by Robyn Young
Elizabeth Lambert, whose married name was Shore and who was renamed Jane by a later playwright, is said to have become involved with Edward IV after her marriage, but I have her appear on the scene earlier. She was rumoured to have been the mistress to several men, Hastings included. There was an outbreak of the deadly ‘sweating sickness’ in London in 1485, which forced Tudor to delay his coronation, but I have it starting slightly earlier.
My protagonist, Jack Wynter, is fictitious as are many of the characters surrounding him, but his father, Thomas Vaughan, is real. The fact that Vaughan was such a high-profile figure at the time – and endured to become Shakespeare’s ghost who torments Richard on the eve of Bosworth, although little is known of him now – made him highly appealing. His role in the theft of the map and involvement in the Academy are my invention, although the Academy itself, founded by Cosimo de’ Medici, is based in fact. So too are the Trinity voyages which perhaps were one of the first expeditions whose crew caught a glimpse of the coast of North America and who paved the way for Cabot’s explorations under Henry VII.
After rumours spread of land having been sighted far out in the Atlantic, the renowned Florentine astronomer Toscanelli stated that the lost island Plato had once written about – Atlantis – had returned. Toscanelli was also one of the first to suggest that it might be possible to reach Cathay (China), Cipangu (Japan) and the Spice Islands by sailing west. Shortly before his death, a young sailor wrote to Toscanelli and asked him to confirm this belief. The sailor’s name was Christopher Columbus.
Robyn Young
Brighton, January 2016
Character List
(*Indicates fictitious characters or relationships)
*ADAM FOXLEY: crossbowman in Thomas Vaughan’s household, brother of David
*ALICE: friend of Grace in Lewes
*AMAURY DE LA CROIX: monk and *translator for Louis XI
*AMELOT: ward of Amaury de la Croix
ANN VAUGHAN: daughter of Thomas Vaughan, sister of Harry
ANNE BEAUJEU: daughter of Louis XI, sister and regent of Charles VIII
ANNE NEVILLE: daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, wife of Richard of Gloucester and queen consort of England
ANTHONY WOODVILLE: Earl Rivers, brother of Elizabeth Woodville and governor of Prince Edward, his nephew
*ANTONIO: friend of Jack’s in Seville
*ARNOLD: lawyer from Lewes
*BERNARD: map-maker and brother-in-law of Hugh Pyke
*BILL: ferryman in Southwark
*BLACK ADAM: criminal
*CARLO DI FANTE: Italian spy
*CHARITY: seamstress for the Marvellous Shoreditch Players
CHARLES (THE BOLD): Duke of Burgundy, husband of Margaret of York, killed in battle in 1477
CHARLES VIII: son of Louis XI and King of France (1483–98)
COSIMO DE’ MEDICI: ruler of Florence and head of the Medici family, died 1464
*DAVID FOXLEY: crossbowman in Thomas Vaughan’s household, brother of Adam
*DIEGO: tavern and brothel owner in Seville
EDMUND TUDOR: half-brother of Henry VI and Earl of Richmond, first husband of Margaret Beaufort and father of Henry Tudor, died in 1456
EDWARD: Earl of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Clarence
EDWARD IV: King of England (1461–70 and 1471–83), brother of Richard of Gloucester and Margaret of York, father of the Princes in the Tower and Elizabeth of York
EDWARD V: son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, succeeded his father as king in 1483 but was never crowned. Became known as one of the Princes in the Tower after his imprisonment by his uncle, Richard of Gloucester
EDWARD OF MIDDLEHAM: son of Richard of Gloucester and Anne Neville, Prince of Wales
EDWARD WOODVILLE: Admiral of the Fleet, brother of Elizabeth Woodville
ELEANOR ARUNDEL: wife of Thomas Vaughan, mother of Harry and Ann
ELEANOR BUTLER: mistress of Edward IV, later claimed to have been contracted in marriage to him rendering his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville invalid
