To Defy a King- Elizabeth Chadwick

To Defy a King
Elizabeth Chadwick
Sourcebooks, Mar 1 2011, $14.99
ISBN 9781402250897

In 1204 daughter of renowned British knight William Marshal, fourteen year old Mahelt "Matty" Marshal marries Hugh Bigod, heir to the earldom of Norfolk in a politically arranged deal between two powerful families. Over the next few years, the pair shares a deep regard for one another that turns to love as they raise their four children.

The serene rustic lifestyle ends for Matty and Hugh when King John begins systematically abducting her family. He arrests the heir to the Pembroke earldom, Matty’s brother Will; and follows that with incarcerating her other sibling Richard. Finally King John goes after her famous father, who has made it clear he is against the monarch’s avaricious stealing of land. Matty resolutely tries to get her family free while also remaining loyal to her husband and their children; not easy to achieve when contradictions and conflict are the norm.

This is a great Middle Ages biographical fiction that enables fans of Elizabeth Chadwick to feel they are “living the history”. (See the author’s blog at http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2007/07/beyond-looking-glass.html for more information). The story line is character driven mostly by the heroine although the support cast especially her two families enhance the heroine’s dilemma of being caught in the middle of rescuing her birth family and yet not endangering her married family. Readers will enjoy Matty’s efforts to walk a thin red line as she knows not to waste her time pleading For the King's Favor since the Marshal kin are persona non grata, but cannot remain idly on the sidelines.

Harriet Klausner