Blood on White Mountain by Eleanor Swift-Hook, a story of prophecy, battle and betrayal, is just one of 11 stories inspired by great works of art in Masterworks from the Historical Writers Forum.
Why did you choose to write ‘Blood on White Mountain’?
I wrote Blood on White Mountain as the origin story of one of the characters who features strongly in my Lord’s Legacy series of books. But the picture that inspired me is one that has haunted me since I first came upon it. Young Soldier by Frans Hals Junior. The poignancy of the image of a young man, still in his teens head bowed as he holds a carbine and looks at the soldier’s equipment he must soon don. It was the fate of millions of young men in Europe in the 17th century as the continent was ripped apart by the religious division that had come from the Reformation, complicated by political and dynastic ruptures. Half a million of them would die in the battles of the Thirty Years War. To me, it was important to try and humanise that impossible-to-imagine number.
The heroine of the story is Kate, she is not a historical figure, so who is she?
Kate is Lady Catherine de Bouqulement. Only child of an Anglo-Irish earl and an English mother, she was orphaned young and made a ward for the English lands she had inherited from her mother, her father’s lands and title going to a very distant cousin. King James granted her wardship to Lord and Lady Harington who were the guardians of his daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Raising the princess was a very costly business and as James had little money, Kate’s wardship and the income from her lands were meant to help offset that great expense. Unlike many wards whose lands and persons were much abused, the Haringtons stewarded her lands well, benefitting from their income, whilst providing Kate herself with a good home.
Kate became a favourite of Princess Elizabeth. So when the Haringtons travelled to Heidelberg after Elizabeth’s marriage to Frederick, Elector Palatine in 1613, she insisted Kate went with them. Kate stayed in the household of the Electress Palatine and went with her as one of her ladies when Frederick accepted the Crown of Bohemia (Czechia) in 1619.
We meet her in Prague in the autumn of 1620 when she is fifteen years old…
Blood on White Mountain
In 17th-Century Bohemia (modern Czechia), it was a given that the elected King of Bohemia would always be the Habsburg ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. But the emperor being a Catholic and most Bohemians being Protestants, the Bohemian parliament rejected the emperor’s rule. Instead, in 1619, they invited the leading Protestant prince of the empire, Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate and his wife Electress Elizabeth, who was the daughter of King James of Great Britain, to become the King and Queen of Bohemia.
A year later an army was marching towards Prague, seeking to reclaim Bohemia for the emperor…
Had she been foolish to come here?
Paní Zdislava Jelenková was tall, almost as tall as Kate, who was often teased about her height. Her hair concealed beneath a wimple, Paní Jelenková wore a deep blue velvet gown with pendulous sleeves over a dove grey silk kirtle, a fashion from centuries past. To Kate’s eyes she had stepped out of a stained-glass window in St. Vitus cathedral.
The scent of a strange incense with dark undertones grew stronger as they climbed one narrow flight of stairs, then another. At the top of that was a doorway, over which hung a heavy curtain. Paní Jelenková seized it in one hand, turning so the black fabric was drawn across her body, and glared at Kate.
“When we enter this room, you will be silent,” she said, her German heavily accented. “You will not speak unless I ask you to. This is for your own protection. The forces at work here are easily disturbed. Do you understand?”
The intensity of her tone held Kate silent. She gave a small nod.
Her dark gaze raking over Kate once more, Zdislava Jelenková turned away and through the door. One step and she released the curtain.
Kate blinked as the incense rolled out, stinging her eyes. The room she had glimpsed beyond the heavy fabric was in complete darkness even though it was not far from the middle of the day. A prickle of apprehension shivered down her spine. Annoyed at herself, Kate pulled the curtain aside and stepped into the dark.
Once within, it was not completely lightless. A candle burned on a round table in the centre of the room. Instead of four walls this room had six, all hung with the same dark velvet as curtained the door, embroidered with strange symbols. Some Kate knew, those of the planets and the twelve houses of the Zodiac, but many she didn’t recognise.
Draped in her antiquated gown, Zdislava Jelenková seemed to have grown in stature where she stood on the far side of the room, her skirts fading into shadow, her face glowing in the candlelight.
The hair on Kate’s forearms pricked and tiny paws of cold crept across the flesh between her shoulder blades.
It had been more than foolish to come here.
Masterworks is available now.
You can find out more about Eleanor and her Lord’s Legacy series of books on her website.
Working Title Blogspot 
Leave a comment