Adding to my  message of Aug 02 1996 to you:
 SH> Fred Runk (1:300/6.2) wrote to Steven Horn at 12:32 on 30 Jul 1996:
 FR> Ah, my copy reads first paperback printing, Feb. 1996, which I
 FR> presume means first in US.
 SH> Remember that we in Canada were colonials a lot longer than you
 SH> were.:-)  So there are still some things we get first.
 FR> My knowledge of English history is not that good, so I hadn't known
 FR> about the civil war between Stephen and Maud.  I even went to the
 FR> encyclopedia when I first began reading the series to make sure
 FR> this was real, and not a fictional conflict.  I then deliberately
 FR> avoided reading more about the conflict and its resolution, so I
 FR> could get some idea of how it felt to be in the midst of the war
 FR> and not know the resolution.
 SH> Ellis Peters wrote a number of superb historical novels under the
 SH> name of Edith Pargeter.  Four of them were part of the Brothers of
 SH> Gwynned quartet which focus on Anglo-Welsh relations in the
 SH> mid-13th century, a period I had studied.  They were accurate to
 SH> the "academic" history and described the times (as did the Cadfael
 SH> novels) in a very believable manner. 
 FR> As you say, though, there will be no more, so I pulled out my ency.
 FR> and did a little reading to see how it did end.  It looks as though
 FR> there was plenty of material there for Peters.
 SH> Enough for another gross.  As you know, Cadfael's Penance stopped
 SH> in 1146 and Henry II did not secure the throne until 1154.
 FR> I would have enjoyed meeting Henry II and seeing him through
 FR> Brother Cadfael's eyes.  I wonder about Eustace though.  Is much
 FR> known about him? 
 SH> My sense is that Cadfael would have viewed Henry II realistically. 
 SH> And by all accounts Henry was a cool and calculating customer --
 SH> not necessarily a nice human being.  I think The Lion in Winter may
 SH> have been too kind to him.:-) 
 SH> As for Eustace, I assume you mean Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne. 
 SH> His claim was no better than Stephen's and if one forgets about the
 SH> feudal requirement that only males could inherit a fief, Maud
 SH> (Matilda) had the better claim to the throne after the death of
 SH> Henry I to begin with.  I also note that the Church refused to
 SH> recognize Eustace as Stephen's successor in 1152. 
 SH> In any case, Eustace died in 1153.  That made the question
 SH> academic. 
Did this ever reach you, Fred?
Take care,
Steven Horn
Moderator CAN_SYSLAW
E-mail shorn@yknet.yk.ca _or_ shorn@web.net 
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