The Tudor Secret (26 page)

Jaunting at her side, Peregrine was another boy altogether, scrubbed to shiny perfection, his lithe form in a suit of jade velvet that matched the hue of his eyes. His smile looked to split his face in two when Elizabeth ordered him to beat time on one of her books: “Slowly, as if it were a kettledrum or the hindquarters of an ill-tempered steed. And Kate, play that pavane we learned together last week—the French one, with the long measure.”

Strumming the corresponding chords, Kate gave me a mischievous smile.

With a look that warned I would take my sweet revenge later, I surrendered to Elizabeth as she took me by the hand and led me into the dance.

It is important to note that this is a work of fiction. It takes as its premise: What if? and interweaves fact and fiction, rumor, deduction, and imagination to tell a story. While I’ve strived to remain true to the historical period and limit conjecture to a circumscribed realm of possibilities, I have made certain adjustments to create my narrative.

The most obvious, of course, is that history makes no mention of Elizabeth Tudor visiting the court during the days leading up to Edward VI’s demise. There is also no definitive proof that the young king was poisoned to extend his life. Nevertheless, the historical events I describe surrounding the nine-day reign of Jane Grey and Northumberland’s fall are true. The duke did in fact seek to supplant Mary Tudor with his new daughter-in-law, and his army did desert him in favor of Mary. Likewise, Robert Dudley was sent after the embattled Mary to capture her; had he succeeded, there is little doubt that Elizabeth’s arrest would have followed.

Kate Stafford, Peregrine, Archie Shelton, and Mistress Alice are fictional characters based on servants from the Tudor era.

Mary of Suffolk, Henry VIII’s younger sister, did in fact oppose her brother’s break with Rome and his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Mary refused to acknowledge Anne as queen and stayed far from court in the months before her death. Nevertheless, the supposition that Mary hid a pregnancy is fictional, as is Brendan Prescott—though the idea of a secret Tudor does fascinate.

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Because writing by its nature is a solitary obsession and by profession a creative collaboration, I owe a debt of immense gratitude to my agent, Jennifer Weltz, who has championed my work with boundless enthusiasm. She and her colleagues at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency are my touchstones in an often unpredictable business. My editor, Charles Spicer, has been a longtime supporter of my writing, and I’m privileged to be working with him and his assistant editor, Allison Caplin, as well as my copy editor, Kate Davis. Everyone on the publishing team at St. Martin’s Press, from publicity to marketing to creative, are phenomenal, and I thank them for giving this book their all.

On a personal level, my partner has stood by me with humor and sagacity as I struggled to make the transition from unpublished writer to author. I must also thank our beloved corgi, Paris, for showing me every day how to live with joy. My brother and his wife provided early feedback. My friend Linda read the manuscript several times. Fellow aficionado Paula jammed with me for inspiration. The two Jeans—Billy and LuAnn—and Jack of the Sunset Writers Group gave me laughter and encouragement. Sarah Johnson of the Historical Novel Society is a special friend, indeed, both for her tireless support of the genre and support of this book in its previous incarnations. My dog-walking friends in McLaren Park kept me humble, and my late friend Marie H., with whom I took long walks while this book was written, provided me with tea and wisdom. I miss her and remember her often.

I also must thank all the bookstores, sales reps, fellow writers, and the many bloggers who continue to champion the importance of books in our increasingly frenetic culture.

I wish to thank my mother, who gave me my first historical novel and ignited a spark in me that has never faded, and my father, who encouraged me to write. Though he did not live long enough to see my books published, he would have been proud.

Last, but never least, I thank you, my reader, because without you, books only exist as pages between covers. Your eyes bring my words to life. I am humbled to be one of your storytellers and sincerely hope to entertain you for many years to come.

For more information about my work, including scheduling book-group chats and features on my upcoming novels, please visit me at www.cwgortner.com.

Tell us about your background and how you decided to become a writer.

