Category Archives: Relevant History

The Winner of The Hanover Square Affair

Posted on by April 23, 2012

Jolie Beaumont has won a copy of The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner. Congrats to Jolie! Thanks to Ashley Gardner for an excellent overview of the crime-fighting agencies operating in Regency London. Thanks, also, to everyone who visited and … Continue reading →

Crime Fighting in Regency London

Posted on by April 3, 2016

Ashley Gardner author photoRelevant History welcomes historical mystery author Ashley Gardner, pen name for New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Ashley. She has published nearly 40 novels and a dozen novellas since 2002. Her novels have been nominated for numerous awards, including RT BookReviews Reviewer’s Choice award for Best Historical Novel (which she won for The Sudbury School Murders). She has penned seven novels and a novella (thus far) in the Captain Lacey Regency Mystery series. When not writing books, Ashley enjoys cooking, hiking, and building dollhouses and dollhouse miniatures. For more information, check her web site and author blog, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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One reason I enjoy writing historical crime fiction (and indeed, reading it) is that I’m fascinated by crime detection before fingerprinting, DNA tests, police databases, and other modern technology. I’m even more fascinated by the people who did this crime detecting, often very well and with good results.

The Hanover Square Affair book coverMy mystery series (The Captain Lacey Regency mysteries, beginning with The Hanover Square Affair) is set in London in 1816 and beyond. This period predates Robert Peel’s 1829 police reform that established a regular police force.

In my time period, 1816, several bodies of men worked under different jurisdictions to solve crimes and arrest criminals: The Watch, the Runners, and the Thames River Police. The City of London (the square mile) had its own constables, who didn’t much like interference from those patrolling the rest of metropolitan London

The most famous of the pre-Peel police are the Bow Street Runners. In my series, Captain Lacey’s former sergeant, Milton Pomeroy, becomes one of these elite patrollers, loves getting his convictions, and often calls upon Gabriel Lacey, now a private citizen, to help him out.

A short history of the Bow Street Runners: In 1750, Henry Fielding, magistrate of the Bow Street house (as well as the author of Tom Jones), put in motion a plan to employ six permanent constables at the Bow Street magistrate’s house. Unlike parish constables, who took up constable duties for a year (or paid others to do it for them), “Mr. Fielding’s People” would be more or less permanent employees.

The first Runners (who were not called “Runners” until about 1790) were not paid a salary or stipend; they received rewards for the conviction of criminals. They did not patrol, but investigated crimes that were reported to them.

Sir John Fielding, Henry Fielding’s half-brother, took over the Bow Street office in 1754 and remained there until 1779. Blind since the age of 20, Sir John Fielding took “Mr. Fielding’s People” and built them into an elite, highly respected detective force.

Under Sir John, the Runners were paid a salary in addition to collecting rewards; the magistrates began to receive stipends and sit regular hours. The Bow Street office also began to be used as a clearinghouse for information. Newssheets and journals (including The Hue and Cry or Weekly Pursuit, established by John Fielding in 1772), listed information on wanted criminals and stolen property, and was distributed throughout the country.

A quote from the Weekly Pursuit:

John Godfrey, pretends to be a clergyman, middle-sized, thin visaged, smooth face, ruddy cheeks, his eyes inflamed, a large white wig, bandy-legged, charged with fraud at Chichester.

Bow Street Runners were allowed to pursue criminals or track down missing persons outside of London, something that parish constables or the Watch could not do.

In 1792, the Middlesex Justices Act established seven magistrates houses in addition to Bow Street. Each house had three magistrates and six constables (called Runners in Bow Street, in other houses they might be referred to as Runners, constables, or officers).

The Runners issued warrants for arrest, brought in suspects, and investigated reported crimes. They did not patrol or walk a beat—the Runners only investigated or arrested a suspect once someone (usually the victim or friend/family of the victim), arrived at the magistrate’s office to report a crime.

