In a Time of Kingdoms and Crusades, One Man's Heart is the Battlefield - an Editorial Review of "The Price of Loyalty"

Book Blurb:

In a time of kingdoms and crusades, one man's heart is the battlefield.

Cerdic, a Saxon knight, serves Count Stephen-Henry of Blois with unwavering loyalty-yet his soul remains divided. Haunted by memories of England, the land of his childhood, and bound by duty to King William, the conqueror who once showed him mercy, Cerdic walks a dangerous line between past and present, longing and loyalty.

At the center of his turmoil stands Adela-daughter of a king, wife of a count, and the first to offer him friendship in a foreign land. But when a political marriage binds him to the spirited and determined Giselle, Cerdic's world turns again. Giselle, fiercely in love with her stoic husband, follows him across sea and sand to the holy land, hoping to win the heart that still lingers elsewhere.

As the clash of empires looms and a crusade threatens to tear everything apart, Cerdic must confront the deepest truth of all-where does his loyalty lie, and whom does his heart truly belong to?

A sweeping tale of passion, honor, and impossible choices-perfect for fans of The Last Kingdom and The Pillars of the Earth.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/RbxtK

Author Bio:

Malve von Hassell is a freelance writer, researcher, and translator. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research. Working as an independent scholar, she published The Struggle for Eden: Community Gardens in New York City (Bergin & Garvey 2002) and Homesteading in New York City 1978-1993: The Divided Heart of Loisaida (Bergin & Garvey 1996). She has also edited her grandfather Ulrich von Hassell's memoirs written in prison in 1944, Der Kreis schließt sich - Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft 1944 (Propylaen Verlag 1994). She has taught at Queens College, Baruch College, Pace University, and Suffolk County Community College, while continuing her work as a translator and writer. She has published two children’s picture books, Tooth Fairy (Amazon KDP 2012/2020), and Turtle Crossing (Amazon KDP 2023), and her translation and annotation of a German children’s classic by Tamara Ramsay, Rennefarre: Dott’s Wonderful Travels and Adventures (Two Harbors Press, 2012). The Falconer’s Apprentice (namelos, 2015 and KDP, 2025), was her first historical fiction novel for young adults, republished in 2024. She has published Alina: A Song for the Telling (BHC Press, 2020, and KDP 2025), set in Jerusalem in the time of the crusades, and The Amber Crane (Odyssey Books, 2021), set in Germany in 1645 and 1945, as well as a biographical work about a woman coming of age in Nazi Germany, Tapestry of My Mother’s Life: Stories, Fragments, and Silences (Next Chapter Publishing, 2021). Her latest release is The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois (Historium Press, 2025), a historical fiction novel featuring Adela of Normandy.

Editorial Review:

5 STARS!!

With her latest book, ''The price of loyalty - serving Adela of Blois', the established writer, Malve Von Hassell, has crafted a minor masterpiece and a vivid and moving evocation of a long distant age; that of the late eleventh century and early twelfth century France. The writer is to be congratulated on this lengthy family saga covering the best part of six decades, an epic chronicle of successes and failures and moments of aching loss and heartbreak. This is no mean feat for, predictably, actual historical sources are scant and often contradictory and misleading. What historical information does exist, however, is assembled and deployed with the eye and the clarity of a trained and experienced historian, leaving Von Hassell to assemble the rest of the narrative based on her natural abilities as a consummate story teller!

The author has selected the historical figure of the truly remarkable Adele, Countess of Blois as her pivotal character, a girl and a woman whose character blossoms and matures as the story unfolds, and around whom a huge [and often confusing] cast of figures revolve in their own trajectories like satellites orbiting a sun or, to extend the metaphor, like insects attracted to a bright light. Principally, two characters [both fictional] in particular; Cerdic, the child of an English nobleman killed at the battle of Hastings and his long suffering and occasionally enigmatic wife, Giselle; the daughter of a prosperous local vineyard owner. The fate and destiny of these two characters is indivisibly linked to that of Adela. Fortunately, Malve Von Hassell has provided a full list of the characters, both real and fictional, at the end of the book, something which is of great assistance in following and charting the many episodes described. As a note in passing, it is a pity that there is not at least one map included in the book, which would be of great benefit to readers new to the subject and would serve to provide greater clarity, as, too, would a family tree.

