The Queen's Oranges (Red Ned Tudor Mysteries) Read online

  The Queen's Oranges by Greg and Jocelyn House

  By Gregory and Jocelyn House

  Published by Gregory House at Amazon

  Copyright 2011 Gregory House

  Discover other titles by Gregory House at www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk

  Or his Amazon Author page

  All artwork copyright Alexander House 2011

  Archaeology, Peter Wilkes and other diverse matters blogged at

  http://prognosticationsandpouting.blogspot.com

  Red Ned, the Reluctant Tudor Detective blog at

  http://rednedtudormysteries.blogspot.com/

  Stories in the Red Ned Tudor Mysteries Series

  Amazon UK

  The Liberties of London

  The Queen’s Oranges

  The Cardinal’s Angels

  Amazon US/Australia

  The Liberties of London

  The Queen’s Oranges

  The Cardinal’s Angels

  Soon to be release in the Red Ned Series on Amazon

  The Smithfield Shambles

  The Trade of the Thames

  The King’s Counsel

  The Dark Devices Series- a Tudor Historical Fantasy on Amazon

  Darkness Divined

  Peter Wilks Archaeological Mysteries Series on Amazon

  Terra Australis Templar

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication ma be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (mechanical, photocopying, recording of otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Please respect the author’s rights to this work.

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  Contents

  Contents

  Tudor London

  London to Richmond by the Thames

  Tower of London

  Dramatis Personae

  The Royal Court

  The Enigmatic Sir Thomas More

  Tudor Terms

  Tudor Coinage and values

  Sources

  Acknowledgements

  A Note on Tudor Names and Language for the Revised Edition.

  Prologue. The Goat’s Head Tavern Petty Wales London 4th–5th June 1530

  Chapter 1. Aldgate and the Friar, The Bee Skep Tavern to Aldgate 5th June

  Chapter 2. Surprise at Smart Key Wharf Afternoon 5th June

  Chapter 3. Murder or Heresy? The carrack Ruyter of Bremen Afternoon, 5th June

  Chapter 4. A Humble Petition, Westminster Hall Morning, 6th June

  Chapter 5. An Unwanted Commission. Aldgate Midday, 6th June

  Chapter 6. The Master of Ordinance’s Office, The White Tower, Early Evening, 6th June

  Chapter 7. The Modern Engines of War, Tower Courtyard, Afternoon, 6th June

  Chapter 8. The Trade of London, Smarts Key Wharf, Evening, 6th June

  Chapter 9. The Secrets of Trade, The Ruyter, Evening, 6th June

  Chapter 10. Unwelcome Visitors, The Ruyter, Night time, 6th June

  Chapter 11. Fuer! Fuer! The Ruyter, Night time 6th June

  Chapter 12. A Boating on the River, To Richmond Palace, Morning 7th June

  Chapter 13. The Powder Mill, Hounslow Heath, Afternoon, 7th June

  Chapter 14. Aldgate, Plots and Peril, The Bee Skep Tavern, Evening, 7th June

  Chapter 15. Ambush at Crooked Lane, London, Morning, 8th June

  Chapter 16. A Dangerous Discovery, The Ruyter, Mid morning, 8th June

  Chapter 17. Westminster and Old Friends, Westminster Palace, Afternoon, 8th June

  Chapter 18. The Fruit of a Bitter Basket, To the Bee Skep Tavern, Evening, 8th June

  Chapter 19. Oranges and Arguments, To the Ruyter, Evening to Night, 8th June

  Chapter 20. Powder, Problems and Southwark, Evening to Night, 8th June

  Chapter 21. Dark Thoughts in the Night, The Ruyter, Night time 8th–9th June

  Chapter 22. Dark Deeds in the Day, The Ruyter, Morning 9th June

  Chapter 23. Oranges o’ Oranges! To Milford Lane, Morning, 9th June

  Chapter 24. Priests, Punks and Passages, To Petty Wales, Morning, 9th June

  Chapter 25. A Gentleman’s Agreement, The Ruyter, Afternoon, 9th June

  Chapter 26. A Pair of Punks to Play, The Ruyter, Afternoon to Evening, 9th June

  Chapter 27. Rancour and Revenge, The Ruyter to London Bridge, Evening to Night, 9th June

  Chapter 28. Ministering Angels and Visitations, The Ruyter, Morning, 10th June

  Chapter 29. Perilous Predictions, The Gryne Dragone, Southwark, Midday to afternoon, 10th June

  Chapter 30. Treachery at Tower Wharf, Riverside Night–time, 10th June

  Chapter 31. Turmoil and Affray, The Tower Wharf Riverside, Night–time, 10th June

  Chapter 32. St Katherine’s Bridge, By the Tower, Riverside, Night–time, 10th June

  Chapter 33. To the Tower! The Tower of London, Night–time, 10th June

  Chapter 34. The Lion’s Roar, The Lion Tower, Night–time, 10th June 1

  Chapter 35. The Shipmaster’s Cabin, Again, The Ruyter, Morning, 11th June

  Chapter 36. The Lord Chancellor, Westminster, Morning, 11th June

  Post Script

  Historical Note

  Red Ned Tudor Mysteries- The King’s Counsel

  Cannon sizes and Gonnepowder

  Tudor Barrel sizes and Measures

  Hounslow Heath Powder Mill

  Tudor London

  London to Richmond by the Thames

  Tower of London

  Dramatis Personae

  Edward Bedwell or as he prefers Red Ned—an apprentice lawyer at Greys Inn and apparently a silent partner in a trading vessel.