Runners/constables at the magistrates’ houses were often hired by victims of crimes to hunt down offenders, or to find missing persons. Runners also continued to be given rewards by the magistrates’ office for the conviction of criminals. They were rewarded only when the suspect was convicted of a crime, not simply caught and arrested (although private citizens could pay the Runner for bringing a suspect to the magistrate).

Each magistrate’s house by 1815 employed foot patrollers who assisted the magistrates and the Runners. The foot patrollers actually patrolled in the streets of metropolitan London, while mounted patrollers covered the roads leading to London.

Another branch of crime fighters that greatly interests me is the Thames River Police. In The Glass House (Book 3 of the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries), I introduce a Thames River Policeman who asks Captain Lacey to help him identify a body pulled out of the river.

The Thames River Police, sometimes called the Marine Police, or simply, the River Police, was sponsored and formed in 1798 by West India merchants and based at Wapping New Stairs. The Marine Police would patrol the Thames River and prevent theft from the merchantmen and docks along the river as well as the warehouses in which goods were stored.

The new police were so successful that, in 1800, the merchant companies (including the East India Company, the West India merchants, United States traders and others), backed a bill to let the government take over the running of the operation. Patrick Colquhoun, a magistrate who had many ideas for police reform, lobbied the government and persuaded them to bring the Thames River Police under their jurisdiction.

The Thames River Police continued to operate throughout the Regency and were incorporated into Robert Peel’s metropolitan police in 1839. (Note that though the metropolitan police began in 1829, the Thames River Police ran under the old system until 1839.)

And the Watch? The much-maligned Watch was created in the late 17th century in London and its boroughs. Unlike the magistrate system, which was set up and regulated by the Home Office, each parish within London was given full control over their Watch. Each parish decided how many men to hire, how much to pay them, how much to supervise them, and what the watchmen would do.

The quality of the Watch in any given part of London depended, of course, on the financial ability of that parish. The Watch system was completely replaced in 1829–30 by the new constables of the Metropolitan Police.

I thoroughly enjoy researching crime-fighting in Regency London—there is much more to it than the little bit I’ve touched on here, but I hope I’ve provided an interesting overview.

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A Death in Norfolk book coverA big thanks to Ashley Gardner. She’ll give away a print or electronic copy of the first Captain Lacey mystery, The Hanover Square Affair (re-released edition) or the newest book, A Death in Norfolk, to someone who contributes a comment on my blog this week. I’ll choose the winner from among those who comment by Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. International delivery is available.

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The Realm of the Dead: Afterlife in the Ancient World

Posted on by March 27, 2012

Relevant History welcomes historical fiction author Elisabeth Storrs, who has written The Wedding Shroud, first book in a trilogy set in early Roman times. She was inspired to write the novel after seeing a sixth-century BCE sarcophagus depicting a man … Continue reading →

Making a War Cake

Posted on by August 7, 2014

Sarah Shaber author photoRelevant History welcomes historical mystery author Sarah Shaber. She’s the author of the Professor Simon Shaw mystery series. Simon Said, first book of the series, won the St. Malice Press/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery award. Louise’s War is the first book in her new mystery series set in Washington DC during World War II. The sequel, Louise’s Gamble, is scheduled for publication in May 2012. Sarah also edited Tar Heel Dead, a collection of short stories by North Carolina mystery writers. Sarah lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband Steve and an autocratic miniature schnauzer. For more information, check her web site, and follow her on Facebook.

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WW2 rationing stampDuring World War II rationing was a fact of life. We’ve heard all about the shortages, ration books, and sacrifices made by Americans on the home front. But what exactly did it mean to make do with so much less of everything?

Of all the shortages that tested American tempers, food restrictions had the greatest daily impact. Butter, meat, canned goods, chocolate, coffee, eggs, and sugar were in short supply even before formal rationing began. Not just because the troops needed them, but because the government needed to conserve the fuel needed to transport these commodities.

Americans were accustomed to eating dessert every day, enjoying beef most nights for dinner, eggs every morning for breakfast, and consuming all the butter and coffee they wanted. Chicken and fish weren’t rationed, but at the time Americans thought of them as lesser sources of protein. Margarine and artificial sweeteners hadn’t been invented.

