Regan Walker on What's Coming in The DONET TRILOGY

Hello, all. I love to read and write historical romance that features authentic history and real historical figures. My preferred eras as an author are Georgian, Regency and Medieval. My Georgian stories (late 18^th century) comprise The Donet Trilogy. Books 1 and 2 are available now on Amazon. All three feature seafaring scenes and handsome ship’s captains.

To Tame the Wind is set in 1782, the last year of the American Revolution, when battles raged on the English Channel and privateers fought for both England and France. Echo in the Wind is set in England and France in 1784 when smuggling was a full time occupation for some on England’s southern coast.

I am in the process of writing book 3, A Fierce Wind, now. Set in 1794 in France and England, it’s an exciting story of love in the time of the French Revolution when loyalties are torn and love is tested and when the boy Zoé Donet knew as a child turns out to be the man of her dreams.

I thought to share with you some of my research for the story that features Zoé’s rescue of those fleeing the Reign of Terror.

The Émigrés of the French Revolution by Regan Walker
 

Siege of the Bastille, 1789

With the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, French émigrés began to flow into London and other parts of Europe in successive waves that became a tide of emigration. (The number is believed to have exceeded one hundred thousand.) In January 1792, the leaders of the revolution declared all of the émigrés to be traitors to France. Their property and titles were confiscated and the monarchy abolished. In September, more than a thousand prisoners were slain, many of them priests.

Before 1792, the émigrés were mostly of the nobility. Those who had ties to England were welcomed into London Society. After the horrors of the September Massacres, the wave of those fleeing France included clergy and refugees of the lower classes. (This is one reason the family of Lady Mary Campbell in my Regency story Racing with the Wind has a French pastry cook.)

The murders of September 1792 left an indelible impression. The victims of the slaughter included anyone the revolutionaries claimed might join an invading force. In reality, that was merely an excuse to get rid of those who disagreed with them.

Prime Minister William Pitt, a character in A Fierce Wind, was appalled by the murder of the French king and committed Britain to winning the war with France that ensued in 1793. England opened her arms to the émigrés and London became an important destination for them. Ultimately, their presence would aid Britain’s war efforts.

The comte d’Artois, younger brother of Louis XVI, a character in Echo in the Wind, who would later become King Charles X, spent many years in exile in England. The comte de Provence, eldest brother to Louis XVI after his murder, spent twenty-three years in exile from 1791 to 1814 and remembered England fondly when he returned to France to reign as Louis XVIII. He is a central figure in Racing With The Wind.

I found it ironic that the revolutionaries who wanted no king would later embrace Napoleon as emperor and eventually welcome back the Bourbons to the French throne.

  

Sign up for Regan’s newsletter on her website

Regan on Facebook

Amazon Author page - Follow to get word of new releases

On BookBub

A Fierce Wind will be released this summer. Read books 1 & 2 to get ready for it! Each can be read as a stand alone but they are all related.

Angi Morgan

Get Lost on Facebook   @GetLostInAStory  #GetLostStories

AND OUR Facebook Group: The Readers’ Spot

UP NEXT ON GLIAS:  

Becky Lower