Royalist Rebel

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction and in Elizabeth Murray, Countess Dysart, Anita Seymour found a heroine of the English Civil War whose own life needed no embroidery.Told in first person, we trace the life Elizabeth from the early days of the English Civil War through to the early 1650s. The telling of Elizabeth's later life in the Restoration years would require another whole volume! The eldest of the four daughters of William Murray, confidante of Charles I, Elizabeth has one goal in life to retain her hold over her beloved Ham House in Richmond. Her home's proximity to London and her father's royalist activities places the family in a parlous situation.Elizabeth conspires with her mother (a character worthy of her own story!) and acts as a spy and courier for the royalist cause, while maintaining a veneer of respectability, courting the Cromwell family. As the family finances fail, Elizabeth marries the neutral Lionel Tollemache. It would have been easy for Seymour to portray Tollemache as a gull to his manipulative wife but Seymour invests him with character and makes him a character worthy of Elizabeth's deep affection if not her love. Her love, her passion is reserved for the Earl of Lauderdale (who she later married).To say this is a well researched book would be doing it a disservice and consign it to the annals of a worthy but dry tome but it is anything but that. Elizabeth Murray leaps from the pages as any good, well written heroine of a historical story should. A wonderful read.

Elizabeth Murray is the teenage daughter of William Murray, courtier to Charles I. Parliament and the king are fighting a civil war for control of England. The Royalists are in disfavor and the king escapes to Oxford. Because of her father's allegiance, Elizabeth's family suffers deprivation at their family estate of Ham House. As war escalates, the Murrays must open their home to rebel soldiers and Elizabeth and her sisters lose the privileged life they once enjoyed. With food scarce, and the fear of losing their property to the Puritans, Elizabeth's mother carries secret letters to help the king in his exile, and the Murrays pray for a return to life as it once was.Elizabeth is beautiful, selfish, though loyal to her family. She's an English Scarlet O'Hara, but an actual personage who lived in the seventeenth century. Ms. Seymour's lyrical prose is a delight to read, and her knowledge of her time-period is impressive. I loved Elizabeth's tart tongue as she emerges as a young woman of intelligence and purpose. Anyone interested in the English Civil War, and its effect on the people rather than endless details of battles, will enjoy this novel.

I recently just discovered that I am related to Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart and her daughter, Elizabeth Tollemache, Duchess of Argyll, through my mom's mother's side of the family. I am finding this story to be a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the Murray family and I am grateful to know more about their lives. Now I just need to plan a visit to Ham House to share it in real life with my family!

I wish there was a series of books by this author in this period. Loved this. Now o can't find anything else she has written!

Regardless of the story inside, recent covers of historical novels are all about the bodice. A hint of cleavage indicates a hint of romance, maybe even lust. These books are obviously aimed at women, but when the character's head is cut out of the picture, I wonder what kind of women those cover designers are aiming for.The cover of Royalist Rebel suggests something less frivolous. It's a circa 1651 portrait of the book's protagonist, Elizabeth Murray, Lady Tollemache, with a black servant, possibly her beloved slave, Nero. It was painted at Ham House by Sir Peter Lely, and it still hangs there, where Elizabeth grew up and where much of the story takes place. There's a bodice, yes, followed by a story that includes some lust and romance.But author Anita Seymour takes her history seriously. The fun in historical fiction is letting someone else do the research for you. Some is more fiction, some is more historical. Seymour leans to the latter with an almost literal account of the facts.Elizabeth Murray, a staunch royalist during the English Civil War of the 1640's, is the only pretty sister of four. Raised by William Murray, First Earl of Dysart, a royalist spy and confidante of King Charles I, and Catherine Bruce Murray, who carries her husband's secret messages back and forth across England, young Elizabeth catches on quickly to her parents' schemes.The real Elizabeth was known to be determined to have what she wanted, and in Seymour's Royalist Rebel, what Elizabeth wants is Ham House. The king granted her father the lease on it in 1626, and it has been in her family ever since. She will stop at nothing to keep it for her family, and to inherit it for herself.Royalist Rebel by Anita Seymour 175x270 Royalist Rebel royalist rebel Petrea Burchard book reviews book review by petrea burchard photoTo keep Ham House out of the hands of rebels and the anti-royalist Parliament, Elizabeth must scheme against rebel leader Oliver Cromwell himself, and she does so with cunning and charm. Elizabeth is imperious, headstrong, and bossy. She believes that being of noble birth makes her better than those beneath her, especially rebel soldiers, and at times this snobbishness puts her and her loved ones in danger.Seymour has made the wise choice to tell her story in first person, otherwise it might be difficult to sympathize with Elizabeth. But as we get inside her head, even as she disdains the lower class rebels, we begin to want her to succeed in keeping Ham House. We feel her discomfort when confronted by dirty soldiers. We cringe at the danger when a local rebel captain threatens. Yet while Elizabeth complains about minor losses (there's very little wine left in the cellar), Seymour manages to show us rebel soldiers, outside Ham House, starving to the point of tearing out the gardens and chasing down livestock.Seymour's research is exhaustive. She weaves the most minute details into the story-the meaning in a turn of the neck, what is signaled by the uses of the hand, the styles of clothing. She also shows us the décor of every building the story visits, from Oxford to Ham House to Helmingham Hall in Suffolk.The book is packed with names, dates, battles, wins, losses, and even body counts, all of them true to historical records. So much so, in fact, that this is my one quibble with the book. Seymour gets much of this information across in dialogue, and at times this fact-giving chit-chat is awkward, and not necessary to the whole.However, besides the immense load of research she has accomplished in which I get to immerse myself, Seymour provides us with motivated, dimensional characters. No one is completely right, and no one is completely wrong. And as Elizabeth plots and schemes her way through the war, Anita Seymour excels at setting. In the best way, very few poetic phrases call attention to themselves. Yet I find myself immersed in the smell of lavender on a cool, English evening, or feeling claustrophobic as I climb the stairs to visit my lover in the Tower of London, or simply walking the halls of Ham House and wanting it for my own.

