The Thorne Maze (31 page)

Hearing someone behind her, she glanced back, but saw no one there. Yet distant lantern light reflected in wet footprints and a trail of dripped water on the floor. Whether they were hers or not, the queen, she thought, must not be ruled by fear, so she just kept going.

Earlier Events in Elizabeth’s Life

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Kat Ashley died the next year, “much lamented.” It was the same year in which Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, wed Mary Queen of Scots. Some scholars have claimed they cannot understand why the wily, brilliant queen miscalculated to allow Darnley to go to Scotland, while publicly promoting Robert Dudley to Mary as her choice for Mary’s husband. I believe Elizabeth Tudor hardly ever miscalculated, though I don’t believe she could have foreseen the catastrophe—in keeping with the times, a violent murder, of course—that resulted.

Mary “Rosie” Radcliffe remained Elizabeth’s loyal companion for forty years, never wedding despite her beauty and popularity. Sir Christopher Hatton also never married, but remained a favorite of the queen, holding many offices until his death in 1591. Hatton, like Robert Dudley, built a grand home to entertain the queen, but none could rival Cecil’s Theobalds, which, unfortunately, does not stand today, though its grounds are a lovely public park.

Elizabeth visited Theobalds on her summer progresses at least twelve times, and Cecil wrote in his usual understated style that the creation of Theobalds was “not without some partial direction from Her Majesty.” Cecil and Mildred’s son Robert inherited both Theobalds and his father’s brilliance to become Elizabeth’s chief advisor in the mature years of her reign.

Robert Cecil also served Elizabeth’s successor, King James I (the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Darnley) who fell in love with beautiful Theobalds. Robert Cecil agreed to trade King James Theobalds for Hatfield House; Theobalds Palace became a favorite royal home where the king died in 1625. Although many Elizabethan houses boasted fine mazes, the one at Theobalds was unique. A visitor to the grounds the year of Cecil’s death wrote of “the pleasure of going in a boat and rowing between the shrubs.”

I have always found mazes fascinating and have been lost twice in the current one at Hampton Court, planted for William of Orange and Queen Mary Stuart nearly a century after Elizabeth’s death. The Tudor maze was probably on a different site from the trapezoidal one that can be visited today.

Excellent books on British mazes include
Labyrinth: Solving the Riddle of the Maze and The British Maze Guide,
both by Adrian Fisher.
Mazes and Labyrinths: Their History and Development
by W H. Matthews is also fascinating. Mazes and knot gardens are making a comeback today in gardening and religion as is highlighted in many current periodicals, including “A-maze-ing labyrinths wind up in backyards: Ancient tradition can be a modern refuge,” by Shawn Sell in
USA Today,
October 12, 2001.

Although it seems in the story that both the rural authorities slighted the murder investigations of Templar’s and Bettina’s deaths, such practice is authentic for those times, in major cities as well as the countryside. Autopsies were not yet permitted. The innocent or guilty verdict was based on “common knowledge” (what people saw), not on what we would call proof or evidence. If a murder case did go to trial, it was over in a matter of minutes and, though juries decided the outcome, little defense was offered. Our justice system may be based on English common law, but we have come a long way since.

As for other points of interest in Tudor life, it is not true that Queen Elizabeth took a bath “at least once a month whether she needed it or not.” In the Tudor palace of Whitehall, Elizabeth’s father had ordered built a sunken tub in a small, windowless room with a heated tile stove; this early “Turkish bath” was excavated in 1939. Elizabeth bathed often and had a keen sense of smell—perhaps not a boon in those times.

According to authorities today, Queen Catherine Howard’s ghost does haunt Hampton Court. Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire were allowed to spend ten days in the palace, seeking evidence for reported murmurs, patches of cold air, and the sound of footsteps to track her presence in the “Haunted Gallery.” The “wet woman” at Theobalds manorhouse is based upon the dripping female ghost at Scotney Castle in Kent.

At Windsor Castle, the ghost of Elizabeth herself has supposedly been seen, once by the current Queen Elizabeth’s sister, the Princess Margaret. The sight of the Virgin Queen is often accompanied by the smell of rosewater, one of her favorite fragrances. Princess Margaret said she followed the queen’s ghost to the door of the library, where she disappeared. (After all, no self-respecting manor or castle in the British Isles should be without its own ghost.)

And lastly, the clove-scented gillyflowers are our modern-day pinks, related to carnations. The word
pink
is of later origin than the Tudor era; they were probably eventually called pinks for their ragged or pinked edges. Although the origin of the word
pink
is unknown, it could have come from the pale, rose-hued gillyflowers.

One thing I did change to suit the story is that, unlike William Cecil, Christopher Hatton attended not Gray’s Inn but Inner Temple, where Elizabeth saw him and brought him to court.

How “Rosie” Radcliffe came to court as a Yuletide gift to the queen and the customs and foods of the Tudor holiday season—as well as a mysterious murder during the traditional Yuletide hanging of ivy, mistletoe, and holly—will occupy Her Majesty in the next Elizabeth I Mystery:
The Queene’s Christmas
.

Karen Harper
December 2001

THE THORNE MAZE

Copyright © 2003 by Karen Harper. 

Excerpt from The Queene’s Christmas © 2003 by Karen Harper.

All rights reserved.

For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Cover photograph of the Old Palace © Hatfield House, Hertfordshire,
UK / Bridgeman Art Library.

Image of Queen Elizabeth I, by Nicholas Hillard © Fitzwilliam
Museum, University of Cambridge, UK / Bridgeman Art Library.

Photograph of maze © Romilly Lockyer / Getty Images.

 
eISBN: 978-1429905206

First eBook Edition : May 2011

EAN: 80312-99349-8

St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition / February 2003
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