Heyer's medieval novels

Georgette Heyer was interested in medieval history and wanted to write novels about it, but her financial problems caused her to have to write more and more Regency novels. however she did work in between times at her various medieval projects. After her death her husband published My Lord John, the work she had spent a good deal of time on. In her younger days, she wrote a few novels set before the 18th century, including SImon the Cold Heart, the Conqueror, a biographical story of William the Conqueror, and the Great Roxhythe, a story about the time of Charles II. The last named has not been re printed in a long time. Anohter novel was Beauvallet, an adventure tale set in the times of Queen Elizabeth I, with a Spanish heroine. Her earlier novels are not nearly so good as the Regencies. She did not have a feel for medieval language and although she was interested in military history, she did not really understand the religous atmosphere of the Middle Ages. Her books seem artificial and its a shame that she thought of her Regencies as frothy when they are such good readable works. She also wrote a Georgian novel, called Powder and Patch about a country squire who becomes an elegant gentleman when he goes to Paris. Another regency novel is Spanish Bride which is a fictionalised biography of the real life soldier, Harry Smith, who fought in the Peninsular war, and who married a young Spanish girl who was only about 14 and with whom he had a long and happy marriage. Heyer knew a lot about military history and gave a good account of the fighting in Spain and Portugal and in Infamous Army, she wrote about the Battle of Waterloo.