The Lady Apollonia West Country Mysteries

King Richard’s Sword, the sixth book in my Lady Apollonia West Country Mysteries, is set in Worcester, England, in the years, 1399-1400.

The Commandery is the current name for a set of buildings in Worcester which survive from the medieval period.  It was located just outside the Sidbury Gate which plays a role in my story.  Its foundation is uncertain but may go back as far as the eleventh century.  In any case in the thirteenth century, it became known as the Hospital of St. Wulfstan, named for a local Worcester saint which also plays a role in my story.  The function of the hospital was changing somewhat by the time of my story.  Some residents were granted shelter and sustenance for life in return for their property.  It ceased to function as a hospital when King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the sixteenth century.

The medieval master of the hospital was known as the commander, perhaps because an early master had a crusader background.  The residence of the commander later became known as the name of the Commandery.

King Richard’s Sword, the sixth book in my Lady Apollonia West Country Mysteries, is set in Worcester, England, in the years, 1399-1400.

The town of Worcester features important remnants from the medieval period.  Its cathedral, which before the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII, was a powerful priory church is extraordinary.  I have used the priory cathedral in my story and refer to some of its surviving buildings.  The cathedral church itself is much as it was in 1399 and alive today as the home of a worshipping community as well as the seat of the Anglican bishop of Worcester.  The cathedral’s crypt houses a small museum where I learned that archaeologists have on display certain remains of a medieval pilgrim whom I chose to weave into my story.

Some of Worcester’s other buildings from the medieval period and some sections of its medieval wall still exist.  The Water Gate of the wall and many of the streets in the city centre are where they were 600 years ago.  Some of the ancient buildings were residences in the medieval period but one of the most interesting collections of old buildings is the Commandery, located just outside the wall where the Sidbury Gate had been.  Now, it is a museum, but in the fourteenth century, it was an important hospital named for St. Wulfstan, one of Worcester’s local saints.

Worcester Cathedral from across the River Severn

Later this year, I will be publishing the sixth novel in the Lady Apollonia West Country Mysteries, King Richard’s Sword, which is set in Worcester, England, in the years, 1399-1400.

Lady Apollonia of Aust is living temporarily with her eldest son, Sir Hugh, Sheriff of Worcestershire, and his wife, Lady Gwendolyn.  The sheriff is confronted by two murders in Worcester, both related to the nearby Abbey of Saint Martinminster and a secret usury scheme organised by one of its aristocratic canons.  Lady Apollonia and her daughter-in-law not only find ways to interpret the feminine clues the sheriff has found but also use their female insights to suggest a likely suspect.

This story is told through many of the characters that have appeared in earlier books of the series:  the Lady’s maid, Nan; Gareth, her stablemaster; her chaplain, Friar Francis; and her almoner, Father William.  It also includes English subjects’ reactions to the extraordinary events of a failed King Richard II and his usurper cousin, Henry IV.

Watch my blog for further information as well as dates when the paperback and e-book versions will be available.