The Tudor Secret Part 26

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? 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 s.p.a.ces, the gaps where facts contradict each other or are simply not clear.

In The Tudor Secret, 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 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 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. 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, 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. 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 s.p.a.ces 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. 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.

Historical Timeline January 28, 1547 Henry VIII dies; his nine-year-old son succeeds him as Edward VI.

March 1547 Edward Seymour, Lord Protector, a.s.sumes 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 hara.s.sed 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.

June 1553 Edward alters his succession, coerced by Northumberland.

July 1, 1553 Edward VI makes his final public appearance.

July 6, 1553 Edward dies in Greenwich Palace. Soon after, Northumberland issues an arrest order for Mary, who, informed by an anonymous informant of her brother's demise, flees north to garner support.

July 10, 1553 Jane Grey is proclaimed queen of England.

July 19, 1553 Mary gathers an army of nearly twenty thousand and marches on London. She is proclaimed queen by popular acclaim; Jane Grey becomes a prisoner.

An Original Essay by the Author Elizabeth I: An Endless Fascination Elizabeth Tudor, known as Elizabeth I, has exerted an endless fascination over our imaginations, even in looking at her life before she took the throne in 1558. She was the only surviving child of the glamorous, ill-fated Anne Boleyn, whose pa.s.sionate liaison with Henry VIII shattered his twenty-four year marriage to Catherine of Aragon and set off a cataclysmic upheaval that changed England forever. Elizabeth's parents believed that the child Anne carried was the long-awaited prince Henry had been denied; Anne staked her claim, and her unborn child's legitimacy, on the fact that Henry and Catherine's marriage had been incestuous due to Catherine's previous marriage to Henry's deceased brother, Arthur-a marriage which Catherine steadfastly proclaimed had never been consummated. Yet the child Anne bore was not a boy but a girl-a child of controversy, destroyed hopes, and disappointment, of chaos and uncertainty. Elizabeth came into the world with what seemed to be a curse already writ into her fate. Within three years, Henry would send her mother to the sword and remarry four more times; she would gain a younger brother, Edward, as well as an older sister Mary, with whom she would engage in a near-lethal collision of wills; she would face a daunting fight for her life that would test her mettle to its core; and she would, if the legend is true, fall madly, impossibly in love with the one man she would never fully have.

Elizabeth's struggle for survival in one of the most treacherous courts in history and the glorious, often turbulent forty-four year reign that ensued upon her accession have become fodder for our entertainment for centuries. In many ways, this brittle red-haired princess with the enigmatic eyes and spidery fingers-so reminiscent of her mother-personifies our loftiest ideals of emanc.i.p.ation: Elizabeth refused to marry and never bore children (despite numerous rumors to the contrary), sacrificing her body and her heart for her country; she was arguably as alluring as Anne Boleyn yet never fell prey to the pitfalls that Anne paid for in blood; she displayed the fickle, silver-tongued wit that catapulted her mother to fame, coupled with the cruel, sometimes tyrannical temperament that transformed her father into a monstrous figure. Yet unlike Anne, whose tragic destiny overshadows her intense joie de vivre, or Henry, whose golden splendor is muted by the horrors of his later years, we tend to forgive Elizabeth's foibles and her mistakes, indeed even her bloodiest blunders; we forget her carcinogenic eccentricities and look past her capricious excesses, because we recognize in her a n.o.bility of purpose, a single-minded drive to succeed, no matter the odds. We feel that we know her, intimately.

Elizabeth excelled in a time when few women could. Though she owed a debt to those who paved the way before her-such as the formidable Isabella of Castile and the flint-hearted Eleanor of Aquitaine-and she shared her stage with such unforgettable ladies as the embattled Catherine de Medici, queen-mother of France, and her own cousin, the flighty, irresistible Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth transcended even these legends to become a mythical heroine in her own right, a figure apart from the porous mortality of her contemporaries-autonomous, instantly recognizable, inimitable, and uniquely unforgettable.

Recommended Reading

Stephen Budiansky

Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage

Antonia Fraser

The Wives of Henry VIII

Joan Glasheen

The Secret People of the Palaces: The Royal Household from the Plantagenets to Queen Victoria

Alan Haynes

The Elizabethan Secret Services

Eric Ives

Anne Boleyn

Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery

Mary M. Luke

A Crown for Elizabeth

Liza Picard

Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London

Alison Plowden

The House of Tudor

The Young Elizabeth

Chris Skidmore

Edward VI: The Lost King of England