Don’t You Just Love Medieval Stories?

Today, 819 years ago, the Third Crusade began with the Seige of Acre, a city in the ancient Near East, that was controlled by Saladin.

I mention it because the year, 1189, is smack in the middle of the medieval period, and is a favourite of historial romance writers and readers. The Crusades drove the economy of most of Europe for hundreds of years. For story lovers, the Crusades provides knights and lords, battles and long journeys. In other words, lots of hero material and drama!

There have been many movies with story lines influenced by the Crusades. Two of them that immediately spring to mind are Kingdom of Heaven, featuring Orlando Bloom <sigh>, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and with one of the most expensive cameo roles in film history, Sean Connery as King Richard, freshly returned from the Crusades. I mention these two because I’ve seen both quite recently, but there are dozens more, including the romanticized story of William Wallace, Braveheart, directed by and starring Mel Gibson.

When it comes to books, that number leaps to the thousands. I’ve even written one myself, Heart of Vengeance, which was also set in England while Richard was away fighting the Crusades and Prince John was scheming to steal his throne.

Working purely from memory, another medieval tale I remember is A Knight in Shining Armor, which is actually a time travel tale by Jude Deveraux, set in both the past and contemporary times.

Straw poll: What’s your favourite medieval novel, and why?

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First appeared on Stories Rule, August 28, 2008

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Tracy Cooper-Posey © 2009. Cannot be copied or distributed without permission, or without this copyright notice attached.