The King's Daughter by Christie Dickason

The King's Daughter

Princess Elizabeth of Scotland

Elizabeth of Scotland and Bohemia

19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662

The King's Daughter by Christie Dickason is a biographical novel about Elizabeth of Scotland who later became Queen of Bohemia.  She was the eldest daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and Anne of Denmark. 

James VI

Anne of Denmark

Christie Dickason has written a fascinating first person narrative told through the eyes of a lesser known princess of the 17th century - a pleasant reprieve from the over abundance of Tudor novels currently in the market place. 

Princess Elizabeth was born at Falkland Palace, Fife. At the time of her birth, her father was King of Scots and he was estranged from his wife.  Their marriage was not a happy one.  When she was six years old, Elizabeth I of England died and her father succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland. When she came to England, the Countess of Kildare became her governess until she was consigned to the care of Lord Harington, with whom she spent the happiest years of her childhood at Combe Abbey in Warwickshire.

When Elizabeth was nine years old, aristocrats secretly plotted to kidnap her and put her onto the throne of England and Scotland as a Catholic monarch after assassinating her father and the Protestant aristocracy.  The plot became known as the Gunpowder Plot.  Elizabeth managed to evade the kidnapping.  When the plot was discovered, the guilty parties were swiftly executed.  This made her father suspicious as to her own involvement, setting a course for conflict between father and daughter throughout the novel.  

James is a weak and unpopular king, despised for his debauchery, poor manners, and sodomy.  Paranoid of his two children, Henry and Elizabeth, he keeps them at arms length not only from him, but from each other.  Yet, Henry and Elizabeth have a strong bond of love and trust as they strive to protect each other from their father's machinations.  The King toys with Elizabeth by continually threatening to marry her to numerous suitors.  Elizabeth, however, is resilient and she keeps a wary eye on her father, outsmarting him at every turn.

An interesting sidestory is the fictional character, Thalia Bristo, a black slave who becomes Elizabeth's eyes and ears in a court fraught with suspicion and deception.  It draws a parallel between the two women's lives because they are neither free to conduct their own lives and are both bought and sold in accordance with the whims of men.  The novel also introduces many fascinating characters such Francis Bacon, the Earl of Salisbury, and even the future King Charles 1.

Filled with charming scenes, one of the most memorable is the one where she encounters her betrothed, Frederick V, Elector of the Palatinate in Germany.  With wit, Elizabeth sets out to secure his father's approval to choose him as her husband.  Well written, this aspect of the novel is humorous and heartwarming and depicts Frederick and Elizabeth's genuine love for each other throughout their marriage.

Frederick V

The novel ends as Elizabeth and Frederick are newly married.  I thoroughly enjoyed Christie Dickason's depiction of Elizabeth.  The story is uncomplicated, easy to read, and full of interesting twists and turns.  For anyone who has had their fill of the Tudors, this is an excellent story of a woman who used her wits to keep her head on her shoulders while fighting to find happiness and love.

Triangle Fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was one of the worst fires in the history of New York City.  It took up the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Asch Building.  The factory produced women's blouses (also referred to as "shirtwaists").  The factory employed about 500 workers, mostly young immigrant women, who worked nine hours a day on weekdays plus seven hours on Saturdays.

On the afternoon of Saturday, March 25, 1911, just as the workday ended, a fire flared up in a scrap bin under one of the cutters' tables on the eighth floor, likely caused by the disposal of an unextinguished match or cigarette butt.  Although smoking was banned in the factory, cutters were known to sneak cigarettes, exhaling the smoke through their lapels to avoid detection.  No accusation of arson was made in this specific case, however, as both owners of the factory were in attendance and had invited their children to the factory on that afternoon.

