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Audiobook narrated by Aoifa McMahonThe beautiful Aoife MacMurchada is 14 years old when her father Diarmit, King of Leinster, is deposed by a new Irish high king and flees with his family to the England of Henry II. A mutual acquaintance suggests an alliance with Richard de Clare of Striguil on the Welsh Borders. Because of his support of Stephen during the Stephen/Mathilda conflict, Richard has recently been divested of Pembroke on the death of King Stephen and the accession of Henry, so he's open to new opportunities, even if it means fighting for them. An alliance between Diarmit and Richard means a wedding, but Aoife isn't about to be a pawn in anyone's game. If she does this, she'll do it on her own terms. Though the marriage is successful, it's short, and Aoife consistently works to protect her future and her children's inheritance through her guarded friendship with Henry II. Her daughter Isabelle de Clare will eventually resurface as the teen bride of William the Marshal in one of Chadwick's books, The Scarlet Lion, and Marshal has a tiny walk-on part in this book. But The Irish Princess is quite firmly Aiofe's story. Not, perhaps, my favourite Chadwick, but readable and entertaining. Aoifa McMahon's narration works well.
Narrated by Rosalyn Landor
I like Elizabeth Chadwick's writing. She makes history come alive through personal stories. Sometimes her characters are real, and other times invented, but withing a strictly historical time frame. These characters are invented though set in the (very real) time of the Norman Conquest. This is a book of two parts, the first is about Ailith, a Saxon, happily married to Goldwin, a talented blacksmith, and living in London. Pre Hastings, a Norman wine merchant takes the house next to Ailith and Golwin and thus the scene is set for Ailith to be drawn into the Norman world after Hastings and to meet Rolf de Brize, Norman horse breeder who ends up with English lands after Hastings. The second part concerns Rolf and Ailith's daughter, Julitta, and Benedict who allows himself to be married to Rolf's other daughter, which is unfortunate as it turns out. During the twenty year span of the story the Normans are established in England and throughout this time Rolf is supplying war-horses to the king and his knights. There's some good detail in here and the story is an interesting read, though not my absolute favourite of Ms Chadwick's books (which would be the sequence about William Marshall). Well worth a look if you like your history romantic or your romance historical.
This is the third on the Wild Hunt trilogy (which actually has a prequel to make it a trilogy of four books). Prequel: The Coming of the Wolf - Lady Christen and Miles Le Gallois. #1. The Wild Hunt - Guyon son of Miles, and Judith of Ravenstow. #2. The Running Vixen - Adam de Lacey, Guyon's ward, and Heulewen, Guyon's bastard daughter. #3. The Leopard Unleashed - Renard, son of Guyon and Judith, and Lady Elene of Woolcott.
A timely re-read. I first read this in 2010 and had forgotten most of the story. This is set on the turbulent Welsh borders in the time of William Rufus. Guyon of Ledworth and Judith of Ravenstow meet on their wedding day, a marriage of convenience between strangers in order to protect both their lands from Judith's ruthless and powerful uncle, de Belleme. Guy is in his late twenties with a mistress (Rhosyn) that he loves; Judith's a month short of sixteen and desperately afraid that her new husband will be as violent and cruel as her late father. Guyon sees her as a child and their marriage is (at first) unconsummated, even though he's (gently) set aside his mistress, mother of his daughter. But Judith, young as she is, knows how to run a keep and Guyon and Judith gradually grow into each other despite political intrigue and a secret that could prove deadly. It's worth noting that this was Chadwick's first book.
I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Chadwick's historical novels. This is set just three years after William, Duke of Normandy, invaded at Hastings, killed Harold and took the English crown, but the actual Conquest continues with the Harrying of the North which caused whole tracts of land to be listed as 'waste' in the Domesday Book because William's thugs had put down a potential rebellion with extreme prejudice. That's the background. The main characters are entirely fictional, but there are actual historical personages on the periphery. Lady Christen witnesses her elderly husband's murder when their manor is attacked, and barely a day later she's agreed to marry Miles Le Gallois, Lord of Milnham on Wye, because he's her best option for protecting the manor and the people in it. Miles has ambition. He marries Christen as a preemptive move to gain her lands, but in doing so angers those further up the food chain. As you might expect from a Chadwick novel, love grows, but there's also plenty of peril and action. It's a quick read with a good climax, but the final resolution happens off the page which rounds it off nicely, but is a little disappointing.
As William Marshal lays on his death bed at the age of 72, his mind wanders back to a turbulent time in his youth when he was Marshal for the young prince 'King' Harry (Henry II's eldest son who was given too much, too soon and rebelled against his father before dying of dysentery). Commanded by Harry he does something he deeply regrets. As a penance he undertakes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to absolve not only himself and his knights, but also the (now dead) young king of all their crimes against God. Little is known about William's adventures in Outremer so Ms Chadwick has a free hand with the story.