Sugar was the first item to be rationed officially, in May of 1942. A butter shortage followed shortly, and the average American cook wondered what in heaven’s name she was supposed to fix for dinner. New recipes crowded the women’s magazines and newspapers. Mashed potato, bacon and cheese casserole, macaroni and cheese, and Welsh rarebit became main dishes, much to the shock of those who wanted their roast beef or steak!’

War cakeDessert might have been the hardest loss to take. The American housewife usually baked a cake, a pie, or cookies every single day. She was expected to keep making those cakes, pies, and cookies! And prune whip wasn’t an acceptable alternative.

Louise Pearlie, the heroine of Louise’s War, my World War II novel set in Washington, DC, missed her sugar and butter as much as anyone. She and her fellow boarders did have eggs, because they had chickens in the back yard, but otherwise they dealt with the same restrictions as anyone else, complicated by the fact that Dellaphine, the boarding house cook, had all their ration books and kept them under lock and key! Dellaphine didn’t cook on the weekends, except for Sunday dinner, so on a Saturday Louise often found herself in the kitchen baking one of the many war cakes from the recipes in Recipes for Today, the WWII ration cookbook published by the General Foods Corporation. It was a nice break from a long week working at the spy agency OSS.

I decided to bake a war cake myself, to see what it was like to cook with such meager ingredients, and especially, to see what a war cake tasted like! I got my recipe, called the One Egg Wonder Cake, from the same cookbook Louise did, and started with the same paltry ingredients. Flour, baking powder, vegetable shortening, one cup of sugar (could have used a half cup sugar and a half cup of corn syrup), one measly egg, and a little milk and vanilla. I added some maple syrup, cinnamon and raisins to make the “spice” variation. The batter was thin and unappetizing, only about an inch deep in the baking dish. Tasting the batter did not make me optimistic about the outcome of my experiment!

War ration couponI baked the cake at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes. It came out of the oven golden brown, maybe an inch and a half high. I couldn’t frost it, of course. Louise wouldn’t have had enough sugar and butter to do that.

So how did it taste? Not half bad! It wasn’t as moist and rich as a “real” cake, but it wasn’t dry either. It tasted sort of like a spiced tea cake, and would have been good as an afternoon snack with milk or coffee, if there was enough of either to go around.

I’m sure Louise and her fellow boarders appreciated having this cake for dessert after a predictable meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cabbage, and iced tea. I’m just as sure they’d rather have had brownies!

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Louise's War book coverA big thanks to Sarah Shaber. She’ll give away one hardback copy of Louise’s War to someone who contributes a comment on my blog this week. I’ll choose the winner from among those who comment by Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. Delivery in the U.S. and Canada is available.

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Mythraic Myths

Posted on by December 2, 2013

Mary Reed book cover image

Relevant History welcomes historical mystery author Mary Reed. She and Eric Mayer contributed several stories to mystery anthologies and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine prior to 1999’s One For Sorrow, the first novel about their protagonist John, Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian I. Two For Joy, a Glyph Award winner and IPPY Best Mystery Award finalist, followed. Four For A Boy and Five For Silver (Glyph Award for Best Book Series) were Bruce Alexander History Mystery Award nominees. Nine For The Devil is the latest entry in a series Booklist Magazine named as one of its Four Best Little Known Series. For more information, check their author blogs here and here.

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Persecution of both Christians and pagans in the Roman Empire ended during the reign of Constantine the Great when an edict of tolerance was issued in 313. Under the Edict of Milan, freedom of worship was granted to all.

For believers of all stripes, this happy state of affairs changed under the rule of Theodosius I. In 380, an imperial edict was issued making Christianity the state religion, with adherents to other faiths declared heretics. Persecution followed.

Mary Reed Image 1

Mithraism was among the proscribed religions, and is of particular interest to me as co-author of an historical mystery series whose protagonist, Lord Chamberlain John, is a Mithran serving in the officially Christian court of Justinian I.

