WELCOME TO RACHEL’S FICTION WRITING AND REVIEWS BLOG
This is where Rachel keeps you up to date with her novels and stories and also shares reviews, highlights and extracts from other authors.
She Wasn’t Supposed to Matter…
She didn’t set out to defy anyone. She didn’t burn with ambition, or plot her way to power. She was young. She wanted love. She was raised to trust men to handle the weight of responsibility. And yet, by the time her story was done, she’d held command of one of England’s greatest castles, faced down rebellions, navigated the treachery and ambition of the marriage market, and made choices that shaped the future of a kingdom.
The Battle of Fornham: When a Countess Rode to War and Changed Medieval England Forever
In the mist-shrouded dawn of October 17, 1173, near the quiet Suffolk village of Fornham St. Genevieve, history was about to witness something remarkable. Not just another medieval battle between king and rebels, but the extraordinary tale of a countess who donned armor, took up lance and shield, and rode into battle alongside her husband against the Crown itself.
This is the story of Petronilla de Grandmesnil, Countess of Leicester – a woman whose courage would echo through the centuries, and whose fall into a muddy ditch would become one of the most memorable moments of medieval English warfare.