IV had deposed but not killed. (If that sounds messy, you’re on the right track; it was.)

Queen Margaret understandably wanted her husband back on the throne and their son secure as his heir. She therefore refused to give George the degree of influence and power Warwick had originally promised him. His frustration made him receptive to pleas from his mother and sisters to rejoin the family fold and support Edward’s efforts to regain his throne.

Edward, Richard, and their party returned from exile in the spring of 1471 with backing from the Duchy of Burgundy. George agreed to join them and to bring soldiers to help Edward’s cause. A contemporary chronicle, The Historie of the Arrivall of Edward IV, describes their reunion but says nothing about the brothers’ feelings as they went into this meeting. Those are the subject of my story.

For a very readable an balanced biography of Richard III, check out Matthew Lewis’s, Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me. He does in-depth research but writes in a very clear, readable style. You might also check out the movie The Lost King, which is about Philippa Langley’s discovery of King Richard III’s body in that famous car park in Leicester. This photo shows the armor made for his character to wear in the movie.

This is the armor made for Richard III’s character to wear in The Lost King when it was displayed at The Wallace Collection, London.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks again to Jennifer for hosting me!

What’s your favorite era in history, and why?
Do you have a historical novel or film?
A question about Richard III?

Answering any one of these questions in the comments puts you in a drawing for a Kindle copy of A Spirited and Most Courageous Prince.
Giveaway closes at midnight eastern time on November 9, 2024.
Winner will be announced here by November 11.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Coastal Magic Convention Featured Author Spotlight post.
Nancy will be one of the amazing authors we’ll get to hang out with during the 13th annual reader weekend in Daytona Beach, FL, Feb 20-23, 2025.
 For a full list of Featured Authors, info about the weekend, and link to register to attend, visit http://www.CoastalMagicConvention.com. 
And be sure to watch for more Featured Author spotlights coming up here each month!