Book Spotlight: The Lydiard Chronicles: The Lady of the Tower (Book #1) By Love Divided (Book #2) Written in Their Stars (Book #3) by Elizabeth St.John

 

Duty, passion, and power collide in The Lydiard Chronicles, a gripping trilogy inspired by

true events. Follow three courageous women—survivors, strategists, and storytellers—who defy the constraints of society to shape their family’s fate and England’s future. Their voices echo through time. Their legacy changed a nation.

The Lydiard Chronicles is an award-winning, best-selling historical family saga which brings to life the remarkable true stories of the St.John family. Spanning three compelling novels—The Lady of the Tower, By Love Divided, and Written in Their Stars—the series follows the legacy of resilient and intelligent women who lived as spies, courtiers, and diarists during England’s most turbulent century, navigating the quicksand of love and war, political upheaval, and personal sacrifice.

Bound by fierce family loyalty and unforgettable love, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles defy the limits of their time with passion, courage, and unshakable independence. They endure captivity in the Tower of London, exile in the Louvre Palace, and the heart-wrenching divisions of the English Civil War—fighting not just for survival, but for their beliefs, their families, and the right to choose their own fate. Meticulously researched and vividly told, this epic saga reveals how these women created history from the shadows, leaving a legacy of resilience, defiance, and enduring influence.

Rooted in original diaries, letters, and family papers, The Lydiard Chronicles offers an intimate, biographical portrait of women who moved behind the scenes of power. Serving as trusted secret agents, military wives, and confidantes of kings, they were deeply engaged in the political and religious conflicts of their time. Through tragedy and triumph, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles shape their destinies—and the fate of a nation—in this richly researched and vividly told historical epic.

 Buy Links:

Universal Series Buy Link: https://geni.us/TheLydiardChronicles

These titles are available to read on #KindleUnlimited

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 *Each novel is priced at just 99c / 99p July 1^st - 15^th, 2025*

 

 

Elizabeth St.John’s critically acclaimed historical fiction novels tell the stories of her ancestors: extraordinary women whose intriguing kinship with England's kings and queens brings an intimately unique perspective to Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times.

Inspired by family archives and residences from Lydiard Park to the Tower of London, Elizabeth spends much of her time exploring ancestral portraits, diaries, and lost gardens. And encountering the occasional ghost. But that’s another story.

Living between California, England, and the past, Elizabeth is the International Ambassador for The Friends of Lydiard Park, an English charity dedicated to conserving and enhancing this beautiful centuries-old country house and park. As a curator for The Lydiard Archives, she is constantly looking for an undiscovered treasure to inspire her next novel.

Elizabeth's works include The Lydiard Chronicles, a family saga set in 17th-century England during the Civil War, and The Godmother's Secret, which unravels the medieval mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. Her latest release, The King’s Intelligencer, follows Franny Apsley in the treacherous court of Charles II as she risks everything to uncover the dangerous truth behind the discovery of the princes’ bones.

Author Links:

Website:         https://www.elizabethjstjohn.com/

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Book Spotlight: The King’s Intelligencer - Discovering the Missing Princes in the Tower by Elizabeth St.John

 

London, 1674: When children’s bones are unexpectedly unearthed in the Tower of London, England’s most haunting mystery—the fate of the missing princes—is reignited.

Franny Apsley, trusted confidante to Charles II’s beloved niece and heir, Lady Mary Stuart, is caught up in the court’s excitement surrounding the find. Yet, as a dark family secret comes to light, Franny realises the truth behind the missing princes is far more complex—and dangerous—than anyone suspects. Recruited by her formidable cousin Nan Wilmot,  Dowager Countess of Rochester, to discover the truth behind the bones, Franny is thrust into the shadowy world of intelligencers. But her quest is complicated by an attraction to the charismatic court artist Nicholas Jameson, a recent arrival from Paris who harbours secrets of his own.

Pursued by Nicholas, Franny searches for evidence hidden in secret family letters and paintings, and uncovers a startling diplomatic plot involving Lady Mary, which causes Franny to question her own judgment, threatens the throne, and sets England on a course for war. With only her courage and the guidance of an enigmatic spy within the royal household, Franny must decide how far she will go to expose the truth—and whether that truth will lead to England’s salvation or her own heartbreak.

In a glittering and debauched society where love is treacherous and loyalty masked, Franny must navigate a world where a woman’s voice is often silenced and confront the ultimate question: What is she willing to risk for the sake of her country, her happiness, and her family’s safety?

A captivating historical novel of conspiracy, passion, and courage, The King’s Intelligencer is one woman's quest for a truth that could change the fate of a nation. A companion to the critically acclaimed best-selling novels The Godmother’s Secret and The Lydiard Chronicles, The King’s Intelligencer weaves together beloved characters and actual events to bring a suspenseful mystery to life.

 Buy Links:

 This title is available to read on #Kindle Unlimited.

 Universal Buy Link: https://geni.us/KingsIntelligencer

 

Elizabeth St.John’s critically acclaimed historical fiction novels tell the stories of her ancestors: extraordinary women whose intriguing kinship with England's kings and queens brings an intimately unique perspective to Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times.

Inspired by family archives and residences from Lydiard Park to the Tower of London, Elizabeth spends much of her time exploring ancestral portraits, diaries, and lost gardens. And encountering the occasional ghost. But that’s another story.

Living between California, England, and the past, Elizabeth is the International Ambassador for The Friends of Lydiard Park, an English charity dedicated to conserving and enhancing this beautiful centuries-old country house and park. As a curator for The Lydiard Archives, she is constantly looking for an undiscovered treasure to inspire her next novel.

