Revenger

had married Leicester knowing that he was still married to Lady Douglass Sheffield. And many believed Leicester had murdered his first wife, Amy Robsart, to enable him to marry Elizabeth and share her throne.

And yes, Arbella did have a tutor called Morley who was sacked by Bess of Hardwick in 1592. Was he spying on Arbella? Historians have speculated that he was a Walsingham intelligencer (some have even suggested he might have been the playwright Christopher Marlowe, who had been a spy). After Walsingham’s death, who controlled this Morley? By 1592, Essex House was quickly becoming one of the main centers of espionage.

In the end, Essex was a weak, contemptible character. He attempted a coup, but he accused others of provoking him to it, turning on Penelope with venom. He had nothing to gain, for he was already under sentence of death, but he wrote a confession in which he laid the blame on her. “I must accuse one who is most nearest to me, my sister, who did continually urge me on with telling how all my friends and followers thought me a coward, and that I had lost all my valor. She must be looked to, for she hath a proud spirit.”

It is easy to see parallels in the story of Macbeth-the proud but flawed soldier urged on to treachery by women. Shakespeare would have known the Essex tale at the time of writing his great tragedy. Penelope as Lady Macbeth? Or the three of them-Penelope, Dorothy, and Lettice-as three witches stirring a cauldron of sedition?

In the event, Penelope (whose bedroom at Essex House was, indeed, draped all in black) was spared-probably because of her relationship with Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who was winning victories in Ireland and was needed by Elizabeth.

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