conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a story about div>"An, Library, Journal with the genre: Christian Books & Bibles, Literature & Fiction?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this story could be 'Matilda Empress'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first two paragraphs for this story.. End with the sentence ' I vow to support Geoffrey's endeavors in Normandy and will join your husband's army.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Matilda Empress
  Indeed, Bristol keep becomes a meeting place for all the disaffected who wish to join us. Men from numerous districts attach themselves to our cause. Some of these, unfortunately, are no better than brigands, perpetrating hateful crimes for their own gain, stealing or destroying yokes of oxen, flocks of sheep, fields of grain, and gardens of vegetation. But garrison soldiers are being recruited and trained, and the king does not yet arrive to assert himself in the city.
  As I am your brother, I promise now to undertake to be the life and soul of your rebellion. I vow to support Geoffrey's endeavors in Normandy and will join your husband's army.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The pretender and Chester launch an attack on Wallingford, perhaps cognizant of the growing distance between FitzCount and his patroness. With a newly recruited cavalry of three hundred horsemen, they approach his fortress. Finding my vassal still of a mind to stand by me, and his stronghold secure, they raid the neighboring districts.
  I wonder whether Basilia realizes that I have cut my amorous ties to her husband. Perhaps she spends her days encouraging Sir Brian to plight his troth to Stephen.
  Tonight my stable overflows with the mounts of heralds, messengers, and minstrels. The mules and the stallions must split their oats, and the attention of my overtaxed squires, grown fat and lazy from underwork.
  I am presented with confidential letters from Brian and Basilia, apparently written and sent without the other's knowledge. Did their couriers smirk at each other along the road, and share a campfire?
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last five paragraphs.. End with the sentence ' I am very grateful for their offer to take me on, and for their belief both in the project and in me.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I was nailed upon a cross until I undertook a great forsaking, two resignations, of passion and ambition. It comes to pass that the only throne I shall ever see is the shining seat in paradise, the perennial chair before the hearth of the perpetual fire. Yet, in this seat, as Mary's first and highest acolyte, I am at my zenith, towering above the complacent princes, bombastic knights, supercilious barons, obsequious minstrels, and slavish priests who promised me power or snatched it away from me.
  You, chivalrous, noble, discerning, generous listeners, have unspooled my epic story of sin and atonement, resurrection and coronation. You have appraised the worth of my treasure stores, and counted the tolls and fees that I have paid. You, who have looked deep into my mirror, will not forget to hail and salute the Holy Mother.
  Matilda, a real person and a real empress, inherited a great realm from her father, King Henry I, but struggled and failed to attain her rightful throne. Her disloyal cousin Stephen, who stole her crown, had been her childhood playmate, and sworn to her service. At the time, there was idle curiosity and a hint of gossip about the complex nature of the relationship between these two, and a few historians, from the thirteenth-century onward, have debated the question, wondering if they were lovers, but only in the time before Matilda's marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou. Most academics discount the idea that Henry II could possibly have had every right to be King Stephen's heir, and insist that the usurper's "adoption" of his successor at the end of the civil war was merely formulaic. Henry II is never spoken of as "illegitimate," and, if Matilda and her cousin were perhaps briefly entangled, the idea of a life-long love affair between the antagonists in a great civil war is a fabrication of my own.
  I have read widely in my attempt to absorb and recreate the atmosphere that set the stage for the adventures of Matilda and her circle of friends and foes. Contemporary letters, annals, chronicles, epics, liturgies, memoirs, poems, and romances have stimulated my flights of fancy. Among the many modern titles that I have consulted, I am most indebted to Marjorie Chibnall's thorough, scholarly The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English (1991), Nesta Pain's engaging Empress Matilda: Uncrowned Queen of England (1978), Joachim Bumke's comprehensive, absorbing Courtly Culture (1991), Madeleine Pelner Cosman's inspiring Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony (1999), and Richard Kieckhefer's fascinating Magic in the Middle Ages (1989). I am grateful for their research and analysis, their anecdotes and data, their maps and footnotes. All errors of understanding and perspective are my own. 
  I'd still be daydreaming about this career were it not for the good faith and enthusiasm of her friends at Archer Lit. Tyson Cornell, Lisa Weinert and the Archer/Rare Bird team, notably Alice Elmer, Julia Callahan, Hailie Johnson, and Andrew Hungate, have returned Empress Matilda to the public stage, smoothed her rough edges, talked her up, and made her timely. I am very grateful for their offer to take me on, and for their belief both in the project and in me.