Elizabeth's works include The Lydiard Chronicles, a trilogy set in 17th-century England during the Civil War, and The Godmother's Secret, which unravels the medieval mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. Her latest release, The King’s Intelligencer, follows Franny Apsley's perilous quest to uncover the truth behind the sudden discovery of the princes' bones. In Charles II's court of intrigue and deceit, Franny must decide what she’ll risk—for England’s salvation, her family's safety, and her own happiness.

Author Links:

Website:         https://www.elizabethjstjohn.com/

Twitter:           https://x.com/ElizStJohn    

Facebook:       https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJStJohn/

LinkedIn:        https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethjstjohn/

Instagram:       https://www.instagram.com/elizabethjstjohn/

Threads:          https://www.threads.net/@elizabethjstjohn

Bluesky:          https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethstjohn.bsky.social

Book Bub:       https://www.bookbub.com/profile/elizabeth-st-john

Amazon Author Page:     https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn

Goodreads:      https://geni.us/GoodreadsElizStJohn

The Inspiration behind By Love Divided, The Lydiard Chronicles, Book Two, by Elizabeth St. John

Widowed and destitute, Lucy St.John is fighting for survival and makes a terrible choice to secure a future for her children. Worse still, her daughter Luce rejects the royal court and a wealthy arranged marriage and falls in love with a charismatic soldier. As England tumbles toward bloody civil war, Luce’s beloved brother Allen chooses to fight for the king as a cavalier. Allen and Luce are swept up in the chaos of war as they defend their opposing causes and protect those they love.

Will war unite or divide them? And will they find love and a home to return to—if they survive the horror of civil war? In the dawn of England’s great rebellion, love is the final battleground.

A true story based on surviving memoirs, court papers, and letters of Elizabeth St.John's family, By Love Divided tells of the war-time experiences of Lucy St.John, the Lady of the Tower. This powerfully emotional novel tells of England's great divide and the heart-wrenching choices one family faces.

 

An Author's Inspiration

A Diary Discovered. A World Revealed

Writing about my family’s Civil War experience

Lydiard House

Growing up in England where the weather promotes reading and the countryside is full of castles and ancient churches, I spent much of my childhood buried in old books, family papers, and walking around ruins. My parents loved history and passed that gene on to me. Our favorite days were spent “St.John-hunting” where we would follow some thread in our family tree and end up in a forgotten churchyard or country house, face-to-face with an ancestor. When I came to write The Lady of the Tower, I felt I knew the characters intimately because of my familiarity with their correspondence and diaries, and that so many of their portraits are preserved at our ancestral home of Lydiard House.

 Lucy Hutchinson

I’m very fortunate since my family kept some personal documents, and an extensive family tree preserved on great pieces of Antiquarian sized paper which had been handed down by generations. Those inspired me to want to write only relying on primary sources, and so I then visited museums and libraries where records might be stored. By Love Divided draws on Lucy Hutchinson’s seventeenth-century memoirs, which are archived at Nottingham Castle. When I first encountered them twenty years ago, they were hidden in a battered file cabinet in the castle offices, and by asking and poking around I was thrilled to see the notebooks firsthand. So although pretty much all my records are accessible to the general public, it can take a lot of detective work to find them.

Lucy Apsley's signature

 

However, reading about the past is not the same as writing about it, and for me, the most challenging part of capturing my ancestors on paper was to ensure that I stayed as true to their characters as I could. I did this by reading as many extant documents as possible – even fragments of a letter, or the inventory accompanying a will can give so many clues into a person’s life. And then, looking at the actions across their lives can sometimes inform their character. In researching Allen Apsley, Lucy St.John’s son in By Love Divided, I came across a record that he frequently came drunk into Parliament. That started a whole train of thought that perhaps he was suffering from PTSD as a result of his action in the Civil War, and so I then sought to find evidence that might support that.

 

Writing about the English Civil War in By Love Divided, I was really determined to bring independent fresh eyes to the conflict, and that made for an extremely interesting journey. Firstly, the ambiguity of the war as it unfolded struck home. A credible historical fiction writer has to “write in the now”; our characters don’t know what lies ahead, although we (often tragically) do. In the 1630s and ‘40s, so many people were making decisions based on very limited knowledge, hear-say, and confusing information. And, they really didn’t think that their actions would lead to armed conflict. Loyalties were fluid – often more to their Land Lords than to any particular cause. And, as in any war, the masses just wanted to get on with their daily lives.

The St. John family

circa 17th Century

 

When I was writing The Lady of the Tower, I didn’t intentionally set out to write a series. And yet, I knew there were many fascinating stories to be told of my ancestors. Reaching the end of the novel, I realized that I could not leave Lucy’s world. My readers wanted to know more, and so By Love Divided was born. A much broader landscape than the first book, this novel is readable as a stand-alone but also satisfies those readers who wanted to know what happened to The Lady of the Tower. And of course, there’s always more to tell.

 

In By Love Divided, we left the family at the end of the first Civil War, hoping for a peaceful negotiation and a resumption of normal life. We all know it didn’t work out that way. And both Allen Apsley and John Hutchinson played a key role in the world-changing events that followed. The third book in the Lydiard Chronicles, Written in Their Stars, brings the family full circle back to the Tower of London. Only not, this time, as keepers — but as prisoners.

 

Buy Links

Amazon • Books2Read

About the Author

Elizabeth St.John

Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. An acclaimed author, historian, and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them-- in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their legacy. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story.

Having spent a significant part of her life with her seventeenth-century family while writing The Lydiard Chronicles trilogy and Counterpoint series, Elizabeth St.John is now discovering new family stories with her fifteenth-century namesake Elysabeth St.John Scrope, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort. A new medieval short story featuring these women, Road to the Tower, is within the recently-published Historical Fiction anthology Betrayal.

Connect with Elizabeth

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