Seventeenth Century Lady: Charles II Scottish Coronation

March 23, 2018August 19, 2019 Categories: 17th century · Guest BlogTags: Charles II · Charles II's Scottish Coronation · English Civil War · King Charles II · Kirk on Moot Hill · Palace of Scone · The Seventeenth Century Lady · Traitor's Knot1 Comment

I’m pleased to be a guest of the Seventeenth Century Lady with an article I wrote about Charles II’s Scottish coronation. This occurred on January 1, 1651 in the Kirk of Scone. It occurred against the backdrop of Cromwell’s invasion of Scotland and has the distinction of being the last coronation to be held in Scotland. To read the article, click on the link: Charles II’s Scottish Coronation. Featured pictures: Charles II Coronation at Westminster: [By John Michael Wright – http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page92.asp, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons Kirk of Scone (Moot Hill): I, Calgacus [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Palace of…

The Butcher of Drogheda and a long-running war of attrition

March 14, 2018August 19, 2019 Categories: 17th centuryTags: bust of Oliver Cromwell · Cromwellian Invasion of Ireland · Irish resistance · Oliver Cromwell · Oliver Cromwell's invasion of Ireland6 Comments

I recently came across an article from the Irish News (available here), and it gave me my laugh for the day. Apparently there have been some shenanigans at Westminster involving one particular statue–a bust of Oliver Cromwell. Someone had turned it to face the wall, very like a naughty schoolboy. When the bust was righted, it was later found to be turned again to the wall. “I feel we may have stumbled into some underground, long-running war of attrition,” staff in the Labour Whips’ office tweeted. It’s curious that Cromwell’s bust would be tucked away in a stairwell by a…

International Women’s Day and Mary Stewart

March 10, 2018August 17, 2019 Categories: 17th century3 Comments

Originally posted on Mary Queen of Plots:
Today I spotted a newspaper article looking at ‘five books by women, for women’ to celebrate International Women’s Day. You can imagine my delight when I saw that one of the five is Mary Stewart’s Nine Coaches Waiting! She features alongside Agatha Christie, Shirley Jackson, LM Montgomery and Octavia Butler. Stacy Gillis, Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University, has written a wonderful piece about the five books and a culture which has seen women’s writing as ‘something to be controlled, managed and dismissed’. You can read the article here. She…

Author Spotlight: Helen Reynolds

March 7, 2018August 19, 2019 Categories: Author SpotlightsTags: 17th century · 17th century enthusiast · 17th Century history · best spy adventure · best thriller · Charles II · Conspiratessa · H. J Reynolds · Helen Reynolds · Horrible Histories · Interregnum · spies and intrigueLeave a comment

It is my great pleasure to introduce to you historical fiction author, Helen Reynolds. Helen not only scores points for writing about the 17th century, she gets bonus points for focusing on the Interregnum. This period of history, between the execution of the King and the Restoration of the monarchy is dominated by Oliver Cromwell, and is rife with spies and intrigue. Helen’s debut novel CONSPIRATESSA (still yet to be published), is an action adventure about a fledgling female spy who works for the English Resistance to help Charles II reclaim his throne. This is one novel that I can’t…