Author Interview | Christy English

Today Hist-Fic Chick is pleased to welcome Christy English for an interview! Christy is a writer of historical fiction centering on Eleanor of Aquitaine, Alais of France, and the Plantagenets of the 12th Century. Her debut novel The Queen’s Pawn (click here to read my review) was just released from NAL this month. Her second novel, about Eleanor of Aquitaine’s marriage to Louis VII of France, To Be Queen, will be published by NAL in April 2011. Christy has a bachelor’s degree in history from Duke University, and she lives in New York City. You can visit Christy on her website ChristyEnglish.com.

What do you think it is about Eleanor of Aquitaine that has managed to capture such fascination by the masses for so many centuries?

Eleanor of Aquitaine is larger than life…she captures the imagination even over 800 years later because her life was truly worthy of a troubadour’s song…worthy of many songs, in my opinion. She embodied all that is amazing in a woman; she was a mother to 11 children, a queen of two countries, and she ruled her duchy in her own right during a time when most women were completely controlled by their husbands, by the Church, and by society. She is one of the few people I have learned about that I can whole-heartedly admire. After reading TQP, I hope my readers feel the same way.

How did you first become interested in the Angevins?

I first read about the Angevins in Sharon Kay Penman’s masterpieces HERE BE DRAGONS, WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT, and TIME AND CHANCE. And in high school, when I first saw the film THE LION IN WINTER, my fascination for this family was fixed. What amazing people.

What are some of your favorite historical fiction titles?

This is a hard question, because I love so many books, especially in this genre. I adore all of Mary Renalt’s work, but two of my favorites are THE MASK OF APOLLO and THE PERSIAN BOY. I love Sharon Kay Penman’s THE SUNNE IN SPLENDER and Margaret George’s THE MEMOIRS OF CLEOPATRA. And of course, Philippa Gregory’s THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, which showed me that my own style of historical fiction writing is not only being read but savored.

Interesting that you cite Philippa Gregory as one of your favorites…she can be a controversial subject among “strictly-the-facts” HF fans. I, too, am a fan of Philippa Gregory’s novels and credit her with helping to give historical fiction as a genre such a comeback lately both in literature and in popular culture! I love her period descriptions and character dialogue, though I will say that I don’t always enjoy her extravagant departures from history. How do you feel about rewriting history through a fictional lens? Do you stick to known facts and “fill in the gaps” with fiction, or play with historical elements to come up with something more entertaining?

Oh, Allie, this is a touchy subject among historical fiction people, both readers and writers. I come down firmly on the side of telling a good story. I never want to defame the dead, but the characters as I conceive of them have their own stories to tell, and where that departs from history as it has been written, I come down firmly on the side of my characters and their points of view. Without my characters and their strong viewpoints, I would not be able to write a word. The Eleanor and Alais of my novels may bear no resemblance to the women who lived 850 years ago, but they live and breath in my mind, and I hope, on the pages of my book. I can only hope that the real Eleanor and Alais would see that I mean to do them honor, and that in telling my stories I mean to pass the essence of who they are, the essence of who I perceive them to be, on to future generations. If I fail, it is my failure, but Eleanor and Alais, and all the dead who come around the fireside to tell us their tales, deserve to live again.

Was Eleanor and Henry II’s marriage ever really truly a love match? Do you believe it was more of a political alliance, or perhaps a little bit of both?

In my opinion, in the beginning, Eleanor and Henry’s relationship was one of the great love affairs of all time. But they both loved power, too. Their partnership worked well for over ten years, and they had nine children together, eight of whom lived to adulthood. Henry even let Eleanor name their first son and heir after her father, William, which shows a loving touch. But as time went on, Eleanor and Henry were simply too strong to continue to work well together. They began to disagree on major points of policy, namely how to deal with the Church, which by then was growing in power, and how to deal with each of their sons. So when Eleanor led their eldest sons in a rebellion against Henry in 1173, it was a long time in coming. And when Henry locked her away, he did not do it because he hated her, but because he knew her well, and knew that she would never stop until she got what she wanted: power over his French territories.

It is tragic to see such an amazing love affair descend into acrimony. But as Henry says, “There can be only one king.”

How much research went into writing The Queen’s Pawn? Because your characters are from the Medieval time period, was it difficult to find information on them? How much hard, factual information about Eleanor, Henry, and Alais is there that still exists?

Henry and Eleanor were larger than life, even when they were alive, so we actually know a great deal about them, especially about Henry. We know he had a huge temper, an incredible mind for law and for law-making, we know that he often wore clothes that those around him thought not fit for a king, and we know that he often did not wear gloves. It is truly strange to me the bits of minutia that come down from the past, and then the things that are overlooked. Sometimes in my novels, I will take a bit of known information, and look at it from another angle. For example, we know that Eleanor endowed many monasteries, abbeys and churches during her lifetime, but instead of looking at that and saying, “Wow, what a pious woman.” I thought to myself, “What an incredible spy network.”

It’s still debated today as to whether or not Henry and Alais truly had a romantic affair; contemporary chroniclers seem to have believed they did. What is it that convinces you that Alais was in fact Henry’s mistress?

There is a lot less known about Alais, and the evidence for her affair with Henry is being debated. We know that she was betrothed to Richard, but Henry never pushed the marriage through, though his other son, Young Henry, was married to Alais’ sister Marguerite for years. Alais was available for marriage from the time she was nine, but Henry never married her off, as he was supposed to. And once Henry was dead, Richard ( a man who ALWAYS kept his word) simply refused to marry her, ignored their betrothal agreement, and chose another wife from Navarre. To my mind, Richard’s actions after he was king are the best evidence that Henry and Alais had an affair.

How do you think Eleanor of Aquitaine felt about her children? She gave up her daughters by Louis of France in order to wed Henry, never to see her girls again; do you think that made her an overly-ambitious person and a heartless mother? Or do you think she did what she had to do to survive?

I think Eleanor had no intention of giving up her girls when she left Louis. Though they stayed in his keeping, as per the agreement in the annulment, I think Louis had every intention of letting Eleanor see her children again. It was only once Eleanor mar
ried Henry of Normandy without Louis’ permission a few months after their annulment that Louis refused to let her see her children.

I have no doubt that Eleanor saw them once they were older, and might even have had a lively correspondence with Marie de France, her eldest, which does not come down to us, because Marie embodied the ideals of the Court of Love in Aquitaine. She was famous patroness of the arts and music, and was famous for writing her own music. That kind of thing could be hereditary, but I also like to think that as a married woman, Marie was influenced by Eleanor beyond just her genes.

But when Eleanor left Louis, she did have to leave her children behind. Eleanor made a lot of hard choices in her life, and I think that was one of them. There is a quote from my next novel that sums it up: “One must sometimes cut out one’s heart to be queen.”

What can you tell us about your next book?

TO BE QUEEN: A NOVEL OF THE EARLY LIFE OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE is about Eleanor’s rise to power as Duchess of Aquitaine, and her marriage to Louis VII of France. Eleanor’s father dies suddenly, and she is forced to finish her own marriage contract between Aquitaine and France. After being married to Louis for almost ten years, she rides with him on Crusade to Constantinople and Jerusalem, and while seeing the beauties of the East, she realizes that she hungers for her freedom. As she begins the work to get an annulment from the Pope for her own marriage, she meets Henry of Normandy, and finds not only a new path to power, but the love of her life.

Allie, thank you so much for all these wonderful, challenging questions, and thank you for hosting me on your fabulous site.