Historical Fiction: Part Five – Finding Facts
When writing The Heretic’s Tomb, I studied the subject of the Black Death, which is estimated to have killed over twenty five million people in Europe in the mid fourteenth century.
In novel, Lady Isabella Devereaux comes into the possession of a mysterious amulet that has the power to restore life to the recently deceased. Living at the time of the Black Death in 1349, the noble and virtuous Lady Isabella intends to use the mysterious artifact to cure the relentless disease. However, the villain of the piece, Sir Roger de Walsingham, is also determined to secure the amulet for himself, in order to raise an army of the dead in order to seize the kingdom and make himself King of England.
The Heretic’s Tomb involved considerable research into the world of fourteenth century England, especially the era of the Black Death and its impact on England and Europe. Some dialogue is spoken in Middle English, which had to be authentic. The story also features a spell book written in Latin, so it was very important to get all the words and phrases correct. I read extensively on the harsh realities of medical treatments in the Middle Ages. I delved deeply into the world of the medieval church, monasteries, abbeys, the long reign of King Edward III, the Hundred Years War between England and France, the history of scrolls, manuscripts and printed books, medieval cities, villages, houses, and castles, as well as archaeological excavation sites for the portions of the novel set in the present day. Some of the information I needed was readily available online, but books also played a large role in the research process.
