Biographies: Rory McGuinness

Rory McGuinness (Irish Gaelic: Ruairi Maghunadh) was born in the village that served the great fortress of Alun Macha in Ulster in 741. His father, Ghunasadh, was an armorer who died of fever when Rory was an infant. His mother, Grainne, having no close kin, raised Rory alone. She was raped and killed in a raid when he was about five years old. Rory was sent to live with a cousin of his father's. There he met Shannon O'Neill, also a young boy, and ran away from home with him when they were about ten years old.

The two boys wandered together through Ulster taking whatever work they could find for about three years. In 754 they met Ishaq the Andalusian, the musician who had introduced the lute to the British Isles. He discovered that Shannon had a remarkable singing voice and innate h enius for music and took the boys on as his students. The three traveled together for a few years until without warning, Rory left the company and found his way to a cattle chieftain to whom he pledged his service as a soldier. It was in the clan strife of 759 that Rory met Finn O'Donnell, a mercenary fighting against his own clan for the O'Neill, whom he was to encounter nearly fatally years later.

Sometime in the mid- to late 760s Rory ran across his old friend, Shannon O'Neill, again, and accepted his invitation to accompany him to the Saxon kingdom of Críslicland on the North Sea coast. Shannon had been invited to become part of the stronghold of King Lawrence as a bard, which the Saxons called a skald. Rory met the king's wife, Josephine, and developed an intense romantic attachment to her that was to last several years.

When Josephine traveled to visit kin at keito Uxello in Affynshire, her childhood kingdom, Rory and Shannon accompanied her, intending to leave to continue their wandering ways. Shortly after leaving Josephine with her cousins on Beltane that they learned that a cabal of mercenary captains had seized control of the kingdom, trapping Josephine behind their lines. Rory went to find her and was captured by one of the mercenary lords, Elerde of Brittany, who had taken over Keito Uxello. It was in his custody that Rory met Finn O'Donell again. O'Donnell was one of the cabal that had seized power. In an inexplicable move a short time after when Elerde and O'Donnell had captured the Lady of Críslicland, O'Donnell agreed to exchange her for Rory, letting her go. O'Donnell carried Rory back to the fortress at Hucknall and condemned him to be hanged as a spy. Somehow Rory Rory escaped and made his way to an abbey across the River Trenta in Críslicaland where he stayed for several months.

When King Lawrence's cousin, Gadfrid, seized control of Críslicaland and of the king's wife and children, Rory determined to go to their aid. He arrived to find the lady and her children fled with Elerde of Brittany, Gadfrid's erstwhile ally. He followed them to the Holy Isle of Linisfarne near Bamburgh in Northumbria and reunited with Josephine. He accompanied her back to Críslicaland and a reunion with her husband after Gadfrid was killed.

Soon after Shannon O'Neill, who was back with Lawrence's court, left to return to Ireland. It is thought that there must have been a falling out between the two bards in spite of what must have been a happy reunion as Rory followed him shortly thereafter. He reached the Cumbrian coast only to learn that the vessel O'Neill had taken passage on had sunk in one of the Irish Sea's notorious storms. Rory returned to Críslicaland. He remained in King Lawrence's service until he met and married a widow of Briton origin, Cerridwen. He lived the rest of his life with her helping to farm her small croft. Shannon, who it turned out had been rescued by Dublin Danes, returned to Críslicaland with his Danish wife, Falni, and went to live with Rory and Cerridwen. Rory is believed to have had a part in training fyrd members to help protect Críslicalandian coastal billages and crofts against Viking raiders in the last decades of the 8th century. There is no record of his serving King Offa after the mercian takeover of Críslicaland in 795.

Rory and Cerridwen had three children: Grainne, Ceretic, and Nannah. Cerridwen died in 814. Rory followed her within the year.

Rory McGuinness is the subject of a ballad written by Shannon O'Neill that tells of Rory's death by hanging. Scholars suppose it must have been composed before Rory's recovery near the end of the wars in Affynshire and Críslicaland in 769-70. See "The Ballad of Rory McGuinness".

Biographies: Shannon O'Neill

Note:  This is the official biography of Shannon O'Neill.  You will find that the stories we post here do not match the timing or events on the biography.  Enjoy them anyway.

Warning: The following biogrphy constitutes a spoiler for anyone who wants to read An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England and its sequels.

