ESCAPE TO THE PAST WITH: Shadow on the Crown by Pa.A rich tale of power and forbidden love revolving around a young medieval queenIn 1002, fifteen-year-old Emma of Normandy crosses the Narrow Sea to wed the much older King Athelred of England, whom she meets for the first time at the church door.I suspect a sequel is in the works, since Emma’s life becomes increasingly exciting from here. Shadow on the Crown covers a shorter segment of the queen’s life, taking us only into 1005. I’d recently read The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick and enjoyed seeing a different take on the same storyline. Their leader, Swein Forkbeard, is determined to add England to his list of conquests, and it seems Athelred will be powerless to stop him.īracewell does a good job imagining the lives of these characters and places them in a vividly realistic, often brutal, historical setting. She and Athelstan are aware of the difficulties that could cause for their relationship, but so long as there is no baby, there is no threat to Athelstan’s inheritance unless it comes from outside England.Īt the same time, Athelred’s unending missteps have brought the wrath of the Danes upon England. Once she does, the son will become a rival for the throne. Unfortunately, the only way for Emma to have any real standing in England is for her to produce a son. Athelstan has all the intelligence and steadiness that a king should have, everything his father does not.
She is able to make a few friends-most importantly, Athelstan, the king’s eldest son and heir. He takes out his frustration and fear on his new wife and his sons.Įmma struggles to deal with the realities of her new life in the strange land with a husband she quickly learns to despise. Guilt and his own ineffectiveness as a king have driven him more than half mad. The rumors are true, and Athelred did nothing to warn his brother of what was to come.
He gained his throne as a boy after his elder stepbrother, Edward, was murdered–most people believe that Athelred's mother was responsible for plotting Edward’s murder. He uses Emma as a hostage, treating her with the same disdain and mistrust that all his counselors and subjects receive. He already has six sons by a previous wife, and he is marrying Emma only for political reasons, to make a treaty with Normandy that he hopes will keep the Danes from England’s shores. Athelred is significantly older than Emma.
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