Innocent Traitor (65 page)
The two women are now beginning to unlace the girl’s outer gown. I step forward and ask if she needs any help with undressing.
“No, sir.” Her voice is surprisingly steady. “I desire you to let me alone for now.” And she stands there while they take off the gown, and the hood, and the veil. When she’s left in her kirtle and bodice, she starts shivering, poor kid. It won’t be for long, though: soon, she’ll be past feeling the cold.
One of the women steps forward with a kerchief to bind round the Lady Jane’s eyes. They throw their arms around each other and the woman starts kissing her and sobbing. If she goes on like this, we’ll have to prize the girl away. But no. The Lady Jane gives her a last kiss and steps back. This is too much for the poor woman, who has to turn her back to hide her distress.
Scaffold procedure requires me, at this point, to kneel down before the prisoner and ask her forgiveness for what I am dutybound to do.
“I give it most willingly,” the Lady Jane tells me, and hands me a purse that the Lieutenant gave her containing part of my fee. The other part is my usual perquisite, the prisoner’s clothing. It’s a good gown, the one she took off, and will fetch a fair bit of money, like the kirtle she’s wearing. When everyone’s gone, we’ll strip it off her.
My assistant, young Will, has been standing in front of the block, which his long apron has hidden from the prisoner’s view. He always does this, as we’ve found that the sight of it often makes the condemned more jittery. But now it’s time for the lad to stand aside. The block is low, only ten inches high, and it has a scooped-out hollow for the chin. The girl stares at it.
“Please to stand there on the straw, my lady.” I point to the space in front of the block. The Lady Jane steps into position and kneels at my nod. She’s shaking uncontrollably, poor little soul, and I think to myself, dear God, are we all to be accomplices in butchering a child? Christ, I’m not comfortable with this. But where’s the choice? What can I do about it? I’m not the one who makes the decisions. I’ve just got a job to do and a reputation to maintain.
“I pray you dispatch me quickly,” the girl says fearfully in a low voice. “Will you take it off before I lay me down?”
“No, madam. When you are ready, stretch out your arms.”
It’s time. The people watching fall to their knees on the grass, out of respect for the passing of a soul. For a long moment the Lady Jane looks her last on the world, then takes the kerchief from her attendant, who has stopped crying now, and ties it round her eyes. Thus blindfolded, she holds out her hands to grasp the block.
She’s too far away from it. She’s groping wildly.
“Where is it? Where is it? What shall I do?” she cries, panicking. The poor child is leaning forward, flailing her arms in desperation. “What shall I do?” she sobs. “Where is it?”
I move forward quickly, but the priest is there before me. He takes her hands and gently guides them to the block. Breathing heavily, she lays herself down as best she can, pressing her chin into the rough wood and arching her shoulders to support herself.
Sir John gives me the nod. I am startled by the pain in his eyes—I’ve never seen him looking like that. Then he stares straight ahead.
The Lady Jane is lying there, finishing her prayers. She ends, like many do, with the words that Jesus spoke on the cross.
“Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!” she cries, and stretches out her arms.
I raise the great ax and bring it down swiftly, slicing expertly and cleanly through flesh, bone, and artery; the slender body jerks violently, and the little head drops like a stone in the straw, which is soon soaked crimson by the torrent of blood spouting from the severed neck. Even I, with all my experience, have never seen so much blood at a beheading.
Now I’ve one more thing to do before we strip and chest the corpse and clear up. I bend down, then brandish my trophy aloft.
“So perish all the Queen’s enemies!” I cry. “Behold the head of a traitor!”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This novel has been based on a true story. Lady Jane Grey is an intriguing and tragic figure, and readers of my historical works will know that I have already written about her in two previous books: her childhood is documented in
The Six Wives of Henry VIII,
and her nine-day reign—the shortest in English history—in its horrific sequel,
Children of England.
