The Knight's Courtship: A Medieval Romance

By Joanne Rock

Book Overview

Before gender politics, there was... the code of chivalry?

Welcome to medieval Poitiers, France where a rebel queen's court of independent women tackle the thorny questions of love and romance. Troubadour Lady Ivy has finally found an audience for her love poetry in Eleanor of Aquitaine's sophisticated court where manners and refinement are prized. But when a mock trial concerning the nature of love pits Ivy's ideals against a rogue warrior's more earthy approach, the queen bids Ivy to transform the knave to a knight.

Roger Stancliff is on a secret mission for the king to bring Eleanor and her wayward court to heel, not take lessons in honor from a maid. Yet his battle of words with innocent Ivy challenges his mind as well as his body, and he finds himself seeking out the troubadour whose quiet passions run deep. As a servant to the king, he will have to betray her. When the shadows of their pasts return, will he find a way to be her hero after all?

*an earlier draft of this work previously published by Harlequin

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DZ2LQ8LK
• ISBN13: 9798312554700
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Medieval historical romance: brilliant tribute to the troubabour tradition!

Joanne Rock's THE KNIGHT'S COURTSHIP is a truly inspired Medieval historical romance that recasts the troubadour traditions into a new genre, revitalizing a highly stylized and conventional genre to modern readers. A truly clever romance! The heroine Lady Ivy Rutherford in this romance is a woman troubadour in Eleanor of Aquitaine's court. Eleanor led a rebellion against her husband Henry, the king of England. Eleanor was a patron of the arts. Her court (and Eleanor!) was a trailbrazer, known for its art, sophistication, luxury and the wonderful troubadour poetry which sang the praises of love. Rumor has it that she and her women held mock trials, judging men on their refinement and manners. Henry seeks to rein in his queen and sends Roger Stancliff to spy on Eleanor's court and report proof of her treason. As a troubadour, Lady Ivy Rutherford sets about to educate the knave Roger and teach this womanizer the ways of courtly love....will she tame this scoundrel and teach him the ways of courtly love or will he teach this idealistic dreamer poet the real earthly pleasures of love? Political intrigue threatens to put an end to the games of love and their education. Despite Lady Ivy's noble spirit and her mother's noble birth, her father belongs to the lower merchant class. The different social and economic classes between the two make a love match no easy thing in a time when marriage was often an economic and political institution. All these external complications threaten to intrude upon the lessons of love, but the dark secrets the hero and heroine have kept from one another may be more menacing yet. Can a Medieval intellectual woman poet find true love or does love exist only in poetry? Will she discover her heart? Will the infamous knave Roger put aside his past? Can earthly real love also ennoble the heart and spirit? In the original Old Provencal language, troubadour poetry works on homophonic puns in the original, one level lofty and platonic and another quite erotic and sometimes bawdy. You can imagine how it might work when the word for heart and body sound like the same word and the poets sing the praises of one but also the other---in detail. The puns in the entire Old Provencal language abound, creating double, triple and quadruple entendres! Joanne Rock's romance itself is neither erotic nor bawdy. Instead, she plays with those poles in her creation of the hero and heroine characters, two people who represent the two poles of troubadour poetry. Lady Ivy is a troubadour who lacks experience in real world love and envisions love as a dreamy romantic idealistic image. Roger Stancliff has a reputation as a womanizer, well versed in seducing women for more earthly experiences of love. The author even touches on the Latin religious satire of courtly love in defense of marriage in the creation of her hero, but in an inspired manner and true to the romance genre, she transforms this satirical literary tradition into a facet of her charact