A bookkeeper on the eighth floor warned employees on the tenth floor via telephone, but there was no audible alarm and no way to contact staff on the ninth floor.  The first warning of the fire on the ninth floor arrived at the same time as the fire itself.  The floor had a number of exits - two freight elevators, a fire escape, and stairways down to Greene Street and Washington Square - but flames prevented workers from descending the Greene Street stairway and the door to the Washington Square stairway was locked.  Dozens of employees escaped the fire by going up the Greene Street stairway to the roof.  Other survivors were able to jam themselves into the elevators while they still operated.

Within three minutes, the Greene Street stairway became unusable in either direction.  Terrified employees crowded onto the single exterior fire escape, a flimsy and poorly-anchored iron structure which may have been broken before the fire but in any event soon twisted and collapsed from the heat and overload, spilling victims onto the concrete pavement over a hundred feet below.

 The elevator operators, Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortillalo, saved many lives by travelling three times up to the ninth floor for passengers, but Mortillalo was eventually forced to give up when the rails of his elevator buckled under the heat. Some victims pried the elevator doors open and jumped down the empty shaft in a desperate attempt to avoid the flames; the weight of these bodies made it impossible for Zito to make another attempt.

Much to the horror of the large crowd of bystanders gathered on the street, sixty-two persons died by jumping or falling from the ninth floor.  Socialist Louis Waldman, later a New York state assemblyman, described the grim scene in his memoirs published in 1944:

“One Saturday afternoon in March of that year — March 25, to be precise — I was sitting at one of the reading tables in the old Astor Library... It was a raw, unpleasant day and the comfortable reading room seemed a delightful place to spend the remaining few hours until the library closed. I was deeply engrossed in my book when I became aware of fire engines racing past the building. By this time I was sufficiently Americanized to be fascinated by the sound of fire engines. Along with several others in the library, I ran out to see what was happening, and followed crowds of people to the scene of the fire. 


A few blocks away, the Asch Building at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street was ablaze. When we arrived at the scene, the police had thrown up a cordon around the area and the firemen were helplessly fighting the blaze. The eighth, ninth, and tenth stories of the building were now an enormous roaring cornice of flames.


Word had spread through the East Side, by some magic of terror, that the plant of the Triangle Waist Company was on fire and that several hundred workers were trapped. Horrified and helpless, the crowds — I among them — looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as mangled, bloody pulp. This went on for what seemed a ghastly eternity. Occasionally a girl who had hesitated too long was licked by pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street. Life nets held by the firemen were torn by the impact of the falling bodies.


The emotions of the crowd were indescribable. Women were hysterical, scores fainted; men wept as, in paroxysms of frenzy, they hurled themselves against the police lines."

The remainder waited until smoke and fire overcame them.  The fire department arrived quickly but was unable to stop the flames, as there were no ladders available that could reach beyond the sixth floor.  The fallen bodies and falling victims also made it difficult for the fire department to reach the building.

The death toll was anywhere from 141 to 146 people.  Six victims were never identified.  Most victims died of burns, asphyxiation, blunt impact injuries, or a combination of the three.

It is often stated that most or all of the dead were women, but almost thirty of the victims were men. Eyewitnesses reported seeing men and women jumping out of the windows; the first jumper was a man, and another man was seen kissing a young woman at the window before they both jumped to their deaths.

N. Gemini Sasson Author Interview

1. Welcome to History and Women.  Can you tell us a little about your novel?

Isabeau, A Novel of Queen Isabella and Sir Roger Mortimer, is the story of Isabella, who sought revenge on her husband Edward II, and her lover Roger Mortimer, who masterminded the invasion that accomplished it. In 1308, Isabella of France was married to the new King of England, Edward II. Although they had a harmonious stage earlier in their marriage, during which Isabella gave birth to four healthy children, eventually Edward’s intimate relationship with Lord Hugh Despenser drove an irreparable wedge between them. When her lands were taken from her, her income reduced and her access to her own children severely limited, Isabella turned to her brother, King Charles of France, for help.

