An Embarrassment of Riches (52 page)

Authors: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Tags: #Fiction, #Horror, #Occult & Supernatural, #Horror fiction, #Historical Fiction, #Vampires, #Saint-Germain, #Bohemia (Czech Republic) - History - to 1526

The middle of the thirteenth century was a busy time elsewhere: in France the cathedral of Notre Dame in Amiens was completed (1268) and King Louis IX went on Crusade, but died of plague, along with most of his army (1270) before reaching the Middle East; the Crusades were finally winding down. Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas were writing. In what is now Turkey, a severe earthquake in 1268 caused three years of social and economic chaos and ended up helping the Turks take over Anatolia, beginning the first steps toward the Ottoman Empire. The Hanseatic League was expanding, and the increased trade from their member-cities spurred international trade, which strengthened Bohemia’s economy, for the overland routes—not as active or as visible as the sea routes but important nonetheless—between the Venetian Empire and the Hansa cities went through Bohemia, making it a trading power to be reckoned with. The great German minnesinger Tannhauser died in 1271 at the considerably advanced age of sixty-five. Another significant death, that of Pope Clement IV in 1268, brought upheaval in the Church when he was succeeded by the Anti-Pope Gregory X, who reigned unofficially from 1271 until 1276. Also in 1271 Kublai Khan founded the Yuan Dynasty in China, the same year that Niccolo, Maffeo, and Niccolo’s seventeen-year-old son Marco Polo set out from Acre, bound for Asia. In England the following year, Henry III died while his heir was on Crusade; upon notification of his father’s demise some two months after the event, he returned to England the following year to reign as Edward I. Europe at that time was crowded, the population at levels that would not be seen again until the latter part of the eighteenth century. 1275 to 1345 would see Bohemia lose ground to an expanding Lithuania, the increasing belligerence of the Ottoman Turks, the end of what is sometimes called the Medieval Warm Period, the start of the Little Ice Age, and the arrival of Bubonic Plague in Europe, which from 1346 to 1379 reduced the population of Europe by between 35 and 40 percent, creating a social and economic vacuum that would open the door for the Renaissance, sixty years later.

Incidentally, Otakar’s monetary activities left one lasting impression on the world: the standard silver coin struck during his reign was named for the Bohemian town in which it was mined—the town of Tolar, which the Germans called Thaller, and resulted in the name
dollar.

* * *

As with all the books in this series, I have some people to thank in the preparation of this one: to Lucas Bortin, for access to his material on Medieval manuscripts and diplomatic documents of the period, including some of the remaining records of Otakar’s Court Scholars; to Juana Cardones, for information on Bohemian Medieval architecture, furnishings, and household management; to Betty Fuller, for access to her research on the end of the Medieval Warm Period; to Klaus Lowenstein, for information on Court life in Medieval Bohemia; to Jamie Mattissen, for access to her library on eastern European textiles and clothing in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; to Inge Porrenheim, for information on Konige Kunigunde’s Court; to Janet Tworek, for information on the economy of Bohemia and the transition from a barter-and-labor standard of exchange to a money-based one; to Peter Quarterod, for information on mining and smelting in Medieval Bohemia, and Bohemian coinage policies; and to William Wilson, Jr., for information on the Bohemian/Hungarian military campaigns of the thirteenth century, including disputed accounts of certain events associated with them. If I have strayed from their excellent information, I plead exigencies of storyline, and take full blame for my errors, with apologies to these good people who have been so generous with their help and expertise.

At the publishing end of the process, my thanks, as always, go out to my agent, Irene Kraas; to my online publicist, the incomparable Wiley Saichek; to my editor at Tor, Melissa Singer; and to all the good people at Tor. Also I wish to thank my attorney, Robin A. Dubner, who continues to protect Saint-Germain; to Lindig Harris for her e-newsletter,
Yclept Yarbro;
to the Yahoo C. Q. Yarbro chat group; to Paula Guran, who womans my Web site, www.ChelseaQuinnYarbro.net; to Libba Campbell, who proofreads my chapters as I complete them. Thanks also to Tony Harrison, Eleanor Prinus, and Chris Webster, my recreational readers; to Sharon Russell, Stephanie Moss, Elizabeth Miller, Maureen Kelly, and Alice Horst for their interest and support; to Gaye, Megan, Marc, Brian, Charlie, Peggy, Lori, Christine, and Jim, with nods to David, Peter, and Eggert, just because; and to Crumpet, Butterscotch, and Ekaterina the Great for their splendid feline companionship. Most especially, thanks to my readers and the bookstore owners who supply them with these tales. I wouldn’t have made it to this, book #24, without you.

C
HELSEA
Q
UINN
Y
ARBRO

Berkeley, California

By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro from Tom Doherty Associates

Ariosto

Better in the Dark

Blood Games

Blood Roses

Borne in Blood

Burning Shadows

A Candle for d’Artagnan

Come Twilight

Communion Blood

Crusader’s Torch

A Dangerous Climate

Dark of the Sun

Darker Jewels

A Feast in Exile

A Flame in Byzantium

Hotel Transylvania

Mansions of Darkness

Out of the House of Life

The Palace

Path of the Eclipse

Roman Dusk

States of Grace

Writ in Blood

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES: A NOVEL OF THE COUNT SAINT-GERMAIN

A Tor
^®eBook

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn, 1942–

An embarrassment of riches : a novel of the Count Saint-Germain / Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.—1st ed.

p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”