The Dorothy Dunnett Society

“Is there no one will take up this priceless thing and say, here is a nation, with such a soul; with such talents; with these failings and this native worth?” The Game of Kings
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    • “Is there no one will take up this priceless thing and say, here is a nation, with such a soul; with such talents; with these failings and this native worth?” The Game of Kings
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    Amy Maroney on Dorothy Dunnett

    Amy Maroney

    How a forgotten queen introduced me to Dorothy Dunnett

    Amy Maroney, author of The Queen’s Scribe

    In 1458, the fifteen-year-old, widowed Queen Charlotta ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Cyprus. Two years later, she moved her court into the seaside fortress of Kyrenia in anticipation of an attack by her power-hungry half-brother, Jacco.

    The queen survived Jacco’s massive siege. Then, when her second husband Louis of Savoy proved a weak leader, she voyaged alone across the Mediterranean, entreating allies to help save her crown. Talk about a woman with agency! And yet, like so many other astonishing women of the past, Queen Charlotta has been largely lost to the mists of time.

    I discovered this extraordinary young woman while doing research for a series of novels featuring people living under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller in medieval Rhodes and Cyprus. Queen Charlotta haunted my dreams, igniting my imagination in a way that can only end with a novel. So I resolved to bring her to life with my novel The Queen’s Scribe.

    Turning to primary sources and history books, I struggled to find information about the woman. Every footnote that mentioned her led me on a hopeful jaunt into the distant past, and I uncovered tantalizing bits and pieces about her that always left me wanting more.

    Then I discovered Dorothy Dunnett’s novel, Race of Scorpions. I’d never read anything by Dunnett before, though she’d been recommended to me by a friend. Race of Scorpions, a novel in Dunnett’s House of Niccolò series, was a revelation to me. It featured the moment in time that fascinates me most in European history – the fifteenth century, during the dawn of the Renaissance and the rise of the merchant class, when Europe was still recovering from the lasting social and economic effects of the plague.

    The novel drew richly from many of the sources I’d discovered – and clearly, lots more. Somehow, Dorothy Dunnett had accessed a goldmine of data and lore about medieval Cyprus and its treacherous Lusignan court. To my delight, she had woven all that history into a stunning narrative populated with beautifully drawn characters, including Queen Charlotta (called Carlotta in Dunnett’s novel) and Jacco.

    I devoured the book over a couple of days. It’s sitting next to me now, bristling with post-it notes. As much as I loved the novel, I mourned its lack of a historical note. Where did Dunnett do her research? How did she access all that information in pre-Internet days? Was she granted access to the archives and library of the Knights Hospitaller, an organization allied with Queen Charlotta and, indeed, all the monarchs of Cyprus’s Lusignan dynasty? Did she visit Cyprus? Which of the medieval Lusignan structures might she have explored? Did she climb to the windswept ruins of St. Hilarion Castle? Wander the fortifications of Kyrenia Fortress under the blazing sun?

    There are so many questions I wish I could ask Ms. Dunnett. But most of all, I’d like to thank her. Race of Scorpions’ imagined world, and Dunnett’s characterizations of Queen Charlotta and Jacco, helped me chart a path forward as I developed my own story. I’m grateful that by deciding to write a fictional account of Queen Charlotta, I opened a door into Dorothy
    Dunnett’s extraordinary legacy. I can’t wait to read more of her work.

    Author: Amy Maroney
    Website Publication Date: 2nd June 2026
    Theme: Dorothy Dunnett, The Books
    Publication Type: Articles
    Medium: Text
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