*ELENA: prostitute in Seville
ELIZABETH LAMBERT: mistress of Edward IV and William Hastings
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE: wife of Edward IV and queen consort of England, mother of the Princes in the Tower and Elizabeth of York
ELIZABETH OF YORK: daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, sister of the Princes in the Tower
*EM: tavern wench in Shoreditch
*ESTEVAN CARRILLO: son of a Spanish nobleman
FERDINAND II: King of Aragon and husband of Queen Isabella
FRANCIS II: Duke of Brittany
FRANCIS LOVELL: Viscount Lovell, close friend of Richard of Gloucester
*FRANCIS SHAWE: son of Justice Shawe, brother of Grace
*GILBERT: manservant to Grace
GEORGE: Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard of Gloucester, executed for treason in 1478
GEORGE: Lord Strange, son of Thomas Stanley
*GEORGE: playwright and head of the Marvellous Shoreditch Players
*GORO: one of Carlo di Fante’s men
*GRACE: daughter of Justice Shawe, sister of Francis
*GREGORY MERCER: squire
HARRY VAUGHAN: son of Thomas Vaughan and Eleanor Arundel, *half-brother of Jack
HENRY VI: King of England (1422–61 and 1470–71), died in the Tower in 1471
HENRY PERCY: Earl of Northumberland
HENRY STAFFORD: Duke of Buckingham, nephew of Margaret Beaufort
HENRY TUDOR: son of Margaret Beaufort and Edmund Tudor, King of England (1485–1509)
*HUGH PYKE: soldier in Thomas Vaughan’s household
ISABELLA I: Queen of Castile and wife of King Ferdinand
*JACK (JAMES) WYNTER: *son of Thomas Vaughan and Sarah Wynter, *half-brother of Harry Vaughan
*JACOB: Jewish book collector in Seville
JAMES BLOUNT: former captain of Hammes Castle
JAMES TYRELL: knight and friend of Richard of Gloucester
*JAMES WYNTER: Sarah Wynter’s husband
JASPER TUDOR: half-brother of Henry VI and former Earl of Pembroke, brother of Edmund and uncle of Henry Tudor
*JEROME: drunk
JOAN: daughter of Eleanor Arundel’s first marriage, half-sister of Harry and Ann Vaughan
*JOHN BROWE: cobbler in Lewes
JOHN CHEYNE: Henry Tudor’s bodyguard
JOHN DE VERE: Earl of Oxford
JOHN HOWARD: Duke of Norfolk
JOHN MORTON: Bishop of Ely
*JUSTICE SHAWE: Justice of the Peace in Lewes
LIONEL WOODVILLE: Bishop of Salisbury, brother of Elizabeth Woodville
LORENZO DE’ MEDICI (THE MAGNIFICENT): grandson of Cosimo, ruler of Florence and head of the Medici family
LOUIS XI: King of France (1461–83)
*LUCY: maid to Sarah Wynter
MARGARET BEAUFORT: Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry Tudor and wife of Thomas Stanley (married previously to Edmund Tudor and Henry Stafford – uncle of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham)
MARGARET OF YORK: dowager-duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV and Richard of Gloucester, aunt of the Princes in the Tower
*MARK TURNER: squire and leader of a rebel gang
*MARTHA: maid to Grace
MARY: Duchess of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold and stepdaughter of Margaret of York, wife of Maximilian
MAXIMILIAN: son of the Holy Roman Emperor, husband of Mary, Duchess of Burgundy
*MICHAEL: priest in Lewes
*MICHEL: servant of Margaret of York
*NED DRAPER: soldier in Thomas Vaughan’s household
*OTTO: one of Black Adam’s men
*PEDRO: brother of Diego
*PETER: bailiff in Lewes, husband of Grace
*PIERO: one of Carlo di Fante’s men
PIERRE LANDAIS: treasurer of Francis II, Duke of Brittany
RALPH NEVILLE: Lord Neville
RALPH SHAW: theologian
*REMY: one of Amau
ry de la Croix’s men
*REYNOLD GLOVER: gaoler of the Princes in the Tower
*RHYS: Welsh soldier
RHYS AP THOMAS (THE RAVEN): Welsh landowner
RICHARD III: Duke of Gloucester, brother of Edward IV and King of England (1483–85)
RICHARD GREY: son of Elizabeth Woodville by her first marriage, brother of Thomas Grey
RICHARD NEVILLE: Earl of Warwick, cousin of Edward IV and Richard of Gloucester, killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471
