Read The Twylight Tower Online
Authors: Karen Harper
“An exciting mystery … What makes
The Twylight Tower
comparable to the fine works of Alison Weir is the strong riting of the author, interweaving historical tidbits into a owerful story line.”
—T
HE
M
IDWEST
B
OOK
R
EVIEW
“Harper has a fine touch.… Both her fictional and historical characters breathe and provide the reader with spirited entertainment. So do her plots, perhaps as complicated as the real life of Elizabeth’s court. Join the Queen’s Privy Plot Council and sleuth along with the best.”
— M
YSTERY
N
EWS
“Harper’s Elizabeth is a brilliant and willful young woman.… Conspiracies and lies take the story through twists and turns.…”
—B
OOKLIST
THE POYSON GARDEN
“An entertaining cross between a swashbuckling historical omance and a mystery novel. The heroine is spunky, the ourtiers scheme and truckle, capes swirl, daggers flash, and horses gallop.”
—P
ORTLAND
O
REGONIAN
“Poison, double-cross, betrayal, sibling rivalry, and a mass murder plan are believably made the stuff of Elizabethan times. Harper delivers a detailed look at the era and the people.”
—F
ORT
L
AUDERDALE
S
UN
-S
ENTINAL
“Impressively researched … the author has her poisons and her historical details down pat.”
—L
OS
A
NGELES
T
IMES
THE TIDAL POOLE
“Harper’s facility with historical figures such as William Cecil, Robert Dudley, and the treacherous Duchess of Suffolk is extraordinary.”
—L
OS
A
NGELES
T
IMES
“A nice mix of historical and fictional characters, deft twists and a plucky, engaging young heroine enhance this welcome sequel to
The Poyson Garden.”
—P
UBLISHERS
W
EEKLY
“Peopled with historical figures and bounding with intrigue and mystery,
The Tidal Poole
is a triumphant read. Harper does a masterful job at re-creating the era, and her portrait of the young queen is brilliant. The intricate plot will immediately carry readers away to Elizabethan times.”
—R
OMANTIC
T
IMES
“Harper delivers high drama and deadly intrigue.… [She] masterfully captures the Elizabethan tone in both language and setting and gives life to fascinating historical figures.… Elizabethan history has never been this appealing.”
—N
EWSDAY
“Rollicking good action, wicked doings, and lively characters.”
—C
OLORADO
S
PRINGS
G
AZETTE
Also by Karen Harper
THE POYSON GARDEN
THE TIDAL POOLE
THE QUEENE’S CURE
Published by
Dell Publishing
a division of
Random House, Inc.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2001 by Karen Harper
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address:
Delacorte Press, New York, N.Y.
Dell
®
and its colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-064470
eISBN: 978-0-307-77959-5
Reprinted by arrangement with Delacorte Press
v3.1
For Sharon and Nancy,
who shared a lovely trip to
England with us.
Also my gratitude to
my far-flung sister Elizabethan experts
and fellow Anglophiles:
Susan Watkins, who first suggested Dr. John Dee
as a fascinating character. Susan’s
THE PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE WORLDS OF ELIZABETH I
has helped me set many a scene.
to author Eloisa James for pointing
me toward and lending me
THE ARUNDEL
HARINGTON POETRY
manuscripts.
to author and researcher Dorothy Auchter.
Best wishes for his continued stellar career
to my former British literature student, and the
world’s best living lutenist, Paul O’Dette.
And, as ever, to Don,
for living so many years with a wife who spends
much of her time in the 1500s.
1533 | | Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn, January 25. Elizabeth born September 7. |
1536 | | Anne Boleyn executed. Elizabeth disinherited from crown. Henry weds Jane Seymour. |
1537 | | Prince Edward born. Queen Jane dies of childbed fever. |
1543 | | Henry VIII weds sixth wife, Katherine Parr, who brings Elizabeth to court. |
1544 | | Act of succession and Henry VIII’s will establish Mary and Elizabeth in line of succession. |
1547 | | Henry VIII dies. Edward VI crowned; Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, his uncle, becomes his protector. Thomas Seymour, King Edward’s younger uncle, weds Henry’s widow, Queen Dowager Katherine Parr, in secret. John Harington enters Thomas Seymour’s service. Seymour tries to seduce Elizabeth in Parr’s household; Elizabeth is sent away. |
1548 | | Katherine Parr dies in childbirth. Thomas Seymour tries to court Elizabeth and Jane Grey; fails in attempt to gain control of King Edward. |
1549 | | Thomas Seymour arrested for treason. John Harington accompanies Seymour to Tower. Elizabeth denies complicity in Seymour plot. Thomas Seymour beheaded; Harington released. Edward Seymour ousted from power as Lord Protector by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, father of Robert Dudley. |
1550 | | Robert Dudley, age seventeen, weds Amy Robsart. |
1552 | | Edward Seymour executed. |
1553 | | Lady Jane Grey forced to wed Guildford Dudley. King Edward dies. Mary Tudor overthrows Northumberland’s attempt to put Protestant “Queen” Jane Grey and her husband, Guildford Dudley, Northumberland’s son, on the throne. Robert Dudley sent to Tower for his part in rebellion. Queen Mary I crowned. Northumberland executed. Queen Mary weds Prince Philip of Spain by proxy; he arrives in England in 1554. Queen Mary begins to force England back to Catholicism. |
1554 | | John Harington weds Elizabeth’s friend Lady Isabella Markham. Protestant Wyatt Rebellion fails, but Elizabeth implicated. Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley, and Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk (“Queen” Jane’s father) beheaded. Elizabeth sent to Tower for two months, accompanied by Kat Ashley, John and Isabella Harington. |
1555- | | Elizabeth lives mostly in |
1558 | | rural exile as queen sickens. |
1558 | | Mary dies; Elizabeth succeeds to throne, November 17. Elizabeth appoints William Cecil Secretary of State. Robert Dudley made Master of the Queen’s Horse. |
1559 | | Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey, January 15. Parliament urges the queen to marry; she resists, February 4. Bishop Alvaro de Quadra becomes Spanish ambassador in England, May. Mary Queen of Scots becomes Queen of France at accession of her young husband, Francis II, July. |
1560 | | English army defeats the French in Scotland, January. Cecil achieves Treaty of Edinburgh in Scotland to get France out of Scotland and make Scotland a Protestant nation, July. |
1561 | | Now widowed and not permitted to pass through English territory, Mary Queen of Scots returns to Scotland, August 19. |