Exclusive interview with author Karen Harper and a review of her new book The Irish Princess about Elizabeth Fitzgerald and her quest to restore her family honor.
3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I discovered the real-life heroine, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, when reading about the friends of Queen Elizabeth I,” says The Irish Princess author Karen Harper. “I found it very unusual that she had an Irish friend in that era where the Irish-English troubles really began.”
The Irish Princess is a look at one of the least-known members of King Henry VIII’s court. Harper’s writing style is familiar, as though she’s relating a story to a friend. Elizabeth Fitzgerald was more in the company of the king’s children. Harper doesn’t dwell on the lives of Henry’s wives, stories we’ve heard before. Instead, she focuses on Henry’s kids, the girls to be precise. She tells a story of Henry’s court that we haven’t heard before.
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, also known as Gera, was born into a first family of Ireland. When her father, the Earl of Kildare, is imprisoned in England for a second time, Gera’s mother goes to be at her father’s side. Gera’s older half-brother Thomas starts a conflict with the English, and her family is torn apart. Gera’s uncle offers to bring her to England so she can reunite with her mother. Gera goes hoping to some way find a way to harm Henry VIII. At court she learns how to form alliances to help restore her family honor and name.
“Gera was a stunning redhead and the queen always wanted to be the most beautiful woman around. Elizabeth once sent Gera to the Tower for ‘plainspeaking to the queen’ but got her out the next day and kept her as a close friend for years. I knew I had two strong women with tempers who argued but always patched it up. The fact that Elizabeth’s father Henry VIII had persecuted Gera’s family made it all more fascinating. When I learned that Gera had a wonderful, forbidden love story with a man she initially considered her enemy, I knew she’d be a great ‘hook’ for a book.”
While visiting Ireland, Harper kissed the Blarney Stone. “Novelists have to be full of Blarney anyway,” says Harper, who kissed the stone while hanging upside-down with someone hanging onto her.
“My numerous trips to England with visits to Tudor sites help me write all my Tudor-era novels,” says Harper. Her research continued after her trip to Ireland. “As is often the case with historic women, I had to glean things about her from books on her father, brother and royals whose lives she impacted. I corresponded with the caretakers of Maynooth Castle in County Kildare near Dublin, her childhood home. One of the exciting scenes in the book is the attack on Maynooth by the forces of King Henry VIII.”
“I just handed into my editor Mistress Of Mourning which is set in 1500, the transition era between the Medieval War of the Roses period and the Tudor English Renaissance,” says Harper. “It is a murder mystery based on three actual murders of three royal young men, all under the age of twenty. The dual heroines are a merchant class widow and chandler who carves wax death masks and the wife of King Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, who was also Henry VIII’s mother.”
Harper is based in Ohio and Florida. She was born in Ohio. Her Tudor-era novel Mistress Shakespeare was selected as a top 10 book for the OHIO READS program.
Harper’s website has portraits of the real main characters in The Irish Princess and more information and reviews of her books. Go to: www.KarenHarperAuthor.com.
The Irish Princess by Karen Harper. Trade paperback, 416 pages, Publisher: NAL Trade; Reprint edition (February 1, 2011). Language: English, ISBN: 9780451232823 $15.00
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