Ms. Jarman has written an extremely well researched book which details the events leading up to, the actual battle, and the aftermath of the engagement between the English and French at Agincourt during the Hundred Years War. This is but one of the three major defeats infilicted upon the French during the Hundred Years War. The book is highly readable and does not require an extensive foreknowledge of the historical period in order to be enjoyed. I highly recommend it to all students interested in the military history of the period.

I really fell in love with Jarman's style, very lyrical; I'd never read anything by her before. It's a fine novel. I was only a little disappointed at times with the character of Owen Tudor, who was a selfish bastard, but that only made the novel more realistic. Putting aside my strictly personal disappointment with aspects of Owen's character, it is the growing love story between Owen & Princess Katherine, and the tender description of her marriage to Henry V, which are wonderfully realized and well-written. Why isn't this novel still in print??

I am really surprised that I picked a winner in this book. I got it through a Month of the Book club because I am fascinated by any tidbits of Henry the Fifth. Little did I know how wonderfully written this book is! Too bad it is hard to find a copy of this book because I really think people should shoot this on to the top of the bestsellers list!!

For those of you who do like history and historical fiction based on true facts ... I would recommend that you run and get a copy of this book. It's wonderfully written and you will be enrapatured by the author's story.

People often has mistaken notions about royalty especially in the middle ages. Jarman points out that not all is cake and jewelry for royals, especially for royal princesses who later become queens. This book is about Katherine, Henry V's bride, who later spawned the Tudor dynasty. This book takes Katherine through her rough and lonely childhood. She is the daughter of a mad king of France and a perverted queen, always caught in the middle of the tug-of-war between her parents. Then it details her marriage to the king of England who comes over to reclaim England's ancient claims on lands in France. Then after the king died and while as queen mother of Henry VI, she finds love again with Owen Tydier, later named as Owen Tudor.

What a fanastic read through the cobblestones of historical reading! It just makes me want to read more on English and French royalty. I would definitely hate to be a royal ~~ it's not easy as it sounds. But hey, it's like a glimpse into the past and one can dream, right?

I recommend this book highly! I hope that you'll be able to find a copy of this book. It's one that is full of surprises and you can't help yourself reading it all in just a few days.

2-15-02

Quite simply, "Crown in Candlelight" is one of the very best historical novels I have ever read. I do not know why it is out of print. In any event, it is well worth searching out.

"Crown in Candlelight" tells the story of the love between Katherine of France, daughter of the mad king Charles VI and widow of the hero of Agincourt, Henry V; and Owen Tudor, her Welsh servant who was also a poet and musician. These two are not rendered as cardboard "romance novel" cutouts. Katherine grows and evolves from being an abused child and lonely young woman used as a marital pawn, to being a strong, passionate wife and mother; and Owen goes from being a shallow womanizer to devoted husband to Katherine and father to their sons. Owen and Katherine are wonderful, sympathetic characters and you will be rooting for them all the way.

Jarman also hews very, very closely to actual historical detail (all the main characters and most of the minor ones actually lived!) and brings the 15th century in all its glamour and squalor to life. With one major and a few very minor exceptions, the events in this book actually happened (as closely as they can be reconstructed). One thing that is played for drama in the book, but did not actually happen - Humphrey Duke of Gloucester did not send Katherine to Bermondsey as punishment for marrying a Welshman; Katherine actually retired to Bermondsey to die of metastatic breast cancer. However, that is really the only falsified event in the book. (Incidentally, for an English or French woman to live with or marry a Welshman in that time period was equivalent to a white woman marrying a black man in the 1950's.)

Buy, beg, borrow or steal a copy of this book, sit back and enjoy! I had tears in my eyes at the ending - yes, the lovers led tragic lives but remember, their great-great-granddaughter was Elizabeth I, so they triumphed in the end!

Jarman picks up the setting of her earlier "Crown in Candlelight," telling the story of the breathtakingly beautiful Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV, and grandmother of Henry VIII. Jarman's usual brilliance at weaving a written tapestry is everywhere in evidence. Elizabeth is the daughter of a powerful and none too scrupulous enchantress, who spins a complex web to further her family's fortunes, setting in motion a chain of events that help topple the Plantagenet dynasty and bring the Tudors to power. Elizabeth is the most complex and finely drawn of Jarman's fine characterizations, as she is caught up in the chaos of the War of the Roses that costs her her life's love and happiness. She is the mother of the 2 princes who died in the Tower, and this enduring historical mystery, as well as the supposed villainy of their uncle Richard III, is very believably and logically portrayed. Why is this wonderful novel out of print? Grab it if you ever see it--it is one of the finest historical novels around.