Gambling and Swearing in the Middle Ages

by Michelle Miles

I’m excited to be here today and talk about my latest release from Ellora’s Cave, One Knight Only. This historical with paranormal elements is the story of a modern woman who goes back in time to the mid-1300s. She wakes up in bed with a hot Scottish knight.

Meet Maggie Chase. She’s a do-gooder who needs and wants to help everyone she can. She’s a student of medieval history and is researching her thesis on a famous jousting hero. She’s traveling alone through the lowlands of Scotland and winds up in a rain storm at night. The only shelter she can find is a run-down deserted castle…that happens to be haunted.

Sir Finian “Finn” McCullough has been a ghost for more than six hundred years. He is stalked by an angry faery princess, Elyne, who thinks he killed her lover on purpose during a jousting match. He finally sees a way to break the curse he’s under when Maggie steps across the threshold of his enchanted castle. He convinces Elyne to send him and Maggie back to a time before the doomed jousting tournament.

Maggie quickly learns that Finn has a gambling problem and she’s tasked with keeping him alive and out of the gambling tents if she’s to get back to her own time.

I started researching the book about the time I started writing it way back in 2005 (that’s a whole ‘nother blog post). I bought books on jousting and spent a lot of time searching specific information about jousting, tournament banquets, the Tree of Shields, where they lived during tournament, etc. I picked the mid-1300s because of some research I found that King Edward III held a tournament in England after one of his victories in France in the early years of the Hundred Years’ War. I also searched for information on speech. I found a great resource for speech of the time where I learned great phrases like, “God’s Teeth!” and the insult, “a plague-sore boil upon humanity.” I feel sure I can use that in everyday conversation today, don’t you?

One of the things I wanted to write into the book was actual jousting. So I did a lot of research on how to do it, what they wore, how they rode, etc. Then I knew I wanted my heroine to do the actual jousting. How did I pull that off? You’ll have to read the book to find out. :)

Another thing I researched was card games and dice games in the Middle Ages since I had a heroine with a gambling problem. The dice game, Hazzard, was the predecessor of today’s Craps. Playing cards were actually introduced to the Western Anglo world in the mid-1300s. The suit system that we know today (hearts, clubs, spades, diamonds) was adapted by the French in the fifteenth century and referred to as a French deck. Other regions had their own suits (e.g. Germany, Italy, Spain) which included cups, swords, coins, and batons (or sticks); others had animals, flowers, etc. For my story, I went with the familiar and used the French deck during the gambling scenes.

I hope you enjoy reading One Knight Only. It was super fun to write!

Huzzah!

Michelle Miles writes contemporary, paranormal and fantasy romance and loves to use medieval swear words and drink ale. She believes in knights in shining armor and happily ever after. Find out more about her and her books by visiting her website at http://www.michellemiles.net/ where you can read her blog and sign up for her monthly newsletter, The Monthly Grind.