Though his precise birthdate is unknown, Shannon O'Neill (Siannone ui Níall) was born in the 740a in Ulster, a kingdom of Ireland.  He was the second eldest of seven children.  When he was about fourteen years of age he left home to avoid being killed by his drunken, abusive father.  he set out into the world with his friend, Rory McGuinness, where he was found by master musician, Ishaq of Anfalusia, who took both boys in to teach them to be musicians.  Shannon in particular showed a genius unlike any other in Ishaq's experience.  Ishaq had brought a new instrument with him from his homeland, the earliest form of lute, and Shannon  took it up enthusiastically.  A few years later Rory departed from Shannon and the master's company.  The latter two continued to travel and entertain throughout Ireland, England and Wales.

When master Ishaq returned to Andalusia in the Iberian Peninsula, Shannon set out to travel as an itinerant bard.  He happened to find his way to the Saxon kingdom of Críslicland where he found favor with King lawrence and Queen Josephine.  Though he planned a return to Ireland to confront his abusive father at last, the royal couple invited him to return and become a permanent part of their court.  On his journey he was reunited with his old companion, Rory, who had spent time as a warrior fighting the O'Donell-O'Neill clan wars.  Shannon discovered that his father had killed his mother, but when he tried to take revenge, the elder O'Neill soundly beat him.  Dispirrited Shannon invited Rory to return with him to Críslicland .

When the queen journeyed to her own homeland of Affynshire, Shannon and Rory traveled with her, and therefore they were with her when a cabal of mercenaries led by Malcolm of Horsfort took over that kinfdom.  The queen and her bards were caught behind enemy lines.  While Rory remained to try to find a way to protect the queen, Shannon found the king's forces and reported the queen's whereabouts and welfare.  When the queen escaped and prepared to return to Críslicland and her children, Shannon accompanied her.  When the party was ambushed, he helped her escape by boat and on foot south to Hucknall, where the two learned that Rory had been captured by an old O'Donnell enemy who was part of the cabbal, and that he was hanged.

After their return to Críslicland, where  soon the king's cousin, Gadfrid, usurped the throne,   Shannon helped the queen arrange the rescue of her brother, the High Reeve Lorin.    Shannon chose to return to where the king was reported missing near Grantham.  He engineered the king's release from captivity and returned with him to defeat the usurper and retake the throne.  When the king and queen were reunited Shannon was also reunited with Rory, who, it turns out, had not been hanged at all.

For reasons that can only be surmised, after his reunion with his childhood friend, Shannon abruptly left Críslicland for Ireland.  Coming across a friend from his days as a traveling bard, Shannon detoured to Scotland where he met and married Heather of Ayr.  He returned with her to Críslicland  where their marriage quickly foundered.  Heather left him, causing him to despair.  he left for the European mainland, but was lost at sea in an assumed suicide.  In fact, Shannon had been picked up by a Norse fishing ship.  He was badly injured and was amnesiac.  During his stay with Falni, the woman who had rescued him, the two married.  When Shannon's memory returned, he went back to Críslicland to reassure Rory and others that he was alive.  He discovered Rory himself had married a Briton named Cerrifwen and was living with her on her farm at Brewood. 

Disabled and unwell, Shannon remained in Críslicland while Falni returned to the sea, spending whatever time she could with her husband ashore.  When one day Falni and her fishing boat did not return, Shannon went to live with Rory and Cerridwen and their children on the farm.  he remained with them in semi-retirement until his death from natural causes in 789.

Among the songs credited to Shannon O'Neill are:

"The Ballad of Rory McGuinness" which recounts one version of McGuinness's rumored hanging
"Queen of the Angles a tribute to Queen josephine of Críslicland

A monument in memory of Shannon O'Neill that stood in Armagh in Northern Ireland was destroyed by Unionist terrorists in 1974.

Biographies: Elerde of Leon

Elerde of Leon [741-c. 800 AD]

Elerde was born in Leon in Cornouaille, one of the kingdoms that later became Brittany, the younger of two surviving sons of a nobleman, Ewen of Leon. As his brother Mihail was expected to inherit Ewen's title and lands, Elerde was destined for the Church.
He was drawn to learning, spoke, read, wrote several languages, and had a particular interest in Ancient Roman poets and military writers. As a boy, however, he trained in the arts of war with his brother, and when he was sent off to Rome in 757 to begin his seminary education, he instead used the money his father had given him to buy himself the armor, weapons, horse and other gear and looked for a lord in whose service he could fight. Not finding one willing to take on such a young man, Elerde joined a band of adventurers and traveled about the Italian peninsula for some years. In 762 he returned to Rome where he found a message that his father had died. Knowing his brother was to inherit, he decided there was no hurry for him to return and he took more than a year before returning to Leon.