As Malve Von Hassell herself points out; ''any writing about her life must be based on a great deal of conjecture.''  We do not know what Adela looked like, the exact date of her birth or, indeed, the number of children she actually had, estimates vary from eight to thirteen. The historian does possess a number of tantalising snippets and glimpses from the letters she wrote to her husband and to churchmen. In her lifetime, she is referred to as 'Countess' and her own husband, that reluctant crusader, Count Stephen-Henry of Blois, refers to her as 'Domina' [female lord]. The writer goes on to make the further point that ''if I have exceeded any mandate in providing 'an imaginative reconstruction' of Adela's life, I apologise to the reader. I wanted to show her emotional humanity as a complex individual with flaws and strengths in order to bring to life the historical image we have of this remarkable woman.''

This, and the point needs to be stressed, is something that the writer achieves wonderfully! There are a number of literary parallels that spring to mind here. There is of course the set of novels by the writer John Galsworthy collectively known as 'The Forsyte Saga'. More specifically, there is the truly extraordinary novel 'The World is not enough' by the French writer Zoe Oldenbourg, a powerful evocation of twelfth century life in France and which explores similar themes to 'The Price of Loyalty' such as loss and death, family and child rearing.

Adela is the daughter of the formidable King William, the Conqueror of England and the no less remarkable Matilda of Flanders, one of the most powerful wedding alliances of the Middle Ages. Adela, studious at the insistence of her mother, is no great beauty, but is very bright and speaks several languages. She is surrounded by brawling brothers, but is fondest of her younger brother Henry. A young English boy, Cerdic, is brought to the court as a reward for an act of bravery and is swiftly assimilated and shown favour. He is encouraged to look after young Henry and even participates in his lessons. Cerdic has always trusted Matilda, but the little girl Adela becomes his especial friend:

''Cerdic trusted Matilda almost immediately. Stern and uncompromising, she was like a cold stream - clear and brisk.....But Adela was the first to befriend him when he was lost and homesick and couldn't even understand what people were saying to him. He remembered how she would stand in front of him, a short and stout little girl with laughing blue eyes, her hands sticky with the sweet pasties she'd bring him. She'd grab his hand and drag him all over the castle grounds showing him her favourite spots. When one of the King's dogs had a litter, she and Cerdic played with them.......''

The little girl is, therefore, a much needed haven to a lost and lonely young boy in an alien world. Cerdic's early devotion to Adela turns into a lifetime of dedicated and selfless service to a girl soon to become Countess of Blois, a relationship which is a source of endless frustration to Cerdic's other soulmate; the girl Giselle.

Childhood in the Middle Ages being but a brief and transitory affair [should one even survive it], it is not long before young Adela is plucked from her diligent studies at the Abbey of Sainte- Trinité near Bayeux in Normandy to prepare for the vocation chosen for her in a dynastic marriage to Count Stephen-Henry of Blois; a man many years her senior. Blois is a strategic focal point of commerce and trade on the banks of the river Loire between Orléans and Tours. Dynastic marriages were rarely purely affairs of the heart in the Middle Ages; especially, as previously noted, the disparity here in age and experience between bride and groom. In the event, Count Stephen turns out to be a large, affable and red faced man who appears to be slightly in awe of his feisty and intellectual young wife with her important dynastic connections. The man is more by nature a benevolently minded merchant trader than the unfortunate holy warrior of God that circumstances dictated that he becomes. Adela, for her part, the daughter of one King and sister to two others, seems initially happy with the arrangement:

''Adela thought of her mother's words shortly before her marriage. 'Do you want to be able to do things in your life? Important things? To help make life better for people? Then you need the position and the wealth to do it.'

Her mother had been right.Adela was determined to do everything in her power to make these words come true. There was so much she needed to learn, but, oh, how she enjoyed her new freedom. Here, she could give orders when she didn't like something. At first, Stephen-Henry had laughed when she asked him questions. 'Now he even listens to me. Sometimes I hear more about what is going on than he does. I knew full well that for my husband, the alliance with the Norman King was an enhancement of his own power. For me, it opened up a new world.''

