Revenger (56 page)

Finally, Elizabeth allowed the axe to fall on the neck of the young man she had once loved, just as her father had severed the heads of two young wives he once loved. The brittle young modernizer Sir Robert Cecil had won the day, though he never won the love of his Queen, nor of the people.

Character Notes

As well as well-known historical figures, this book includes some lesser-known names worth discovering.…

Charles Blount
(1563–1606)

As a young courtier, he wounded the Earl of Essex in a duel over an insult—and won his respect. Later, he won the love of Essex’s sister, the beautiful Lady Penelope Rich, even though she was married. They eventually wed in 1605 after she scandalized society by being divorced. Like all good romantic heroes, Blount was handsome, dark-haired, strong, silent, and happiest on the battlefield. He became Lord Mountjoy on the death of his brother in 1594, and was acclaimed for his decisive victories in Ireland. King James I honored him with the title Earl of Devonshire. His early death has been attributed to heavy smoking.

Christopher Blount
(1555–1601)

A distant relative of Charles Blount (see above), Blount began and ended his life as a Catholic, though in his middle years he seemed to turn against Catholicism and may have worked for the spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham to bring about the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. He served the Earl of Leicester and, on the Earl’s death, married his wealthy and beautiful widow, Lettice Knollys, who was twelve years his senior. One claim is that their affair began
before
Leicester’s death—and that she poisoned her husband to leave her free to wed Blount. He became stepfather to the Earl of Essex, whom he vowed to serve “until after I be dead.” In 1601 he played a crucial role in Essex’s abortive coup and, like him, was beheaded.

Arthur Gorges
(1550s–1625)

A close friend and cousin of Sir Walter Ralegh, he was a poet, courtier, and sea captain. He was bereft when his beloved young wife, Douglas Howard, died, aged eighteen, in 1590. His grief inspired the 1591 elegy
Daphnaida
by Edmund Spenser. The following year, he visited his kinsman Ralegh in the Tower (he had been imprisoned for marrying Bess Throckmorton without the Queen’s permission) and was injured in an altercation between Sir Walter and the gaoler, causing him to write that he wished both their heads had been broken. Ralegh, in his will, left him his “best rapier and dagger.” Gorges was often short of money and probably died of the plague.

Robert Greene
(1558–1592)

Greene was a prolific playwright and writer of courtly romances, as famous in his day as William Shakespeare, whom he sneered at as an “upstart crow” in his notorious tract
Greenes Groats-worth of Wit
. Born in Norwich, he went to Cambridge and prided himself on being one of the “university wits,” whereas Will Shakespeare did not attend university. Yet Greene was a mass of contradictions, for he was also deeply attracted to the seedy side of life: he left his wife at home in Norfolk and lived in London with the whore Em Ball, sister to the infamous master criminal Cutting Ball. He wrote entertaining pamphlets detailing the language and habits of London’s underworld, and died in poverty, supposedly demanding more wine after eating a dodgy dish of pickled herrings.

Manteo and Wanchese
(dates unknown)

Algonquian Indians brought to England—apparently voluntarily—by the initial Ralegh-sponsored foray into the New World, in 1584.
They lived with Ralegh at Durham House and were presented to Elizabeth (swapping their loincloths for taffeta). Their extraordinary personalities and speedy learning of English helped persuade the Queen to back Ralegh’s colonization plans. They returned to America with the short-lived colony of 1585. Wanchese rejoined his tribe, but Manteo stayed with the settlers and went back to England with them the following year. He then returned to Roanoke with the “lost colony” expedition of 1587. Manteo, from the friendly Croatoan tribe, was baptized a Christian, but Wanchese, from the more hostile Roanoke tribe, may have been in the raiding party that murdered the settler George Howe. The ultimate fate of both Indians is unknown.

Gelli Meyrick
(1556–1601)

A bishop’s son from Wales, his family was closely associated with the Essex clan (Meyrick’s uncle Edmund was chaplain to both the Earl and his father). In 1579, Meyrick joined Essex, who was then a student, and looked after his horses. Soon his role had grown and he was organizing Essex’s estates and finances. Meyrick became increasingly influential. He was unpopular with tenants in Wales for his tough dealings, but Essex always supported him. He, in turn, backed Essex to the hilt and died for it, being accused of treason for his part in the rebellion of 1601. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. There was said to be much rejoicing in the valleys of South Wales.