When he arrived at his family's stronghold in Leon, he learned that his brother Mikail, an inveterate gambler, had gotten so far into debt that he had had to turn over his lands and all upon them to a more powerful lord in Leon. Elerde, stunned, set off to find his brother. He located him as the young man was about to embark for England to become a soldier of fortune. Elerde, though deeply angry with his brother, chose to go with him. They joined the army of Æthelberht II, king of half Kent, as mercenaries, until Offa, King of Mercia, defeated him and assumed all of Kent into Mercia. Elerde, who had become disgusted with Mihail's drinking and gampbling, left his brother to cope as he could and having shown himself a more than capable leader, formed his own band of mercenaries. He sent to Leon for men he had known as a youth, and many came at his inbitation to join his mercenaries, including his childhood copamio9ns Lagu and Heraral.

For the next few years Elerde and his small company sold his sword to any lord who could afford them. In 766 he found himself in the employ of Gadfried of Tetforde, the cousin of Lawrence, King of Críslicland. Gadfrid commanded him to join the king's service in border battles with some Mercian lords. Gadfrid wanted to ingratiate himself with the king but also commanded Elerde to send reports about battles and plans to him at Tetforde. When the king was seriously wounded in battle, Elerde took the news to Lincoln to the young queen, Josephine, of Críslicland and Affynshire. The two shared a love for Roman poets and soon became friends. One day Elerde, thinking the queen reciprocated his growing passion for her, attempted to seduce her. She spurned him. When the king learned of the Breton's advances, he sent him away to Affynshire's frontiers to strengthen the garrisons there.

While in Affynshire, Elerde ran across malcolm of Horsfort, whom he had fought alongside as mercenaries. The two began to plan a coup in Affynshire, allying themselves with a discontented nobleman, Maegwig of Cross Gates, and old comrades in arms, Ricbeorht of Flanders, Sveun Ormyngel, and Finn O'Donnell. On Beltane, may 1, of 768 the coup was done, Elerde having been given the stronghold of Keito Uxello, Queen Josephine's family's hereditary holding. He had learned just prior to the coup that she was to be there on a visit to her ailing uncle, Earl Ceretic. When the two met he let her go, telling her to get out of Affynshire as he believed the other conspirators would not be squeamish about how they used her to bargain with King Lawrence.

Elerde was, in the meantime, also staying in touch with his former employer, Gadfrid. Whe he learned the queen had only just left the country after a reunion with her husband who was leading the effort to unseat the conspirators and these conspirators began to suspect Elerde was hiding or protecting the queen, he decided to leave the country and return to Críslicland. He arrived sometime after the queen and joined in the usurping of the throne by Gadfrid. Again, participating solely to protect and have access to Josephine, he sent Lagu, one of his soldiers, to find and kill the king. Lawrence's disappearance did not have the effect on the queen he wanted, but he was able first to help her free her imprisoned brother and then to persuade her to flee with him to Northumbria with her children.

When upon their arrival Josephine took refuge at the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne and told Elerde she would not continue to flee with him, he left in despair with his company to find "a battle so fierce I cannot possibly survive."

This biography will continue in the near future.

Imahe: Yes, that's Ioan Gruffud as Lancelot in the 20041 film King Arthur. Wanna change your vote?

Table of Contents: Reference materials

This list will be updated whenever a new reference page is added.

Reference Materials for An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England

Character List from the novel

Glossary from the novel

Character Biographies

Maps

Timelines

• Story Prior to 767

Contact the author

Nan Hawthorne

Table of Contents: Biographies

This list will be updated whenever a new biography is added to this site.

Bographies of Characters from An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England

• Elerde of Léon
• Gadfrid of Tetforde
• Josephine, Lady of Críslicland, Affynshire and Cleethorpes
• Lawrence, King of Críslicland and Earl of Cleethorpes
• Rory McGuinness
• Shannon O'Neill
• Lorin
• Heather of Ayr

Please contact the author to request biographies of characters not listed here.

Biography: Josephine, Lady of Críslicland, Affynshire, and Cleethorpes

A fictional biography drawn from An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England - see right.

