A Historically Elusive Queen
Emma of Normandy, Queen of England in the 11th century CE, is one of the barely remembered women in history who deserve our attention. Patricia Bracewell has brought Emma to life in her trilogy with meticulous research and powerful writing. The Steel Beneath the Silk is the last book in Bracewell’s series, following Shadow on the Crown and The Price of Blood. Because Bracewell does an excellent job of giving just enough of the backstory from the first two books, readers can jump to this third book without reading the other two if they wish. They won’t be confused. But this is a stellar trio and Emma’s tale deserves the deep dive that all three books provide.
A Problematic Marriage
At the opening of this third book, Emma has been married for ten years to the much older King Æthelred. He goes down in history as Æthelred the Unready, so, as you can imagine, he’s not the ideal leader or husband. The Vikings invade regularly, and this threat has escalated so that their goal has shifted from raiding to conquering. Emma and Æthelred’s sons try to defend England in the face of the king’s incompetence.
Historical Fiction Comes to Life
Bracewell brings the 11th century to life in every detail, revealing the depth of her knowledge about the time and people. In the dramatic opening scene, she introduces a viking Dane named Thorkell and builds his presence with tangible vividness, using physical details to show his status and character:
“He was a Danish jarl, and he had come to London to parley with a queen. He wore a tunic of fine red wool belted with a colorfully embroidered silken sash. His dark blue cloak was trimmed with fur, and from a chain around his neck hung a slender silver cross. He was a big man who towered over his companions, and he stood with his arms folded across his wide chest, chin jutting forward and jaw clenched. His head was shaved bare except for a long, black tail of hair that hung down his back, and above his thick beard a livid scar seamed his cheek.”
I especially enjoyed the politics, intrigue, and treachery that threads through the plot. Both the English court and the Viking leadership were rife with conspiracies and double-dealing that raised the stakes and tension throughout and kept the pages turning with delightful speed. While Æthelred would have loved to sideline Emma into passive inactivity, she rises to the challenges facing her country and family with intelligence and skill, while staying within historically accurate behavior and thinking.
Oh, that Ending!
Bracewell faced a particularly thorny problem when constructing this third book. I won’t include any spoilers, but the known history of Emma’s life creates challenges for persuasive character development in the part covered by this book. There are so many gaps for Bracewell to fill in Emma’s life story, so much that is lost to history, but there is one startling known event that must have caused Bracewell a lot of sleepless nights as a writer. She surmounted this challenge with brilliance, creating a totally believable, seamless arc of development for Emma. She also achieved the essential, nuanced gradual shift in the readers’ understanding of Cnut, one of the key antagonists. In the process, she also brought the trilogy to a particularly thrilling conclusion. I am profoundly impressed.
I highly recommend Bracewell’s trilogy to all readers who love historical fiction focused on royal intrigue with a moving romantic thread, and a vivid, accurate portrayal of a long-ago world.
Buy The Steel Beneath the Silk on Amazon (affiliate link)
Find Patricia Bracewell on her website.
Here for another historical fiction review of a book set in Medieval England.