Sir John Perrot
(1528–1592)

A large, powerful man, he was generally held to be the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. Certainly he was quick to anger like Henry. A gifted linguist and a lifelong Protestant, he went to the royal court at eighteen, but soon became known as a brawler. There was no doubting his courage—he once saved King Henri II of France from a wild boar. His bad habits dogged him and he lost all his money through his passion for the tilt “and other toys I am ashamed to tell.” He spent various terms in prison, fought battles at sea, and served with the English army in Ireland, where he did well. But he
made enemies, and with the death of his main protector, Walsingham, he was vulnerable. In 1592 he was brought to trial for treason, having called Elizabeth “a base bastard pissing kitchen woman.” He did not deny saying the words and was condemned to death, but died in the Tower while awaiting execution.

William Segar
(1564–1633)

A fine portrait painter, who took himself rather too seriously as an officer of the College of Arms. He was first employed as a scrivener by the courtier Sir Thomas Heneage, and soon became a herald. His expertise in the finer points of noble family trees did not, however, hamper his other career as a portraitist. He was patronized by the Earl of Essex and was also commissioned to do pictures of the Earl of Leicester and Queen Elizabeth. Under King James I, he was the victim of a heraldic hoax by a rival, who tricked him into awarding a coat of arms to the London hangman Gregory Brandon (who enjoyed the joke and ever after styled himself “esquire”). King James was not amused—and briefly jailed both Segar and the hoaxer, saying he hoped to make Segar more wise and the trickster more honest.

John Watts
(1550–1616)

A larger-than-life merchant and pirate who typified the go-getting adventurousness of the Elizabethan age. Arriving in London as a teenager, he married the daughter of a rich merchant and never looked back. He sent wave after wave of privateers to the Caribbean to prey on Spanish—and neutral—shipping, and became exceedingly wealthy. He took his own ships to fight the Armada and was involved in some of the fiercest exchanges around Calais. Later he became an alderman, a governor of the East India Company, and Lord Mayor of London, and was knighted by King James I. One Spanish envoy said he was “the greatest pirate that has ever been in this kingdom.”

Roger Williams
(1539–1595)

One of the foremost military men of Elizabeth’s reign, he first went
to war aged seventeen and made his name in the Low Countries by fighting bravely in single combat against a Spanish champion. Neither man was hurt and they ended up having a drink together. Williams soon became the most trusted lieutenant of Sir John Norris, Elizabeth’s top general, but later the two men became rivals. After fighting all over Europe and writing important military books (including
A Brief Discourse of War
), Williams was drawn to Essex and called him “my great prince.” His main stumbling block to high office was that Elizabeth did not like him and once dismissed him from her presence, telling him “begone, thy boots stink.” Williams died of a fever.

Lexicon

Language in the sixteenth century was rich, poetic—and coarse. Here are a few of the many words I have gleaned over the years. (For a fuller lexicon, visit
www.roryclements.com.
)

alderliefest:
most dear

all amort:
dejected, miserable

apple squire:
pimp, a harlot’s servant

argosy:
large merchant ship

arquebus, arquebusier, hagbut, hackbut:
matchlock weapon, muzzle-loading. The trigger brings the end of a slow-burning match into contact with the gunpowder that discharges the ball.

arras:
tapestry or hanging of rich fabric with woven figures and scenes

attaint:
to stain, disgrace, condemn; lose standing and property

auto-da-fé:
execution of sentence of the Spanish Inquisition, often including a parade and sometimes including burnings of heretics

backed:
dead

ban-dog:
ferocious dog kept tied up

bark:
small ship with standard rigging and build

bastardly gullion:
bastard’s bastard

baudekin:
brocade of gold thread and silk (the richest cloth)

beast:
Antichrist (Puritan view of Pope and Roman Catholic priests)

bees, a head full of:
full of crazy notions

bellman:
watchman, town crier

belly-cheat:
slang term for an apron

Bess o’Bedlam:
madwoman

black book:
prison register

blackjack:
leather beer jug sealed with tar on the outside

bluecoat:
serving-man

bodies (a pair of):
bodice

brabble:
quarrel, wrangle, noisy altercation

breechclout:
cloth worn by American Indians about their waist

bridale:
wedding feast

broadcloth:
fine, wide, black plaincloth (such as a Puritan might wear)

bruit:
to spread by rumor

buckler:
small round shield

buttery:
larder, service room for ale and general food stores

caliver:
light musket fired without a rest

callet:
whore or lewd woman

canary:
light, sweet wine from the Canary Islands

careen:
to turn a ship on its side to scrape its hull of weed and barnacles, and caulk

carrack:
large merchant ship that could be converted into a warship. Three-master, square-rigged with high castles, fore and stern.

catchpole:
arresting officer, a sheriff’s sergeant

churl:
ill-bred, surly, base fellow; farmworker

coif:
a lawn or silk cap

coining:
forging money

coney, cony:
a dupe

copesmate:
comrade

coter:
author, person responsible for a work

couch a hogshead:
to lie down to sleep