Hellooooooo returning and new readers!! Some of you know that in the last couple of weeks before CanConSF 2017, my site had a temper tantrum. Thanks to the wonderful efforts of MoonSoar Services, the site is ALIVE again.

Today, I’m busy with post-con decompression and MYBRAIN&HEARTARESOHAPPYICANTSLEEP-itis. I will do a post-con wrap up, and a post about the FULLY PACKED panel on Grimoires, Tomes, and Books, both over the next couple of Mondays.

As promised, here is the belated post with all the pretty pictures about a few of the Tudor and Elizabethan artifacts used in my fantasy, The Queen’s Viper (which you can begin for FREE).

Because I’m a history geek, The Queen’s Viper is rich with details of times long past. Recently, a reader named Erin asked me if the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I holding a snake is a real. I told her that not only is it real, but it’s the image that gave Viper her name.

 

That discussion led me to today’s post: Five Real Tudor and Elizabethan Artifacts Used in the Fantasy Novel The Queen’s Viper.

• Queen Elizabeth’s Poetry on a Pane of Glass at Woodstock Palace

I recently visited Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, located on what was once Woodstock Palace. The original building dates from the 12th century, and was the site of some notable historical events. When Queen Mary was in power, she housed her half-sister Elizabeth within the Gatehouse of Woodstock Palace guarded by Lord Henry Bedingfield. The main palace was a shamble by then, and leaked heavily in the rain. Although the pane of glass no longer exists, it’s said that Elizabeth scratched the following words into the glass: Much suspected by me. Nothing proved can be. Quoth Elizabeth, prisoner. In my version, the author is none other than Viper, herself. Princess Elizabeth suffered from a depression at Woodstock, and was released to another location in 1555, nearly a year later.

• Anne Boleyn’s Necklace Charm

 

Anne Boleyn was mother to Queen Elizabeth I, and the second wife of King Henry VIII. The most famous portrait of the woman who helped bring about the English Reformation is by an unknown artist. In this portrait, Queen Anne wears a pearl necklace from which a letter B for Boleyn hangs. Accused of adultery, incest, witchcraft, and treason, she was beheaded at the London Tower on May 19^th, 1536. Her daughter was three years old. Once crowned, Queen Elizabeth reinstated her mother’s reputation, beginning with the symbolism of Elizabeth’s Coronation.

• King Henry VIII’s Brass Lock

This photo of Hever Castle & Gardens is courtesy of TripAdvisor
King Henry VII was paranoid about being assassinated. According to Doug Leslie, the Chief Executive of Hever Castle (at time of reference), the King travelled with his locksmith. The locksmith retrofitted the bedroom door when King Henry visited in his nobles’ homes. When the King and his Court moved on, the lock was removed and taken along. A brass lock shaped like a castle still remains at Hever. This lock, and ones like it, inspired me to include it as a safety measure for a secret panel in the Royal bedroom at Hampton Court. The picture of the Hever lock, below, has a drawbridge door which exposes the keyhole when lowered.

 

• John Dee’s Mort Lake Glass

 

Doctor John Dee is an enigma in the Tudor Court, where he had served King Henry VIII, and both all three of his children, King Edward, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. He was her adviser on Mathematics, Astronomy, Sciences, and the Occult, but he seems to have had an agenda of his own. Either that, or the nobles didn’t trust his mysterious ways and they ran him out of town before he completed his life’s work. Before he escaped to Poland, John Dee’s home was on Mortlake (Mort Lake, Mortlak). He often gazed for hours into polished obsidian, glass crystal balls, or reflective surfaces, trying to make contact with the “other world.” I incorporated Dee’s fascination with crystals and glass, and their potential Otherworldly properties, into the Mort Lake crystals that Viper seeks to defeat her enemy.

• The Hilliard Miniature

Read all the way to the end of The Queen’s Viper and you’ll see one of the real and most mysterious Elizabethan artifacts that crosses timelines in my blend of historical and contemporary fantasy. Dated 1588, this particular Hilliard Miniature is an oval portrait on vellum, depicting a woman’s hand, decorated with black and white lace, descending from a heavenly cloud. The hand clasps that of a young, white European with red curly hair. The words, Attici Amoris Ergo, are painted on the picture, and translate into, “Through the love of Atticus” (also by, with, or from through the love of Atticus). The painting is by Nicholas Hilliard, an English painter appointed to Queen Elizabeth I. Some say the image depicts the secret love child of Queen Elizabeth I. The Queen favoured black and white among her livery colours.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that Viper’s next book is titled The Wrath of Atticus? I know it’s not!

 

(header image credit: Wendy_Flickr)