The Ringed Castle (93 page)

It was proper that he should be prevented from going to Russia. It was proper that the means used should be those which offered least hurt, in a situation where hurt was implicit. But standing there, steadfast in the small boat, rising and falling in the wake of that high, bannered stern, its sails, flower on flower, moving incandescent towards the dawn sun Philippa wept, her eyes on the brightening sky, for the vision which was not hers, and which was over.

*

On July 5th, 1557, Philip, by the grace of God King of England, left that country, never to return. After he had gone the Queen, believing herself pregnant, made her last will.

Since it has pleased His Divine Majesty, far above my merits, to show me so great favour in this world and to appoint me so noble, virtuous and worthy a Prince to be my husband as my said most dear and entirely beloved husband the King’s Majesty is, whose endeavour, care and study hath been and chiefly is, to reduce this realm to the unity of Christ’s Church and true religion …

Forasmuch as I have no legacy or jewel that I covet more to leave to his Majesty to requite the nobility of his heart towards me and this realm, nor he more desirous to have, than the love of my subjects, I do specially recommend the same duty and love unto his Highness, as a legacy the which I trust he shall enjoy
.

*

On July 12th, 1557, the four ships bound for Muscovy, sailing, passing and travailing together in one flote, ging and conserve of society, to
be kept indissolubly and not to be severed, entered and dropped anchor in the road of St Nicholas, with their twenty-five fardels of sorting cloths, their cottons, their kerseys and the nine barrels which were not of pewter, of Thomas Hasel’s making.

Their letters recommended one Anthony Jenkinson, gentleman: a man well travelled, and commissioned to travel farther. Their passengers included, in good health, Osep Grigorievich Nepeja, the first Muscovite Envoy to England.

And in Muscovy the Tsar Ivan waited; and the woman Güzel waited; and then did not wait any more.

There is no land uninhabitable or sea unnavigable
.

They made the whole world to hang in the air
.

Reader’s Guide

1. For discussion of
The Ringed Castle

In
The Ringed Castle
Lymond assembles a group of Western military and civil experts to help him build a new Russia. Why does he also want to build a new life and career for himself so far from his home? Despite his growing power and the genuine good he is doing in Russia, why do his friends believe he is “destroying himself” there?

2. The novel features extensive portraits of two of the most famous, or infamous, monarchs in history, “Bloody” Mary Tudor, and Ivan the Terrible. In what ways are these monarchs good or bad for their nations? In what ways do the monarchies to which they were born shape and even damage them as people?

3. A central and fascinatingly real character in this novel is the English navigator Richard Chancellor. How does he reflect his times? What is his role in the novel with regard to the relationships between Lymond and Philippa and between Lymond and his brother? The time and manner of Chancellor’s death are historical fact, but why, from the standpoint of the development of plot and character, must he die?

Dorothy Dunnett was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. She is the author of the Francis Crawford of Lymond novels; the House of Niccolò novels; seven mysteries;
King Hereafter
, an epic novel about Macbeth; and the text of
The Scottish Highlands
, a book of photographs by David Paterson, on which she collaborated with her husband, Sir Alastair Dunnett. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth appointed her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Lady Dunnett died in 2001.

Books by Dorothy Dunnett

THE LYMOND CHRONICLES

The Game of Kings
Queens’ Play
The Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Frankincense
The Ringed Castle
Checkmate

King Hereafter

The Photogenic Soprano
(
Dolly and the Singing Bird
)
Murder in the Round
(
Dolly and the Cookie Bird
)
Match for a Murderer
(
Dolly and the Doctor Bird)
Murder in Focus
(
Dolly and the Starry Bird
)
Dolly and the Nanny Bird
Dolly and the Bird of Paradise
Send a Fax to the Kasbah
(
Moroccan Traffic
)

THE HOUSE OF NICCOLÒ
Niccolò Rising
The Spring of the Ram
Race of Scorpions
Scales of Gold
The Unicorn Hunt
To Lie with Lions
Caprice and Rondo
Gemini

The Scottish Highlands
(with Alastair Dunnett)
The Dorothy Dunnett Companion Volume I
(by Elspeth Morrison)
The Dorothy Dunnett Companion Volume II
(by Elspeth Morrison)

“The finest living writer of historical fiction.”
—The Washington Post Book World

THE GAME OF KINGS

Dorothy Dunnett introduces her irresistible hero Francis Crawford of Lymond, a nobleman of elastic morals and dangerous talents whose tongue is as sharp as his rapier. In 1547 Lymond returns to defend his native Scotland from the English, despite accusations of treason against him. Hunted by friend and enemy alike, he leads a company of outlaws in a desperate race to redeem his reputation.

Fiction/978-0-679-77743-4

QUEENS’ PLAY

Once an accused traitor, now a valued agent of Scottish diplomacy, Lymond is sent to France, where a very young Queen Mary Stuart is sorely in need of his protection. Disguised as a disreputable Irish scholar, Lymond insinuates himself into the glittering labyrinth of the French court, where every courtier is a conspirator and the art of assassination is paramount.

Fiction/978-0-679-77744-1

THE DISORDERLY KNIGHTS

Through machinations in England and abroad, Lymond is dispatched to Malta, to assist the Knights Hospitallers in the island’s defense against Turkish corsairs. But he shortly discovers that the greatest threat to the knights lies within their own ranks. In a narrative that sweeps from the besieged fortress of Tripoli to the steps of Edinburgh’s St. Giles Cathedral, Lymond matches wits and swords against an elusive villain.

Fiction/978-0-679-77745-8

PAWN IN FRANKINCENSE

Lymond cuts a desperate path across the Ottoman empire of Suleiman the Magnificent in search of a kidnapped child, an effort that may place this adventurer in the power of his enemies. What ensues is a subtle and savage chess game whose gambits include treachery, enslavement, and torture and whose final move compels Lymond to face the darkest ambiguities of his own nature.

Fiction/978-0-679-77746-5

THE RINGED CASTLE

Between Mary Tudor’s England and the Russia of Ivan the Terrible lies a vast distance indeed, but forces within the Tudor court impel Lymond to Muscovy, where he becomes advisor and general to the half-mad tsar. In this barbaric land, Lymond finds his gifts for intrigue and survival tested to the breaking point, yet these dangers are nothing beside those of England, where Lymond’s oldest enemies are conspiring against him.

Fiction/978-0-679-77747-2

CHECKMATE

Francis Crawford returns to France to lead an army against England. But even as the soldier-scholar succeeds brilliantly on the battlefield, his haunted past becomes a subject of intense interest to forces in both the French and English courts. For whoever knows the secret of Lymond’s parentage possesses the power to control him—or destroy him.

Fiction/978-0-679-77748-9

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