Falls the Shadow: A Novel
Page 81
It is not easy to resurrect a time so far removed from ours. Wales, in particular, remains uncharted terrain, for medieval sources were often incomplete, ambiguous, occasionally in conflict. In dramatizing Davydd ap Llewelyn’s capture of his half-brother, Gruffydd, I have followed the chronology of the English monk Matthew Paris, rather than that of the Welsh chroniclers, for the reasons so persuasively set forth by Gwyn A. Williams in “The Succession to Gwynedd, 1238–47.”
History has not been kind to Henry. The consensus is that he was one of England’s most incompetent kings. He did leave a legacy, though, that many a more capable monarch might well envy—Westminster Abbey. And however wretched a sovereign, he was a loving father. His devotion to his deaf-mute daughter, Katherine, was atypical for his age, utterly at odds with the bias personified by Matthew Paris, who dismissed Katherine as “pretty but useless.”
This was the first of my books in which I had to deal with the ugly underside of medieval society—the anti-Semitism that was so pervasive, so poisonous a part of daily life. I sought to explain how and why people were infected, making no excuses, but attempting to root this evil in the context of the thirteenth century.
Lastly, I would like to say a few words about Simon de Montfort. A French-born English hero, lordly champion of the commons, an honorable adventurer, he continues to be as controversial and enigmatic and paradoxical a figure in our time as he was in his own. Men have been arguing about the man, his motivations, and his legacy for the past seven hundred years. To an admiring Winston Churchill, “de Montfort had lighted a fire never to be quenched in English history.” But the historian Sir F. M. Powicke, while grudgingly according Simon a certain “murky greatness,” also saw him as a “dark force.” Victorian historians in particular tended to overestimate Simon’s contribution to constitutional government, lauding him as “the father of the English parliament,” ascribing to him sentiments and aspirations no medieval man could have harbored. Simon’s admirers and his critics do find some common meeting ground, all agreeing that Simon was able, arrogant, courageous, hot-tempered, and charismatic. Opinions then begin to diverge widely. A saint he most surely was not. For myself, I saw in him glimmerings of a Shakespearean tragic hero, one doomed by his own flaws. History’s judgment upon Simon de Montfort has been fluid, fluctuating over the centuries in accordance with prevailing political winds, for each age interprets the past in the light of its own biases. But the verdict that lingers in the imagination is that of Simon’s contemporaries, the medieval villagers who flocked to his grave, the steadfast Londoners, the poor and the powerless who believed in him, who did not forget him.
S.K.P.
November 1987
Also by Sharon Kay Penman
The Sunne in Splendour
Here Be Dragons
The Reckoning
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people, without whose support Shadow might still be that, a shadowy idea, a might-have-been book. First and foremost, my parents, William and Terry Penman. My American editor, Marian Wood of Henry Holt and Company. My American agent, Molly Friedrich of the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. My British editor, Susan Watt of Michael Joseph Ltd. My British agent, Mic Cheetham of Anthony Sheil Associates, Ltd. Valerie LaMont and Joan Stora, who were brave enough to read a manuscript piecemeal. Cris Reay, my own “fail-safe system” for verifying historical facts, no matter how obscure. Geoffrey Arnott, Britain’s best battlefield guide. Dr. Edwin McKnight, who generously acted as my “medical consultant” for Llewelyn Fawr’s cerebrovascular accident. Linda Miller, for all the artistic inspiration. Dave O’Shea, whose evocative photographs of North Wales have gotten me through more bouts of writer’s block than I care to count. And lastly, I would like to thank the staffs of the National Library of Wales, the British Library, the University College of North Wales Library, the research libraries of Evesham, Shrewsbury, and Bordeaux, the University of Pennsylvania Library, and a special expression of appreciation to the staff of the Caernarfon Archives for helping me to pinpoint the site of the battle fought near Bwlch Mawr in 1255.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
FALLS THE SHADOW. Copyright © 1988 by Sharon Kay Penman. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
“The Hollow Men,” from Collected Poems 1909–1962 by T. S. Eliot, copyright © 1936 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.; copyright © 1963, 1964 by T. S. Eliot. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Maps by Anita Karl and James Kemp
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Penman, Sharon Kay.
Falls the shadow / Sharon Kay Penman.—1st St. Martin’s Griffin ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-0-312-38246-9
1. Great Britain—History—Henry III, 1216–1272—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3566.E474 F35 2008
813′.54—dc22
2008023607
First published in the United States by arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, Inc., by Ballantine Books, a division of The Random House Publishing Group
Table of Contents
Praise
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Prologue: Castle of St Jacques-de-Beuvron, Brittany
1: Nefyn, North Wales
2: Dolwyddelan, North Wales
3: Llanfaes, North Wales
4: Odiham Castle, England
5: Cricieth Castle, North Wales
6: London, England
7: Nefyn, North Wales
8: Abbey of St Mary and St John the Evangelist, Reading, England
9: Cricieth, North Wales
10: Shrewsbury, England
11: Gwern Eigron, North Wales
12: White Ladies Priory Shropshire, England
13: Brindisi, Apulia Kingdom of Sicily
14: Pons, English Gascony Duchy of Aquitaine
15: Tower of London
16: Deganwy Castle North Wales
17: Maesmynan, North Wales
18: Woodstock, England
19: Westminster, England
20: Bordeaux, Gascony
21: Paris, France
22: Beddgelert Priory North Wales
23: Isleworth, England
24: Westminster, England
25: Paris, France
26: Dolbadarn, North Wales
27: Tower of London
28: London, England
29: Northamptonshire, England
30: Gloucester, England
31: London, England
32: Lewes, England
33: Lewes, England
34: Wallingford, England
35: Odiham, England
36: Pipton, Wales
37: Kenilworth Castle, England
38: Evesham, England
39: Dover Castle, England
40: Dolwyddelan, North Wales
41: Kenilworth Castle, England
42: Montgomery, Wales
Afterword
Author’s Note
Also by Sharon Kay Penman
Acknowledgments
Copyright