Josephine, Lady of Críslicland, Affynshire and Cleethorpes
748-835 AD

Josephine, called "Sunshine" as a child, was born to the king and queen of Affynshire on 27 April, 748 AD, at Ratherwood. She was the second of three children, having an older sister named Lorin. She spent her childhood years between the royal stronghold of Ratherwood and her mother's families forest stronghold of Keito Uxello in the foothills of the Pennines. Her older sister died young, followed shortly by their mother. She was betrothed to Lawrence, the second son of the king of the neighboring kingdom of Críslicland, when she was but right years of age, becoming his wife and lady of that kingdom in 764 when she was sixteen. After her father's murder soon after her marriage to King Lawrence of Críslicland, Josephine became Lady of Affynshire in partnership with her husband, her younger brother not being suitable for kingship in the estimation of that country's Witan.

A few years later, after the birth of a son, Peter, twin daughters, Caitness and Elaine, and the adoption of the orphaned Tavish, Josephine paid a visit to her family in Keito Uxello when her mother's kinsman, Ceretic, was gravely ill. The day before her planned returned to Críslicland, a cabal led by Malcolm of Horsfort seized control of the stronghold of Ratherwood and the whole kingdom. Josephine joined her cousins' resistance force, being an able archer in her own right. After a brief reunion with her husband at the camp where he and his armies lay in siege of Ratherwood, she set out for Críslicland, but was ambushed on her way to the border by henchmen of Malcolm. With the help of Siannone ui' Níall (English: Shannon O'Neill), a bard with whom she was traveling, Josephine escaped and made her way back to her husband's stronghold of Lawrencium. Again, she was caught behind the lines when her husband's cousin, Gadfrid, usurped the crown. With the assistance of a Breton mercenary lord, Elerde of Léon, she and her children escaped to the Holy Isle of LindisfArne. When Lawrence succeeded in regaining the throne of Críslicland, the royal couple and their family was reunited. In the meantime, Lawrence had agreed to let the Affynshire crown go to Josephine's eldest cousin, the highly acclaimed archer Ruallauh, Earl of Keito Uxello.

Lawrence and Josephine lived peacefully for several years until in about 793 the Viking raids along the east coast of England began. Military pressure from Offa, King of Mercia, had been ongoing throughout his father's and his own reign, and at the death of King Ruallauh in 798, Lawrence, Ruallaug's son Ceretic, and King Offa signed the Treaty of Lincoln that ceded both Críslicland and Affynshire to Mercia. Josephine, understanding that her husband took the step for the better protection of his people, n evertheless was only too ready to stop being the Lady of Críslicland.

Josephine and Lawrence enjoyed many years of relative peace until Lawrence's death in 835. Josephine died three years later at the age of 89. a remarkable age for a woman of her era.

[Source, Josephine's co-creator Nan Hawthorne, author of An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England. Josephine's original creator is Laura D., who prefers to remain last-nameless.]

Biographies: Lawrence, King of Críslicland and Earl of Cleethorpes

This is a fictional biography of a character in the novel, An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England, by Nan Hawthorne. If you plan to read the novel, you should be warned that the biography covers the events therein as well as after.

Lawrence, King of Críslicland (764-795), Earl of Cleethorpes (795-832)
An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England, by Nan Hawthorne

Born 3 January 746, died 17 September 832.

Lawrence was born in Lincoln in the fictional kingdom of Críslicland in 746 AD, the second surviving son of King Arneth of Críslicland and his wife, Edith. His elder brother was the ætheling or heir to the throne, Arneth. IN about 756 King Arneth traveled with his two sons to Tatherwood in the neighboring kingdom of Affuynshire, also fictional, and the boys were betrothed to the two daughters of King Edwærd and his wife, Mairéad. At that time, the two kings, who were strong allies, arranged to create a stone bridge over the Riber Trenta near Cromwell in Affuynshire.

In 764 King Arneth's brother Nifhmund was convinced by ambitious men to begin one of his several rebellions against the crown. The ætheling and Lawrence, now a housecarl of his father's, participated in the battles. While they were away they got word that Edith, the King's wife and the two young men's mother, had died after a long and painful illness. Not long after Nifhmund made a last desperate ploy for amnesty for his deeds by claiming that he had the monks at an abbey hostage as surety of peace. When Arneth and his two sons and their army arrived at the parlay place, Nifhund killed first the king and then the ætheling. Lawrence in turn killed him while a battle between the two forces raged behind him. The battle was won and Lawrence, at 18, found jhimself the apparent heir to the crown of Críslicland.

The Witan was scheduled to meet some months later to choose either Lawrence or another member of the "cyning" to be king when word came that Nifhmund's old allies were laying sieve to the river town of Spalding on the souther border between Críslicland and East Anglia. Lawrence's decisive victory there assured his election as king. He was married to his childhood betrothed, Josephine, and crowned on the same day in June of 764.