RICHARD RATCLIFFE: royal official and friend of Richard of Gloucester
RICHARD OF YORK: son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Duke of York and one of the Princes in the Tower along with his brother, Edward
*ROBERT: knight, former guardian of Harry Vaughan
ROBERT BRACKENBURY: Constable of the Tower
ROBERT STILLINGTON: Bishop of Bath and Wells
*RODRIGO: friend of Estevan Carrillo
*ROWLAND GOOD: lawyer’s clerk and member of Mark Turner’s rebel gang
*SARAH WYNTER: mother of Jack Wynter and *mistress of Thomas Vaughan
SCROPE: Lord Scrope of Bolton
SIXTUS: Pope
*STEPHEN GREENWOOD: squire to Thomas Vaughan
*THIERRY: steward of Margaret of York
THOMAS CROFT: customs official in Bristol, leader of the Trinity voyages
THOMAS GREY: Marquess of Dorset and son of Elizabeth Woodville by her first marriage, brother of Richard Grey
THOMAS ROTHERHAM: Archbishop of York
THOMAS STANLEY: Lord Stanley, husband of Margaret Beaufort, stepfather of Henry Tudor
THOMAS VAUGHAN: royal official and chamberlain to Prince Edward, father of Harry and Ann Vaughan and *father of Jack Wynter
*TOM WEST: sailor
*VALENTINE HOLT: gunner in Thomas Vaughan’s household
*VANNI: one of Carlo di Fante’s men
*WALTER: servant of Margaret Beaufort
WILLIAM CATESBY: lawyer and royal official
WILLIAM HASTINGS: Baron Hastings, close friend of Edward IV
WILLIAM STANLEY: brother of Thomas Stanley
ZOUCHE: Lord Zouche
Bibliography
Baker, Timothy, Medieval London, Cassell, 1970
Baldwin, David, Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower, History Press, 2012
Baldwin, David, Richard III, Amberley Publishing, 2013
Barron, Caroline (introduction), A Map of Tudor London 1520, Old House, 2013
Boardman, Andrew W., The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses, Sutton Publishing, 1998
Boyle, David, Toward the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci and the Race for America, Walker & Company, 2008
Cummins, John, The Hound and the Hawk: The Art of Medieval Hunting, Phoenix Press, 2001
Davies, Owen, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, Oxford University Press, 2010
Ebeling, Florian (trans. David Lorton), The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times, Cornell University Press, 2011
Edge, David and Paddock, John Miles, Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight, Bison Group, 1988
Edwards, John, Ferdinand and Isabella, Routledge, 2013
Elliott, J.H., Imperial Spain, 1469–1716, Penguin Books, 2002
Evans, James, Merchant Adventurers, Phoenix, 2014
Gill, Louise, Richard III and Buckingham’s Rebellion, Sutton Publishing, 1999
Gravett, Christopher, The Battle of Bosworth, Osprey, 1999
Gravett, Christopher, Knight, Noble Warrior of England 1200–1600, Osprey, 2008
Gunn, Steven and Janse, Antheun (eds.), The Court as a Stage: England and the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages, Boydell Press, 2006
Hale, J.R., War and Society in Renaissance Europe 1450–1620, Sutton Publishing, 1998
Hamel, Christopher de, Scribes and Illuminators, British Museum Press, 2006
Hancock, Peter A., Richard III and the Murder in the Tower, History Press, 2011
Houston, Mary G., Medieval Costume in England and France, Dover Publications, 1996
Hutton, Ronald, The Rise and Fall of Merry England, Oxford University Press, 1996
Impey, Edward and Parnell, Geoffrey, The Tower of London (the Official Illustrated History), Merrell, 2006
Jones, Dan, The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors, Faber & Faber, 2014
Kendall, Paul Murray, Louis XI, George Allen and Unwin, 1971
Kirkham, Anne and Warr, Cordelia (eds.), Wounds in the Middle Ages, Ashgate, 2014
Leyser, Henrietta, Medieval Women, Phoenix, 2003
Licence, Amy, Elizabeth of York: Forgotten Tudor Queen, Amberley Publishing, 2014
Mancini, Dominic (trans. C.A.J. Armstrong), The Usurpation of Richard III, Alan Sutton, 1989
