The Tudor period has become the most popular time period in historical fiction. Numerous novels on the six wives of King Henry VIII and his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth are constantly being released. Historical fiction author, Kate Emerson writes about the Tudor period, but does so with a twist. Instead of focusing on Anne Boleyn or Catherine Howard, Emerson writes about the lesser-known females of the Tudor period, the females that were part of the period, but more in the background. Whether it be Jane Popyncourt or Anne Bassett, these female figures finally get their story told thanks to Emerson's unique novels.
Kate Emerson is actually the pseudonym of a well-known writer of historical mysteries and non-fiction. Her actual real name is Kathy Lynn Emerson who has written the "Face Down" mysteries and other various novels and non-fiction works. Her historical fiction novels on the Tudor period include "Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace" about Jane Popyncourt, a young French girl with ties to the Tudor family and "Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens" about Anne Bassett, a maid of honor to many of the queens of King Henry VIII. In December, "Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree" about Elizabeth Brooke will be released.
Emerson lives in rural Western Maine with her husband and their three cats.
In Tudor historical fiction often the focus is on the six wives of King Henry VIII. You instead write about the lesser known female members of the Tudor court that are often in the background. What was your inspiration in doing this?
Emerson: My first published book (writing as Kathy Lynn Emerson) was WIVES AND DAUGHTERS: THE WOMEN OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND (1984), a series of mini-biographies of some 700 Tudor women. More recently, I updated those entries and added to them to create an online version. There are now over 1000 women included. This time around it is called A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN and can be found at my http://www.KateEmersonHistoricals.com website. With all those interesting females to choose from, I couldn’t see any reason to repeat what other writers have already done in the field of historical fiction. The stories of Henry’s queens have been told many times. One of my favorite novels from my girlhood was Margaret Campbell Barnes’s BRIEF GAUDY HOUR (1949), about Anne Boleyn, and there have been many more written about her, and the other wives, since then.
Why did you choose to write about Jane Popyncourt in "Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace"?
Emerson: Jane fascinated me because the few facts that are known about her raised so many questions. The accepted explanation for her name being struck from the list of Princess Mary’s attendants when Mary married the king of France, for example, didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I wanted to find a more logical reason for that, and to understand other mentions of her in the historical record. In my research, I discovered that several misconceptions about Jane have persisted over the centuries. In particular, I questioned the “fact” that she was one of Henry VIII’s mistresses. The real story presented me with much more interesting plot possibilities. Although I did make up a great deal of what happens in the novel—it is fiction, after all—I also tried to be as accurate as possible. I enjoy the challenge of taking a sentence here and a paragraph there from histories and biographies of the period and using those to turn a real but minor historical figure into a fully-rounded and believable fictional character.
Your following novel "Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens" was about Anne Bassett, what was your interest in writing about her?
Emerson: Anne was an “also ran,” twice (between Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves and again between Catherine Howard and Kathryn Parr), considered as a possible wife for the king. Some accounts imply she was his mistress. There is quite a bit more known about Anne Bassett than there is about Jane Popyncourt, thanks to the six volume edition of THE LISLE LETTERS edited by M. St. Clare Byrne. Plus there was a built-in treason subplot involving Anne’s stepfather. And yet, as with Jane, there were questions about Anne’s motivation and the motivations of those around her, as well as a few intriguing gaps in the record. Filling those in with events that might have happened was what interested me most in planning and writing a novel about her life. I like solving historical mysteries.
What is your next novel "Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree" about?
Emerson: As you may already have noticed, although I’m not writing about Henry VIII’s wives, I did base the first two novels in the SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT series on the lives of two of that king’s alleged mistresses. In BY ROYAL DECREE (in stores in December 2010), the focus is on another of the ladies the king found attractive, and was even rumored to be considering as a potential wife, but in this case she is one who escaped becoming either wife or mistress. Elizabeth Brooke was a daughter of Lord Cobham and renowned for her beauty. At an early age, late in King Henry’s reign, she fell in love with Sir William Parr, Queen Kathryn’s brother. Unfortunately, Parr already had a wife. Bess Brooke married him anyway. Under King Edward VI, the marriage was declared legal. Under Queen Mary, it was not. Add to that the fact that Bess and Will, who by then was Marquess of Northampton, were involved in the attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne in Mary’s place, and there is plenty of scope for action and adventure. The story continues until the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, because Bess continued to be involved in treasonous activities throughout the period when she was ordered to live apart from the man she loved.