I grew up in southern Spain; my mother is Spanish and my father was American. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by history. A ruined summer castle that once belonged to Isabella and Ferdinand was a stone’s throw from where I lived; I was raised not only reading history but seeing it all around me. My mother tells me that I was always writing stories in my notebooks and illustrating them; indeed, even while pursuing other careers, I kept writing. I began to seriously contemplate becoming a published novelist in my mid-twenties. It took almost another twenty years before that actually happened!

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Too many to cite here; I have wide-ranging and eclectic taste. Growing up, I was influenced by classic writers in the genre—Alexandre Dumas, Rafael Sabatini, Daphne du Maurier, Jean Plaidy, and Margaret Campbell Barnes, among others. Ms. du Maurier in particular was so skilled in her ability to transcend barriers; she proved as easily at home with epic historical tales such as The Glass-Blowers as with psychological suspense, like my favorite of hers, My Cousin Rachel, or her international bestseller, Rebecca. Today, there are many wonderful historical fiction writers who acknowledge their debt to our past writers, while forging new ground. Historical fiction is more popular than ever, mainly because so many gifted writers have chosen to work in the genre.

Are there any historical figures you feel a particular affinity toward?

I hold a lifelong love for Anne Boleyn, and hold great affection for her daughter, Elizabeth. I’m also rather fond of the historical women I’ve written about in my previous novels, the courageous Juana of Castile and the formidable Catherine de Medici. The Tudor court, however, is an especially interesting and dynamic place to explore, in that within a relatively short span of time so much happened politically and socially. The drama, intrigue, and tumult of the Tudors have, for good reason, captured generation after generation of readers; it seems there’s always something new to discover about them.

What was the inspiration for
The Tudor Secret
and its hero, Brendan Prescott?

Years ago, I read a fascinating book titled The Elizabethan Secret Services by Alan Haynes. I had known through my other readings that William Cecil and Francis Walsingham developed one of the most sophisticated systems of intelligence in the world on behalf of the embattled queen, who faced enemies both in England and abroad for much of her long reign. But I’d never really stopped to consider the details, such as what the nascent seed of that service might have looked like before Elizabeth took the throne or how an innately skilled but otherwise common person such as Brendan Prescott might have ended up working for her. I thought to myself, Hmm. This has promise. Within a few days, after a conversation with a friend who’s also a Tudor aficionado, I began to draft the outline for the novel you’ve just read, featuring a spy who becomes the secret confidant and protector of Elizabeth, rousing the enmity of her lover, Robert Dudley, even as the spy uncovers the key to his past—a key that threatens the kingdom’s future.

Do you adhere to historical fact in your novels or do you take liberties if the story can benefit from the change? To what extent did you stick to facts in writing
The Tudor Secret?

While I believe historical novelists should adhere to historical facts whenever possible, even as we spin a tale that is by and large a fictional re-creation of past events, history can be complicated and even inconvenient, particularly for the novelist. We often walk a delicate line in balancing the factual requisites of our story with the obligation to entertain our reader. It’s not an easy feat, by any means. Nonfiction writers have the luxury of saying: “This and that happened, but we don’t know why or how,” but the fiction writer must make a determination. It should be an informed one, naturally, but still conclusions must be drawn. This is where historical fiction is so interesting to work in and why I think some nonfiction historians are drawn to it themselves: You paint in the empty spaces, the gaps where facts contradict each other or are simply not clear.