Young Adela seems to have found her feet! She now has a mission and purpose, as she sees it, in life. She enjoys knowledge, real power and authority and, for the first time, she is pregnant! Cerdic is re-introduced into this bustling and profitable new life of his childhood friend, Adela. Cerdic, in the meantime, has been proving himself invaluable in the tumultuous court of King William and to Matilda in particular. It is a difficult period, with Robert, William's oldest son, in open rebellion against his own father and Cerdic, the childhood protector and confidant of young Henry, actually saves the King's life in one of his many skirmishes with his fiery oldest son.Unfortunately, Cerdic overreaches himself in agreeing to deliver a message from Matilda to her rebellious son. This message is intercepted by William and, as punishment, Cerdic is sent to be a squire at the court of Count Stephen at Blois. Thus are Adela and Cerdic reunited and Cerdic embarks upon another unbroken duty of service, this time, also, to Count Stephen, whom he shall devotedly serve to the end of the Count's days and in very trying circumstances.

And so, as the rich tapestry of the story continues to unfurl, the writer is constantly there  for the reader, pausing at the more significant points of the overall design to point out the significance of certain episodes and to note certain events as the touch of both Adela and her husband comes to lie even stronger on the patient shoulders of Cerdic. Adela, for the strength of her childhood association and Count Stephen for the increasing trust and dependence on the English boy's strength, resilience, dependability and abilities. The reader is led to the next significant event, the meeting for the first time with the wilful and spirited young girl Giselle, pelting him with cherry pips from the safety of a tree.

Many years later, and with most of the protagonists long since dead, Adela is an ageing nun, having renounced the wicked ways of the world and taking up the veil at Marcigny Abbey. She confides in a young novice named Adelaide [who is the grandchild of Cerdic and Giselle]. To the young girl the old lady unburdens herself; a revelation!

''I hated her, you know,'' Adela told the young novice. ''You hated her? But you didn't know her at all,'' Adelaide exclaimed. Over the last months, she had become fond of the old lady. She couldn't believe that this pious woman would have felt something like hate for anyone. ''Indeed, I did,'' Adela said.

This theme, of mutual dislike, resentment and antipathy, one for the other, between Giselle and Adela remains one of the constant leitmotifs for the remainder of this epic work. There are moments of tenderness, of kindness and sympathy between the two women, but the resentment over Cerdic that they share remains deep and lasting. Cerdic, now knighted and a land owner in his own right, stands between them, a constant source of discontent. For Cerdic marries the girl [with Adela's own agreement], the bereaved and mourning daughter of an old friend and colleague of the Count's, daughter of a prosperous vineyard owner and now pursued by an unpleasant local nobleman. The Count, as kind as ever, gives shelter and protection to the girl and marries her off to Cerdic, who thus comes into possession of the estate of Les Tilleuls. Both Adela and Giselle are now irrevocably set upon the path of child birth and miscarriages. Cerdic is constantly at the bec and call of both Adela and Count Stephen, summoned 'like a hound to heel', as he himself puts it. Giselle is a frequent, and often unwilling, guest at Blois. She is always made welcome by the ever affable and kindly Count: ''She wasn't as comfortable with Lady Adela, a young woman hardly much older than herself, elegant, self-assured, and with a note of authority in her voice that clashed oddly with her youthful appearance. Several times when sitting in the great hall, Giselle noticed Adela studying her with a curiously intent gaze, cool and faintly hostile, for all that she was unfailingly polite.''

The two young women are so markedly different and come from such different backgrounds! Where Adela had attended erudite lessons at the Abbey, Giselle had run wild in her father's vineyards. When Adela had observed her mother engaging in intellectual chit chat with visiting scholars, Giselle had learned how to cook and select the correct combination of herbs. Whilst Adela was instructed in the art of hunting with birds of prey, Giselle learned instead how to prune and graft vines. The manner in which the diminutive Adela settled business and took charge of things made Giselle feel ignorant and resentful. Outside the world of Blois events are shaping and evolving. Old King William is dead and Adela's scandalous son William - called 'the Rufus' for his red hair - is now King of England, leaving Adela's favourite brother Henry on the periphery and scrabbling for his own position in an uncertain world. Adela, Giselle realises, loves to talk, wielding ''words like others might wield a sword with skill and ease, using vivid words and colors as if she was painting the world for the listener, but this didn't mean she revealed what she was thinking. Talking together with posture, demeanour and dress were part of a performance that never ended.'' Awed and envious, Giselle preferred for the most part to remain silent in the face of this.

