Promo: Harold The King – Silver Publication Anniversary

January 05, 2025

Promo: Harold The King – Silver Publication Anniversary – by Helen Hollick

Today, I'm thrilled to feature my dear author friend, Helen Hollick. A prolific writer of brilliant historical fiction, she is currently celebrating a special silver publication anniversary:

*25 years* of Harold The King (UK Title) / I Am The Chosen King (US title)!

Many congratulations to Helen! A fabulous achievement. 👏🥂🥳

So make sure to check out this fascinating story, which is going on Blog Tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club on January 7th, 2025. Follow the tour HERE!

THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS via TIME SLIP WITH A PIRATE’S WIFE!

Or: How to connect 1066 to 1719

(That title’s got you intrigued, hasn’t it!)

by Helen Hollick

That’s the thing with having my first novel accepted for publication in 1993 (The Kingmaking) during the intervening thirty-two or so years, I’ve diversified into writing several different genres - from historical fiction to cosy mysteries via nautical adventures with a touch of supernatural fantasy. Will there be anything else - romantasy perhaps? Who knows?

This year, 2025, I am celebrating the Silver Anniversary publication of my novel about the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, a turning point in English history that kicked off on 5th/6th January 1066 when Edward the Confessor died and Earl Harold Godwineson was elected to be the next King of England by the Witan - the English Council. (Think of them as an equivalent of the UK’s House of Lords in today's UK Parliament.) Harold’s coronation in Westminster Abbey on 6th January seriously p*ssed off William, the Duke of Normandy who believed (for various erroneous reasons) that HE ought to be England’s next king. In my mind, the man was a serious psychopath, and it was a great pity that during his early years various attempts at bumping him off were unsuccessful. My apologies to any Norman supporters, but I can’t stand the man. Yes, I know it’s been not far off 1000 years since 1066 and I really ought to get over it, but as a firm England/Harold supporter, old loyalties lie deep!

I wrote Harold the King (US title I Am the Chosen King – same book, different title) after I’d finished my Arthurian trilogy because I wanted to redress the balance between probable fact and Norman propaganda - to look behind the spin-doctoring fake news (hah, contentious posts on Twitter or widely believed Conspiracy Theories are nothing new!) I’ll be posting a couple more articles this week about the whys and wherefores of the events of 1066. (Keep an eye on my website for relevant links.) Here, I want to talk about another way I connived to introduce Harold into my novels.

One of the things I especially enjoy about a series is the connection for a reader - the characters, and locations for instance. To get to know the characters, how they think, behave and react within their specified setting within an ongoing series. And to discover new things about them along the way. But I especially enjoy discovering some sort of connection within an author’s unconnected novels. In particular I’m thinking Mary Wesley: her novels are different main plots, different main characters, but occasionally familiar characters pop up as bit-part appearances. There’s that ‘I recognise this character’ moment, like bumping into an old friend in an entirely unexpected place. My challenge, therefore, was to make a small mention of my other characters in my other books.

I made mention to King Arthur by the Godwine family making reference to their descent from him (an entirely fictional connection, of course,) but how to bring King Harold II into a nautical adventure series set during the early 1700s Golden Age of Piracy?

Well, my lead female protagonist, Tiola, is, after all, a White Witch, so has certain, let’s say, ‘abilities’. And by Voyage Four, Ripples In The Sand, I decided to leave the Caribbean behind and bring my nautical rogue, Captain Jesamiah Acorne, his crew, ship - and wife Tiola - to England’s West Country. Devon, to be precise. As always with Jesamiah,trouble follows him like a ship’s wake, so things happen which he didn’t want to happen and repercussions from the past affect the present. Meanwhile, Tiola has her own problems to sort out, which very nicely provided me with my subsidiary connection small plot scene opportunity.

It is historical fact that the Godwine family were exiled from England for a short while due to a massive disagreement with King Edward and his Norman friends. It is during this time that Duke William of Normandy possibly paid a visit to Edward, who was related via Queen Emma of Normandy - and probably when the incompetent fool, Edward, promised him the succession.

I must qualify that statement: Edward had never been reared to become a king, he’d spent most of his life exiled in Normandy, and would have made a superb priest or Archbishop.But was pretty useless as an effective king.

The Godwine’s were not the sort of family to disappear quietly, though. They fought back. Earl Godwine calmly sailed up the Thames to threaten London, Harold returned from Ireland with a fleet of ships, landing near his mother’s held lands at Porlock in North Devon.

So there’s the historical connection. All I had to do was transport Tiola through time, and slightly move Harold and his schypfyrd along the coast from Porlock to Appledore.

I quite enjoyed writing the scene. Here’s some of it:

Blood stained the swirling waves, the boy’s anguish plain as he struggled against the pull of the current sucking at his legs, the salt water filling his bloodied nose and mouth. The man who had dropped him there raised his axe – and Tiola was there, between him and the boy, her dark eyes sparking anger, her hand raised, palm flat towards the raider, stopping him. He looked at her as if he had forgotten what he was doing, turned and walked away, seeking some other sport.

“So, my brave lord king,” Tiola called, in a voice heavy with command, to the eldest brother, “is this how you treat defenceless women and children? Do you, then, behave with ragged contempt towards the common folk, as do the Normans from across the Narrow Sea? Do you expect to gain honour, respect and loyalty from these, your people, by raping and slaughtering them?”

The eldest brother was looking at her with a keen, but suspicious eye. “You talk to me, wench?”

“I talk to you, Harold, second eldest son of Earl Godwine of Wessex.”

He laughed. “You called me king? I carry no such honour, or maybe dishonour, given the treacherous behaviour of the present man, Edward, who wears the English crown.”

Tiola returned his gaze with bold audacity. She had no fear of kings, lords, earls or soldiers. “Any man can measure his title and strength by cruel arrogance, my lord, but it takes courage to bind humility with wisdom to lead others in dignity and honour. You will be a king, for it is written so. One day you will wear that same English crown, but you shall not achieve it by shedding the blood of innocents. Why frighten, rape, kill, these people when all you need do is offer them your respect and protection? Would it not be wiser to ask them to serve with you instead of offering threats and violence which will only serve to harden their hearts against you?”

The Saxon, Harold, stared at the woman, and the boy she now embraced within her arms while the sea frothed angrily around her ankles and tugged at her red skirt. He held her bold gaze a moment, then dipped his head, knew she spoke aright.

He turned away, bellowed at his men to stand down, then looked back at her and nodded. “You speak truth and wisdom, my lady,” he said. “It is with King Edward in Winchester and his Norman court that we quarrel, not with these people of the land and the sea.”

Tiola smiled back at him. “Your God be at your side, my lord, on the day when battle comes.” ...

To find out more, read Ripples In The Sand .... and, of course, Harold the King (I Am the Chosen King)

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