Review | For the King’s Favor by Elizabeth Chadwick

Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Release Date: September 1st, 2010
Source: I received this ARC from the publisher for review.

Elizabeth Chadwick’s name has become a byword for high quality historical fiction. If any one author can “claim” medieval England as his or her territory, it must be she, for she nails the era with precision as she lures the reader into an incredible world of chivalry and knights gallant. Chadwick’s writing is plot-driven without being of the “see spot run” variety. Details of the period are revealed subtly through character dialogue and narrative delineation, never abruptly or in a manner that is overtly distracting to the reader. No doubt the author has done her homework; yet she doesn’t feel the need to show off her knowledge of the era with distracting facts or asides. She is an expert at the age-old “show, don’t tell” school of storytelling.

I also enjoy the fact that Chadwick’s writing is that which I can recommend to friends of both sexes! Lately I’ve been finding that a lot of historical fiction seems mostly targeted towards women; but because Chadwick writes from a neutral 3rd person perspective and there are even some battle scenes thrown into the mix (although I don’t usually like to compare authors – think Sharon Kay Penman in terms of “neutral writing”), I wouldn’t hesitate recommending this read to my dad or my boyfriend. For the King’s Favor (sold as The Time of Singing in the UK) tells the story of Ida de Tosney, a late mistress of King Henry II of England (husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, though this story takes place after Eleanor’s been sent away and placed on house arrest for raising a rebellion against Henry). I know what you’re thinking…Royal mistress reads are not really the type of stuff dads and boyfriends want to read about. But, Ida’s status as mistress to the king is only one part of her story, and this role is what leads her to make a devastating sacrifice that sets the tone for the rest of the book. Ida’s story is told parallel to that of Roger Bigod, a man struggling to claim his birthright.

I love the author’s use of devices like metaphors and similes that she scatters effortlessly throughout the story she is telling. The analogies she alludes to really illustrate for the reader that while so much has changed throughout the centuries, feelings of human nature remain the same. Simple phrases or ideas take on an extra-interesting bent, for example:

“Roger thought it was rather like looking at a beautiful shell and then being repulsed by the slimy creature inhabiting it.”

For the King’s Favor has been my favorite of Chadwick’s books I’ve read so far. I reviewed The Scarlet Lion back in March, and I loved that story too, but For the King’s Favor really pulled at my heartstrings. Though I’m not a mother myself, other life experiences have made me able to empathize strongly with the situation of mother being separated from child, a central theme of this book. I also feel I connected with the characters a lot more in For the King’s Favor; Ida and Roger were more interesting to me than Isabelle and William, though perhaps I would have felt a stronger connection to Isabelle and William had I prefaced The Scarlet Lion with its prequel, The Greatest Knight, which reviewers have raved about. In March, Sourcebooks will be releasing the newest edition of Chadwick’s Bigod/Marshal family historical fiction, To Defy A King, which tells the story of Ida and Roger’s son Hugh, and his wife Mahelt, who is William and Isabelle’s daughter.

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