Northumberland for Christmas!

Why not visit the Northumberland Border country this Christmas? FAIR BORDER BRIDE is up for sale on Amazon Kindle at $3. Here's a link to the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyui1kfCd_8

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling, page-turning historical romance, 22 Nov 2011

By N. Steven-fountain "Lorna Mack"
Jen Black has crafted a compelling love story set in a time and place of which little is known but about which I was left both informed and wanting more. The historical detail takes you back to 1543 from the very first page. Vivid characters spring to life and you are there with them among the market stalls. You can smell the aromas, feel the fabrics, hear the voices and sense the undercurrents and attractions emerging between the protagonists. A tender, believable love story develops and on the final page you are left feeling slightly bereft as when any terrific story ends.

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful bride in a turbulent country..., 31 Oct 2011

By Lindsay Townsend (Yorkshire, UK)
From its fast-paced, compelling opening, 'Fair Border Bride' is an exciting historical romance set in the border lands of northern England in 1543. The romance of Alina and Harry is full of incident and tenderness and is a well-told story, with moments of humour, sensitivity and passion. They are sympathetic, rounded people and believable in their dilemmas and conflicts. The other characters in the novel are also very well-drawn, and the whole is filled with fascinating historical detail about a part of England that is rarely explored in Tudor historical fiction. If you want to lose yourself in vivid adventure and romance, I have no hesitation in recommending this novel by Jen Black.

Blurb: Harry is working for his father, the Deputy Lord Warden of the West March, and adopts the alias Harry Scott. Unhappily, Alina’s father is at feud with the entire family Scott,and flings Harry into the dungeon at Aydon Castle and threatens him with the Leap next day. Alina creeps out of her bed to visit Harry at midnight when the castle is quiet.

Short Excerpt:

“Tell me,” he said, before he forgot all practical things in the delight of her presence. “Your father threatens me with something called the Leap. What is it?”

“She dipped her head, and he heard her sharp intake of breath. “It’s the ravine, Harry.” She pointed towards the dark bulk of the hall. “On the other side is a ravine. It is deep, with the Ay burn at the bottom. Father…he makes prisoners jump from the precipice outside the hall.”

“Ah.” He raised her knuckles to his mouth, and kissed them to dispel the shadowy presence of Death looming in the darkness behind him. He remembered looking into the ravine the night he rode up here. His tongue probed the cleft between her fingers. She gasped. Harry’s blood sang through his body, and he kissed her knuckles again. “How deep, do you think?”

“Twenty times the height of a man, they say.” She shivered and frowned as she watched him nuzzle her fingers. “There are rocks and trees…”

“And no one survives?”

Her face crumpled. “Oh, Harry, sometimes they do, but they are broken, twisted creatures—”

A deep voice sounded from above, and Alina flung up her head. “Matho, please!”

Matho must have agreed, for she turned back to Harry. Her hand had warmed in his and when he kissed it once more, her other hand snaked through the bars and stroked his face, crept to the back of his neck.

“Ah, Alina,” he murmured. “Would that we had no iron bars between us.”

His flesh hardened. If this was his last night on earth, he wanted some pleasure to beguile his thoughts. He reached both hands through the grill and drew her close against the iron bars and in truth she was not reluctant, even when his hand roamed beneath her cloak, caught a ribbon and her nightgown gaped from neck to waist. His palm found the firm weight and curve of her breast and nestled around it.”

Jen Black

http://jenblackauthor.blogspot.com

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fair-Border-Bride-ebook/dp/B005VPXA42#_

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots

By Stephanie Burkhart

Gabrielle Anwar, Margaret Tudor on "The Tudors."


A part of Henry VII always worried that the English Crown might not fall to his male progeny. He is quoted telling his councilors:

"Supposing, which God forbid, that all my male progeny should be come extinct and the kingdom devolve by law to Margaret's heirs, will England be damaged thereby or benefited?"

This was in 1502, as England waited to see if Arthur and Katherine, Prince and Princess of Wales, had conceived. The future for Henry VII's male progeny looked bright. But we all know history had other plans.

What niggled in the back of Henry VII's mind? Was he haunted by the deaths of the Princes in the Tower, rightful heirs to the throne, before their deaths? Did he have anything to do with the Princes' deaths, as the rumor mill implied? Only history knows, but he did feel, STRONGLY, that his daughter's heirs just might inherit his kingdom.

Margaret was born in NOV 1489. She was six when her father proposed a marriage between her and the Scottish king, James IV. This was Henry's way to quell the support the Scottish had for Perkin Warbeck, who was supposedly Richard of York, Edward IV's son. Rumor was Elizabeth Woodville, put a changeling in her son's place before he was taken to the tower.

In 1502, Margaret was married to James IV by proxy. She was 13. It was noted that Henry, Duke of York, 10 years old, threw a tantrum when he realized his sister held higher precedence than he did at court.

In 1503, Margaret joined her husband in Scotland. It was a poor nation, but James was a strong leader and held the warring nobles in check.

James and Margaret were not a love match, but there was strong affection between the couple. Interestingly, Margaret didn't bear children right away. It was speculated she used birth control methods of the time to "time" her children. She was 17 when she first gave birth to a son. Total, Margaret had six children with James IV, but only 1 child, James V, lived to adulthood. All her other children with James died in infancy.

The Scots were natural allies to the French. In 1513, James went to war with England to honor his French alliance and died in the Battle of Flodden. Interesting Historical Note: Katherine of Aragon, now Queen Katherine of England was Regent at the time, and it was her forces that killed James.

Margaret was named regent – as long as she stayed a widow. She gave birth to a son in 1514, after her husband's death.

She managed the regency well, but her heart got the better of her. Her first marriage was for state reasons, her second was for love – she married Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a Scottish Lord.

The Scottish lords didn't like that and sent for John Stewart, Duke of Albany to be regent from France. Without support, Margaret was force to flee to England. Her daughter, Margaret Douglas was born in England. (She lived to adulthood and was the Countess of Lennox – Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley's mother – remember him? Mary of Scot's husband)

Archibald stayed in Scotland while Margaret was in England. (Everyone thought he'd stay in England with his wife and baby daughter.) He had to hold his property so the crown couldn't get it. The separation ruined the marriage and Margaret sought a divorce. In 1527, the pope gave it to her.

Her brother, Henry VIII, was appalled. Ironic, considering what he dared to do just a couple of years later – get a divorce himself. And we all know what the Pope told him.

Margaret played Scottish politics and intrigue. Her son, James, was crowned at 12 and she remained an advisor, but their relationship always had a bit of a strain to it due to their separation when he was younger.

Margaret married a 3rd time to Henry Stewart, another Scottish lord. She married for love, but time quickly proved her a 3rd time loser. Henry was a big flake like Archibald. Through the help of her daughter-in-law, Mary Guise, Margaret reconciled with Henry, her husband. She died of a stroke in 1541.

Her son, James V, had a daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary's son, James VI came to the English throne, heir to Elizabeth I, Henry VIII's daughter.

While Elizabeth served well as Henry VIII's heir, it was Margaret's great-grandson who united England and Scotland, and in her way, it was Margaret's heirs who better served England, as her father supposed they would.