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Medieval Book List
- A Knight With Mercy – Laurel O’Donnell
- Beloved in His Eyes by Laurel O’Donnell
- The Bravest of Them All – Laurel O’Donnell
- A Knight With Grace – Laurel O’Donnell
- The Bride and the Brute – Laurel O’Donnell – a free romance eBook
- A Knight of Honor – Laurel O’Donnell
- Angel’s Assassin – Laurel O’Donnell
- Cherished Protector of Her Heart by Laurel O’Donnell
- Champion of the Heart – Laurel O’Donnell
- Midnight Shadow – Laurel O’Donnell
- My Noble Knight – Laurel O’Donnell
- The Angel and the Prince – Laurel O’Donnell
- The Lady and the Falconer – Laurel O’Donnell
- A Knight’s Duty – Dana D’Angelo
- A Knight’s Reward – Catherine Kean
- A Knight’s Vengeance – Catherine Kean
- A Knight’s Temptation – Catherine Kean
- A Man Of Value – Anna Markland
- A Stormy Knight – Amy Mullen
- At His Command – Historical Romance Version – Ruth Kaufman
- At His Command – Inspirational Version – Ruth Kaufman
- Black Sword – Kathryn Le Veque
- Bound By His Kiss – Catherine Kean
- Carried Away – Anna Markland
- Chatelaine of Forez – Vijaya Schartz
- Conquering Passion – Anna Markland
- Dance of Desire – Catherine Kean
- Defiant Passion – Anna Markland
- Dark and Bright – Anna Markland
- Dark Under the Cover of Night – Jayne Castel
- Highlander – Cathleen Ross
- If Love Dares Enough – Anna Markland
- Lady of Luxembourg – Vijaya Schartz
- Lady of the Mist – Elizabeth Rose
- Lady Renegade – Elizabeth Rose
- Lord of the Blade – Elizabeth Rose
- Lord of Illusion – Elizabeth Rose
- My Lady’s Treasure – Catherine Kean
- One True Knight – Dana D’Angelo
- Pagan Queen – Vijaya Schartz
- Passion In The Blood – Anna Markland
- Prequel – Daughters of the Dagger – Elizabeth Rose (Daughters of the Dagger Series)
- Princess of Bretagne – Vijaya Schartz
- Redefining Rayne – Amy Mullen
- Ruby – Book 1 of the Daughters of the Dagger Series – Elizabeth Rose
- Sapphire – Book 2 of the Daughters of the Dagger Series – Elizabeth Rose
- Amber – Book 3 of the Daughters of the Dagger Series – Elizabeth Rose
- Amethyst – Book 4 of the Daughters of the Dagger Series – Elizabeth Rose
- Seducing Sigefroi – Vijaya Schartz
- Sweet Taste of Love – Anna Markland
- The Courageous Heart – Merry Farmer
- The Dragon and the Dreamwalker – Elizabeth Rose
- The Duke and the Dryad – Elizabeth Rose
- The Faithful Heart – Merry Farmer
- The Loyal Heart – Merry Farmer
- The Promise – A Medieval Christmas Novella – Dana D’Angelo
- The Sheik and the Siren – Elizabeth Rose
- The Sword and the Sylph – Elizabeth Rose
- The Winds Of The Heavens – Anna Markland
- Viking Fire – Andrea R. Cooper
- Wild Viking Princess – Anna Markland
Category Archives: Blogs
High Crime and Punishment in Medieval Times by Dana D’Angelo
Medieval Romances turns the spotlight on medieval romance author Dana D’Angelo. Dana has written a wonderful article about punishment and high crimes during the medieval ages. Enjoy!
High Crime and Punishment in the Medieval Period
by Dana D’Angelo
Disclaimer: This article has gruesome depictions of medieval punishments that may be disturbing to some. And while I enjoy researching and writing about the good and bad things about the middles ages, you won’t find gratuitous, gory details or violence in my stories. That’s just not my style (smiley face)
Crime is prevalent in all societies and throughout history. This is not a surprising fact. At our core, we (just like our ancestors) abhor criminals. We want these bad guys to suffer; it’s our human nature.
But during the medieval period crimes ranging from stealing to murder were dealt with very harshly. You see back then, there was no formal or dedicated police force. Penalties were generally meted out by the community. As you can imagine, the main purpose of these sentences were to keep the populous in a constant state of fear, and to deter any would-be criminals from engaging in illegal acts.
Some common forms of punishment were:
– fines
– public shaming (ie. placed in stocks in the town square, flogging etc.)