There is a lot of conjecture about when and how Roger Mortimer and Isabella became involved, but likely she visited him at some point while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for leading a rebellion against King Edward. Meanwhile, Mortimer’s wife and all of his twelve children were being held under guard at various places throughout England. With help, Mortimer escaped from the Tower and fled to France, where he began to form alliances and gather support, with every intention of returning to England to set matters straight.

Later, Isabella was permitted to journey to France to help negotiate a peace treaty between the two countries. There, she and Mortimer became romantically involved and plans to invade England and place her oldest son, also named Edward, on the throne were set in place.

2. What inspired you to write a novel about a woman in this period of history?

While researching The Bruce Trilogy, which takes place during the same time period, I kept running across Isabella’s name. Parts of those stories are from Edward II’s perspective, so my initial impression of her was quite different from what it is now. Older resources often referred to her as the ‘She-Wolf of France’ and painted her as a scheming adulteress. But the more I learned about her, the more sympathetic I became with her situation. In time, I came upon more recent works of non-fiction, namely Alison Weir’s Isabella and Ian Mortimer’s The Greatest Traitor, which gave me an entirely different view about her plight.

3. What hardships did women face in this particular century and what lessons can today's woman learn from it?

We have to realize that women then often didn’t have a voice. Marriage counseling didn’t exist and divorce wasn’t an option in most cases. Even though I believe she and Edward tried to make their marriage work – and in a sense they did by producing four children – in the end they simply weren’t suited to each other. If anything, we today should be grateful that communication and compromise are such important factors in marriage . . . and in the event that two people aren’t compatible, they can go their separate ways.

4. What inspired you about your heroine? Why did you choose her?

It surprises me that her story hasn’t been told more often, as fascinating as it is. What I found most intriguing was that Isabella defied her husband in an age when women were condemned for such actions. She did so at great personal cost, knowing that her children were still under Edward and Despenser’s control. But I really think that she chose to separate herself from Edward and take action against him as a last resort. It took a lot of bravery for her to do what she did.

Her involvement with Mortimer was another matter. I truly believe she loved him, and visa versa. Had they not been so drawn to each other, I’m not sure they would have gone to the extent that they did for one another.

5. Can you describe a typical writing day?

I’ve been fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom – although that really doesn’t convey the busy and full life I’ve had. Normally, I write for a couple of hours in the morning, after the coffee kicks in and e-mails are answered, and again after lunch when the chores are finished (we live on what some would call a mini-farm and breed Australian Shepherds, so there’s always something that needs to be done). When kids and spouse come home, I limit myself to spurts of editing, because it’s hard for me to get ‘into the zone’ when I’m constantly being interrupted with, “What’s for dinner?” or “Have you seen my new shirt?” With my youngest child now in his last year of high school, I’ll be going back to school soon myself to renew my teaching certificate. The writing schedule will have to shift then, but I’ll figure it out.

6. Can you tell us briefly about your other novels and any new novels in the works?

The first book in The Bruce Trilogy, The Crown in the Heather, was published earlier this year. It covers the early years of Robert the Bruce, his struggles against Longshanks (King Edward I) and how his love for Elizabeth de Burgh determined his path to kingship. If I can stay on schedule, I’ll have the second in that series, Worth Dying For, available as an e-book by December of 2010, later to be followed by the paperback. It covers the years from 1306 to the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. A third Bruce book is roughed in and awaiting revisions. Somewhere on my computer, there’s a sequel to Isabeau about half written.

Thank you so much, Mirella, for this opportunity to share about my book. I’m just thrilled people are getting a chance to read it now.

Isabeau by N. Gemini Sasson

The fascinating life of Queen Isabella of France and her marriage to England's King Edward II is spectacularly portrayed in N. Gemini Sasson’s newest novel, Isabeau. This riveting story sweeps the reader into the turbulence of 14th century England, Scotland, and France with passion and detailed historical fact.

