Historical fantasy is a peculiar genre. Situated at the crux of fantasy—the land of the made-up, unrealistic, imaginary—and history, where everything must be fact-checked and evaluated over and over again, it doesn’t seem like a concept that should work. Historical fiction, to many, is something serious, while fantasy is more whimsical. The historical can only be twisted so far before it ceases to be faithful to what really happened and can no longer be called historical at all. By this logic, it might be considered to be the antithesis of fantasy, whose existence hinges on the fanciful question, What if?
Yet when it’s done right, historical fantasy can be truly wondrous. The fantastical elements applied to the past don’t lessen the impact of the history, but instead enhance it by casting familiar stories in a new light. With magical allegory, a book can shift the way we think; can give us brand-new ideas to consider, and force us to think more creatively and to question conventional wisdom. It takes a skilled writer to accomplish this feat—here are five historical fantasy novels which do so masterfully.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell — Susanna Clarke
We start with a classic: the Hugo Award-winning debut novel of Susanna Clarke—who in 2021 also won the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her second novel, Piranesi. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is something of a doorstopper (depending on the edition, it runs between 700 and 1000 pages, featuring lengthy footnotes); reading it requires a time investment which may deter some readers, but it’s an investment that’s well worth making. The novel is set in an alternative Regency England where magic is established but no longer commonly practised, and it follows two magicians: the elderly Mr Norrell, proud and lonely and used to being the only one of his kind; and the young maverick Jonathan Strange, whose daring, impetuous nature challenges and vexes the older man. Over the years, these two magicians maintain a complex relationship, walking the line between rivalry and camaraderie, all the while using their magic to assist with the Napoleonic Wars. Meanwhile, a delightful assortment of Dickensian side characters engage in their own adventures, and a capricious faerie wreaks havoc from London to Venice.
Rich with magic, creative blending and clever pastiche of literary tropes and conventions, and fascinating commentary on British society and ideas about “Englishness,” reading this book is like sitting down with an old friend over coffee and being regaled with wacky anecdotes from their life… if said friend were alive in the early nineteenth century. It can be chipped away at quite happily in coffee breaks and spare afternoons, though you’ll likely find yourself racing through the last 200 pages, desperate to know what happens to the cast of characters you’ve come to love.
The Shadow Histories— H.G. Parry
Next, a duology which spans a similar time period to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, but kicks off a decade prior: The Shadow Histories by H.G. Parry. Unlike Clarke’s novel, which focuses on largely fictional characters (with a few historical cameos), Parry’s works reinvent the prominent figures of their time as wielders of great magical power. Welcome to the Age of Enlightenment as you’ve never seen it portrayed, where magic lives in bloodlines and has the power to change (or break) the world.
Book one, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, retells the history of the French Revolution with some magical twists. Upstart lawyer Maximilien Robespierre is a necromancer, and a sinister figure in the shadows pulls Robespierre’s strings as he rises to prominence in France. Meanwhile, across the channel in England, young prime minister William Pitt—alongside his close friend, the abolitionist William Wilberforce—is grappling with legislation around the use of magic by commoners… and trying to keep his vampirism a secret. And oceans away, Fina—not a historical figure, but one of Parry’s own creation—flees the British colony of Jamaica and finds herself caught up in the chaos of slave revolts in Saint-Domingue (soon to be Haiti).
Book two, A Radical Act of Free Magic, picks up where the first left off, introducing Napoleon at the start of his journey to power and gifting him the power to control mythical beasts (including a dragon and a kraken). Fina continues to play a pivotal role in the Haitian Revolution, while Wilberforce continues to fight for the abolition of the slave trade.
While much of the duology is fantasy, Parry has grounded her writing strongly in real history, providing both an exciting adventure to get lost in, and—for those interested in learning more about the past—a jumping-off point from which to do actual research. (Just keep in mind, when reading, that William Pitt wasn’t actually a vampire. At least, not as far as we know.)
The Kingdoms — Natasha Pulley
The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley is also set around the time of the Napoleonic Wars… or at least, part of it is. Living in an alternative 1890s England—which, after England’s defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar, is now ruled by France—Joe Tournier is a lighthouse technician with a severe case of amnesia. He knows something is off about the world he’s living in, but he just can’t seem to place it. When a century-old postcard depicting a Scottish lighthouse arrives at his home, addressed to him and signed only with the initial “M,” he is left with yet more unanswered questions. What follows is a strange and intricately-plotted cross-country adventure from London (“Londres”) to Cambridge (“Pont du Cam”) to rebel-owned Scotland… with a time-travelling twist.
Pulley is best known for her debut novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, which—alongside its sequel, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow—tells the tale of telegrapher Thaniel Steepleton and the clairvoyant Keita Mori, two queer men living in secret across 1880s London and Tokyo. Although The Kingdoms delves into a different period of history, it is written with all of Pulley’s characteristic flair for twists and turns, and the emotional connections forged between its protagonists are equally intense and memorable.
Babel — R.F. Kuang
Last but not least, a book that literally everyone has been talking about this year (and with good reason): Babel by R.F. Kuang. This novel is set predominantly in 1830s Oxford, and focuses on the fictional Royal Institute of Translation: a hub of colonial power, where languages are hoarded and translated in order to produce magical effects. Protagonist Robin Swift is orphaned in Canton, and finds himself in the icy, loveless care of Professor Lovell, who wishes to train him in the prestigious art of translation. Over the course of the novel, Robin grows into a young man, and bears witness to atrocities which unravel his understanding of Babel—the tower he has been taught to view as a sanctuary and utopia.
Not only is the magic system of Babel incredibly unique, it also serves as a lynchpin for the novel’s overarching themes: of colonial evils perpetuated by the British Empire, cultural erasure, and the power of resistance. This is a book that does not pull its punches. Kuang’s dagger-sharp writing will have you by the back of the neck, unable to turn your head from the page.
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Of course, there are many other works of historical fantasy that present alternate versions of England—and many, many more which explore the histories of other countries and places all around the world. Please chime in with your own favorite examples in the comments below.
Holly Kybett Smith is a writer based in the south of England, where she is currently studying for her MA in Victorian Gothic. A keen lover of historical and speculative fiction, she specialises in all things dark, whimsical and weird. Her work has been featured in Issue #2 of the New Gothic Review.
It’s an interesting question whether Keith Roberts’ Pavane counts or not. It certainly seems like its an alternate England where the alteration is Elizabeth I’s assassination but there’s more to the story.
Not a fantasy but Jo Walton’s Farthing books have a potential alt-history where England settled with Hitler’s Germany and it has affected the home country in potent ways.
Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle is very nearly ineligible for this category… rather more overtly fantastical are Tim Powers’ Declare and The Anubis Gates.
Freedom and Necessity by Stephen Brust & Emma Bull does a great job of interweaving historical details and fantasy additions across mid-1800s Britain, in multiple locations and multiple classes.
John M. Ford’s The Dragon Waiting walks the line between history and alt-history, since well in the book’s past Julian the Apostate managed to reduce Christianity to a minor religion at best, but it’s all fantasy. It’s also about the end of the Wars of the Roses and helping Richard of York become Richard III and then hold off Henry Tudor, who is backed by the evil Byzantine Empire, ruled by the immortal Justinian and Theodora.
@3 – The Baroque Cycle was the first example that came to mind for me. I am just curious about why you call it “very nearly ineligible”?
@5 That glorious book was the first thing that came to mind. What a delicious tale of vampires and a heroic Richard :D A sad but inventive solution to the Princes in the Tower as well.
See also Druid’s Blood (1988) by Esther Friesner, set in a pagan, quasi-steampunk Victorian England where druid-mages are under attack, so the authorities call in Sherlock Holmes and H.G. Wells (also druid-mages) to take on the case.
Rather than an alternate England all about magic, how about theology? Kingsley Amis’ The Alteration is perhaps more real than fantastical, but the human implications are clear enough.
Not sure if this qualifies, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Stephenson/Galland.
Also in the Napoleonic era, there’s Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, set in a world very similar to ours, with the large (and scaly) addition of dragons. Then there’s The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Stirling, which practically invented Steampunk.
Tim Powers,The Anubis Gates: Romantic poets and monsters. Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog: screwball time-travel in 19th C Oxford. Mary Gentle, Rats and Gargoyles: the English Civil War, gender-reversed. John Crowley, Great Work of Time: exquisite, tail-swallowing fantasy of empire.
Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove, in which the Spanish Armada was successful in conquering England, and William Shakespeare is tasked with writing a play that will incite a revolution.
@12 Are you thinking of Mary Gentle’s Architecture of Desire? It has two of the same characters as the utterly marvelous Rats & Gargoyles, but is set in Olivia Cromwell’s England.
Patricia Wrede has two series (more geared to young adult but fun to read as an adult )
one frontier magic trilogy has magic and pioneer life around 1870s/1890s ish US and the second series is cecila and kate (set in 1817 England) but magic and mysteries and the books are told in the style of letters to each other about their various adventures
Robert Rankin’s Brentford Trilogy (at last count actually 11 books). The books deal with both alien conspiracies and ancient evil, and I seem to recall the use of Tesla’s ideas on broadcasting electricity.
Although it’s not part of the Trilogy, Rankin wins the award for the most interesting book title: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. I long for the game of charades when that title comes up.
Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown and The True Queen are also set during the Regency Period and use fantasy elements for social commentary. Highly recommend.
@14 Curses. Yes, I am. And they’re both on my shelf three feet away, so I have no excuse. But at least they’re both great.
@12 See also The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers, a sort-of sequel to The Anubis Gates, in which the “poetic muse” is seemingly a vampiric entity responsible for the strange fates of Keats, Shelley and Byron, as well as explaining some of the more cryptic verses.
Randal Garret’s Lord Darcy takes place in an England not ours.
I’d also nominate Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamorist histories: Regency England with a fascinating magical system.
Also Tim Powers: Declare, in which Kim Philby’s career as a Russian spy has some distinctly different connections.
Joan Aiken’s YA series starting with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is set in an alternate 18th century England where good King James III is on guard against the machinations of the evil Hanoverians, and wolves have returned to the country through the recently opened Channel Tunnel.
I’m glad to see Freedom & Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull mentioned. I fine example of this category. Also, I’m a sucker for epistolary fiction.
Terry Pratchett’s Dodger, in which Charles Dickens is a character.
How about John Brunner’s “Times Without Number”, Randal Garrett’s Lord Darcy”, or a newer one, Mark Hodder’s “Tales of Burton and Swinburne”
The Tales of Alvin Maker – Wikipedia
@21, I was also thinking of MRK’s Glamorist books, especially since the magic gives a twist ending to the Napoleonic Wars.
@3: ISTR that there’s no reimagining of history in Powers; he’s said he likes to take known weird events and make up a story that fits them. That doesn’t mean I don’t recommend either of these books; Anubis Gates is fun, and Declare blew me away.
I don’t know whether John Whitbourn’s work is in the same category, because I don’t know nearly enough of the details of 17th-century English history; The Royal Changeling, for instance, proposes that the Duke of Monmouth (who probably would have been a far better monarch than James II had Charles II gotten around to legitimating him) was half Fae. There’s also the trilogy “A Dangerous Energy.” These books take a very specific view of history(my notes on one say that it slams everybody else but ignores the failings of James II) so they may not be to everyone’s taste, but they’re definitely … different.
I don’t remember The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken, first of the Wolves Chronicles) having anything in it of either fantasy are alternate history (I may have missed subtle cues on the latter), but the 2nd book, Black Hearts in Battersea, makes clear that the Stuarts are still ruling in the early 1800’s while the Hanoverians (in our history, Georges I-IV et al.) are skulking around the edges causing trouble. (No idea what happened to the House of Orange, which had a better claim to the throne; making the Elector of Hanover the British king was something of an act of desperation as all the closer Protestant lines had died out.) The later works definitely get into fantasy (a missing lake where Camelot-era people still live) or Vernian science fiction (a gun on Nantucket that can hit the royal quarters in London, an entire underground city in coal country).
For something really off the historical wall, read Poul Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest, in which Shakespeare is the Great Historian rather than a playwright; since Caesarian Rome had clocks, we shouldn’t be surprised that railroads exist in mid-17th-century England. To block the bleakness that Cromwell’s revolution would lead to, Oberon and Titania draft Prince Rupert (eponym of Prince Rupert’s drops and credited by Anderson as founder of the Royal Society) to dredge up Prospero’s book and staff as reinforcements for Charles I. Lots of references (especially when Rupert and his country-bumpkin sidekick stumble on an inn-between-worlds); I’m ashamed to admit it took me multiple chapters to realize that the higher-class characters frequently speak in iambic pentameter, complete with couplets to close scenes.
Did anyone say Gloriana, by Michael Moorcock? It’s a shame it was neglected by the main article, still more to be left out of even the mere comment section.
Given the artwork you chose, I really thought you would include Smoke by Dan Vyleta.
@15 – Wrede has another duology as well, Maerilon the Magician and Magician’s Ward which is also Regency England with magic, and is a fun read.
I’m currently re-reading the lovely Athena Club trilogy by Theodora Goss: Victorian London (and Europe) from the point of view of the daughters/experimental subjects of famous literary mad scientists (Mary Jekyll, Justine Frankenstine, Catherine Moreau, etc), with the casts of a wide variety of Gothic novels showing up.
The Baroque Cycle was the first example that came to mind for me. I am just curious about why you call it “very nearly ineligible”?
It’s a historical fantasy novel that has almost no fantasy elements. You could read through almost all of it and think it was just a historical novel – the departures from actual history are limited to invented characters like Daniel Waterhouse and invented locations like Qwghlm, neither of which make it fantasy. There are real fantasy elements but they don’t appear until almost the end of the last book.
Cryptonomicon was the same. Way back in the late 90s when it came out, it was treated entirely as a historical novel. There was one online weirdo who wrote a web page called “What Is Going On With Enoch Root?” that argued that it was in fact a very well disguised historical fantasy, but no one really believed him until Quicksilver came out, then it was perfectly obvious that he was right.
ISTR that there’s no reimagining of history in Powers; he’s said he likes to take known weird events and make up a story that fits them.
I guess. They’re fantasy secret histories, rather than historical fantasies? If you were living in Powers’ world and not involved in his plot, you wouldn’t notice anything different.
I think the TVTrope is “Beethoven Was An Alien Spy”.
@32 Thanks for the clarification about The Baroque Cycle. My memory is that it contains a “novel’s worth” of fantasy elements, likely because it is such a door-stopper in total.
Great list (and great suggestions in the comments). I’d also add a shoutout for The Chimes by Anna Smaill, which is a beautiful, ambitious, and truly original fantasy novel.
@19, You’ve reminded me! Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency posits that Coleridge’s Kubla Khan was actually a slightly wonky retelling of the story of an alien crashing on Earth.
(Adams recycled most of the plot from a couple of Dr Who scripts he’d written)
Most of the books I was going to recommend have already been mentioned, but I’ll add Olivia Atwater’s Regency Fairy Tales series, which is exactly what it says on the tin and also witty, charming, and regularly heartwarming. Luanne G Smith’s Conspiracy of Magic duology (so far, there may be more coming is also good. There’s a companion series (The Vine Witch) that takes place across the Channel.
ETA: KJ Charles has some too, the Charm of Magpies and Rag and Bone series. Note those are also romances and get kind of steamy.
@31 There’s a semi-sequel to those, Magic Below Stairs by Wrede’ Cecilia’ and Kate collborator Caroline Stevemer.
@23 The Cecelia and Kate novels are also epistolary. I second the previous recommendation of them.
Guy Gavrial Kay does historical fantasy very well
Many of the Sandman stories are historical fantasy; with some set in different Englands.
Just out: That Self-Same Metal turns into an alternate history near the end; a ?subtitle? refers to “The Forge and Fracture Saga” (without giving a number), so a future book may show us some actual consequences from the shift.
Thanks to the commenters above mentioning Cecilia and Kate, Temeraire and Midsummer Tempest (despite its incredibly romantic view of Charles I and Prince Rupert).
one of my favorites is The Armor of Light, by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett: Elizabeth I sends the wizard knight Philip Sidney, who survived Zutphen and helped Marlowe survive the Deptford tavern, to Scotland to save James VI from the Wizard Earl of Bothwell. Philip and Marlowe, with the help of William Shakespeare and a French wizard, save the world through theatre. What’s not to love?
Thanks to those who already mentioned Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books.
Alvin the Maker series is more US focused, even if there are scenes that take place in England.
But nobody mention the Kip Brightling series by Chloe Neil https://www.goodreads.com/series/290302-captain-kit-brightling
Lots of my favourites mentioned in the comments so far. I think it should be noted that technically, Freedom and Responsibility does not have any fantasy elements. The opening makes it look as if there are some, but they later get explained away, leaving only a fine historical fiction book about the Chartist movement. We just sort of feel like it must in some way be a fantasy because Steven Brust, but it isn’t.
One great thing nobody has mentioned so far is the Fall of the Gaslit Empire series by Rod Duncan. It is perhaps not strictly fantasy . . . alternate history with Weird Science? Anyway, starting with The Bullet Catcher’s Daughter, we’re talking real tour-de-force stuff. The main character is a woman who was brought up in a circus; at the opening she is living on a canal boat and making a living as a detective, pretending to be two people–herself, an at least faintly respectable lady tending the boat, and her brother, the detective. Her circus background has given her many skills in the area of deception, sizing up the marks, as well as gymnastics and a bit of escape artistry. It has also left her with a resentment for the kind of unaccountable power that killed her father and left her on the run. England has been split into north and south, with different governments and aesthetic sensibilities. But the most important difference is the great power in the hands of the International Patent Office, whose job is basically suppressing technology that is too dangerous; this was sparked by some sort of new innovation in warfare during the Napoleonic Wars that so shocked the world they decided such things must be stopped. Over time, the International Patent Office has gathered ever greater, secretive power, and they have access to many strange and creepy technologies that they suppressed. Of course you just know our heroine is going to find herself on the outs with them . . . It’s great. Excellent writing, twisty plots, great main character, cool and very well realized setting, even some depth. If nobody has mentioned it here that means not nearly enough people have read it.
Does Michael Scott Rohan’s Winter of the World Series count? Fantasy pre-history (end of last Ice Age, with magnificent detail around real palaeontology reimagined as myth).
@43 I don’t think you could really claim that the Winter of the World series was about British history. I would seriously question whether you could make a plausible case for it being Earth at all. It’s an ice age, but I don’t think it’s our ice age.
Good books though.
I have to say I’m extremely surprised not to see anyone mention the Milkweed Triptych trilogy by Ian Trigellis. Dealing with WW2 and answering the question, “What if the British had warlocks and the Germans had super-powered humans?” An absolutely wild, insane, and beautifully written ride of a historical fantasy trilogy.
Charles Stross’ Laundry novels. In the earlier ones, the magical elements are hidden from the public and history proceeds pretty much as we have experienced it. Later, when an eldritch horror has become Prime Minister, things look quite different.
I’m not sure the Laundry books count as historical fantasy given they’re set in the early 21st century. But perhaps I am just showing my age.
@42: that was my read also (on Freedom and Responsibility), but I when asked Brust directly about it some years ago he declined to give specifics. (ISTR that some years earlier on a panel he’d been quite firm that there were fantasy elements.) It’s a little like the question of whether Paulina really brings a statue to life at the end of The Winter’s Tale (as other Minneapolitans insisted to me some time ago) or has just sheltered the queen for 15 years — room for argument.
IIRC, two of Elizabeth Bear’s “Promethean Age” novels are contemporary, but Hell and Earth and Ink and Steel cover territory similar to The Armor of Light — although ISTM they are both “fantasy secret histories” (thanks, @Ajay) rather than alternate histories. Her New Amsterdam stories are mostly set in an alternate-history New York, but at least one gets to an alternate London.
@47
I don’t generally count anything as historical fiction (of whatever sort) unless it takes place in a time prior to that of the author. Fiction that takes place in the author’s present, which present is our past, isn’t historical fiction, it’s just old fiction.
I’m glad someone (Phuzz) mentioned Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. They are a standout in this genre.
Does *Read or Die* count? Paper-magic wielding agents of the Special Collections branch of the British Library? Or not historical despite the involvement of Isaac Newton?
Garth Nix sets The Left-handed Booksellers of London (and the sequel, The Sinister Booksellers of Bath)in a Thatcher-era London where she is the second female PM, the previous having been Labour PM Clementine Atlee,* who instituted major women’s rights initiatives some decades years prior. Also there’s magic, of the mostly hidden variety.
*Whose policies were otherwise the same as IRL PM Clement Atlee
It’s a fine selection. I read Babel recently and it fully merits inclusion. Glad that others have mentioned the Temeraire series which I am currently bingeing in audiobooks. Though they go far beyond British history. The research must have been fun- but hard work too.
There’s also Jo Walton’s Tir Tanagiri series, and I wonder where Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet fits here?
Pavane by Keith Roberts. The Armada succeeded,the English Civil War never happened,and England is a theocracy where science is in its infancy,even in the 20th century.
“Historical fantasy that reimagines British history”
Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Sterling
Granted things haven’t gone well for the island itself, but the British empire continues on
Marie Brennan’s Onyx Court series.
@24 – Also, Disraeli (Disraeli also has a cameo as some sort of saint in PESHAWAR LANCERS by Stirling. I would like to write a series about Disraeli as a magical Prime Minister wed to the Welsh Maiden and serving a magical Queen Victoria. I change some names around but that’s the gist of it).
I might also add that Joyce Harmon has a magical P&P pastiche that begins with MARY BENNET AND THE BINGLEY CODEX that runs for four books and which I wish was longer.
Maybe it doesn’t count as fully historical, but the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathon Stroud is absolutely worth mentioning. It’s set in modern(?) England (the time period is extremely vague, so it could be mid 20th century rather than modern; but also the American Revolution is happening, which is probably delayed due to historical divergence but who knows! There are also cars!) where magicians summon demons to do their bidding. This has never been a secret and thus has drastically affected history across the world, but the series is focused mostly on English politics and a very snarky, lovable djinn. It is YA, but it’s absolutely worth a read by everybody.
(Stroud’s Lockwood and Co series is likewise set in an alternate history were ghosts are real and very dangerous – but that’s definitely set in modern times, no matter how interesting the historical divergence is in the background. Also, this one is definitely more solidly YA. There’s a Netflix show recently out covering the first two books – I definitely recommend both!)
What about the ParasolProtectorate and related, by Gail Carriger?
I’m very impressed by the novels on the list that I’ve read (the Clarke and Kuang), but I am glad for the comments sections for essential-reading articles on Tordotcom, because that often seems to be the only place where important works predating the 2000s are mentioned.
Regarding historical fantasy about Britain, in addition to essential (if not necessarily non-problematical) works like Pavane, Gloriana, and others mentioned in the comments, I would also add:
Morlock Nights by K.W. Jeter, a wild, pioneering steampunk title about the War of the Worlds and King Arthur – https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/645954
Speaking of the Matter of Britain, it has inspired innumerable older British historical fantasy titles; among the best are T.H. White’s The Once and Future King; the Merlin Trilogy of Mary Stewart; Keith Taylor’s post-Roman, adventure-fantasy Bard series; and (if you view them as fantasy) Rosemary Sutcliff’s Arthurian books.
For recent titles, I have read some excellent works not mentioned above. In addition to her already-mentioned Charm of Magbies/Rag and Bone series, the romantic fantasy alternate (or secret) Britains of KJ Charles’ Spectred Isle and The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal are worth a visit. For a fine, very recent Arthurian fantasy of post-Roman Britain, there is Spear by Nicola Griffith.
@61
All the way back to Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur and arguably even Historia Regum Britanniae (It’s not clear to what extent Monmouth was deliberately writing fiction as opposed to recording what he believed to be true history) and really the Matter of Britain in its entirety, being invariably about variously magical things that happened in a real place[s] known to the author happening in a time well before the author’s.
King Arthur was regarded as true history, even if the Morte d’Arthur wasn’t, until really quite recently. I had an eccentric relative in the late 19th century who traced the family’s ancestry back to King Arthur, though I think his chain of evidence got a bit wobbly before about 1200 AD.
Right, Malory believed that King Arthur was as real as Charlemagne, focal point of The Matter of France, but he also knew that he eas interpolating a lot of things that weren’t there the material he was treating as historical, and often just making stuff up where there wasn’t existing documentation. In that sense, it’s the same type of thing as Wolf Hall; most of the characters are real people, the major events are things that really happened, but all the details are made up, which is why it’s shelved in historical fiction. I characterize Malory as historical fantasy on account of all the magic and stuff, but he might’ve been intending to write straight historical fiction.
I’d like to second the recommendation for Mary Robinette Kowal’s Austenesque ‘Glamourist Histories’ series, which is wonderful — particularly after the first book, which is lovely, but could perhaps have included a little more character growth. Kowal’s use of language evokes Austen, and her understanding of the Regency era is excellent; the historical issues and details all serve to advance the plot and enhance character development.
I will also second the ‘Temeraire’ recommendation. Novik’s series is extremely well-written; she melds the social commentary of an Austen novel with the dragon-rider bonding and adventure of McCaffrey’s Pern novels, all within an impeccably researched milleu of the Napoleonic wars, British colonialism, and global trade and travel.
Oh, and I’m surprised no one has mentioned the middle book in Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy. Shadow of Night takes place primarily during the Elizabethan era, in Britain, France, and Prague. There are occasional chapters in the present-day, and the two main characters are time-travelers from our era, but it’s still historical fantasy, with a significant portion spent in Britain.
I’d argue horror still counts as fantasy & throw in the “Anno Dracula” books.
Guy Gavriel Kay’s book The Last Light of the Sun is set in an imaginary British Isles at the time of the Viking Invasions. It has characters from the analogs of the Saxon, Celtic, and Viking cultures, so you get all three points of view. There’s not much magic in it, but it should count as a fantasy because it’s in an imaginary world (and it shares this world with The Sarantine Mosaic, so there’s magic in the world, even if it’s hard to spot in this book).