Within A Forest Dark – The Knights of England~III

Within A Forest Dark
286 Pages
ISBN 978-1-61417-915-3

Golden knights living in a golden age. That’s how the knight Matthew Hart once looked at life, but now England's gold has turned to dross. With the passage of time, the great king Edward III has grown old and indifferent to the needs of his subjects. The Black Prince sickens and can no longer lead his troops to victory. Glorious battles have becoming distant—and increasingly irrelevant--memories.

For six years, Matthew and Margery Watson, Matthew's one-time leman, are separated. After they reunite, Matthew leaves on yet another campaign. After Margery gives birth to their son, Matthew returns, but he is haunted by the atrocities he was forced to commit after the Siege of Limoges. For, following the orders of the Black Prince, Matthew leads the slaughter of Limoges' townsfolk, who dared close their town to the English.

A senile king, a dying prince, a sick nation.

England's commons, led by Margery’s mentor, the radical priest, John Ball, are ripe for revolt. As Matthew and Margery struggle with their separate demons, a ten-year-old boy, Richard II, is crowned king of England. Setting the stage for one of the most brutal revolts in English History, the Great Rising of 1381.

Mary Ellen Johnson

About Mary Ellen Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colorado Author)

Mary Ellen Johnson

Mary Ellen Johnson’s writing career was sparked by her passion for Medieval England. Her first medieval historical book, The Lion and the Leopard, was followed by The Landlord’s Black-Eyed Daughter, a historical novel based on the Alfred Noyes poem, “The Highwayman.” (Published under the pseudonym, Mary Ellen Dennis.) Landlord was chosen as one of the top 100 historical romances of 2013.

After taking a twenty year detour in a quixotic quest to change the world--rather like Arthurian knights’ quests to find the holy grail, which ended in similar failure— Mary Ellen has happily returned to historical fiction writing and her favorite time period, the tumultuous fourteenth century. Her five book series, Knights of England, follows the fortunes of the characters (and their progeny) introduced in The Lion and the Leopard through the Black Death, the reign of that most gloriously medieval of monarchs, Edward III, the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, and ends with the deposition and murder of Richard II in 1399.

There is nothing Mary Ellen loves more than bringing Medieval England alive for the reader. She particularly enjoys researching battles, campaigns, the daily lives of both lord and peasant, and trying to figure out our ancestors’ thought processes, particularly how they viewed their world. Oh, and did she mention the castles and cathedrals? Mary Ellen likes to say her favorite place in all the world is standing before the tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral.

Something of interest, at least to Mary Ellen: when her genealogy was traced she found that she is related to many of those she's spent a lifetime reading and writing about—including John of Gaunt, Edward the Black Prince, Edward II, Edward III, even Richard the Lionheart! How can that be? Genetic memory? Reincarnation? Mary Ellen has no idea but you can bet she’ll be exploring the possibilities in future novels!