  Margaret or Meg Black—apprentice apothecary and amateur surgeon and sometime smuggler of illicit literature.

  Robert or Rob Black—older brother of Meg—apprentice artificer desperate to pour some demi cannons.

  Gruesome Roger—retainer to the Black family. Likes to loom menacingly over Ned.

  Mistress Emma Shepherd—attractive alewife and mistress of the Bee Skep tavern. Aldgate cousin of Meg Black.

  Richard Rich—commissioner of Sewers London and uncle of Red Ned. A lawyer climbing the ladder of patronage.

  Benjamin Robinson—clerk of the King’s Ordinance, Tower of London. Missing from the scene.

  Don Juan Sebastian de Alva—a Spanish gentleman involved in many affairs.

  William Skelton—a retainer of Lord Norfolk, a northerner very keen on revenge.

  Dr Lewys Caerleon—a modern physician and astrologer.

  Joachim Schuyer—Shipmaster of the Ruyter of Bremen—unnaturally dead on board a ship.

  Pieter Schuyer—nephew of Joachim—also unnaturally dead.

  Sir Welkin Blackford—Master of Ordinance at the Tower. A king’s officer keen for extra sources of income

  Albrecht Hagen—a Hanse merchant from the Steelyard and Mistress Black’s trading agent. Also dabbles in smuggling

  Canting Michael—a ‘gentleman’ of dubious means.

  Sir Roderick Belsom—Pursuivant of heresy and donations for the Lord Chancellor. Missing a victim.

  Hubrecht & Henryk van de Fonteyne—Doutche or Flemish Gonne experts in service at the Tower.

  John Edwards—much sort after Powder sorter at the Tower.

  Clemmie Watkins—also a much sort after Powder sorter at the Tower.

  The Royal Court

  King Henry VIII—a sovereign in des
perate need of a male heir

  Sir Thomas Howard—Duke of Norfolk, Member of the Privy Council and uncle of Anne Boleyn.

  Katherine of Aragon—Queen of England…for now.

  Lady Anne Boleyn—a Howard niece and supporter of Lutherans who the King wants to marry

  Sir Thomas Boleyn—Earl of Wiltshire, the father of Anne and considered the Lutheran faction leader

  Sir Charles Brandon—Earl of Suffolk, close friend of King Henry and husband to the King’s sister, Mary Tudor.

  Thomas Cromwell—former secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, now serving the King as a Privy Councillor.

  Sir Thomas More—Lord Chancellor of England and pursuer of heretics.

  Elizabeth Stafford—estranged wife of Thomas Howard, sister of the executed Duke of Buckingham and a lover of oranges.

  Eleanor Stafford nee Percy—the widow of the Duke of Buckingham and another orange aficionado.

  Cardinal Thomas Wolsey—disgraced former Lord Chancellor now living in exile from the Royal Court.

  The Enigmatic Sir Thomas More

  And so we come to the enigmatic figure of Sir Thomas More. Since his canonisation in 1935, Samuel Beckett’s play a Man for all Seasons and the later film in the 1960’s, contemporary culture has acquired a very modern image of the Tudor politician and writer that is very difficult to penetrate. There have been a large number of biographies and examinations of his writings, actions and character. One must at all times bear in mind that these are mostly modern interpretations, except for Roper and Harpsfield, who while they were contemporary witnesses to the events, can hardly be called unbiased.

  Now we come to the portrayal in this novel of Sir Thomas More, writer and royal servant. As stated earlier, this is a work of fiction and one of the advantages of using fiction as a medium is the ability to attempt to explore past the two dimensional representations to which most historians are limited. As a writer, you can build a character, interpreted according to hints and evidence found. In many ways we are more readily able build a portrait that may differ from the orthodoxy.

  More was very much a man of his time. He was the consummate Tudor politician, skilled in intrigue, plot and diplomacy, as well as being utterly ruthless in the pursuit of his goals. This more realistic version is often lost or ignored in preference to concentrating on his literary achievements, or his ‘martyrdom’. In a time of great turmoil, religious, political and social, Sir Thomas More seemed to stand on the edge of many of the scandals and crisis that defined the reign of King Henry VIII. It is these hints of deeper involvement that I will be exploring in the next several books. I may add that this view of More does not make him better or worse than Red Ned Bedwell, a fictitious character based on an amalgam of real Tudor personages, but I believe it does make Sir Thomas More both fallible and human.