– mutilation (cutting off one or more body parts)
– death
The most serious crimes however were heard at the king’s court. It was here that the accused faced a trial by ordeal, and the outcome of this trial determined whether a person was guilty or not. Generally, the three most common trials by ordeal were:
a) Trial by fire — An example of this trial was when the accused was forced to hold a piece of hot iron, or had his hand plunged into boiling oil. Afterward, the wound was bandaged. The suspect’s innocence or guilt was determined upon what happened after the bandage was removed. If the wound healed, he was innocent. Conversely if it festered, he was guilty and faced further sentencing.
b) Trial by water — A from of this trial occurred when a suspected criminal was tied up and thrown into a lake. If drowned (and dead), he was innocent. If he floated, he was found guilty and faced mutilation or execution.
c) Trial by combat — The opposing sides were armed with weapons such as war hammers, cudgels, or quarter staves which contained sharp iron points. The last man standing won the case.
If you ask me, these punishments made no logical sense. However the theory was that if a person was innocent, God would miraculously intervene and prevent the accused from becoming injured and/or killed.
You’re probably nodding your head and thinking that yes, Dana was right. Punishments back in the middle ages were pretty horrid. Unfortunately these cruel forms of reprisal paled in comparison to what those accused of high crime or high treason were confronted with.
High treason was the worst offence that a person could commit. The king saw the act of treason as a personal attack, which in turn was an assault on his status as a sovereign and a direct threat to his right to govern his kingdom. Left unheeded, the crime had the potential to undermine the state. And so the king was left with no choice but to seek full retribution and punish the criminals in the most appalling way imaginable.
The Treason Act 1351 was enacted during a time when the monarch’s right to rule went unchallenged and the laws were written mainly to protect the interests of the throne and sovereign. King Edward III, the ruler at the time, defined what treason entailed. In his Act, he outlined the scope of high treason as:
“…compassing or imagining (ie. planning) the death of the king, his wife or eldest son and heir; violating the king’s wife, his eldest daughter if she was unmarried, or the wife of his eldest son and heir; levying war against the king in his realm, adhering to the king’s enemies in his realm, giving them aid and comfort in his realm or elsewhere; counterfeiting the Great Seal, or the Privy Seal or king’s coinage; knowingly importing counterfeit money; killing the Chancellor, or Treasurer or one of the king’s Justices while performing their offices…” (Wikipedia)
The Act was split into two categories — Petty Treason and High Treason. Petty treason consisted of a servant killing his master or lord, a wife killing her husband, or a clergyman killing his prelate or high ranking member of the clergy. Men who were guilty of petty treason were drawn and hanged while women, in regards to both petty and high treason, were drawn and burnt in an attempt to preserve public morality.
Men who were accused of high treason, however, had it worse of all.
Before the 16th century, only one witness was required to convict a person of treason. Suspects were first questioned by the Privy Council, a trial that was usually conducted in secret and held in underground prisons. Since torture was a legitimate way to extract confessions, obtain names of co-conspirators and educe other damning information, it was likely that it was used during the inquiry. After this private trial, the convicted met with a torturous execution in public. And to ensure that a large crowd attended the drawing, hanging and quartering of the condemned, officials declared the day a public holiday and offered free penances to spectators.
First, the prisoner was tied to a hurdle, which was basically a rack made from thin interwoven branches. This panel was attached behind a horse and dragged to the place of execution. With spectators watching expectantly, the accused was hanged in such a way that his neck would stretch but not break. He dangled there for long minutes and just when he was about to lose consciousness, he was cut down.
And while the prisoner was in a helpless sate, the executioners cut off his genitals and slit open his stomach. They removed the intestines and heart and burned the parts in front of the convicted man. Next, they ripped out other organs from the body and tossed the pieces into the fire. When that task was completed, they severed the head from the corpse and chopped the body into four distinct quarters. To prevent premature rotting, the corpse’s head and quarters were parboiled. And after all this was completed, the body parts were transported to different areas of the kingdom and mounted in prominent places such as the London Bridge. And it was there the reminders stayed, serving as a grisly warning to potential traitors.
Okay… now take a deep breath. I told you that retribution for crimes committed in the medieval era was horrific, didn’t I? I think that almost everyone would agree with me that it’s a good thing that we live in the 21st century. At least we can revel in the knowledge that we have the police to rely on to handle crimes, and that we would never be called upon to witness medieval brutality. Thank goodness for that!
Dana D’Angelo is the author of One True Knight and A Knight’s Duty, Books 1 and 2 of The Knights of Honor Trilogy. She endeavors to capture the essence of the medieval period and weave facts and fantasy into tales of action, adventure and romance. You can learn more about Dana by visiting www.dana-dangelo.com
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Medieval Romance Monday – Lord of the Blade by Elizabeth Rose
For this week’s Medieval Romance Monday, we are featuring Lord of the Blade by Elizabeth Rose. The author shared this story with us:
Lord of the Blade will always be special to me, as it was my first ‘baby’ so to speak. I wrote it years ago, being the first medieval romance – actually, the first romance – I ever wrote.