Matthews, Helen S., Illegitimacy and English Landed Society c.1285–c.1500 (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of London, 2013)
Milne, Gustav, The Port of Medieval London, Tempus, 2006
Norton, Elizabeth, Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty, Amberley Publishing, 2011
Penn, Thomas, Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England, Penguin Books, 2012
Pollard, A.J., Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, Alan Sutton Publishing, 1995
Ridley, Jasper, A Brief History of the Tudor Age, Constable & Robinson, 2002
Rose, Susan, England’s Medieval Navy 1066–1509, Seaforth Publishing, 2013
Ross, Cathy and Clark, John, London: The Illustrated History, Penguin Books, 2011
Ross, Charles, The Wars of the Roses, Thames & Hudson, 1986
Sim, Alison, Pleasures and Pastimes in Tudor England, History Press, 2009
Sim, Alison, Food and Feast in Tudor England, History Press, 2011
Skidmore, Chris, Bosworth: The Birth of the Tudors, Phoenix, 2014
Spufford, Peter, Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe, Thames & Hudson, 2002
Strathern, Paul, The Medici, Jonathan Cape, 2003
Talbot, C.H., Medicine in Medieval England, Oldbourne, 1967
Weir, Alison, Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy, Vintage, 2008
Wise, Terence, The Wars of the Roses, Osprey, 2009
About the Author
Robyn Young was born in Oxford and grew up in the Midlands
and Devon. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the
University of Sussex and lives and writes in Brighton full-time.
Her first novel, BRETHREN, was the bestselling hardback debut
novel of 2006, with the paperback also going straight into the top
ten bestseller list. Two more bestsellers followed, CRUSADE
and REQUIEM, completing the Brethren trilogy, which has now
sold over a million copies and been translated into nineteen
languages.
The inspiration for Robyn's new trilogy, which began with
INSURRECTION and continues in RENEGADE, grew out of an
earlier research trip to Scotland. Robyn explains: 'Day by day,
out of the pages of history and the wild landscape, one figure
came striding, larger, clearer than all the others – Robert the
Bruce. He swept me off my feet and carried me into a story of
bitter family feuds, two civil wars and the struggle for the crown. I
realised there was no way this character could play a cameo
role in another man's story. His tale was too powerful, too
intricate and too good to be cut down and boxed to fit.'
To find out more about Robyn Young and her historical novels,
visit her website at www.robynyoung.com and her Facebook
page at www.facebook.com/RobynYoungAuthor and follow her
on Twitter @RobynYoung36.
If you enjoyed Sons of the Blood, discover the bestselling
INSURRECTION Trilogy
INSURRECTION
1286 A.D. Scotland is in the
grip of the worst winter in living
memory. Some say the Day of Judgement has arrived.
The King of Scotland rides out from Edinburgh into the
stormy night. On the road he is murdered by one of his own
men, leaving the succession to the throne wide open. Civil
war threatens as the powerful Scottish families jostle for
power, not knowing that King Edward I of England has set
his own plans for conquest in motion.
RENEGADE
King Edward I of England marches on Scotland, inspired by
an Arthurian prophecy and aiming to unite the British Isles
under a single crown.
One man alone can thwart Edward's plan. But on the run in
Ireland, hunted by a relentless assassin, Robert Bruce
seems a long way from achieving his ambition.
KINGDOM
The epic story of Robert Bruce comes to a climax at the
Battle of Bannockburn.
Robert has achieved his great ambition to be crowned King
of Scotland, but in doing so has provoked the wrath of the
new king of England, Edward II. Raising the feared dragon
banner, Edward marches north, determined to recapture the
kingdom.