From the earliest days of her marriage to Edward, Isabeau learns she must compete for her husband's attentions. Piers Gaveston is her husband's favourite, his lover; a peacock of a man whom Edward showers with gifts of vast wealth. Edward's incompetence on the throne of England is evident to everyone. His apparent attentions to Piers angers politicians and leaders. As the misguided Edwards errs in his political judgements, Isabeau attempts to guide her husband. Not only beautiful, but highly intelligent with sharp diplomatic skills, Isabeau attempts to influence Edward's decisions to keep tensions both within and outside of England to a minimum, but it proves to be a daunting task.

Edward, however, is not so easily influenced and as time passes, matters worsen for him. His unpopularity reaches new heights. The attentions he lavishes upon Piers Gaveston ires his countrymen and soon Piers is executed. Isabeau is hopeful that perhaps now, her husband will turn his attentions back to her. It was not to be. Before long, she learns her husband has taken a new lover - Hugh Despenser, a dangerous, ambitious man who will stop at nothing to wield his influence and destroy Isabeau whom he sees as his enemy.

Isabeau's plight increases as Hugh Despenser manipulates Edward's every action. Isabeau finds herself separated by her children and sent to France to negotiate on her husband's behalf. It is in France that she reunites with Sir Roger Mortimer, a man she saved from the Tower several years earlier. Unable to deny their love for each other, the two enter into a dangerous liaison that will take them back to the shores of England where Isabelle leads an army to recapture the country on behalf of her son, Edward III.

From start to finish, the novel, Isabeau, kept me turning its pages. Lulled by the beautiful prose and stunning descriptions, N. Gemini Sasson breathed life into the woman known as the She-Wolf and portrayed her with sensitivity and great humanity. As I made my way through the story, I was impressed by Sasson's descriptions of people and places. Every detail of every scene was written with clarity, activating all the reader's senses. The novel spans nearly twenty years of her life and includes numerous characters of the era. The fact that the author has spent years researching English and Scottish history during this time is evident. For anyone who loves European history or biographical novels about influential women of days of yore, you must read this novel. It will bring you hours of reading pleasure. I guarantee it.

Book Giveaway - Isabeau by N. Gemini Sasson

Book Giveaway

For the next three days, we're featuring this newly released novel about Isabelle of France, queen consort of Edward II.

To celebrate the release of this beautifully written novel, we'll be giving away a free copy to one of our readers. To enter, all you have to do is:

1. Be a follower of this blog (History and Women) and (My Dog Ate My Manuscript)

2. Leave a comment about why you want to read this book.

That's all that is required.

Please stop by and visit for your chance to win.

The Love Story of Lancelot and Guinevere

One of the saddest loves tories is that of Lancelot and Guinevere.

One of the greatest knights of the roundtable of King Arthur was Lancelot.  He was loyal, wise, strong, and kind.  But unfortunately, he fell in love with Queen Guinevere.  They tried to keep their love a secret from the king, but eventually, it became known and was a catalyst for the Round Table to fall. 

Like most romances, their love bloomed slowly.  At first, Guinevere ignored Lancelot.  But not for long and she soon succumbed to his charms and they became lovers.  

Another knight, Sir Meliagaunt grew suspicious and e confronted Sir Lancelot in the presence of the King and Queen.  

This led Lancelot to issue a challenge to Meliagaunt to dispute the charge.  But in such a contest, Sir Lancelot became the victor when he cleaved his oponent's head in half.  Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere's honour were restored.

But rumours continued to abound and several other knights became suspicious of Lancelot and Guinevere's romantic trysts.  Sir Agravain and Sir Modred, King Arthur's nephew gathered 12 knights and stormed

Guinevere's chamber, catching her with Lancelot in bed.  

Sir Lancelot tried to escape and fought hius way out of the castle, but guards seized Guinevere who was tried and later condemned to burn to death for her infedility.  

Upon hearing the news of his beloved's imminent execution, Sir Lancelot attempted to rescue her.  He killed several of King Arthur's knights in the process.   

Angered, King Arthur gathered a troop of men and attacked Lancelot's castle, but they failed.  

Lancelot ended his days as a hermit and Guinevere became a nun at Amesbury where she died.

