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Sarah Chloe
BURNS
2021
ISBN:
978-9-403645-83-4
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Angers, France,
1136 A.D.
“Ah, mon dieu! Mon dieu!
Je m’appele Matilda! Je suis le fille d’Henri, le
rex tres magnifique d’Angletaire y Normande,”
Empress Matilda screamed into the night air from her balcony
overlooking the city of Angers. “The throne of England belongs to me
and my heirs! Father promised, and Stephen agreed officially, in
writing. Now that thieving underhanded cousin of mine has shown his
true colors, n’est-ce pas? My father’s favorite nephew,
and he expresses his gratitude in this knave-like manner! I tell you, I
won’t stand for it any longer, Geoffrey. Did I not agree to this
asinine union of ours for the very purpose of producing an heir to the
throne? Have I not endured the languor of our marriage bed and the
dreadful pangs of childbirth three times just so that Father’s direct
heirs might continue to rule England and Normandy, as he and my
grandfather before him? And now I’m forced to accept this double
humiliation while ma petites, Henri, Geoffrey, and William, rot
in this prison-like fortress of Angers,” Matilda fumed, as her bored and
equally unassailable spouse listened in practiced self-control.”
The Yorkshire Dales, Late Spring, 1638
“The sound of horses’ hooves and clashing
swords could be heard all around her as Matty raced across the boggy
landscape. Her heart was pounding as she glanced feverishly from face
to face trying to find…the man. She was unsure of his appearance, but
she knew she would recognize him when they made eye contact. She was
also uncertain of their connection, but she instinctively knew that
would be clarified when they met. Amidst the hordes of armor-clad
soldiers, she fought to maintain her wits. The wind was driving her,
and she understood that her destiny was at stake. How could anyone be
recognizable, covered with so much armor? Matty climbed breathlessly up
a great mound, toward a high and lengthy stone wall, feeling a strange
pull, as if she had been here before.
“At that moment, in the far distance, a
single solitary figure raced toward her along the walled walkway… As
Matty screamed at the disappearing figure, she stepped into a deep bog
and crashed face-forward, tumbling down the hill. Rolling down, down
into a deep gully, she forced herself to look heavenward again, but the
only vision there was a bright four-pronged star, perched, as it were,
above a large cross…..”
“Matty’s
eyes flashed open, and she jumped in her seat, bumping her head against
the roof of the coach. She looked feverishly around as her mother made
eye contact and assured her she must have been dreaming.”
Ardvreck Castle, Loch Assynt, Highlands,
Scotland
Photo: Marek Gierlinski |
“Matilda of Argyll
is a bold and dramatic adventure, ripped from
the pages of history, seen through the eyes and told from the heart of
those who lived through this epic period. Historian Sarah Chloe Burns
reaches back in time to recap the blending of French and English royalty
following William the Conqueror’s victory at the Battle of Hastings
(1036 A.D.). Chapter one begins with a conversation which might have
occurred between his granddaughter Matilda and her husband—Geoffrey
Plantagenet—in Angers, France (1136 A.D.). The true story of this
historic Matilda sets the backdrop for a dramatic tale which could
have connected her bloodline to the future, fictional Matilda of
Argyll.
As Matilda Campbell’s story begins in1638, this high-spirited and
intelligent nineteen-year-old Scot is unwilling to accept society’s
rules and barriers regarding gender and class. Her penchant for
independent thinking will take her far—eventually across the ocean to
Jamestown, Virginia—but at what cost? There, she will witness race and
class distinction of a manner she could never have imagined.
Stretching from London City, England to the Scottish
Highlands; from Mali, Africa to the West Indies, the story lines of
Scottish, English and African peoples of many classes will intersect in
an intensely dramatic fashion. What makes Matilda a truly
entertaining and enlightening experience is the manner in which Burns
weaves the pages of recorded history, and the footsteps of those who
made that history, with her colorful fictional characters.
A
golden braid of history, myth, and storytelling, Matilda of Argyll
offers the reader an abundance of riches, both intellectual and
erotic.”
STEVEN CARTER, Ph.D.
Author of Leopards in the Temple:
Selected Essays 1990-2000
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“Sarah Burns brings the early years of
American history and its links to England and Scotland to life through
the melding of lives so different yet so intimately linked. From the
mythological founding of the family lines through African captives,
French royalty and Highland families to the settlements at Jamestown,
Matilda’s line produces strong women who deal with whatever life gives
them. These women are bound by social conventions but gifted with
hearts and minds that need more. This was a hard time for women.
Childbirth often brought a mother’s death. Social conditions forced
women into prostitution and the lack of effective birth control made
abortions commonplace and life-threatening. A “respectable” gentleman
had his whore on the side, but no “respectable” woman even thought about
any man but her husband. The records of history are filled with great
battles and meetings of the powerful, but it is the day-to-day events
that define a people. The interweaving of the families, their lives,
their dreams, and their desires all seasoned with the oversight of the
gods and goddesses paints a fuller picture than I have ever read
before.”
THERESA HORNSTEIN,
(Lake
Superior College)
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“Those of us engaged in Women’s History realize that much of our work
involves reading and interpreting the silences. The story of women and
their place in society over the ages is often called the underside of
history. In her new edition of Matilda of Argyll, Sarah Chloe
Burns has once again managed to weave vast slices of recorded history
with the stories of fictional characters who are richly and lovingly
drawn. The work of revising, the painful task of letting go of some
cherished sections of the original while expanding the historical
context, has yielded an eminently readable and engaging story. Sarah
Chloe Burns continues to help a wider audience to appreciate this
important but still under-explored dimension in the evolving story of
humanity.”
MARIE
A. CONN, Ph.D.,
Author
of Noble Daughters. Unheralded Women in Western Christianity,
13th
to 18th Centuries.
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Historian
Sarah Chloe Burns has gained an international reputation
as a noted research academic in the area of gender and race
relations, cross-culturally, from the ancient period to the
present. Her graduate work was recognized and rewarded by
the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, in competition
with Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations from U.C. San
Diego, U.C.L.A. and U.C. Santa Barbara. One of her first
orders of business as a teaching historian was to create a
Women's History survey course for Bakersfield College (the
first of its kind), which she began teaching in 1997. Ms.
Burns is currently working in the Department of History at
College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, California, while
also teaching classes in Cultural Diversity and World
Civilizations for National University.
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