Giselle had become used to Cerdic's protracted absences, away on the business of Blois, but nothing had really prepared her for the truly lengthy absence of Cerdic in attendance upon his liege lord Count Stephen on the First Crusade, declared by the Pope in 1095. The whole country was caught up in the uproar and the excitement of the expedition. Adela too is caught up with it all, determined that her husband do herself and Christ all due honour. Cerdic has no alternative but to accompany the Count. He travels with him to Constantinople and on to the Turkish held city of NIcaea. The Count urges him to write to Giselle, as he himself writes to Adela, and gives him the necessary writing things, the first letter that Giselle has ever received. Cerdic does not know what to write in these strange and alien circumstances. So he writes of the honour done to the Count in being appointed head of supplies. He writes of the glorious deeds of Robert, Adela's brother, who has also gone on crusade. He makes no mention in his letter to Giselle of the suffering and that thousands are starving to death beneath the implacable walls of enemy held Antioch. Instead, understandably, he tells her all is well.

In the absence of the Count and Cerdic, Giselle is almost permanently at Blois where Adela has completely assumed responsibility for all aspects of estate management. She has become 'Domina' in word and deed. She is also concerned with more personal concerns and confides in Giselle. She is increasingly concerned about her oldest son William, who appears to be both simple-minded and wilful. Giselle receives the letter from Cerdic, her 'Cid', at last. She has borne him a second son named Yves, 'the sturdy one'. The situation at Antioch, meanwhile, is dire! Cerdic has been seriously wounded in an attempt on the walls. The Crusade seems to be falling apart and the Count has had enough, deciding to desert, to leave the Crusade and return home ignominiously and in shame. Cerdic accompanies him on the long journey home. They return to Blois where, predictably, Adela has prepared a lavish homecoming feast, though in her soul she is embittered at her husband's failure and his betrayal of the high principles of the Crusade. Cerdic, too, is very uncomfortable and unhappy:

''When he met Adela the next morning in the courtyard, she greeted him warmly and kissed him on both cheeks. Her scent of roses and mint like a cloud. She wore a gown of soft green velvet that accentuated her fuller body and her hair, tucked underneath the white headdress, had been brushed until it was shiny; tendrils of it caressed her brow. She was nothing like the slight young girl who had ridden into the courtyard of Blois years ago. Her ripeness disturbed him and left him unsettled.''  Adela, like everyone else around her, had grown older.

Adela has lost a son, Odo, not yet ten years old, and she and the Count are clearly at odds over his performance in the recent crusade. At last, Cerdic is finally permitted to return home to Les Tilleuls, but, as Giselle firmly believed, ''he would find a reason to return to Blois. Adela crooked her little finger and he would drop everything and go to her. Giselle would never be free of that woman.'' Cerdic has brought a toy for the two boys and gifts for Giselle; a fine gown, cinnamon and nutmeg, saffron and tumeric for the kitchen. In the following days, slowly and in a fractured fashion, Ceric tells her of the horrors of the campaign. Giselle herself has lost another baby, another little girl, and she grieves. It is at this point that another messenger arrives from Blois with yet another summons for Cerdic just as they are finishing the harvest. There is a new Pope, and a second crusade has been proclaimed. Count Stephen is obliged to return, to make good the vow he failed to fulfil the first time and, naturally, Cerdic is required to go with him.

In a work such as this of such depth and breadth and scope it is a great temptation  for the reviewer to dwell unduly on certain aspects. For this reason, and in the cause of brevity, it is proposed to deal with Giselle and her role in the doomed second crusade as briefly as possible. This time, and for reasons only entirely known to her, Giselle is also determined to go on this new crusade. It should be noted, historically, that many women made the same decision. She knows that Cerdic would never agree to this. She goes to Adela, who is only too happy to assist. She agrees to look after Giselle's two little boys and suggests that she go in disguise as a boy, assuming the name of 'Gilles'. Adela professes her sorrow that she herself cannot go, but enlists the aid of an experienced master sergeant named Josse who, like many another, owes the Lady Adela a favour. He also instructs the boy 'Gilles' on the use of weapons; which will come in handy later on. Giselle takes up an introspective place in the rear of the army as they set off.