  Tudor Terms

  Ale house: Lower in social scale and quality than a tavern. Usually a room with a few benches and a brew house out the back. In theory, they had to be licensed. These were considered by the city officials as the breeding ground of mischief and crime.

  Tavern: Equivalent to a modern British Pub or American Bar usually serving reasonable quality food and ale.

  Inn: These establishments were the Sheratons or Hiltons of their age, large buildings with a courtyard and stables used to catering to gentry and nobility.

  Stew: a brothel or a region of disreputable activities

  Cony catching: a common term for any manner of con trick or swindle

  Cozener: swindlers, fraudsters tricksters etc

  Foister: A sometime more aggressive cozener or cozener’s offsider

  Nip: a young boy working with a foister, or cozener

  Punk: a common name for a part time prostitute

  Pursuivant: possibly originally a heraldic term, in the Tudor period it was applied to sniffers out of heresy, spies and investigative agents of the powerful.

  Humours: Tudor medicine believed the human body was made up of four humours and that bleeding or diet could balance the humours according to consultation with an astrological chart, this finally dropped out of favour in the mid 1800’s

  Law Terms: in Medieval and Tudor England the siting of the law courts was by term, Hilary runs from the end of the Christmas festivals to Easter.

  Harquebus: also called a arquebus occasionally a gonne and in a lighter version a caviler a muzzle loading gonne powder musket usually fired by a clamped cord (match) soaked in nitrate to burn slowly. Extremely expensive harquebus could have a wheellock firing mechanism instead.

  Great Gonne: the common name of all larger pieces of gonne powder artillery. The name cannon came later, at this time it refers to only one class of great gonne.

  Brandywine: later shortened to brandy, alcoholic distillation of wine

  Sack: A very popular form of fortified wine similar to sherry sometimes augmented with sugar and brandy for extra taste.

  Rhenish: as the name implies a wine from the Rhine region

  Scarlet cloth: this was the common name of the finest woven woollen cloth used for gowns, kirtles and doublets and does not refer to the colour thus you can have blue scarlet or green scarlet as is described in period documents.

  Justice: the local judge or royal official charged with keeping the peace

  The Common Watch: acted as a police force and occasional fire brigade, and regarded by the Tudor citizens as next to useless and dumber than a bag of hammers.

  Parish Ward Muster: citizen militia of reasonable quality and equipment, usually recruited from the better classes of Londoners.

  Bedlam: the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem a hospice for those found to be decayed in their wits, mad crazed or deluded, hence the phrase as ‘its bedlam’ or as ‘mad as Bedlam’. In the Tudor period the common term of insanity was Bedlamite.

  The Liberties: areas of the city of London and Southwark under the jurisdiction of the church and exempt from interference by city or county officials, usually swarming with punks, cony catchers, thieves, murders and forgers.

  The Low Countries: the region across the Channel now called Netherlands (Holland) and Belgium, inhabitants were called Doutch, Brabanters or Flemings. Due to dynastic complications and the odd inopportune death this region belongs to Emperor Charles V Hapsburg.

  The Hanse: the Hanseatic Trading League which encompassed most of the prominent ports on the Baltic Sea like Bremen and Lubeck

  Wherry: a small boat with one to four rowers used for transport on the Thames, the taxi of its day.

  Manchet loaf: best quality white bread usually for the well off.

  Ravel loaf: Coarser quality bread usually eaten by tradesmen and others.

  Tudor Coinage and values

  During the reign of Henry VIII the value of coins varied wildly since coins were frequently recalled and reissued with a lower precious metal content, to aid the financing of Henry’s expenditure on war and domestic building programs. It got to such a state that the gold sovereign coins stamped with the portrait of the king were nicknamed old copper noses since frequent handling gave them a red gold colour. Rhenish florins, Thalers and Venetian florins were the period’s equivalent of US dollars and accepted all over Europe, and all other coins were evaluated to their standard.

  Farthing—quarter of a penny (0.25d)

  Halfpenny (0.5d)

  1 penny—silver coin

  Half groat—silver coin worth 2 pence

  Groat—silver coin worth 4 pence

  1 shilling—silver coin worth 12d

  1 noble—a gold coin worth 6s 8d. (80p, or 1/3 of a pound)

  1 Angel—a gold coin worth 7 shillings and 6 pence

  1 pound or a sovereign—gold coin worth 20 shillings, i.e. 240 pence

  1 mark was the value of 8 ounces of gold or silver; 123 4d

  Sources

  For more information on gunpowder, Tudor cannon, and shipping, the following books are an invaluable resource.

  “Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe”—B
ert S Hall

  “Gunpowder”—Jack Kelly

  “English Merchant Shipping 1460–1540”—Dorothy Burwash

  The fascinating information on Tudor smuggling and tax evasion was from “Illicit Business: Accounting for Smuggling in Mid sixteenth Century Bristol” by Evan T Jones extract from Economic History Review LIV 1 2001 pp 17–38

  Acknowledgements