A Fragmented Palatinate -- Mid-eighteenth Century by Carrie Fancett Pagels

The picture above is of the modern-day German Palatinate, courtesy of Pixabay. Isn't this a pretty photograph landscape?

During my research for Saving the Marquise's Granddaughter, I learned that there was much upheaval in the area during the mid-eighteenth century. One surprising finding was that the Palatinate was geographically fragmented. Some parts of the duchy were situated near Alsace-Lauraine while others were in Bavaria and some land that was also to the west of what is modern-day Germany (in modern-day France.) Germany was divided into many duchies at that time, all under different ducal rulers.  The Palatinate was an almost ruined duchy because of the attacks they suffered from the French, who'd been incensed over their taking in Amish and other Protestants and Huguenots.

In my recent release, Saving the Marquise's Granddaughter, my heroine's aristocratic family are Huguenots who are "discovered" and betrayed. She must flee, and is aided by a Palatinate farmer and woodsman. Getting her there was tricky. But she has a wonderful hero, Johan, to help her!

Saving the Marquise's Granddaughter was the first full length Christian fiction novel that I wrote so I had the luxury of spending a lot of time in the research stacks.  I spent several years researching, reading, and writing trying to get my story accurate. I was surprised to learn that the impact of the war in Europe had so decimated the region where my own real-life ancestor, Johan Adam Rousch, had lived. I don't know why Johan left the area, but in conducting the research I understood why so many Palatinaters departed. Their land had been decimated. I was dismayed to read that despite King Louis XV's supposed end to punishing wars against the Palatinate for taking in Huguenots, there were still skirmishes and burning of villages well into his rein. 

Bio: Carrie Fancett Pagels, Ph.D., is the ECPA bestselling and award winning author of Saving the Marquise's Granddaughter which received a 4 Star Romantic Times rating (White Rose/Pelican, June, 2016). Carrie is the founder of Colonial American Christian Writers and the administrator of the Colonial Quills blog. www.carriefancettpagels.com