WHILE GRAVE MERCY TOOK PLACE against a historical and political backdrop, Sybella’s story is a much more personal one, touching only on the fringes of the political happenings of the time. Because of that, I have taken a bit more creative license with this book.
As with Grave Mercy, many of the characters in the book are actual historical figures, and the broad strokes of the politics have been taken directly from history. The duchess did retreat to Rennes with her council, and the French did invade Brittany’s borders and conquer a number of towns.
One of the greatest liberties I have taken is that I have greatly compressed the time frames involved. While many of the events of this story did happen in the spring of 1489, there was then a large gap of about a year and a half when nothing significant happened politically. The French took towns that were then reclaimed by Bretons. Ambassadors met and political protocols were observed, all of which makes for fairly dry storytelling. Anne traveled around the countryside, visiting her people, while France kept sniffing around Brittany’s borders, looking for a way in. It came at the end of 1490, when Anne married the Holy Roman emperor by proxy and thereby broke the Treaty of Vergers. So essentially I have compressed the events that occurred in 1490 and 1491 and pulled them all together into one year for ease of storytelling.
I have probably taken the most grievous liberties with the historical figure of Count Alain d’Albret, one of Anne’s most ardent suitors. It is true that he was in his fifties, large and rough-looking, with an uncouth manner. Madame Dinan, Anne’s governess, was indeed his half sister and pressured the young duchess constantly, trying to get her to agree to the match. All of that has been taken from historical chronicles of the time. It is also true that Anne was so repelled by him that she issued a decree stating she would never marry him, no matter what documents she may have signed as a child. This strong revulsion in one so dedicated to her country captured my imagination.
This came together with my research into the folklore of Brittany, where two of the historical kernels for the Bluebeard tales are said to have originated. One is the story of Conomor the Cursed, and the other was about Gilles de Rais. When Sybella first showed up in Grave Mercy so damaged and broken, I knew that she had to have suffered some horrible trauma, and so all those elements swirled together and coalesced into Dark Triumph.
After the events at the end of 1491, Count d’Albret seems to disappear from the annals of historical record, except for the recording of his death in 1528. He would have been more than eighty years old, an extraordinary age for that time.
Jean d’Albret, Count d’Albret’s oldest son, became King of Navarre, and d’Albret’s daughter, Charlotte d’Albret, later went on to marry Cesar Borgia.
For the most part, I have tried to stick with words that were in use at the time the story takes place, but that wasn’t always possible. The word saboteur did not come into English usage until the early part of the twentieth century; however, the root word, sabot, was in use in the fifteenth century. Since saboteur has such a distinctly different nuance of meaning that the closest historically accurate word, conspirator, I have decided to stick with saboteur and hang what little justification I could on the French roots of the word.
Such are the problems that keep historical fantasy writers awake at night.
COMING IN SPRING 2014:
HIS FAIR ASSASSIN: MORTAL HEART
Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of Saint Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.
She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind doesn't mean she has.
Visit www.hmhbooks.com to find all of the books in the His Fair Assassin trilogy.
About the Author
ROBIN LAFEVERS was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch’s Mythology, and nineteenth-century poetry. It is not surprising that she grew up to be a hopeless romantic. She was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in the foothills of Southern California. Visit her website at www.robinlafevers.com.