any historical personages you wish had fiction composed about them

Kveto from Prague · Post by **Kveto from Prague** » Sun September 28th, 2008, 7:19 pm

in discussion with margaret and others, my love for oscure periods of history and characters got me thinking about emperor frederico II and how such an interesting chacacter has only one novel written about his life. are there any historical personages whom you think would make great subjects for historical novels. you know those true people who had lives almost too amazing to believe. I had a few and wanted to see if anyone can add to the list.

Roger de Flor, the founder of the catalan company, had such a rich life as a medevil swashbuckler throughout the mediteranian in the high middle ages. son of a falconer hes represents a true self made man who rose from very little to command armies.he inspired the catalan epic triranto lo blanco but i dont think anyones brought him to life in fiction.

Marozia of Rome (10th century) is such a powermonger, femme fatale and facinating figure its hard to believe shes been ignored. the papal throne was her plaything for decades and she enthralled men at will, ultimately dieing at the hands of one of her sons.

Pedro Francisco, the greatest american solider of the revolutionary war. his origin is almost too fantastic to believe, kidnapped from portugal and left on a boston pier. plus, george washington called him the greatest american solider.

Jan Zizka, the blind Hussite general who helped the bohemians defeat all of Europe. remember he was blind!

Juraj Janosik, hes been in lots of central european literature but not in english as far as i know. A slovak highwayman, this guy was the real robin hood, a chivalrus robber who gave to the poor, and whats more he actually existed.

Charles XII of sweden, peter the greats arch rival.

Anna Comena, byzantine princess, one of the first serious historical scholars, and full of byzantine ambition.

Adelaide of Italy (10th century), later wife of Otto the great, holy roman Empire. her early life was so full of excitement and intrige, imprisoned in castles several times, escaping from evil hunchback suitors, hiding in haystacks, having an evil mother in law try to claw her eyes out, and eventually marrying an emperor (and having affairs with his brother and son), and of course becoming a saint. she just about encaptulates the Dark ages in one lifetime.

if any of these have had fiction composed about them that you know of id be happy if you let me know. otherwise i think they are just waiting for a good author to imortalize them.

is there anyone that any readers here would like to see historical fiction written about?

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Sun September 28th, 2008, 8:30 pm

Joan of Arc is rarely touched, but maybe cause there is no love story there.

Louisa May Alcott's mother is what I really want to see.

Alaric · Post by **Alaric** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 4:13 am

Aside from my usual answer of Peter the Great, I'd like to see someone write about José de San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins, the two main leaders in the South American wars of independence. One of the novel ideas I have kicking about in my head is set during those.

Calgal · Post by **Calgal** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 6:10 pm

I can't remember their names, but I found the count and countess who built the fabulous hospital in Beaune fascinating and wished to have more info about them than the one or two lines in the guide book. Even that little bit of info made it seem like there is a story worth telling there. If I read French better, I might attempt it myself.

Does anyone know more about this?

Okay, I looked this up, which I should have done before. The Count was Nicolas Rolin, who was chancellor to the Duke of Burgandy. He had three wives. The third, Guigone de Salins (1403-1470) was the one who founded the hospital with him. Rolin has a brief biography in Wikipedia, but Guigone has only a picture.

There is definitely a story there.

princess garnet · Post by **princess garnet** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 6:29 pm

A HF novel about Anne of Brittany in English. She was its last Duchess.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 6:36 pm

I second keny's Anna Comena. I'd love to see a novel written on her.

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 6:52 pm

There's a fairly recent YA novel about Anna Comnena, but none for adults that I know of. (Tracy Barrett's Anna of Byzantium)

Anne of Brittany is the subject of Eleanor Fairburn's Crowned Ermine, which is super rare, unfortunately.

I agree that both of these women would make great subjects. I'll add Sichelgaita of Salerno, which I may have mentioned on the discussion board for medieval Sicily on the old site.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 6:53 pm

I think we have a very similar thread about this here:
http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... .php?t=280

SM

donroc · Post by **donroc** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 7:30 pm

I will not say because I intend to write about a few more obscure but interesting individuals and would not like it if anyone beat me to the personage.

alice · Post by **alice** » Mon September 29th, 2008, 7:45 pm

[quote=""Divia""]Joan of Arc is rarely touched, but maybe cause there is no love story there.

[/quote]

Have you read the YA novel about Joan by Pauline Chandler? I think, if I remember correctly it was called "Warrior Girl". She came to our Library a few years ago to talk about it to students. As you can imagine, she did loads of research. It was when I was in Public Libraries, not a School one, but I've just remembered it with you mentioning Joan.