A long march to Constantinople, during which Giselle suffers privation and witnesses at first hand the effects of a large and marauding, hungry army on a local population. She is entranced by the many wonders of the city, though she is importuned by the attention of a merchant who has discovered her true gender, though not her identity. She eludes him with a kick to his vitals; a move she has learned from Josse. She is present at the terrible battle of Mersivan in May 1101. The Christian army is overrun and annihilated and the Turks rage through the camp of women and children. She sees Cerdic ambushed and brought down and she attacks his enemy before being forced to flee. Giselle fulfils her vow of praying in the holy city of Jerusalem. She has maintained her disguise and hidden herself from Cerdic and the Count for long enough. She reveals herself to her 'Cid' and they travel to the port of Jaffa to embark, but a storm and bad weather forces them back to port and where the Count with only a tiny force of Knights is obliged to conduct a defence against an invasion of Mameluke Egyptians. Needless to say, Cerdic is obliged to accompany him and the Christians are wiped out in battle at Ramla. Cerdic, who had chosen the short straw to act as messenger, appears to be the sole survivor. Together, the two re-embark; first to Sicily and then to Marseilles to begin the doleful journey back to Blois to inform the Lady Adela that she is now a widow. Giselle realises that she is once again pregnant.

When Cerdic sees Adela he notes that she has another new baby. He delivers the terrible news and she thanks him gravely. ''Cerdic stood up; he felt dizzy for a moment. Then his eyes cleared. Adela stood in front of him, unbending and unbowed, and he was flooded with admiration and with pity for this woman who now had to face the world  on her own. In the mere space of seventeen years she had transformed from young girl into a mature married woman, she had given birth to eight children. She had ruled with intelligence, courage and clear-sighted determination, and now she was a widow. And over all the years he had known her, she had been a true friend to him. He bowed, humbled and moved to tears.''

Predictably, and true to form, Adela soon sets Cerdic a number of separate and onerous tasks. He is first required to escort her favourite son [and designated heir], Theobald to her brother in law, Hugh of Troyes. Cerdic is desperate to go home: ''he could simply leave, but when Adela looked at him with her large blue eyes, plaintive and full of trust, he didn't have the heart to do that.''  Next, Adela requires him to deliver her infant baby son Henry to enter holy orders at the Cluniac Abbey at La Charité-sur-Loire. Giselle, meanwhile, has had a baby girl. She names her Orva, after Cerdic's own mother. With their young family around them, the two attempt to reconstruct their lives once more, concerning themselves with the vineyards, the export of wine, issues of drainage and the production of honey. The little girl, fierce and fearless is their delight and displays a particular affinity with and fascination for bees. They are very happy for a number of blessed years. Adela continues to administer and govern, celebrating a major coup in having the Pope as a guest one Easter. Cerdic and Giselle are among those blessed by the most powerful man in the Holy Catholic Church. Cerdic continues to 'dance attendance'  upon the Lady Adela, as busy as ever in conducting both lay and ecclesiastical affairs. He oldest son William continues to be a problem and she is constantly inveigled in the quarrels of her brothers. Giselle wants to go home, Cerdic says he needs to stay in Blois a little longer and, besides, Adela has dangled before him the enticing offer of a journey to England, the land of his birth.

Cerdic feels old and worn out. He is, at the age of fifty two, old in fact. His life has been one of constant service to Adela. ''Adela was part of his youth. He loved her. But at the same time he loved Giselle. The little waif. The brave young woman who had fought back against an unacceptable fate. The woman at whose side he had worked, with whom he had laughed, and with whom he had shared passion and tenderness. He loved her. He had never told her.''

And so Cerdic journeys home to his Giselle once more, unwittingly riding into yet another huge and unbearable tragedy, one in a whole series. Soon after, a tragedy even greater still would irrevocably overwhelm all three of them!

'The Price of Loyalty' - serving Adela of Blois' by Malve Von Hassell is a lengthy, complex and occasionally difficult book to read. It remains, however, a triumph, a minor gem and a truly outstanding examp-le of the gifted story teller's art. It is rich and many layered and contains within it a whole number of eternal truths; of loss, love and the virtue and burden of service.

Award:

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