Books: A King’s Ransom
Interview with Sharon Kay Penman on her latest novel about Richard the Lionhearted and his life during and after his imprisonment
Rating: 4 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“Although Richard I is probably one of the best known of medieval monarchs…even people who know nothing of history have heard of him…there has never been a serious novel about the man,” says A King’s Ransom author Sharon Kay Penman. “The closest to it was The Lion in Winter, with its brilliant cast of Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and a young Anthony Hopkins as Richard. This is one of my all-time favorite films…but it is not historically accurate. Richard Coeur de Lion (Lion Heart) himself was a great surprise to me, for when writing of a real historical figure, I’d never before discovered such a disconnect between the man and the myth.”
Penman’s long-awaited sequel to her book Lionheart covers the last seven years of Richard’s life. There’s betrayal, war, illness and intrigue. There were lots of rumors about Richard. Was he gay? Did he have affairs during his travels and his imprisonment? Penman shows the courage and compassion shown by his mother Eleanor, sister Joanna and his wife Berengaria. Penman’s writes sweeping historical events that engage and the story moves along at a nice clip. She includes everyday details that get you right into the story. You can read this book without reading Lionheart, but it works better to read them in order. Although Ransom is over 700 pages, once you start reading you won’t want to stop.
In A King’s Ransom, the Pope has decreed all crusaders to the Holy Land are to have safe passage, but the Holy Roman Emperor defies that papal decree. For 15 months, Richard is imprisoned at Trefils, where most men never leave alive. His devoted mother Eleanor of Aquitaine does everything in her power to raise the ransom, which is unreasonably high.
“When Richard first appeared, very briefly, in my novel Here be Dragons twenty-eight years ago, I saw him as one-dimensional, the ultimate warrior king, drunk on blood and glory, and too easily accepted the verdict of a Victorian historian that he was a bad son, a bad husband, a bad king. Twenty-some years later, I began to do serious research on Richard for Devil’s Brood, and what I found was eye-opening.”
“He was indeed hot-tempered and arrogant and so astonishingly reckless in battle that it is a miracle that he managed to live to be forty-one,” says Penman. “And he was most certainly a brilliant commander, one of the best generals of the Middle Ages, as well as being a formidable fighter, almost invincible in hand-to-hand combat. He was, however, a bad husband, his infidelities notorious enough to warrant a lecture from the Bishop of Lincoln.”
Penman leads tours to England and France in which she follows the paths of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard III.
“It is always great fun to visit the places that mattered to the people I write about,” says Penman. “Richard III and Eleanor of Aquitaine are especially beguiling ghosts to chase after, and I loved being able to share these experiences with people who are just as fascinated as I am by medieval history. I was delighted by how easily we bonded, probably because we have so much in common. Fourteen from the Eleanor tour signed up for the Richard III tour too, so it was almost like a family reunion.”
A King’s Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman. Hardcover: 704 pages, Publisher: A Marian Wood Book /Putnam (March 4, 2014), Language: English, ISBN: 9780399159220 $24.61
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