Blood Red Horse

The book Blood Red Horse, which was written by K.M. Grant. The story is well written and has a definite sense of period in the 1100’s but no old English dialogue. There are three main characters; will, Gavin and Ellie, are well drawn and have real depth. In the story, I think William and Ellie had a vivid characteristic. William is a young boy who lives in the city of Hartslove, governed by his father, Sir Thomas de Granville. Gavin, his brother, is a knight with a black stallion warhorse called Montlouis. William and his brother Gavin didn’t get along well; Gavin is a bully, and mistreated William. Ellie is a young girl, adopted by the de Granvilles and brought up with Gavin and William. Ellie is a little girl who is very clever and smart. I liked her the most. She was supposed to marry Gavin, but she was in love with William. In the 1100's in England most of the marriages were pre-arranged, especially in a big wealthy family. Through the book, you can follows their growth from children to young adults. As they age it becomes ever clearer that there is a romantic triangle of sorts here - Ellie is clearly attached to Will, yet must marry Gavin the oldest. How their emotional stories progress really holds the story together.

The 1100's was during the Medieval time, it was a custom that peasants live together in villages, and farm the land in strips, each peasant owning his own strip of land. The villages were mainly self-governing, run by the manor court, which was made up of officials chosen from among the villagers themselves. As people needed protection, they empowered kings and lords through knights to protect them, or those kings empowered themselves to make that transaction on their behalf.
As people developed crafts and began moving their lives more around larger villages and cities to ply their trades, a middle class and upper middle class developed, and standing armies began coming into favor as power centered around the royals - kings, princes, dukes - while knights and extended nobles became less and less relevant.

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