Lord Alfred Tennyson immortalized the doomed lovers in a poem:

Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere
Like souls that balance joy and pain,

With tears and smiles from heaven again

The maiden Spring upon the plain

Came in a sunlit fall of rain.

In crystal vapor everywhere

Blue isles of heaven laugh'd between,

And far, in forest-deeps unseen,

The topmost elm-tree gather'd green

From draughts of balmy air.Sometimes the linnet piped his song;

Sometimes the throstle whistled strong;

Sometimes the sparhawk, wheel'd along,

Hush'd all the groves from fear of wrong;

By grassy capes with fuller sound

In curves the yellowing river ran,

And drooping chestnut-buds began

To spread into the perfect fan,

Above the teeming ground.

Then, in the boyhood of the year,

Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere

Rode thro' the coverts of the deer,

With blissful treble ringing clear.

She seem'd a part of joyous Spring;

A gown of grass-green silk she wore,

Buckled with golden clasps before;

A light-green tuft of plumes she bore

Closed in a golden ring.

Now on some twisted ivy-net,

Now by some tinkling rivulet,

In mosses mixt with violet

Her cream-white mule his pastern set;

And fleeter now she skimm'd the plains

Than she whose elfin prancer springs

By night to eery warblings,

When all the glimmering moorland rings

With jingling bridle-reins.

As she fled fast thro' sun and shade,

The happy winds upon her play'd,

Blowing the ringlet from the braid.

She look'd so lovely, as she sway'd

The rein with dainty finger-tips,

A man had given all other bliss,

And all his worldly worth for this,

To waste his whole heart in one kiss

Upon her perfect lips.

The Great Boston Molasses Disaster 1919

On an unusually warm day on January 15, 1919, the Purity Distilling Company faced disaster. Molasses, a favourite sweetener was being stored there. It was popular because it could be fermented into rum and ethyl alcohol.

The rather large tank was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  It suddenly collapsed.

The rumble resounded loudly and shook the ground.  Huge waves of molasses between broke the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lifted a train off the tracks. Buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Waist deep molasses covered the street, sweeping and covering people and animals in its wake.

The Boston Globe reported that people and vehicles alike "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet."

21 people and several horses were killed, most crushed and drowned by the molasses. Coughing fits became one of the most common ailments after the initial blast.

Rescuers ran several blocks toward the accident. They worked to keep the curious from getting in the way of the rescuers while others entered into the knee-deep sticky mess to pull out the survivors.  Some nurses from the Red Cross dove into the molasses, while others tended to the wounded, keeping them warm as well as keeping the exhausted workers fed.  Many of these people worked through the night.  The injured were so numerous that doctors and surgeons set up a makeshift hospital in a nearby building.  Rescuers found it difficult to make their way through the syrup to help the victims.  It took four days before they stopped searching for victims; many dead were so glazed over in molasses, they were hard to recognize.  Two found on the fourth day were never identified.

Clean up efforts took over 87,000 man hours to remove the molasses from the cobblestone streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes.

The site is currently a recreational complex, officially named Langone Park, featuring a Little League ballfield, a playground, and bocce courts.

Here are the names of some of the men and women who died that day.

Patrick Breen 44 Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
William Brogan 61 Teamster
Bridget Clougherty 65 Homemaker
Stephen Clougherty 34 Unemployed
John Callahan 43 Paver (North End Paving Yard)
Maria Distasio 10 Child
William Duffy 58 Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
Peter Francis 64 Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
Flamino Gallerani 37 Driver
Pasquale Iantosca 10 Child
James H. Kinneally Unknown Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
Eric Laird 17 Teamster
George Layhe 38 Firefighter (Engine 31)
James Lennon 64 Teamster/Motorman
Ralph Martin 21 Driver
James McMullen 46 Foreman, Bay State Express
Cesar Nicolo 32 Expressman
Thomas Noonan 43 Longshoreman
Peter Shaughnessy 18 Teamster
John M. Seiberlich 69 Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
Michael Sinnott 76 Messenger

A small plaque at the entrance to Puopolo Park, placed by the Bostonian Society, commemorates the disaster.

