Thursday, October 3, 2013

Wolgast Castle by Linda Bell Brighton: Guest Post and {Giveaway}


When the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire Actually Ended

The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was a victim of Napoleon. After a military defeat at Austerlitz in 1805, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (not to be confused with France's Francis II who died in 1561) signed the Treaty of Pressburg. That signature dissolved an empire that had lasted 900 years, since around 900 AD.

The Ottoman Empire was a victim of WWI. Two men on board the HMS Agamemnon ended the “Middle Eastern theatre.” And in doing so, the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and the British Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe ended the empire that had lasted almost 620 years. Not with fanfare, but off a Greek island with a little over 500 inhabitants.

But neither of those facts answers the question.

A writer during the 1700s, using his famous pen name Voltaire, wrote, “This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” If true, the empire never started. But like many well-sounding quotes, it’s not accurate. Since HRE began with a "transfer of rule" of the Western Roman Empire. Pope Leo III even agreed. In 800 he crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor. Of course, this was 300 years after the prior rule. And what was transferred was a declining and fragmented prior dynasty. And the transfer lacked a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm. That why 962 and Otto I is generally viewed as the start of the HRE. That it was decentralized, not the political unification formed in France, is true. Principalities, duchies, counties, and Free Imperial Cities elected the monarchy. The power of the emperor was limited. The various princes, lords and kings of the Empire were vassals and subjects who owed the emperor their allegiance. But they also had de facto sovereignty within their territories. Not Voltaire’s type of Empire, but an Empire none the less. The beginning of the end started sometime after All Saint's Day, October 31, 1517 when a lowly monk nailed his protest to the Pope’s plan to sell indulgences.

1683, when the Ottomans lost their battle to take over Vienna, was their beginning of the end of that Empire. After centuries of expansion, this was their first major territorial loss. 

And it was a Holy Roman Empire (with other countries) that won.


About the book
Forced to attend Princess Maria regent's celebration at Wolgast Castle, 1560 Germany, Sidonia von Bork, fears her magical abilities will be discovered and she'll be burned alive as a witch. When she discovers she is actually a member of an ancient shape-shifting race and the prophesied Golden One, she must face her destiny: to save the multiverse from the daemons determined to destroy all humans, and stay alive in the process.


About the author
Linda Bell Brighton fell in love with myths, magic, and monsters at an early age. On a thunder-storming day in the Keys, her father—in his bass reading voice—brought The Hound of the Baskerville to too-vivid-life. From that day forward, Greek and Roman myths merged with Wonder Woman and Super girl. After studying medieval and Renaissance literature in college, she now combines her loves by writing an alternate history of the Witch Burning Times that she calls magpunk: real history with myths, magic, monsters—and daemons, too. 

Linda Bell Brighton’s website- http://www.lindabellbrighton.com/
Linda Bell Brighton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindaBellWriter
Linda Bell Brighton’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lindabell.brighton
Linda Bell Brighton’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLM9A8ejuBA
Wolgast Castle, Book One of the Sidonia The Sorceress Series Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/WolgastCastle
Wolgast Castle, Book One of the Sidonia The Sorceress Series on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1456jFK 

Giveaway Info
Linda is giving away prizes, including an e-copy of her book at each blog stop on her tour AND three Grand Prize Giveaway of one Travel Mug, one T-Shirt and one Custom Jumbo Tote Bag with your choice of fan art, chosen from here: http://www.zazzle.com/sidonia_the_sorceres , shipped to anywhere in the world!
  1. To win a book: Leave a comment on this blog post on what is your favorite mythical creature to be entered to win a book. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments so we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner. This giveaway ends seven days after the post goes live.
  2. To win the Travel Mug or the T-Shirt or the Custom Jumbo Tote Bag with Linda’s fan art of your choice, click the link to go to Linda’s website here http://www.lindabellbrighton.com/ and enter the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the page. The three lucky winners will be selected by October 7, 2013
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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2 comments:

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment. It means so much.

I apologize for word verification, but as soon as I changed the settings from only users with Google accounts, I started receiving a ton of spam comments...within one hour of changing the settings. The bots are on high alert apparently.

  1. Sounds like a fascinating book! I just got it and can't wait to read it. Thanks for the interesting information in the post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have any mythical creature that I can write about.
    CABWNANA1@bellsouth.net

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