The Normans Series Books #1-5 by H.A. Culley
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Overview: H A Culley served as an Army officer for twenty four years during which time he had a variety of unusual jobs. He spent his twenty first birthday in the jungles of Borneo, commanded an Arab infantry unit in the Gulf for three years and was the military attaché in Beirut during the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War.
After leaving the Army he spent twenty one years in the education sector. He has served on the board of two commercial companies and has been a trustee of several national and local charities. His last job before retiring was as the finance director and company secretary of the Institute of Development Professionals in Education. Since retirement he has been involved in several historical projects and gives talks on historical subjects. He started writing historical fiction in 2013.
He lives between Holy Island and Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland with his wife and a Bernese Mountain Dog.
Genre: Historical Fiction
The Bastard’s Crown (The Normans #1)
This version is the revised edition with various corrections and some redrafting of the original.
H A Culley’s first historical novel brings the Norman invasion of England to life through the eyes of both Normans and Saxons. In 1057 William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, is surrounded by enemies on the continent who he must overcome before he can pursue his claim to the English crown. In 1066 Harold Godwinson narrowly defeats a Norse army near York only to find that William has landed in the south.
Even after the Normans have killed Harold and broken the military strength of the Saxons at Senlac Hill near Hastings, William faces another five years of hard campaigning before he can call himself the ruler of all England.
Against this setting Hugo de Cuille, heir to a manor in Maine as a boy, is disinherited before being kidnapped and kept as a slave. Later he is knighted for bravery but faces many more trials including the enmity of powerful nobles and rejection by the Saxon girl he loves. The book ends with the horrifying “harrying of the north” and the winter march over the Pennines to capture Chester, the last important town to hold out against the new regime.
England in Anarchy (The Normans #2)
This is H A Culley’s second historical novel about the Norman period. When King Henry I dies his nephew, Stephen of Blois, and his daughter, the Empress Maud, battle for the throne of England: a struggle which lasts for nineteen years in the mid Eleventh Century. This period, when law and order ceased and many barons raided and pillaged with little restraint, is vividly portrayed through the eyes of the various participants. The story centres around two members of the de Cuille family: one is loyal to Henry, Prince of Scotland and earl of Northumberland, who supports the Empress Maud, and one remains faithful to Stephen. Each has to find their own way of dealing with the misfortune that the conflict brings in its wake.
Towards the end of the struggle for power Henry of Anjou, Maud’s son, plays an increasingly important role. One of his companions comes from another branch of de Cuille family in Maine. The war ends when Henry becomes the first Plantagenet king and the various members of the de Cuille family find fate has favoured some and left others dispossessed.
Caging the Lyon (The Normans #3)
This is H A Culley’s third historical novel about the Norman period. The young Malcolm IV of Scotland is no match for Henry Plantagenet of England but when Malcolm dies aged twenty two his brother, William the Lyon, proves to be a much stronger king of the volatile Scots. The loss of Northumberland, of which his father was earl, has always rankled with William so, when Henry II’s sons rise in rebellion on the Continent, William seizes the chance to invade; a decision which was to have disastrous consequences for Scotland for the next two centuries.
This turbulent period of history is brought to life through the tale of two branches of the same family – the de Cuilles – who are divided by the River Tweed; one branch living in Northumberland and the other on the Scottish side of the border. They prosper until the disastrous Battle of Alnwick, after which both families suffer misfortune and tragedy, which they overcome in different ways. Intertwined in the plot is the tale of Robert of Locksley, the outlaw of Sherwood Forest, who is eventually forced to flee the forest and seek refuge in the borderlands.
Seeking Jerusalem (The Normans #4)
King Richard the Lionheart and his fellow crusaders set out to recapture the Holy Land, but on the way they run into trouble in Sicily before capturing Cyprus from the Byzantines. Eventually they join the siege of Acre in the Holy Land and the tide of the war turns in the crusaders’ favour, but not without the king making some bitter enemies.
In England, Richard’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, struggle to frustrate Prince John’s efforts to seize the throne in his brother’s absence.
Aided by various members of the de Cuille family, King Richard defeats the Saracens under Saladin time after time, displaying great personal courage; but disunity is rife in the crusader ranks, particularly between the rival claimants for the Christian throne of Jerusalem, and animosity between their leaders ultimately costs the crusaders their goal of recovering Jerusalem.
With both armies exhausted and Richard desperate to return home to confront Prince John, the crusade ends with an honourable compromise, but an unwelcome encounter with old foes on the return journey leads to death, incarceration and the bankruptcy of a nation. The surviving members of the de Cuille family return home to find out that much has changed in their absence.
The Bastard’s Son (aka Death in the Forest) (The Normans #5)
H A Culley’s fifth novel about the Norman Kings of England covers the turbulent reign of William the Conqueror’s third son, William Rufus and fits chronologically between the Bastard’s Crown and England in Anarchy. As in the first book, the main character is Hugo de Cuille.
He is outraged when King William deprives him of his most prosperous manor in Buckinghamshire and offers him land in the untamed wilderness of North Northumberland on the Scottish border as compensation. Nevertheless, he supports the king when William’s elder brother, the Duke of Normandy, tries to take the throne from him.
To secure his new manors he has to overcome the Anglo-Danes who are holding the area to ransom before taking control of his new domain. However the instability in the area continues with another revolt against the king, border raids and eventually the invasion of Scotland to make Etgair, an ally of William Rufus the King of Scots.
Hugo is summoned to help William conquer the Vexin and Maine in France, but during the campaign he inadvertently kills his brother Richard; something that his youngest brother, Edward, can never forgive. He returns to England a broken man, riddled with guilt.
His mistress, Edith, helps him to recover but later she betrays him by running away with Wulfric, the brother of his dead wife and a man to whom he was very close.
Returning to Normandy, he endears himself to William Rufus by his daring capture of the important Castle of Gisors. Back in England, now high in the king’s favour, he is invited to hunt with him in the New Forest. However, his squire overhears a plot to kill William.
Hugo is uncertain what to do as William’s younger brother, Henry Beauclerc, is involved. He tries to save the king from assassination during the hunt but he fails. In possession of such a dangerous secret can he survive the accession of Henry to the throne?
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