Loi Chan

To see her on land, Loi Chai-san looked like a normal, unassuming, young woman. She wore delicate silks and satins and kept her hair tidily knotted at the nape of her neck.

But on water, aboard one of her 12 armed junks she inherited from a pirate named Honcho Lo, off came the silks and satins and on came the garb of man - pants and jackets. Transformed, she became Queen of the Macao Pirates, ruthlessly scouring the waters around Hong Kong during the 1920’s. Pillaging cargo and kidnapping wealthy people and holding them for ransom was how she earned her fame and amassed her wealth.

She adored her fame and encouraged it. A journalist by the name of Aleko E. Lilius paid her $43 dollars per day to follow her and write about her exploits in an article entitled “I Sailed with Chinese Pirates.”

Whenever she attempted a raid, two women accompanied her and acted as a mediary between Loi Chai-san and her crew of male pirrates. Loi never spoke directly to the men of her crew and they were always banned from her cabin.

Whenever she kidnapped someone, she sent a message to his or her relatives. If they refused to pay the ransom, Loi Chai-san sent them the captive’s finger or ear. If this failed to persuade them to pay the ransom, she killed her prisoner.

The history books are silent regarding what happened to Loi Chai-san. Some say she attacked a torpedo squadron during the Chinese-Japanese War and was killed during battle. Another rumour tells that the International Coast Guard caught and arrested her in 1939 and sentenced her to life imprisonment.

The Crown in the Heather by N. Gemini Sasson

Robert the Bruce and Elizabeth de Burgh

As a passionate reader of the medieval era, I had the pleasure of stumbling upon the novel, The Crown and the Heather, long before it was published, while it was still a work in progress posted to an on-line critique group for authors of historical fiction.  That was several years ago.  I fell in love with the story then and have waited patiently for it's release ever since.  

The Crown in the Heather is the first book of a trilogy about Robert the Bruce. It is historically accurate, a story beautifully told with rich prose and lovely descriptions throughout that bring to life medieval Scotland.

Male and female readers alike will appreciate the battles so aptly described and the realistic interactions between Robert the Bruce, his wife Elizabeth de Burg and his enemy James Douglas. Although not one of the main characters, William Wallace's story is also included to bring to the forefront a complete picture of this period in history. Above all, it is a story of betrayal and faith, of ambition and a man's love for his country and his beautiful wife, Elizabeth de Burg.  I particularly enjoyed reading about Elizabeth de Burg and the deep and abiding love that existed between them; a love so profound that Bruce would do anything to make her his wife.

I cannot say enough good things about how much I enjoyed this novel. 

Gemini is on the verge of releasing another novel, Isabeau, a novel about Queen Isabella and Sir Roger Mortimer.  Definitely one that I will purchase and keep for my bookshelves.

N. Gemini Sasson

N. Gemini Sasson has a B.S. Ed. in Secondary Science and a M.S. in Biology from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, where she ran cross country on athletic scholarship. She has worked as an aquatic toxicologist, an environmental engineer, a teacher, and a track coach. Her Australian Shepherd kennel, Imagineer, has been awarded the honor of Hall of Fame Excellent Kennel by the Australian Shepherd Club of America. Sasson is the author of an internationally recognized series of articles on bobtail genetics which have been translated into seven languages.

The Crown in the Heather is her first novel. Sasson’s research of Robert the Bruce has spanned nearly a decade and includes visits to various historical sites in Scotland. She is nearing completion on two more books entitled Worth Dying For and Carry My Heart, which follow the Bruce through his victory at Bannockburn and his hard-won recognition of Scotland’s independence. Her next novel, Isabeau, is about Queen Isabella, who plotted the overthrow of her husband King Edward II of England, and Sir Roger Mortimer, who masterminded the invasion that accomplished it.