Royal Weddings Through the Ages

Anne here, interviewing three of the seven authors who contributed to a Harlequin Historical anthology called Royal Weddings Through the Ages — Terri Brisbin, Michelle Willingham and Elizabeth Rolls. It's a fascinating idea — looking at royal weddings from the 12th century to the middle of the 19th century — and even one about Napoleon's royal wedding. 

Anne: What was the brief for this anthology? Whose idea was it ? Did you each choose your own Royal Wedding or were they allocated to you?

Terri: The idea for the anthology came from the London editors who wanted to do something to celebrate the (then) upcoming royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton last April. They decided to commission a collection of short historical stories about real royal weddings of the past and invited Harlequin Historical and Mills&Boon Historical authors to write them. Each author chose their royal wedding, though I know I was specifically asked to write a medieval one.

Anne: Terri, your story was about the marriage of  Eleanor of Aquitaine and the future Henry 11 in 1152. Could you tell us a little about it, please? 

Terri: It's called  WHAT THE DUCHESS WANTS. Eleanor, the wealthiest woman in Europe, has just been freed from her marriage to Louis of France and knows she must find a suitable husband quickly. Her wealth attracts many suitors and this time the decision lies in her hands. Who should she choose? 

Henry of Anjou is hungry—for lands, for titles and especially for the woman who could help in his quest to gain the ultimate position—King of England. Though years separate them, Henry understands that beneath the titles she carries and the wealth and power she controls, Eleanor is a woman. . . a woman who must be wooed to marriage.

They would establish a dynasty that would be among the most famous in history and it would all begin with a simple decision – what did the duchess want?

Anne: Royal weddings aren't the easiest of topics for a romantic story — what was the main challenge of your story?

Terri: For me, the challenge came because I chose to use the actual royal couple for my story. To stay accurate to the real history of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II and yet make it a love story required walking a narrow path while making it entertaining. I truly believe that there must have been some softer feelings, at least an attraction, between Eleanor and Henry that made him her choice of husband and lord. 

Anne: Did you discover anything in your research that surprised you? 

Terri: I did discover that it was quite the practice to kidnap heiresses to gain control of their persons AND their fortunes. Eleanor herself was the target of at least one kidnapping attempt on her way back to Aquitaine from Paris after her divorce. The perpetrator was Henry’s younger brother who wanted Eleanor as his bride....and her wealth, too.

Anne: Thanks, Terri. Michelle, you chose the marriage of Richard the Lionheart. What influenced your choice?

Michelle: I chose Richard and Berengaria because I’ve always loved that era in history and it held a strong connection to my Irish medieval series.

Anne: What was the main challenge for you in telling Richard and Berengaria's story?

Michelle: For me, one challenge was Richard the Lionheart’s sexuality. It’s a gray area and historians argue about whether or not he was bisexual, gay, or why his marriage to Berengaria was so challenging. It makes for a challenging happily-ever-after, considering he and Berengaria were separated after the Crusade and they never had any children. I ended up using a different hero/heroine, based off my Irish medieval MacEgan Brothers series, and framed their love story around Richard and Berengaria’s wedding.


Anne: That's a clever solution. Tell us about the story.

Michelle: Princess Berengaria's lady-in-waiting, Adriana, takes her duty to the future Queen of England seriously—she will defend her to the death! When their sea voyage to the Holy Land ends up in shipwreck and capture Adriana knows her only hope lies with the mysterious Irishman, Liam MacEgan.

Liam escapes to reach Richard the Lionheart and together they plan a rescue mission. Nothing will stop these warriors from succeeding—their future brides are captive on Cyprus and they'll raise hell to claim them!

Anne: Did anything of interest pop up in the research that surprised you? Something you had to leave out of the story?

Michelle: I never knew that Richard and Berengaria were married on the island of Cyprus. (That's Cyprus on the left.) It was quite an adventurous story in real life, with Berengaria shipwrecked off the island, and Richard had to overthrow the emperor of Cyprus to take back his bride. I did leave out Richard’s experiences on Crusade but was able to use it as material for a future story (in my anthology Warriors in Winter that comes out next December). Apparently Saladin and Richard couldn’t come to an agreement, and out of rage, Richard ordered the execution of over 2700 Muslim men, women, and children. His ruthless nature was surprising, but I was able to use that event in a later story because the hero Liam refuses to kill the women and children.

Anne: Thanks, Michelle. Now we'll jump a few centuries to the marriage of the Prince of Wales, later to become the Prince Regent in 1811. I must admit, Elizabeth Roll's story was the first in the anthology I turned to, precisely because I couldn't imagine how anyone could possibly make the Prince of Wales and Princess Caroline's wedding romantic. Elizabeth? 

