The Scarlet Lion by Elizabeth Chadwick

Elizabeth Chadwick'sThe Scarlet Lionis the continuation of the life of William Marshal, the great knight of the Crusades, about whom she first wrote in The Greatest Knight. A companion of King Richard and later King John, William Marshal was truly the epitome of all that one would want in a knight: loyal, gallant, intelligent, and caring. Unsung in recent history, William Marshal was known in his time as the flower of chivalry, and was mourned not only by friends but by a nation. The story opens in Normandy, 1197 on the day of the birth of his fourth child and takes the reader to William's death many years later. In those years his beloved wife and confidant Isabelle de Clare will give birth to six more children, William will fight to hold his lands in France for King Richard, be named the first Earl of Pembroke, he will bring peace to southeastern Ireland, and even establish a new town with a port! Throuout his life William is loyal to the king to whom he pledge his allegiance, even during rebellions by other lords and invasion by the French.

Faithful to his wife, loyal to his king, organized enough to plan an entire new community and so smart with money that he had enough to lend the King !? I found William a paragon of so many virtues that I had to check out the history behind the fiction. It's true. All of it. Documented through various records, journals and letters. In my quest I also discovered Elizabeth Chadwick's blog, Living the History, where I learned that she is a true scholar of medieval times, bringing her favorite era to the world with her skill of story telling. That's how I like my history, fictionalized at first! If I find the ideas interesting, I check into the drier accounts in scholarly texts. How about you?
I have often whined about historical books that need to include a map and/or family tree. Thank you to Sourcebooks, Elizabeth Chadwick, or whoever decided to put them in The Scarlet Lion. Three easy to read maps and family trees for the Marshal's and the Continental Dynasties of England. Yay! I referred to them often in my reading.
For me, The Scarlet Lion is everything I look for in fiction: adventure, romance, intrigue, told through well developed characters and vivid descriptions of settings. Add in well-researched history, with maps and family trees, and you've got a sure-fire winner in the historical fiction genre.

New Ross, the town founded by William Marshal in Southern Ireland, as it is today.

Photo from: http://www.doyle.com.au/

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Official FTC Disclosure: I received no compensation for this review, other than the uncorrected Advance Reader Copy from Sourcebooks.