The Chatelaine

Written by Kate Heartfield

Narrated by Beth Eyre

Winner of the Aurora Award for Best Novel, 2019

Hell is empty and all the demons are here.

The Chatelaine has come.

The year is 1328 and Bruges is under siege by the Chatelaine of Hell and her army of chimeras – creatures forged in the deep fires of the Hellbeast.

At night, revenants crawl over the walls and bring plague and grief to this city of widows. Margriet de Vos learns she's a widow herself when her good-for-nothing husband comes home dead from the war. But he didn't come back for her. The revenant who was her husband pulls a secret treasure of coins and weapons from under his floorboards and goes back through the mouth of the beast called Hell.

Margriet killed her first soldier when she was eleven. She's buried six of her seven children. She'll do anything for her daughter, even if it means raiding Hell itself to get her inheritance back.

Margriet's daughter Beatrix is haunted by a dead husband of her own, and blessed, or cursed, with an enchanted distaff that allows her to control the revenants and see the future.

Together with a transgender man-at-arms who has unfinished business with the Chatelaine, a traumatised widow with a giant water-powered forgehammer at her disposal, and a wealthy alderman's wife who escapes Bruges with her children, Margriet and Beatrix forge a raiding party the likes of which Hell has never seen…

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Jul 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9780008567835

Kate Heartfield

KATE HEARTFIELD is the Aurora Award-winning author Armed in her Fashion, and the bestselling The Embroidered Book, a historical fantasy novel. Her novellas, stories, and games have been finalists for the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, Sunburst and Aurora awards. A former journalist, Kate lives near Ottawa, Canada.

Reviews for The Chatelaine

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Surreal fantasy, set in Bruges under siege in the Middle Ages, set in a Bruegel painting, where all the grotesques are characters, and the regular folks are just trying to survive.

Both bizarre and utterly compelling, with strong, stubborn female characters, an interesting depiction of politics at the time, and a trans soldier who keeps getting misgendered. Fascinating. I’m not sure exactly who to recommend this to, but I’ll start with my Middle Ages loving friends, who can appreciate the rich setting as much as the adventure.

Advanced readers copy provided by edelweiss.

[strider66_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pros: very feisty women, lots of history, clever integration of the hellbeast Cons: writing was a little dry at times When her revenant husband returns to the besieged city of Bruges and reveals he’s hidden a fortune, Margriet de Vos demands her rights: a third of that wealth belongs to her, the rest to their daughter. Her husband now serves the Chatelaine of Hell, and intends to give her this gold. But Margriet won’t be deterred. Neither war, the King of France, nor Hell itself will keep her from getting her due. Meanwhile, Claude a transgender man-at-arms and former guest of the Hellbeast also wants the de Vos treasure, or rather, a mace he unwisely sold to Margriet’s husband and now needs back. The story is mostly told from Margriet’s point of view, though there are a few scenes from her daughter and Claude’s viewpoints as well. Margriet is very feisty, willing to fight over a sou if she feels she’s owed it. Her daughter’s much kinder but has little agency, as her mother’s overprotective and often overbearing. Margriet supported the family by working as a wet nurse, which isn’t something that comes up often, though historically it was a common thing. It was also nice seeing a middle aged woman as the protagonist, especially one who is near-sighted in an age where glasses can only be afforded by the elite. Claude was a great character. It’s awesome to see often overlooked people in history and, while misgendered through a good part of the story, the author always maintains his understanding of who he really is. Though they were short scenes, I really enjoyed the revelations regarding aspects of womanhood he’s missed (like breast binding) and how he survived in a soldier’s camp. The author cleverly integrated her mythological aspects into actual history. At the end of the book she cites a Flemish painting that was her inspiration for the book, and it added an entire new layer to the story itself. The writing can be a bit dry at times, in that it’s not a particularly fast paced or adventurous tale. There’s a lot of sitting around and talking or walking between cities. If you like medieval history or want a historical fantasy that’s different from the norm, this is an interesting read.

[ladycato · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kate Heartfield's Armed in Her Fashion is a dark, gritty fantasy set in well-researched 1328 Bruges and environs. Not only does she realistically portray a transgender character within the period, but her entire cast feels real, from her near-sighted wet nurse protagonist to the very chatelaine of Hell. This is a fantastic read.

[ellegato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First, a content warning: this book has a trans character who is misgendered by friends and enemies and, as a trans man, is forced to wear women's clothing. But I will say that the trans character's identity is not a plot twist; he is who he is from his first introduction. He asserts himself against both enemies and friends. He is also given a happy ending and he does not experience any sort of sexualized violence. In fact there is little sexual violence in this book as a whole, which is more than a lot of medieval fantasies can say.

Wow this book was A WILD RIDE.

In the best way possible! You have ferocious chimeras, a massive beast that may literally be Hell, duplicitous kings and legal drama, plague-spreading zombies, and best of all, a small bedraggled group of widows standing firm against all the powers of hell and earth.

Medieval fantasy gets a bad rap that, for the most part, it deserves. It tends to tell the same stories over and over again, with the same sort of characters fighting the same sort of battles against the same sort of enemies. This goes against everything the Middle Ages in Europe actually WAS. It was a deeply weird era where peasants rebelled, clergy debated the natures of humanity and the divine, and there was far more diversity than most gritty beard-filled epics ever touch.

This book however is diverse. You have characters who are mostly women. The only main male character is trans. You have characters of color, showcasing that medieval Europe was far from all white. You have queer characters--the aforementioned trans gay man-at-arms. You have disabled characters and older women and all of them are given the same sort of heroic presence a noble knight might have gotten in a different story.

Heartfield writes about war and about the weapons left to those who are marginalized by a patriarchal society. Children fighting with bricks and stones. Women fighting with their words, with enchanted distaffs and giant hammers. Women fighting hell and earth to get what is rightfully theirs. Women fighting for each other, alongside one another, sacrificing for their children, their friends. Widows who are terrified but stand up to the Chatelaine of Hell and the King of France to secure their rights as best they can.

This book is as weird as the Middle Ages were. Giant water snakes, exploding chimeras....that's only part of the wonderful weirdness. If you're tired of the same old knights and swords stories, I highly recommend this book.