Who are some of your favorite figures of the Tudor court?
Emerson: It’s hard to pin down just a few because there are so many who are interesting, and some of them were quite scandalous, too! One I won’t be writing about (because two other writers have already told her story in novels in recent years) is Anne Boleyn’s sister, Mary. I’ve always thought there was more to her than the history books say. Besides, you have to admire a survivor. Another fascinating figure was Mary’s granddaughter, Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex and Leicester, Queen Elizabeth’s rival for the affections of the Earl of Leicester. Among the gentlemen, one courtier who appears briefly in THE PLEASURE PALACE will have a bigger role in the 4th book in the series (AT THE KING’S PLEASURE, now being written). He’s William Compton, King Henry’s Groom of the Stole. I see him as a charming rogue and I’ve always had a bit of a crush on him.
Who is your favorite of the six wives of King Henry VIII?
Emerson: That’s a tough question to answer because I’ve never been particularly taken with any of them. But if I must choose, I’ll take Catherine Howard. She strikes me as a typical rebellious teenager. If she hadn’t made the big mistake of agreeing to marry the king, she’d probably have had quite a long and adventurous life.
What time period or area of history is your favorite?
Emerson: I have two, both of which I’ve explored in the past in the historical mystery novels I wrote as Kathy Lynn Emerson. One (big surprise!) is sixteenth-century England. The other is the U.S. in the late 1880s. There’s a Pittsburgh connection there, by the way. Another of my early books was a biography of nineteenth-century journalist Nellie Bly written for young people, MAKING HEADLINES (1989). Chapter Three, which his been reprinted in some middle school reading books, is titled “Sweeping Pittsburg Clean.” And yes, that is spelled correctly. The h wasn’t added to Pittsburgh until after Nellie Bly was a reporter on a newspaper there.
What other areas of history and historical figures would you like to explore in future novels?
Emerson: I imagine I’ll stick with the Tudor era for the foreseeable future, although I do also write contemporary mysteries under the name Kaitlyn Dunnett. There are so many interesting women whose stories would make good novels that it’s impossible to say which of them I might ultimately choose to write about.
What other historical fiction authors do you admire or enjoy?
Emerson: I try not to read novels that are set too close in time to my own or deal with similar situations, to avoid confusing other people’s fiction with historical facts, so the historical authors I read most frequently write novels that are very different from my own. I enjoy Lauren Willig’s present/past flower series very much and in the historical mystery genre I admire Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody series and, set a much more recent period, the early twentieth century mysteries by Carola Dunn, Kerry Greenwood, and Rhys Bowen.
What authors from the past and present do you enjoy or have inspired you?
Emerson: I am in awe of the novels of Anya Seton and Dorothy Dunnett. The late Judith Merkle Riley was also a wonderful historical novelist. The level of complexity those ladies achieved is mind-boggling. I don’t come anywhere near their level of excellence, but their work continues to inspire me to try.
Lastly, what female figure of the Tudor court do you most identify with?
Emerson: This is another question that’s difficult for me to answer! I thought at first I would pick someone who went unnoticed most of the time but was in a position to take note of everything that went on around her. Several women made a career of courtiership, serving all six of Henry’s queens. In some cases their daughters and granddaughters carried on the tradition during subsequent reigns. Then I thought about the question a little more and decided that I actually identify more with someone a more eccentric. So, my answer is Mary Shelton. She was NOT one of the king’s mistresses, although her sister Madge probably was. Mary was at court late in the reign of Henry VIII, but she hung out with the intellectual, poetry-writing crowd that included Lady Margaret Douglas, Lady Mary Howard, and Lady Mary’s brother, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. I see Mary Shelton as spending a great deal of time off in her own imaginary world, and that’s a good description of me when I’m working on a novel.
*A huge thanks to Kate Emerson for this lovely interview*
"Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree" will be available in December 2010
For more information on Kate Emerson: http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/
Emerson's "Who's Who" index on Tudor women: http://http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenIndex.htm
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