The first few years of lawrence's reign were filled with tragedy, battle and treachery. First King Edwærd of Affynshire was killed. As his wife and their elder daughter were already deceased, this left only the ætheling Lorin and his sister, Lawrence's queen. Lorin was a bookish youth so his nation's Witan offered the throne to Lawrence and his wife, Celtic kingdomn's often giving positions of governance to the female line. Lorin became a high functionary in Lawrence's court.

The large kingdom of Mercia that lay on the southwest border of Críslicland was ruled by the historical King Offa, an empire builder. His border lords continuously raided lands near the Críslicland fortress of Grantham. In an ultimately successful war to drive these lords back into Mercia, Lawrence was badly wounded. He recovered and rejoined his wife in Lincoln soon after she gave birth to their first child, Peter. Lawrence behan his buiolding of a fortress in the northeast near the estuary of the River Humber which others christened Lawrencium. He and his young family took up residence there and soon after Josephine gave birth to twin daughters, Caithness and Elaine. A close friend of Lawrence's was murdered by Nifhmund's son, Gadfrid, whom Lawrence had generously pardoned afte Spaldin. Believing the friend's death was a suicide after the man's own bereavement when his wife died in childbirth, Lawrence and Josephine adopted their son Tavish and raised him as their own.

Learning of the head of her mother's family's illness, Josephine traveled to Keito Uxello in Affynshire. While there she was caught behind the lines when a cabal took military control of the kingdom. Lawrence and his army arrived at Ratherwood to find the leader of the cabal, Malcolm of Horsfort, locked up in the strongold. While engaged in besieging Ratherwood Josephine, who had been fighting alongside her cousins oppsing the cabal, was reunited with her husband briefly and set out again for Lawrencium and their children. Learning that her party had been ambushed on the road east, Lawrence took a contingent of soldiers and was met by two of the cabal leaders and suffered a damaging defeat. He returned weakened to the siege of Ratherwood. Just before diplomatic efforts by Josephine's cousins succeeded in bringing the Briton lords back to Lawrence's side, the king learned that Josephine had made it back to Críslicland. The siege was over, Lawrence took Ratherwood, and the army prepared to return home.

As they prepared Lawrence learned that Gadfrid, the cousin he had left behind in charhe of the home guard in Lawrencium, had seized power and was holding his wife and their children hostage. His efforts to rreturn to Lawrtencium were stymied by the need to retake LIncoln and other strongold's from the usurper. One of his earls, Harold of Grantham, turned traitor and imprisoned Lawrence, who with the hellp of supporters, escaped and returned to punish Harold. In the meantime Josepphine and the children escaped Gadfrid with the help of a Breton mercenary lord in love with her. When Lawrence finally arrivbed at Lawrencium he had no idea his famly was not within the strongold. He personally led a company into the stronghold through a secret passage and killed Gadfrid. Not finding his family he lerned that they had fled but not where. He sent couriers to all ports, finally locating and being reunited with the queen and their four children.

The years following the usurping were relatively peaceful. Offa continued to harry the southwestern lands and also Affynshire, which Lawrence had put in the hands of his wife's cousins. It was the shocking raid on Lindisfarne in 793 by Vikings that led ultimatley to the decision, in 798, for Lawrence to give up his throne. With offa encroaching to the south and the worsening raids by Vikings, followed by King Ruallauh of Affuynshire's declining health, lawrence decided to treat with Offa to take over both kingdoms believing that Offa would be the stronger barrier to the Norse and Danes. He abdicated in 795 and became Earl of Cleethorpes, formerly known as the town and strongold of Lawrencium. His son, the ætheling, Peter married one of King Offa's daughters and became an important leader in the Mercian juggernaut. At the time of Lawrence's abdication and King Ruallauh's death, Caithness was married to the King of East Anglia and Elaine an abbess. Tavish remained with his adopted parents, married Lorin's daughter Ystradwel and remained a loyal supporter until Lawrence's death in 832 at the age of 88. He was survived only shortly by his wife, Josephine, who died in 835.

Not very much is known of Lawrence's life after 798. He had to fight off Viking raids continuously. It was during a short lull in the incursions that the former king of Críslicland spent his last days in contented peace with his beloved Josephine.

[Source, Lawrence's creator, Nan Hawthorne. The image of King Lawrence at the beghinning of this biography is not original. If you are the artist and object to our using it to represent the character, just contact us and we will remove it. The drawings of Lawrence with his wife and with his young son Peter is an original Hawthorne drew in about 1969]