Coming out of a long winter after an even longer lonely miserable year, we look forward to a spring of hope and new beginnings.  In keeping with that, this month we’ll examine stories that reveal the backdrop to a moment of history that signaled a radical new beginning for England, when the ruling mastery of the island shifted forever from Saxon and Viking kings to the Normans.  But in a departure from the tomes of most historians, these novels look at these well-known events through the eyes of the lesser-known queens of the conquest era. We begin with SHADOW ON THE CROWN (THE EMMA OF NORMANDY TRILOGY #1) by Patricia Bracewell.  In 1002, young Emma of Normandy is sent across the Narrow Sea to marry much-older King Eathelred of England in a bargain to guarantee peace between the two kingdoms.  Told from the point of view of four protagonists—Emma, King Aethelred, his son Aethelstan and ealdorman’s daughter Aelfgifa of Northhampton, the story tracks Emma’s progress at the court.  Mistrusted by her husband, resented by her stepsons and harassed by a beautiful rival who would take her place, Emma must quickly learn to maneuver her way through the treacherous alliances of…