I have always loved anything medieval, with my all-time favorite movie being Lady Hawk. That movie had all the elements I crave – medieval, paranormal (shapeshifting) and of course romance.
I wanted the heroine in Lord of the Blade to be the lord’s servant because I knew how much fun I could have writing that scenario. But once I started, I got so involved in the characters that I decided my hero, Lord Corbett Blake, was a man I wanted to see more of. (So did my heroine, Devon, but that’s beside the point.)
Since he was all alone with no parents, and even his friend the sorcerer missing, I decided to include a few siblings that he could discover in future books. That’s where his sister, Wren, comes in with the second book of the series, Lady Renegade. She has been missing since the age of three, but Corbett does remember her. Her story is complex, but she has been blinded by a marcher lord and leads a band of renegade women. And I have to admit I fell in love with the hero in this story, the Scotsman, Storm MacKeefe. (I do believe you’ll be seeing some of his clan members in upcoming novels.)
Corbett’s mother has died birthing his twin brother and sister. He believes them to have been stolen by the nursemaid and died at sea. That is only partially correct, as we see in the third book of the series, Lord of Illusion.
Madoc ap Powell is Corbett’s long lost brother but neither of them know it. He has been raised as a thief by the disowned wife of a pirate. The heroine, Abigail of Blackmore, is a lady on the run from marrying the evil lord of Shrewsbury. She takes up with the thief, not knowing he plans on bringing her right to the place she is running from – Shrewsbury.
In the fourth book of the series, Lady of the Mist, we see Madoc’s twin sister, Echo. She has been raised by an infamous pirate as the son he never had. The hero, Garrett, is the brother of Abigail and also a baron of the Cinque Ports. He has sworn allegiance to keep the channel safe, and when he encounters Echo’s pirate ship, both their lives take a drastic turn.
Four siblings all with fascinating tales of their own are brought back together in the Legacy of the Blade Series. Each book can stand alone, but characters from the other books are brought in at the beginning and the end. This enables you to see what has happened in their lives, but it may ruin a surprise or two, so I suggest to read them in order if you can.
Please visit my website at elizabethrosenovels.com to read excerpts from each of the books. And thank you once again for your wonderful reviews and support! Watch my website, as the second book in my Elemental Series, The Duke and the Dryad will be released sometime in June, 2013. This is also a medieval, with paranormal elements included.
You can read more about Lord of the Blade right here on Medieval Romances.
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The White Wolf Prophecy Project – A Kickstarter Campaign
HELP A SISTER OUT?
Hey all! Medieval Romances is graciously allowing me to use this forum to tell you about a unique Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign I’ve created titled, “The White Wolf Prophecy Project.”
Simply put, I want to incorporate beautiful and vivid illustrations like this into my full-length epic medieval action-adventure romance novel, and thus create a sort of hybrid version of a graphic novel. It is my vision and goal to visually bring to life the character and action in the story for the enhanced entertainment and enjoyment of the reader.
And to that purpose I want to commission the talented young artist who created the stunning cover art above which I commissioned for book two in The White Wolf Prophecy series called, “The Wolf and The Lily.”
All the details about the campaign, the artist, me, and the book series can be found at Kickstarter.com by its project title or by clicking on this link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1228274291/the-white-wolf-prophecy-project
(You will also see a short video on there which is meant to be amusing yet at the same time show you one reason why I created this project campaign.)
In addition, expanded chapter excerpts and other material dealing with this two-book series can be explored at www.readexcerpts.com to give potential backers a good feel for the book’s storylines and its characters.
Crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter are a valuable tool for artists in all fields—but at the same time, it is hard to grab the attention of potential backers because there are literally hundreds of worthy projects to support. “The White Wolf Prophecy Project” has only been up about a week or so and it has already rapidly sunk beneath the waves of new daily projects. And, unfortunately, I don’t have a huge network of family and friends to tap into for funding support…which is why I am hoping for the generosity of those strangers reading this blog who might find merit in my project…and even spread the word about it through email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
So that is why I have come to you for help in reaching my minimum goal amount. Even a pledge of $5.00 is appreciated, and no monies are collected unless the minimum goal amount is reached by the time the project period ends on June 8.
Please take a few minutes when you can find time to check out the links posted in this message to explore the project, watch the video, and perhaps even read some of the chapter excerpts. (Note: some new bonus Rewards will be added soon for those who contribute $100 or more.)
Help this “sistah” out…and I will do my best to be there for you if and when you or someone you know also create a project for one of the primary crowd-funding sites. Just let me know! Thank you. P. J. Rainis ( aka author R. L. Whittaker, www.rlwhittaker.com)
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