Most of the characters in this novel really existed, and most of the events actually happened. However, where the evidence is scanty or missing, I have used my imagination. For example, we do not know the identity of the female quack who was called in by Northumberland to administer arsenic to Edward VI, but I have spun a tale around her. There is no evidence that Jane witnessed the burning of Anne Askew in 1546, but I have used it as the catalyst for her conversion to the Protestant faith.
Some parts of the book may seem far-fetched: they are the parts most likely to be based on fact, such as the discovery, by one of Katherine Parr’s ladies, of the death warrant that had been dropped in a corridor. This story is related by John Foxe in his
Book of Martyrs,
and most historians now accept it as the truth. However, there is no historical evidence that it was Jane who found the warrant, although she was in Katherine Parr’s household at the time. And my account of the fate of Edward VI’s body is not as incredible as it sounds, for what happened to that body is described in a letter written by the Earl of Warwick, Northumberland’s son.
Above all, I have tried to penetrate the minds of my characters, which is something that serious historians attempt only at their peril. Writing this book has therefore been something of a venture into the realms of psychology, as well as a foray into the past, because history does not often record people’s motives, emotions, and reactions, and I have had to make some educated—and occasionally wild—guesses, to ensure that they sound credible within the context of the known facts.
After having published ten historical nonfiction books, writing this novel filled me with a heady sense of freedom. No longer was I focusing only on the available source material and the strict disciplines of historical interpretation, but I could allow my imagination free rein. It has been wonderful to be this creative, and even provocative, while at the same time striving for historical accuracy.
Lady Jane Grey’s story is compelling and shocking. Although she was the product of her age and its prejudices against women, within the constraints of her time she remained true to herself and her ideals and beliefs. Precocious, highly gifted, and intelligent, she was educated to an unusually advanced standard for a girl and realized that there was more to a woman’s life than just marrying, having children, and running a household. Never one to compromise, she was outspoken, feisty, and unafraid to challenge the received wisdom of her day. In these respects, she could be considered a modern heroine. In telling her story, I have used as many of her own words as possible, although in places these have been slightly modernized so as not to appear incongruous in a twenty-first-century text.
The Tudor period continues to exert a perennial fascination over the imagination of vast numbers of people, and this novel deals with one of its most dramatic episodes. It is my sincere hope that the story that has unfolded in these pages has both enthralled and appalled you, the reader.
About the Author
A
LISON
W
EIR
was born in London, England, and educated at the City of London School and the North Western Polytechnic (Department of Teaching Studies), where history was her main subject. But her passionate interest in history had arisen some years earlier, when after reading her first adult historical novel at the age of fourteen she took up genealogy and history as hobbies. After some years of employment in the Civil Service (including a spell working on the in-house magazine of the Cabinet Office in Whitehall), Alison published her first book,
Britain’s Royal Families,
in 1989, and has since written nine other historical works, among them
The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth the Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII: King and Court,
and
The Princess in the Tower,
as well as her first novel,
Innocent Traitor,
about Lady Jane Grey. She currently has three more books in preparation. From 1991 to 1997, she ran her own school for children with special needs. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, and is married with two adult children. She lives in Surrey, England, and her hobbies and interests include genealogy, art, foreign travel, rock music, reading, films, poetry, and eating out.
Also by Alison Weir
Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
The Princes in the Tower
Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses
Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII 1547–1558
Elizabeth the Queen
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Henry VIII: King and Court
Mary, Queen of Scots,and the Murder of Lord Darnley
Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England
Innocent Traitor
is a work of historical fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2006 by Alison Weir
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
B
ALLANTINE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in slightly different form by Hutchinson, a division of The Random House Group Limited, London, in 2006.
eISBN: 978-0-345-49806-9
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Weir, Alison.
Innocent traitor / by Alison Weir.
p. cm.
1. Grey, Jane, Lady, 1537-1554—Fiction. 2. Queens—Great Britain—Fiction. 3. Great Britain—History—Edward VI, 1547-1553—Fiction. 4. Great Britain—History—Mary I, 1553-1558—Fiction. 5. Great Britain—Kings and rulers—Succession—History—16th century—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6123.36I66 2007
823'.92—dc22 2006049860
v1.0
