Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Today's guest is Mark Lord who is going to talk a little about his short story set during the Hundred Years War.


“Chivalry” is the first in a series of short stories featuring a character called Jake Savage. He's an archer serving in the English army during the Hundred Years War. Jake signed up looking for adventure and also to forget a woman he loved back in England. There's a lot more to know about Jake's past but I'm not going to tell you any more here as it’s not covered in this short story. My plan is to reveal more about Jake's past in future short stories, and ultimately in a novel that I'm working which is provisionally titled Hell has its Demons, where Jake teams up with a young scholar, Roger Sotil, in a mission to stop Jake's hometown being overrun by demons.


But back to “Chivalry”. The story came from two ideas: firstly a sort of classic tale from medieval romance literature where a mysterious knight prevents others from passing until they have fought him in chivalrous one on one combat. Usually this mysterious knight turns out to be a great hero in disguise. The other idea was about the massive contrast between ideal and reality in medieval warfare. The code of chivalry was intended as a set of rules to protect the weak and to ensure good behaviour of combatants: i.e. knights. In reality however these rules only applied to the knightly and noble classes. The Hundred Years War (which actually lasted 116 years) brought misery and devastation to France and did little to help England either. The favoured strategy of English armies was to ship over from England and then stomp through France living off the land, pillaging and devastating as they went, hoping to tempt a French army into open battle. This was called the chevauchée or armed raid. Famously practiced with success by the Black Prince in 1356 leading to his great victory of Poitiers, in 1373 John of Gaunt, the Black Prince’s younger brother, lead a similar chevauchée from Calais through the heart of France with the intention of relieving the beleaguered province of Aquitaine (in south west France). He was forced to take this route because the English simply didn’t have enough ships to carry a large enough army all the way. Gaunt’s chevauchée was regarded as daring by contemporaries but was a complete failure. No victories were won and the army suffered high levels of attrition as it was chased through France trying to avoid larger French armies, eventually reaching the safe haven of English territory in Bordeaux. The hoped-for reinforcements to defend Aquitaine had been whittled away by Gaunt’s foolish escapade.

In “Chivalry” Jake Savage is part of a knight’s retinue that has broken away from the main part of Gaunt’s army as it travels through the wooded hills of the Auvergne region of central France. Rather than benefitting from opportunities to loot and pillage they are struggling to find food just to survive.

These men are desperate and are prepared to do anything to get what they need. Only Jake seems to show any discomfort with the harshness of their treatment of local peasants. In their desperation the band of men decide to investigate a small castle on a hill above a village which they have already ransacked. They travel along a path through the hills hopeful to find food and maybe even loot, but when they come to a narrow bridge over a deep ravine their way is blocked by a black armoured knight. On the other side of the bridge, behind the knight sits a lady outside a silk pavilion. The knight remains silent, but the lady speaks on his behalf and challenges the English to single combat with her lord.

As you might guess the English soldiers have no wish to engage the knight in a chivalrous fight.

Of all the English soldiers only Jake behaves differently. He is a commoner by birth, but as a child was inspired by tales of Arthur and his heroic knights. He knows that the English are acting against the code of chivalry. But what will he do about it? Help his comrades, or do what is right?

I hope that you find Chivalry an entertaining read. To find out more about it go to http://marklord.info/writing/published-fiction/chivalry-a-jake-savage-adventure/


Thanks Mark.  Chivalry is available as an ebook and Mark has graciously offered one up for grabs.  To enter, please complete the form below by midnight, December 19, 2011.  Contest is open internationally!