Books with author Eva March Tappan

Two ladies of the train of the Princess Elizabeth were talking softly together in an upper room of Hunsdon House. “Never has such a thing happened in England before,” said the first. “True,” whispered the second, “and to think of a swordsman being sent for across the water to Calais! That never happened before.” “Surely no good can come to the land when the head of her who has worn the English crown rolls in the dust at the stroke of a French executioner,” murmured the first lady, looking half fearfully over her shoulder. “But if a queen is false to the king, if she plots against the peace of the throne, even against the king’s very life, why should she not meet the same punishment that the wife of a tradesman would suffer if she strove to bring death to her husband? The court declared that Queen Anne was guilty.” “Yes, the court, the court,” retorted the first, “and what a court! If King Henry should say, ‘Cranmer, cut off your father’s head,’ and ‘Cromwell, cut off your mother’s head,’ they would bow humbly before him and answer, ‘Yes, sire,’ provided only that they could have wealth in one hand and power in the other. A court, yes!” “Oh, well, I’m to be in the train of the Princess Elizabeth, and I’m not the one to sit on the judges’ bench and say whether the death that her mother died yesterday was just or unjust,” said the second lady with a little yawn. “But bend your head a bit nearer,” she went on, “and I’ll tell you what the lord mayor of London whispered to a kinsman of my own. He said there was neither word nor sign of proof against her that was the queen, and that he who had but one eye could have seen that King Henry wished to get rid of her. But isn’t that your brother coming up the way?” “Yes, it is Ralph. He is much in the king’s favor of late because he can play the lute so well and can troll a poem better than any other man about the court. He will tell us of the day in London.” Ralph had already dismounted when his sister came to the hall, too eager to welcome him to wait for any formal announcement of his arrival. “Greeting, sister Clarice,” said he as he kissed her cheek lightly. “How peaceful it all is on this quiet hill with trees and flowers about, and breezes that bring the echoes of bird-notes rather than the noise and tumult of the city.” “But I am sure that I heard one sound of the city yesterday, Ralph. It was the firing of a cannon just at twelve. Was not that the hour when the stroke of the French ruffian beheaded the queen? Were there no murderers in England that one must needs be sent for across the water?” “I had hardly thought you could hear the sound so far,” said her brother, “but it was as you say. The cannon was the signal that the deed was done.” “And where was King Henry? Was he within the Tower? Did he look on to make sure that the swordsman had done his work?” “Not he. No fear has King Henry that his servants will not obey him. He was in Epping Forest on a hunt. I never saw him more full of jest, and the higher the sun rose, the merrier he became. We went out early in the morning, and the king bade us stop under an oak tree to picnic. The wine was poured out, and we stood with our cups raised to drink his health. It was an uproarious time, for while the foes of the Boleyns rejoiced, their friends dared not be otherwise than wildly merry, lest the wrath of the king be visited upon them. He has the eye of an eagle to pierce the heart of him who thinks the royal way is not the way of right.” “The wine would have choked me,” said Clarice, “but go on, Ralph. What next?” “One of the party slipped on the root of the oak, and his glass fell on a rock at his feet. The jesting stopped for an instant, and just at that moment came the boom of a cannon from the Tower. King Henry had forbidden the hour of the execution to be told, but every one guessed that the cannon was the signal that the head of Queen Anne had been struck off by the foreign swordsman.

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Spirited and interesting picture of life in castles and manors, monasteries and towns during the Middle Ages. The description of the customs of knights is especially full. Chapter titles include Page, Squire, and Knight; The Knight's Arms and Armor; Jousts and Tournaments; How to Capture a Castle; Daily Life in a Castle; Life on a Manor; Pilgrimages and Crusades; Military Orders, Monks, and Monasteries; Hermits, Friars, and Missionaries; Life in Town; Merchant Gilds and Craft Gilds; How Goods Were Sold; Schools and Literature; Science and Medicine; and Architecture and the Arts.

In The Days of Queen Victoria is the story of Queen Victoria, the woman who became queen at eighteen and for nearly 64 years wore the crown of Great Britain. This classic book covers the reign of Victoria in England which coincided with the height of the British Empire. Becoming queen shortly after the Napoleonic wars, Victoria reigned until the beginning of the 20th century during the most prosperous and civilized era in English history. The story of her life includes her strict training as an English gentlewoman, and the exemplary way she executed her duties while managing a household of nine children.

"In the Days of Queen Elizabeth" by Eva March Tappan. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Of all the sovereigns that have worn the crown of England, Queen Elizabeth is the most puzzling, the most fascinating, the most blindly praised, and the most unjustly blamed. To make lists of her faults and virtues is easy. One may say with little fear of contradiction that her intellect was magnificent and her vanity almost incredibly childish; that she was at one time the most outspoken of women, at another the most untruthful; that on one occasion she would manifest a dignity that was truly sovereign, while on another the rudeness of her manners was unworthy of even the age in which she lived. Sometimes she was the strongest of the strong, sometimes the weakest of the weak.At a distance of three hundred years it is not easy to balance these claims to censure and to admiration, but at least no one should forget that the little white hand of which she was so vain guided the ship of state with most consummate skill in its perilous passage through the troubled waters of the latter half of the sixteenth century.

A masterful retelling—in modern English—of a selection of The Canterbury Tales, one of the English language’s most popular and long-lasting literary works.Written at the end of the fourteenth century in Middle English and published as the “Tales of Caunterbury,” Geoffrey Chaucer’s work has been credited with popularizing the literary use of vernacular English, rather than French or Latin. This vernacular was, however, Middle English, and still moderately difficult for the modern English reader.This version takes the most popular tales from The Canterbury Tales, and retells them in a style and language designed to make them accessible to the modern reader. The tales, converted from their original prose, are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark in London to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.In these tales the reader will learn of courtly love, high adventure at sea and on land, Roman heroes, the murder of a Christian boy by Jews, the grisly end of a gang of robbers, moral lessons on love and beauty, the drawing down to hell of a corrupt church official, the testing of a Piedmont nobleman’s wife’s loyalty, Genghis Khan (“Cambyuskan” in Chaucer’s text), the trickery of an alchemist, and much more.“Humor, pathos, character-drawing, mischievous satire, and love of nature . . . all these qualities are found abundantly in the poetry of Chaucer. . .”—from the author’s preface.This new edition has been completely reset and contains all the original illustrations.Front cover illustration: Chaucer from the Ellesmere manuscript.ContentsAt the Tabard InnThe Knight’s TaleThe Man of Law’s TaleThe Prioress’s TaleThe Nun’s Priest’s TaleThe Pardoner’s TaleThe Wife of Bath’s TaleThe Friar’s TaleThe Clerk’s TaleThe Squire’s TaleThe Franklin’s TaleThe Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale