Roses Have Thorns: A Novel of Elizabeth I

by Sandra Byrd

  Elin von Snakenborg’s journey to England is even more fantastic than I described in the book. It took ten months, mostly over frozen land, as they tried to dodge the Danes. For a heavily pregnant princess and her mostly young female attendants, it was a bold journey. It does seem that, once Elin arrived in England, Parr fell immediately in love with her. I believe that he came to love her for her person, though he may have been instantly attracted to her physically, as she looked like his second wife, who had not been dead for long.

  I do not know why Helena decided to stay in England, but she did. She didn’t seem to have a gold-digging personality, so although Parr’s title was attractive, I’m sure there had to be a bit more behind it. Her sister Karin did marry Philip Bonde, and as much of the story was about personal betrayal, the motivation of a fiancé who loved her sister, who loved him back, seemed to fit.

  It is uncertain whether Gorges and Helena married in 1576 or 1577; I chose 1577 to fall in line with my story and also because I believe that a punishment of months was more in line with Elizabeth’s treatment of favorites who irritated her (Lord Robert, Cecil, even perhaps Mary Shelton) rather than years or forever for people who threatened her crown or whom she simply did not like (Katherine Grey Seymour, Lettice Knollys, Bess Throckmorton). Thomas was imprisoned, though, and Helena banished, and Sussex really did have to intervene for them.

  Thomas’s role in the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots, is absolutely true, though I do not know if he feigned his faith; I do not know the story behind the other Gorges and the Poyntz who were arrested in the Babington plot, either, but there was one of each, according to records that can still be accessed. And, of course, Thomas’s mother was a Poyntz and his father a Gorges.

  Helena did name her first child Elizabeth, and the child she bore just after Robert Dudley died, Robert. And there was a long gap between the children she “brought every year” that can be explained by physical and emotional estrangement, which was resolved before the conception of baby Robert Gorges. It’s interesting to know that Thomas and Helena’s daughter Elizabeth eventually married the man who would be the first governor of the state of Maine; the current Duchess of Norfolk is also one of Helena’s descendants. Thinking upon Helena’s encounters with Norfolk in this book only makes that more satisfying! The current princes William and Harry are descended through their mother from Amias Paulet, the stern Puritan guard finally in charge of Mary, Queen of Scots. I’m sure there are many other connections; it would be fun to find them all.

  Sixteenth-century England was a century of religious turmoil. I used the words Protestant and Catholic in this book simply to make it easier on the modern reader, although other words and terms were in play during that era. Thirty years after taking the throne, Elizabeth said, “When I first came to the scepter and crown of this realm, I did think more of God who gave it to me than of the title, and therefore my first care was to set in order those things which did concern the Church of God, and this religion in which I was born, in which I was bred, and in which I trust to die not being ignorant how dangerous a thing it was to work in a kingdom a sudden alteration of religion.”

  Her father had wrested his realm back and forth between religious approaches, and her brother had been far to the end of the Protestant spectrum and her sister far to the end of the Catholic one. She wisely chose to steer her nation down the via media, the middle way. Elizabeth was a uniter. She did not let Catholics take over her realm, nor the far wings of Protestantism—Puritans and Calvinists—though she had beloved friends and councilors amongst all three.

  She was a woman of quiet faith; Elizabeth’s prayers are rich, detailed, humble, and submissive. She refers to herself repeatedly as a “handmaid,” she is abject and penitent, she is personal. She asks for help, she offers praise. She—amazingly—writes her prayers out in many languages: English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek. Her prayers reveal the fact that she, like others in the sixteenth century, clearly recognized a firmly established hierarchy. She understood that she was to be abject and humble before God, and that she was dependent upon His mercies and grace. But she also understood that her courtiers were to be humble and, when required, likewise abject before her, and their subordinates to them, all the way down the ladder. There is no democracy in the kingdom of heaven, nor was there in this one on earth.

  Elizabeth was very fond of bawdy jokes; I think she and her whole court enjoyed the wit and the wordplay and the teasing repartee they brought—it was a kind of flirty intellectual jousting. In fact, those kinds of jokes are replete throughout the literature of the time. Shakespeare himself was the master of them and they are as much a part of this multidimensional queen as her faith, her temper, her affections, and her strength.

  I tried to use actual poems and plays from the sixteenth century; I attributed them in the book where it would naturally fit in, but that wasn’t always possible.

  I’m not one who thinks Elizabeth was having a daily melodramatic meltdown. Biographer Alison Plowden says, “Elizabeth had learnt to conceal her innermost feelings before she grew out of her teens, and as she grew older she either ‘patiently endured or politely dissembled’ her greatest griefs of mind and body.” I think she had a temper and she used and lost it from time to time, but she had an amazing ability to control herself, too—when she was in the Tower, when she faced the Spanish with only a little blink, and with the restraint of her physical passions.

  Was Elizabeth a virgin?

  Of course, this has been debated for centuries and I’m sure will continue to be throughout the ages. For me, it comes down to personal integrity. She insisted throughout her life that she was a virgin; to believe that she was not a virgin would be to believe that she lied, regularly and consistently, to her people, her courtiers, her friends, and to God. Should she have dallied with someone and then later reclaimed celibacy, she was smart enough to figure out a way to have stated that without lying. She said, to her Parliamentary delegation, “It would please me best if, at the last, a marble stone shall record that this Queen having lived such and such a time, lived and died a virgin.” I’m just going to take her at her word. It makes her sacrifice more poignant as well.

  Some of the stories herein may be apocryphal. It’s not certain that Raleigh brought the potatoes or not, but it’s plausible and makes for a good story. No one (thus far!) knows where the famous locket ring came from, but I like to think it came from someone who loved her and knew of her desire to keep her mother close to her heart, and the timing was right. Some say that both faces in the locket are of Elizabeth, but lockets, then and now, are known for keeping a portrait of oneself and a loved one close by; it was unlikely that anyone would keep two portraits of themselves in a locket. It’s clear that Elizabeth kept mementos of her mother about, but subtly, and this would have fit right in. It was fun to invent a provenance. The girdle prayer book I described was most likely to be owned by Elizabeth Tyrwhitt; it exists still in the British Museum and you can see it online. However, all highborn women had highly decorated prayer books attached to their girdles. I have tried throughout to keep the integrity of the dates as much as possible, but births, marriages, and deaths are not always clear nearly five hundred years on, so there may be some unintentional variations.

  I don’t know the whole story of poor Eleanor Brydges; I do know that her aunt was accused of poisoning her husband, that Eleanor appeared at court with her sister but then disappears from the record, and that her husband was caught fleeing to the Jesuits in the year that Mary, Queen of Scots, was apprehended. I built upon that for those truths, with apologies for any wrongly taken liberties in her story.

  I do not know if Helena retired from more active service, or if the queen would have allowed for that, for certain. But I do know that her ladies wished for it to be so; evidence remains of the letter quoted in the book from Francis Knollys to his wife, the queen’s beloved Lady Knollys. The Earl of Leicester reported that Lady Cobham wished to visit her husband at his co
untry home “to rest her weary bones awhile, if she could get leave,” but he didn’t think it was likely that the queen would allow her to go. So it was certainly an issue among her ladies. Elizabeth had a firm will but always was willing to bend when it made sense, especially for those she loved; and because I wanted to explore this angle of ladies in waiting, the storyline made sense to me.

  Although James I had Tudor blood, of course, his reign was the beginning of the English Stuart years and Elizabeth’s is considered to be the concluding reign of the Tudor era. In a Renaissance century rich with intelligence, intrigue, faith, factions, passion, and drama, nearly five hundred years on, she truly stands out, the marvelous daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

  To quote Elizabeth herself, though she was not speaking of herself at the time, “The end crowneth the work.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Writing a book is truly a team sport, and I feel thankful and blessed to have a number of wonderful people who graciously contributed their many talents.

  As with each of the Ladies in Waiting books, I relied on the magnificent gifts of Lauren Mackay, historical research assistant and an author in her own right. She always knows exactly where to put her hands on the right material, trims overwrought language, and can dig through a heap of history five hundred years old to suggest the exact fact the book requires. This time around, Jessica Barnes, a talented longtime friend and trusted, gifted editor with Story-Driven Editorial, also stepped in to assist with her invaluable story-depth and character-development insights. The exceptional Jenny Q of Historical Editorial brought her knowledge base and amazing, intuitive plot analysis to the completed manuscript. Laura A. Wideburg, PhD, lead teacher at the Swedish Cultural Center in Seattle, Washington, was an invaluable resource of all things Swedish Renaissance. Thanks very much to Susan Hageman and the Royal Horseguards Hotel, a beautiful property located in the Whitehall district, near and dear to all British history lovers.

  I truly appreciate Danielle Egan-Miller and Joanna MacKenzie, simply the best and brightest agents in the world, and their wonderful assistant, Shelbey Campbell; my confidence is bolstered knowing that they are in my corner. Thanks, too, to the great team at Howard Books who help bring these books to life and to market. Debbie Austin, as always, deserves high praise for her abilities to keep me, and the many thousands of facts uncovered, organized, and properly presented.

  I could never have written this book without my astonishing husband, Michael, who did everything from reassuring and encouraging to hand-translating an entire book from Swedish to English online. Thanks, too, to my kids, Samuel and Elizabeth, who bring joy and meaning to my life. Finally, all honor and glory to God, who makes all things possible.

  Reading Group Guide

  Roses Have Thorns

  A Novel of Elizabeth I

  Sandra Byrd

  INTRODUCTION

  When Elin von Snakenborg visits England with a royal entourage from Sweden and decides to remain, she drastically alters the course of her life. She marries an English nobleman and becomes one of Queen Elizabeth I’s most trusted ladies in waiting, a position that draws her deep into the intrigue, danger, and treachery of the court.

  TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. If you were Elin, would you have wanted to return to Sweden or remain in England? What factors would have influenced your decision? Would you have changed your name, as she did?

  2. Helena admits that she is fond of William but not in love with him, nor is she physically attracted to him. Is this any different from other engaged, highborn women of the time; for example, her friend Anne Russell? How did the system of marrying for dynastic and financial concerns help or hinder women of the time? Is our current system of choosing husbands always better? Why or why not?

  3. Right before Princess Cecelia departs for Sweden, she maliciously tells Helena that William is already married. What were William’s reasons for withholding this information from Helena until it was too late for her to change her mind? Did it damage his reputation for high integrity, or did his past marital history honestly lead him to believe this would be a quickly solved problem?

  4. When Helena first enters Elizabeth’s employ, the queen is polite yet distant. How does Helena go about creating a place for herself in the royal household? What are several factors that account for the deepening of their friendship? Why does Helena commission the locket ring for Elizabeth? Was it a game-changer for their friendship?

  5. Discuss the role that ladies in waiting play in the queen’s life versus servants in the lives of every highborn woman, royal or not. What is your opinion of the way Elizabeth treats the women in her household? That culture certainly believed that the perks that come with the coveted position outweigh the negatives. Would it have, for you, had you lived then?

  6. How does Helena use myths and tales, such as the legend of Idun, to convey her thoughts and opinions to Elizabeth? Why does she seek to influence the queen in this manner rather than in a more direct way? How else do the ladies in waiting “persuade effectively by softer manner”?

  7. When Helena shares the story of the frozen rose garden with the queen, what is she really advising her about Mary, Queen of Scots? Was Elizabeth justified in ordering her cousin’s execution? Why does Helena believe the monarch waited so long to have the deed carried out despite the evidence against Mary? Why do you believe Queen Elizabeth waited so long? Would you have acted similarly? How or how not?

  8. What are the greatest threats facing Elizabeth I and the stability of the English throne? In what ways is religion—specifically religious differences—a significant factor in the unrest during her reign? What parallels can be drawn to religion in our time?

  9. What is your opinion of Elizabeth I as a monarch, as seen through Helena’s eyes? What characteristics and qualities do you think made her a successful ruler? How does Sandra Byrd’s portrayal of Elizabeth I differ from those in other historical novels you’ve read or that you’ve seen in films? Are we likely to get a more complete picture of any one person by looking at him or her from different perspectives?

  10. In two different instances Helena is suspicious of Eleanor, once when the other woman reveals something she could not possibly have overheard and the other when she catches a glimpse of Eleanor’s Rosary beads. Was it Helena’s history and personality that compelled her to keep quiet, or fear, or circumstance? How is Eleanor’s death a turning point for Helena personally? In what ways does it alter her association with the other ladies in waiting?

  11. Why did Elizabeth allow Helena’s marriage to William but likely would have denied permission for her to wed Thomas? Were Helena and Thomas right to marry in secret? What other couples married in secret during the Elizabethan era, and what were the consequences? (Consider Mary Shelton and Bess Throckmorton, both mentioned in the book.) Helena claims she thought the queen had discreetly sanctioned the union because of a comment made during a chess game. Does she honestly believe this was the case, or is she using the incident as a way to diffuse the queen’s anger?

  12. After Helena finds the Rosary ring among Thomas’s possessions, why does she take it to Sir Francis Walsingham rather than confront her husband? What were the benefits and risks to her and her children by taking it to Walsingham? What could have happened to Helena and her children if she had not gone to Walsingham, and he found out she was withholding treasonous information? Considering all that is at stake, what would you have done in her situation?

  13. Helena balances serving the queen with marriage, motherhood, and managing her own household. What similarities does she share with present-day women who juggle careers and family? How is her situation different?

  14. The first two books in this series were set during the tumult of the Reformation, when the protagonists were perhaps more zealous. How is faith lived out, albeit more quietly, by the protagonists in this book?

  15. At one point Helena believes her relationship with Thomas is over. What accounts f
or the erosion of their marriage during the course of the decade? What was the turning point that allowed them to rebuild their marriage?

  16. Why does Helena not act sooner on the misgivings she has about Sofia? How does the earlier betrayal of Karin and Philip factor into how she deals with her cousin and her character arc? Was she too harsh on Sofia or not harsh enough?

  17. “Court language was more often unspoken than said,” writes Sandra Byrd. Why is Helena successful in navigating the intricacies of Elizabeth’s court, even more so than many of the queen’s countrymen and women? Is it more to her benefit or her detriment that she is a foreigner? What qualities are necessary to succeed in a royal court?

  18. Do you feel that Elizabeth was, indeed, the capstone of the Tudor Era? Why or why not?

  A CONVERSATION WITH SANDRA BYRD

  Q: Was it difficult to write about someone so well known, and both fiercely loved and scorned, as Queen Elizabeth I?

  A: It was certainly intimidating, challenging, and exciting. I have a large print of Queen Elizabeth I in my office and every morning she’d be there, waiting for me. Because she is so well known, people have strongly formed opinions of her and her reign, and I do, too. She lived a long, rich, complicated life, so in the span of this book I was only able to show one perspective, Helena’s point of view as I’d imagined it and drawn it from history. It was a thrill to write, and I hope I have done her justice.

  Q: When you came across a mention of Helena von Snakenborg while doing research for The Secret Keeper, did you know immediately that she would be the protagonist for a novel? Why do you think the myth that Elizabeth I had no female friends has been so widely perpetuated?