In The Tudor Secret, I weave three separate threads into the plotline: The first thread involves the events surrounding the demise of Edward VI in July 1553 and the Duke of Northumberland’s plot to raise Jane Grey to the throne. I have not so much altered the facts in this case as reexamined them from another perspective, conjecturing what Northumberland’s ultimate goal may have been. In the second thread, I deviate from the facts in that I speculate what may have occurred had Elizabeth decided to follow in her sister Mary’s footsteps and visit the court during those tension-filled days leading to Edward’s death. Historical accounts tell us that the princess in fact did not go to court, that she remained in Hatfield; however, it is not outside the realm of possibility that she undertook a secret trip, and that is my premise. I do not alter what is known about Elizabeth’s character or motivation. In the third thread, I create a purely fictional plotline that intersects with the above, involving Brendan, who is brought to court to serve Robert Dudley and is thrust into the drama surrounding the princess. While nothing in The Tudor Secret contradicts the known facts of what happened in the summer of 1553, I do mix things up and seek to reveal what might have been transpiring behind the scenes. This is, after all, a book about secrets—the secrets we carry; the secrets we use as weapons; the secrets we use to seek truth.

In your research, what was the most interesting/surprising/shocking thing you learned?

I was actually surprised to discover how truly ruthless people at court were. We tend to see the court as a glamorous place of gorgeous costumes, minstrels, and rumors—and it was. But there was a much darker and more lethal side to it; proximity to the monarch promised riches or ruin, and fortunes rose and fell on a whim. Success was most often determined by how far you were willing to go to win, and at court people went very far, indeed.

Take, for example, Robert Dudley. I’d always seen him as a romantic figure—the forlorn and long-suffering suitor for a fickle Elizabeth’s hand. After all, she was a survivor, scarred by the past; she cannot have been easy to love. However, as I researched Robert’s youth and his actions in the days I describe in The Tudor Secret, I began to see a less sympathetic edge to him, one of callous disregard, of determination and ambition that mirrored his father. I think he learned the hard way that he had to bend his pride but I also think he’s more complex than he’s been popularly seen. To me, that makes him more interesting and fun to write. Likewise, William Cecil emerged as a much tougher character; he was not so much the benevolent paternal figure who guided Elizabeth to glory as a manipulative genius. But all this is what makes researching and writing historical fiction so engaging; you begin with an idea that sparks your imagination, you plunge into research, and that idea is transformed as if by alchemy into something entirely new and unforeseen.

Why do you think readers are so drawn to historical fiction?

I believe historical fiction helps us fill in spaces in history—we can know the facts by heart but what we crave is to experience the emotion, the inner lives, to share the trajectories and worlds of these people we feel so connected to. I write historical fiction because for me, it offers the ideal medium for bringing these long-gone people into our present, in a way that is immediate, visceral, and relevant. While they of course reflect the imaginary constraints and preferences of the author, that in and of itself makes the genre exciting. My vision of Elizabeth may differ wildly from another novelist’s; in this way the past remains alive, constantly reexamined and reinvented.

Are you currently working on another book? If so, what—or who—is your subject?

The Tudor Secret is the first in a series about the rise of Brendan Prescott as a secret spymaster for Elizabeth I. I’m currently working on the second book in the series, in which Brendan is drawn back to his guise as a spy, this time in the court of Mary I.

Do you have a Web site or blog where readers can find out more about you?

Readers can always visit me at www.cwgortner.com and at historicalboys.blogspot.com. I enjoy talking to book groups and can easily chat with groups via speaker phone or Skype; to schedule a time with me, just visit the Book Groups link on my Web site.

January 28, 1547

Henry VIII dies; his nine-year-old son succeeds him as Edward VI.

March 1547

Edward Seymour, Lord Protector, assumes power.

Summer 1548

Catherine Parr discovers Elizabeth’s dalliance with her husband, Thomas Seymour; Elizabeth is sent away to Hatfield.

March 20, 1549

Thomas Seymour is beheaded for treason.

January 1552

Edward Seymour is executed; John Dudley, later Duke of Northumberland, seizes power.

1552

Edward VI approves the Second Act of Uniformity; Princess Mary is harassed for her adherence to Catholicism by Dudley.

January 1553

Edward VI falls gravely ill; rumors sweep the court that he is dying.

February 1553

Princess Mary visits Edward; their reunion is antagonistic because of Mary’s resolve to remain Catholic.

May 1533

Guilford Dudley, youngest son of Northumberland, marries Jane Grey.