Elizabeth: I deliberately chose the wedding of George, Prince of Wales, later Prince Regent and George IV, and Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfen-Buttel, precisely because it was so awful. Their first meeting and courtship - using the term loosely! - were truly scandalous. Prinny really did send his current mistress, Lady Jersey, down to Greenwich to meet the Princess. The main challenge was in portraying Prinny and Caroline very much as the historical record gives them to us, warts and all, from contemporary accounts and contrasting it with the way Kester and Linnet dealt with their own forced marriage of convenience. I thought all the scandal and drama around the royal wedding could create a good backdrop. And let's face it, we all love a good dollop of scandal<g>.

Anne: We do indeed. And I have to say, I thought the interweaving of the romance story with the royal wedding story worked really well. Did anything of interest pop up in the research that surprised you?
 
Elizabeth: Not so much that surprised me. I read fairly widely in that period and I was reasonably familiar with all the nasty little ins and outs of that particular royal marriage. There was no way I could get in much about Prinny's suspected prior and illegal marriage to the Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert; I had to allude to it, though, otherwise the way the poor Archbishop of Canterbury conducted the marriage didn't make a whole lot of sense. I'll admit to getting a belly laugh out of the accounts I read of the actual wedding. 

Anne: So, tell us about your story, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth:  Kester, Duke of Severn, has recently contracted a marriage of convenience to an heiress in order to save his family from his father's crushing debts. So he feels a certain sympathy with the Prince of Wales, who is being forced into marriage to settle his own debts. Being begged by Lord Malmesbury to intervene between the bickering royal couple leads Kester and Linnet to take another look at their own marriage.

Here's a short excerpt from Elizabeth's story, a conversation between Lord Malesbury and the hero of the story, the Duke of Severn.

"Lord, what a mess. Severn, if you can, try to see the prince. Represent to him the. . .the folly of continuing to insult his bride. She is not, I fear, of a governable or tractable temper. This, on top of sending Lady Jersey as a lady-in-waiting to meet her at Greenwich."

"He didn't."

"Oh, yes, he did," said Malmesbury. "Apparently the queen was behind it. And the blasted woman was late! Lady Jersey that is—not Her Majesty." His teeth actually ground. "Furthermore she had the temerity to attempt to sit beside the princess in the carriage. Claimed the motion made her unwell if she sat facing backwards!"

"Well, quite apart from Prinny's rudeness in sending his mistress to receive his bride," said Severn, "why the devil did Lady Jersey accept the appointment if she can't sit in a carriage backwards?"

Malmesbury's smile was pure acid. "I asked her that myself. Anyway, look Severn, if you can talk with the prince, try if you can to get him to see reason. He likes you. And haven't you recently married?"

"I returned from my honeymoon yesterday." And he didn't want to talk about it to anyone, least of all Prinny. "I'm surprised you knew anything about it."

The baron nodded. "Oh, yes, someone mentioned it in a letter. The thing is, he might listen to you. Voice of experience and so forth." Malmesbury looked apologetic. "After all, there are parallels, if you will forgive my bluntness."

Severn forcibly relaxed his hands. "At least His Highness is marrying to settle his own debts." he said coldly. "Then, at Malmesbury's steady regard, he sighed. "Oh, very well. I'll try what I can do, but I'm not making any promises."

Terri, Michelle and Elizabeth are each giving away a copy of Royal Weddings Through the Ages to someone who leaves a comment, asks a question of our guetsts, or leaves an answer to the following question:
— Which wedding, royal or otherwise, would you like to see as the subject for a story?

Comments

[Jenny]

Hello Anne. Great interviews.

You always believe that royalty has the last word in who they marry, and this would seem to be the case for Henry and Richard, but poor old George? He really should have considered a bit more, although I believe he needed his debts paid rather urgently. A lesson to us all.

A question to your guests - With their research, do they believe that the marriages they wrote about could have turned out any differently to what they did?

[Suzy Stewart Dubot]

Sometimes, arranged marriages do work. I know that George III's marriage was supposed to be happy even if his son's wasn't.

The marriage that would interest me is that between Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, sister to the princes in the Tower (there are even those who say that Henry was responsible for their deaths). I know he married her to secure his position as king after Richard III's defeat and there was also a problem of legitimacy but could they have loved each other? There is always something attractive about a powerful man!