Mithra was a god of light. The religion had roots in Persia, and even before its prohibition, adherents worshiped in secret in underground one-room temples. Mithraism was a mystery religion with all that implies. Thus much of what we know about Mithraism comes from its enemies, who accused it of vile acts and blasphemous imitation of Christian rites.

For example, Tertullian’s Prescription Against Heretics speaks of Mithraism’s distortion of Christian rites and beliefs, stating:

…and if my memory still serves me, Mithra there, (in the kingdom of Satan) sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers; celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of a resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown.

Tertullian’s reference to a sword and crown relates to a Mithraic rite. In Of The Crown, he elaborates further:

…any soldier of Mithra, who, when he is enrolled in the cavern, the camp, in very truth, of darkness, when the crown is offered him, (a sword being placed between him and it, as if in mimicry of martyrdom) and then fitted upon his head, is taught to put it aside from his head, meeting it with his hand, and to remove it, it may be, to his shoulder, saying that Mithra is his crown…See we the wiles of the Devil, who pretendeth to some of the ways of God for this cause…

Similarly, in the First Apology Justin Martyr writes of the Eucharist, which he says:

…the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.

Scholasticus’ Ecclesiastical History goes so far as to accuse Mithrans of human sacrifice. In his description of the manner in which a riot broke out in Alexandria during clearance of a site formerly occupied by a mithraeum (temple to Mithra), Scholasticus states:

In the process of clearing it, an adytum of vast depth was discovered which unveiled the nature of their heathenish rites: for there were found there the skulls of many persons of all ages, who were said to have been immolated for the purpose of divination by the inspection of entrails, when the pagans performed these and such like magic arts whereby they enchanted the souls of men.

As a result of parading these skulls through the city, he goes on, fighting broke out between enraged Christians and insulted pagans.

But what was Mithraism in reality?

Mary Reed Image 2

Mithraism was an austere religion particularly popular with soldiers, who spread it to the far corners of the empire. Although Mithraism excluded women, some of its requirements and beliefs paralleled those held by Christians.

Published in 1903, Franz Dumont’s The Mysteries of Mithra pointed out a number of these similarities. Dumont’s work is one of the most important books about Mithraism and his comments are telling.

Mithra, he said, “…is the god of help, whom one never invokes in vain, an unfailing haven, the anchor of salvation for mortals in all their trials.”

Comparing the two religions, he notes that:

The sectaries of the Persian god, like the Christians, purified themselves by baptism; received, by a species of confirmation, the power necessary to combat the spirits of evil; and expected from a Lord’s Supper salvation of body and soul. Like the latter, they also held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the 25th of December, the same day on which Christmas has been celebrated, since the fourth century at least.

Further, both religions

…preached a categorical system of ethics, regarded asceticism as meritorious, and counted among their principal virtues abstinence and continence, renunciation and self-control. Their conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man were similar. They both admitted the existence of a Heaven inhabited by beatified ones, situate in the upper regions, and of a Hell peopled by demons, situate in the bowels of the earth. They both placed a Flood at the beginning of history; they both assigned as the source of their traditions a primitive revelation; they both, finally, believed in the immortality of the soul, in a last judgment, and in a resurrection of the dead, consequent upon a final conflagration of the universe.

It was therefore not surprising Christianity and Mithraism would struggle to gain the upper hand. As history shows, Christianity won the battle.

One reason was that because Mithraism was a mystery religion, fantastic and lurid stories of Mithran practices and beliefs found it easy to gain a foothold in, and inflame, the popular imagination.

Much of the fear of other religions comes from lack of knowledge, all too often leading to bloodshed. Consider the human toll taken over the centuries from the blood libel accusing those of the Jewish faith of murdering Christian children and using their blood for religious rituals. I was told this very story as a fact by a playmate in my childhood when my family lived in an area with a high Hassidic population.

There we see the ongoing historic relevance of religious misapprehension, with Mithraism, a religion with much to admire about it, providing another example of the dangers in reacting to, and acting upon, hazily understood religious tenets.

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A big thanks to Mary Reed!

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