Although I am far from a fan of first-person narrative, I do love the period of the English Civil Wars. Therefore, I decided to lay aside the fact Royalist Rebel is written wholly from the viewpoint of Mistress Elizabeth Murray. I'm glad I did because Ms Seymour paints a vivid picture of life at Ham House. Given that Elizabeth's earlier (un-chronicled) life is the author's creation it blends well with known facts of the young woman's rise from relatively modest beginnings to that of wealth and title. It's a well-researched book in terms of the political scores and all credit to the author for a thoroughly enjoyable read.I like the way Elizabeth Murray's story begins with highlighting her present circumstances and the staunch allegiance of her parents to the Royalist cause. All the while her haughty manner and fundamental belief the enemy consist of nothing but filthy (smelly) Puritan folk (of low-birth) seems to imply Mistress Murray is indeed ignorant to the fact members of the aristocracy are fighting on both sides of the great divide. Nor does she seem cognisant to the fact that not all Parliamentarian soldiers are of Puritan mindset. I confess there were times when I despised Elizabeth's conceited grandiose self image and her prejudiced outlook, but she's not a fictional character and I didn't have to like her to admire her unstinting desire to keep Ham House in the family.As time moves on and Ham House is under threat of seizure by the Parliamentarian Sequestration Committee, (a method of punishing supporters or suspected collaborators of the Royalist cause), Elizabeth resists at every given turn, though is often forced to capitulate when events and circumstances are beyond her control. But, if something is wanted badly enough, then feminine guile to deceive Cromwell and feminine wile to gain a titled husband is worth the risk in the overall scheme of bettering her position within society and gaining a long for coveted title.

Anita Seymour in "Royalist Rebel" gives us a fascinating portrait of Elizabeth Murray, heiress of Ham House. She is resolute that her birthright should remain in the possession of herself and her family, in spite of the efforts of the local Committee of Sequestration. This Parliamentarian association was doomed to fail in its endeavours, given Elizabeth's absolute determination to preserve her ownership,Elizabeth is an extraordinary character---"a piece of work" in modern parlance, who learns how to manipulate others for her own ends. She is an intrepid force to be reckoned with. But the reader is charmed by her magnetism. The depiction of her mother, Catharine Bruce Murray, is also a living portrait, who in spite of many privations---insults even--- from local Parliamentarian officials, is a firm steadfast Royalist and a devoted mother. All the characters in "Royalist Rebel" are well rounded and credible.The sojourn in Oxford in 1643 at the King's makeshift court is particularly well described. The reader, with Elizabeth and her sisters, would have thought that even in Oxford, the court would be a glittering splendid pageant, but the reality was otherwise. Courtiers, the loyal Cavaliers, including William Murray, Elizabeth's father, present a shabby appearance, wearing worn and dirty clothes, and are beginning to fear Parliament's aspirations. The mood is brittle and apprehensive, the future of the King's followers uncertain."Royalist Rebel" is in that half way genre, between novel and biography, a medium used to excellent effect by Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory, and in this instance by Anita Seymour. "Don't let the facts spoil a good story"---past advice for cub reporters---but historical events interweave seamlessly and accurately in "Royalist Rebel". The excellent story-line holds the reader until the last page. It is difficult to assert where history ends and fiction begins.The English Civil War is a period which does not attract many historical novelists, as so many factions, beliefs and sects manipulate events. Nothing was clear-cut. Anita Seymour presents a captivating picture of this world from the point of view of one woman, which enables the plot to move forward to her heroine's ultimate goal, the lasting possession of Ham House. The characterisation, dialogue and scenic description all combine to cause the reader to turn the pages with great enjoyment. Novel or biography? Overall an excellent story!

Despite being English, I don't know a huge amount about the Civil War period, only vague memories from some school lessons. Royalist Rebel brought the era vividly to life with danger and spies at every turn! What I love about this author is her ability to capture the views and stances of the time. While the heroine, Elizabeth, may come across as snobby and stubborn to some, she was an accurate portrayal of a woman of her class and a character who had to endure so much (personally I loved Elizabeth - always like a flawed character). Clearly a lot of research has gone into this book and, as a newbie to the era, I found most of the political stuff useful (although at times I was a bit dizzy trying to keep up with all the names). However, die-hard Stuart fans may not like those bits as much.Highly recommended.

I enjoyed this book in the sense of it being a record of a woman from the era of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth. I was sorry that the book ended where it did and that there was no more 'story', other than an epilogue to bring all the threads of the story together. It is an thoughtful read if you are interested in women's history and that particular era of history.

As always Anita Seymour delivers the goods, excellently written. I would recommend her books to all generations not just to fiction history buffs.