[Manda Ward]

I have this book and its wonderful, especially as I am a HUGE royal and history fan. I particularly loved the story about Richard and Berengaria. Its not a period of history thats been written about much. Just wondering why there aren't many books set in the William/Mary, James I or Queen Anne eras. The dresses were extraordinarily beautiful in those days. Also would writing about the period from the 30s to the 60s be classed as historical now?

[Michelle Willingham]

Hi Jenny,

I think it's possible that the marriage of Richard and Berengaria might have been a better one, had it not been for the Crusade. Richard's entire focus was on winning that war, and when he was taken prisoner later, it only strained the marriage more. Had he married her and settled in England, it might have been very different indeed!

Manda--glad you enjoyed the story! In answer to your question, I think it may be because books during that timeframe haven't sold as well in the past. Publishers often will stick with the tried-and-true instead of taking risks. That said, I'd love to see some books in those eras!

With your question about the era from the 30s to the 60s--I'd say anything WWII and earlier would be historical, but nothing later. There are many folks who grew up in the 50's and 60's who would take offense.

[Elizabeth Rolls]

I don't think many Royals before the twentieth century had very much say in who they married. If George IV (Prinny) had been given his way, he would have married the Catholic widow Maria Fitzherbert openly instead of in a clandestine wedding which was mainly so that she felt herself to be married in the eyes of God and the Church. According to British law at the time the marriage was illegal because Prinny didn't have the King's consent. But this is why John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, paused significantly at the part of the wedding service asking if there is any just cause the marriage cannot go ahead. There were enough rumours that George was actually married to have him worried.

[kelly mann]

Enjoyed the interview and look forward to reading the book. Reading about any Royal wedding would be ok as long as it has a happy ending.

[Patricia Rice]

Thank you, Anne, for bringing such great guests. I think royal weddings probably fall under court intrigue and thrillers as much as romance,but they are fascinating to speculate about. Henry and Eleanor are a particular favorite of mine. Glad to have you here!

[Nancy]

Some say that Lady Jersey chose Princess caroline of Brunswick for the Prince's Bride rather than the Queen's niece who was also suggested as a possible bride. Lady Jersey felt that her position would be in danger if he married the Queen's niece.
The Prince deserved his fate because he put so little thought and effort into the matter. he spent less time choosing a bride than he did a horse.
Princess caroline was the one who got the raw deal.
Royal weddings are a hard sell because there frequently was little romance or love involved.

[Elizabeth Rolls]

Patricia, that was one of the temptations about the Prince of Wales/Caroline of Brunswick wedding - all the jockeying for position, the rumours about the marriage to Maria F, and of course, the sheer bitchiness of Lady Jersey. She was actually known as "That Bitch".
Didn't Jean Plaidy write a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine? I remember reading one as a teenager. I'm sure it was Plaidy.

[Ellie]

What a fascinating and lovely post today. Royal Weddings are always intriguing as well as special. Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip have always appealed to me for their uniqueness in everyway.

[Annie]

Royal Weddings have such allure. recent and in the past. It is no wonder with the pomp and majesty.

[Judy]

I have to add this to my TBR pile. I like that Elizabeth took the wedding as a backdrop instead of trying to make it something it wasn't. From what I've read, most of the royal weddings weren't particularly happy, though Queen Victoria and Prince Albert have often been touted to me as the exception.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Welcome to Word Wenches, Terri, Michelle, and Elizabeth! What a great concept for an anthology--and how clever you have been in solving the problems of the historical record. Terri, maybe I've just seen The Lion in Winter once too often, but I also thought there was a real connection between Henry and Eleanor.

With Richard II and Prinny--it was pretty much necessary to have fictional characters for the romantic interest, but it sounds like you both had a great time weaving the real and the imaginary!

It does look like William and Kate will do a lot better than most of his ancestors. *G*

[Marie]

The book sounds so interesting, I am looking forward to reading it. I love the perceived romance that goes along with the pageantry and beauty of a royal wedding but of course the reality is they are probably often a lot less romantic than non-royal marriages. I would be interested in reading more about the marriage of Marie Antoinette and Louis I know there was a lot going on between and around them and I think it would make for a fascinating story. Thanks for the great post Anne.

[Michelle Willingham]

I would agree with Nancy that it's challenging to find a happy royal wedding, but being able to create our own fictional romance amid all the scandal of the true royal wedding made it fun. Elizabeth, you had your work cut out for you with Prinny! Wasn't he completely drunk during the wedding?

