My novel Lords of the White Castle was published in 2000. Not only was it shortlisted for the Parker Award for the best Romantic Novel of the Year, the response from readers was phenomenal and the emails just poured into my inbox. It tells the story of medieval outlaw Fulke FitzWarin and his endeavors to have his family lands restored. Lords of the White Castle was based upon the FitzWarin family history, which had been written down in the thirteenth century as a rhyming story and was the sort of tale that would have entertained a medieval household in the great hall of an evening.
Lords of the White Castle, however, is only the latter part of the FitzWarin tale. When I read the family’s earlier history, I realized that it was every bit as fascinating as the later material and was crying out to be told, and thus Shadows and Strongholds was born.
The original rhyming romance has a core of solid truth, but in the interests of making a ripping good yarn, the chronicler played fast and loose with many facts, especially with regard to the timing and placing of some of the major players. For example, he thinks nothing of attributing part of the career of Brunin’s father to Brunin himself or moving the Welsh attack on Whittington by thirty years after the likely occurrence. Mellette Peverel, Brunin’s grandmother, has yet to turn up in any genealogy and it is doubtful that the FitzWarins were in any way related to the English royal house. Obviously if you have read this far, you will realize that for dramatic purposes I have colluded with much of the chronicler’s deception, but since this is a work of fiction, I am not as constrained as a historian or academic. While keeping to a general truth, I have mostly followed in the footsteps of the aforementioned chronicler. Since his timing is so erratic in the early part of the romance and further research has turned up details of which I was unaware when writing Lords of the White Castle, readers of both books might find a few minor anomalies between the novels, but nothing, I hope, that horribly jars. As far as timing issues go, I have been fairly vague, although occasionally you may encounter a date. This has been a deliberate ploy on my behalf, caused by following the wonderful, but winding path of the original medieval writer of the FitzWarin romance.
Following on from the above, I thought I would write a couple of paragraphs on the known historical facts because I realize that readers often like to know what is truth and what is fiction and follow up details for themselves.
Brunin FitzWarin of Shadows and Strongholds was known in his adult life as Fulke le Brun, so described because of his swarthy complexion. Brunin is a diminutive of that description and might well have been a childhood name. Red-haired heroines often populate historical fiction, but in the case of Hawise de Dinan it is plausible because her father had ancestors in the male line with the appellation “The Red” and Hawise and Brunin’s third son, Philip, was called “Philip the Red,” suggesting that he had auburn coloring. I therefore felt it appropriate to give red hair to Hawise. Incidentally, there was some antipathy toward red-haired people in the Middle Ages. It was seen as a manifestation of undesirable traits, including bad temper and inconstancy!
The chronicle tells us that Fulke le Brun (Brunin) spent his squirehood at Ludlow and this aspect of the tale is highly probable. Both Joscelin de Dinan and his FitzWarin allies were self-made men who had risen from minor positions to more powerful baronial status by their own effort and ambition.
During the mid twelfth century, Joscelin de Dinan and Ludlow were under constant threat from Hugh Mortimer of Wigmore and Gilbert de Lacy. It seems likely that it was in fact Hugh Mortimer who was held for ransom at Ludlow, not de Lacy, but the writer of the FitzWarin poem states that it was de Lacy. Certainly the latter had a strong claim on Ludlow through the male line and Henry II ruled that he should have it and gave Joscelin de Dinan Lambourn in exchange. The tale of Ernalt de Lysle and Marion de la Bruere may seem to be part of the chronicler’s imagination, but some historians believe that it has a core of truth and that the castle was indeed taken by help from inside during a fierce private war between Joscelin de Dinan and Gilbert de Lacy. Marion’s presence is still said to haunt the foot of the tower from which she flung herself and visitors may sometimes feel a cold frisson as they pass the spot.
Whittington Castle too was a source of dispute. From what I have been able to glean, it was owned by the Peverel family but, before they had set their Norman stamp on the estate, it had been held by the ancestors of a Welshman called Rhys Sais. The FitzWarins were the Peverels’ sitting tenants who took Whittington for their own when their overlord went on crusade, probably having entrusted it to them. When he didn’t return, his estates were divided up between his four daughters. The FitzWarins, a family on the make, quietly appropriated Whittington and, in the chaos of the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, set about consolidating their hold and raising their profile. Dates are obscure but at some point in the mid-years of the twelfth century, Whittington was taken from them (probably lost in a Welsh raid) and given into the custody of the de Powys brothers, Roger and Jonas, descendants of Rhys Sais. The FitzWarins appeared to have thought of this bestowal as a temporary measure (unlike the exchange of Ludlow for Lambourn) and began suing through the courts for the restoration of what they plainly saw as their castle and their lands.
For readers wanting to investigate the subject for themselves, I would recommend Glyn Burgess’s excellent work Two Medieval Outlaws: Eustace the Monk and Fouke FitzWaryn, published by Boydell & Brewer (ISBN 0 85991 438 0). For Joscelin and Sybilla’s story I have found Ludlow Castle: Its History and Buildings, edited by Ron Shoesmith and Andy Johnson, published by Logaston Press (ISBN 1 873827 51 2), an invaluable guide.
I welcome responses from readers and can be contacted either from my website (which is updated when I have the time!) at www.elizabethchadwick.com or by direct email at elizabethchadwick@live.co.uk.