[Cate S]

I must admit when I first found out about this particular anthology.. I wasn't terribly interested in reading it.. between being a history buff and having some knowlege about each of the periods/couples involved.. However, after reading how each was handled... now I AM INTERESTED!! sounds like a very interesting group of stories.. thanks for stopping by WW and sharing!

[Na S.]

It does seem challenging writing about royal weddings but I appreciate it. It sounds like a fascinating read. I find history in general interesting but I don't know much about Royal weddings. I do like the balance between fact and fiction.

[Felicia M. Ciaudelli]

woo hoo - thank you for this interview - I love it and this is a book I would love to have!

[Terri Brisbin]

Sorry to arrive late -- but thanks to the Word Wenches and Anne for inviting us here.

About Eleanor and Henry ending up differently? I think their lives and their ending was inevitable. Both were strong personalities; neither afraid of challenging the other. Both loved power and knew how to control it. And neither one would give an inch. So their lives were destined to be filled with confrontation and battle.

Terri

[Terri Brisbin]

Cate --

I found it interesting in writing this short story that our instructions from our editors were to focus on the real history as much as possible in writing it. Each author was invited to write an author's note addressing the historical research we did or to otherwise explain the historical connections to ours.

So, I think history buffs will like these.

Terri B

[Terri Brisbin]

Nancy --

Yes, if you look at real history, more often than not, royal (and noble) weddings were arranged for land, wealth, titles and power. . . to seal treaties and to join former enemies as allies.

Love really wasn't a priority -- so finding it was a unexpected bonus.

Terri

[Michelle Willingham]

Terri--I loved how you put it, that Eleanor was now a Cougar, out to get her man. :) She definitely knew what she wanted. I imagine their marriage was quite stormy--probably as filled with fighting as it was with passion.

[Terri Brisbin]

Michelle --

I remember being quite shocked at doing the math and realizing how large the gap in their ages actually was! By some dates I found, he was 17 and she was 30 -- quite the cougar to his young studmuffin....!

And, considering the fact that his YOUNGER brother had tried to kidnap her, clearly having an older woman was no obstacle when it came to wanting/needing Eleanor....

Terri B

[Michelle Willingham]

Terri--I'll bet she was QUITE an attractive woman if his younger brother wanted her! Oh my. :)

Then again...teenage boys!

[Elizabeth Rolls]

Ah! Medieval cougars and studmuffins! How could you miss?

Yes, Michelle - according to various eye-witness accounts, Prinny was quite drunk during the marriage service, and at one point it looked as though he was going to do a runner. Princess Caroline tells us that His Royal Highness later collapsed by the bedchamber fireplace dead-drunk and only recovered enough to consummate the marriage at dawn. By some freak chance this resulted in a pregnancy - Princess Charlotte of Wales.

[Elizabeth Rolls]

Just want to say that I will pop back later if possible. We're about to renovate and removalists are coming later this morning to take away most of our furniture. We're moving into the shed and a caravan.

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

Thanks for visiting the Wenches, ladies! What fascinating background to your stories—I love how you wove other real love stories around the, shall we say, less than romantic Royals! I'm looking forward to reading them!

[Elizabeth Rolls]

Yes, the instruction to focus on the real history was a bonus. I'd like to think they invited us because they knew we could pull it off... mayhem here. I can't believe the removalists LIFTED our piano. Actually lifted the damn thing straight off the floor and onto a trolley. Hoo boy! Man, are they buff!

[LilMissMolly]

What a wonderful book. It sounds just up my alley. I can't wait to read it. What's next?

[Kantu]

Hi. I've read some books where it was acknowledged that Prinny and Maria Fitzherbert were secretly married then divorced (or as much as a Royal clandestine marriage could be dissolved to marry Princess Caroline.

History and romance!! Heady mix. I love it. I haven't read the books mentioned but possess and have read a number of historical romances........and have learnt a LOT of the English laws of inheritance and other interesting stuff.

Kantu

[Karin]

Eleanor of Aquitaine always interested me, but it's hard to think of Richard the Lionheart as a bad guy after growing up with the Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie, where he's a savior. I'm looking forward to this anthology.

[Liz]

Read what I believe must have been (Google) The Lute Player by Norah Lofts about Richard and Berengaria. It was published in 1951--not the year in which I read it. Not a HEA story.

[Betty Hamilton]

This sounds like an amazing book!! I would love to win a copy.

[Linda Johns]

I would like to see a book about Judith the Fair, she was a French princess first married to Afread the Great's father at fourteen, then to the oldest son and after he died the next to the oldest. The family did not want to give back the marriage settlements. After she was widowed for the third time, she made a runaway marriage to a French lord against her father's wishes.