The Queen's Man (44 page)

‘I do. Now go to Newgate and do my bidding.’

H
e found Edward Arden in a small, stinking cell, in irons. He was clearly very weak and could not move from the fetid straw in which he lay.

Shakespeare stood inside the door holding a rushlight, looking down at the pathetic remnants of his cousin, the once proud sheriff of Warwickshire. He knelt at the condemned man’s side and put a cup of ale to his lips. Arden sipped at it and nodded his thanks.

‘What word of Mary and Margaret?’ His voice was very faint.

‘I have been to them. Your wife and daughter are well.’

‘You are on the wrong side, John Shakespeare.’

‘We have been through this. I warned you of the danger you faced, but you would not listen. Now I want names from you. Show yourself a true Englishman before you die. Do not go to your death with deceit in your heart.’

‘Names? You want names? How do these names sound: Thomas Lucy, Robert Dudley, Francis Walsingham, William Cecil. Traitors all. Will they serve you?’

‘Listen. Help me on this and I will assist Mary and Margaret’s cause. It is the foreign connections I seek.’

‘There is no foreign connection, only the priests. Benedict Angel is dead and Hugh Hall will soon join me at Paddington Green with John Somerville.’

‘Have you been racked?’

‘Thrice. I believe I am a foot longer. At dawn, I will be a head shorter.’

‘How did it all come about?’

‘Ask the man who calls himself Buchan Ord. He is
your
creature is he not?’

‘Did you truly believe any of this would work?’

Arden tried to laugh, but the effort made him gasp with pain. He shook his head slowly. ‘Never.’

‘Then why, cousin?’

‘Because you took it all. I had nothing left.’

‘I took nothing from you.’

‘Your pseudo-religion. It changed my England beyond recall. Everything is laid waste.’

Shakespeare was silent for a few moments. There was nothing more to be learnt, with or without torture. ‘Shall I take messages to Mary and Margaret? I believe they are to be spared. A pardon will be issued. Mr Hall, too.’

‘My love in Christ, that is all. Tell them to walk with God always.’

‘I will do that. And God be with
you
, cousin.’

O
utside the cell door, Shakespeare breathed deeply. He closed his eyes and said the Lord’s Prayer in his head. God was all-powerful and could see into the human heart. Why should He need to hear the words spoken aloud?
Amen
. He mouthed the word, then opened his eyes and summoned the gaoler with his hand.

‘Now take me to Somerville.’

‘He’s dead, master.’

‘How can he be dead?’

‘Hanged himself in his cell. But they’ll still have his head on a spike above the Bridge. He don’t escape that easy.’

S
hakespeare did not sleep that night. He listened all the while to the soft, warm breathing of Kat Whetstone at his side. What sort of fool was he to allow this woman into his home and into his life? He did not love her and she did not love him and nor would they ever marry.

At dawn he heard the sound of rain on the shutters. He made no move to rise from the bed. All his thoughts now were with his cousin, Edward Arden. Very soon he would be taken from his cell to the yard below, where he would be strapped to a hurdle, his head hanging down at the back, close to the rocky road, and then he would be drawn by a horse along the long, pitted road to Tyburn, where the Godly butchery would begin.

What part had he played in the destruction of this man? What sort of a fool was he to work for a man like Sir Francis Walsingham?

He gazed across at the beautiful woman at his side, her hair splayed across his pillows. She warmed his bed and there was food in the house. At least this was normal life, not the savagery of men who would protect princes and those who would depose them. She stirred, as though sensing his eyes on her. ‘Hold me, John,’ she said, and so he did.

As always my thanks go to my wife Naomi for putting up with me, my agent Teresa Chris for doing the difficult stuff and my editor Kate Parkin for showing me the way when I go wrong. I must also mention Jennie Dobson (www.jenniedobsonwriter.com) for her wonderful efforts seeking out maps. Thanks, too, to the NNGTL for keeping me sane and everyone at John Murray – Roland, Caro and Lyndsey – for their unfailing professionalism and good humour.

Books that have been especially helpful include:
Martyrs and Murderers
by Stuart Carroll;
My Heart is My Own
by John Guy;
Will in the World
by Stephen Greenblatt;
Shakespeare: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd;
Shakespeare’s Wife
by Germaine Greer;
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England
by Ian Mortimer;
Shakespeare’s Warwickshire Contemporaries
by Charlotte Carmichael Stopes;
Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the English Stage
by Edmond Malone;
Danger to Elizabeth
by Alison Plowden;
Mary Queen of Scots
by Antonia Fraser;
Bess of Hardwick
by Mary S. Lovell;
Plots and Plotters in the Reign of Elizabeth I
by Francis Edwards.

The plotters William Shakespeare would have known

The county of Warwickshire was a seething pit of conspiracy and treason during the lifetime of William Shakespeare – and he would certainly have known or been aware of most of the characters involved, including several who were executed.

As a man whose own father may well have been a secret Catholic, Shakespeare must have been painfully aware of the trials and punishments inflicted on these relatives and neighbours:

Edward Arden:
cousin to Mary Arden (mother of William Shakespeare), Edward Arden was principally associated with Park Hall in Castle Bromwich, twenty-five miles from Stratford. Arden, a former sheriff of the county, married Mary Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, Warwickshire. She was the sister of Anne Catesby, of Lapworth, Warwickshire, mother of the gunpowder conspirator Robert Catesby. Arden, a Catholic and sworn enemy of the Earl of Leicester, was implicated in the plot of his son-in-law John Somerville to kill the Queen and was executed at Smithfield by hanging, drawing and quartering in December 1583. His head was placed on a pike on London Bridge. His wife, also convicted of treason, was pardoned.

John Somerville:
brought up at Edstone (six miles from Stratford), the son of a landowner, he married Margaret, the daughter of Edward and Mary Arden and they had two daughters. In 1583 he set out to kill the Queen, hoping that she would be supplanted by Mary, Queen of Scots. But even before he got to court, he could not restrain himself from boasting about his intentions to fellow guests at an inn. They testified that he said he ‘meant to shoot her and to see her head on a pole, for that she was a serpent and a viper’. He was quickly arrested and, under interrogation and probably torture, confessed that he had been incited by his father-in-law Edward Arden and his priest, Hugh Hall. At the age of twenty-three, Somerville choked himself to death (or was murdered) in his cell before he could be executed, but his head was still severed and placed on a pole. Some historians have suggested that Somerville was mentally ill and that his ramblings were used by the Earl of Leicester as a means to gain revenge on his old enemy Edward Arden.

Hugh Hall:
a priest in the household of Edward Arden. Like many such Catholic priests, he disguised himself as a servant, in this case a gardener. He had various conversations with John Somerville and spoke approvingly of a notorious plot to assassinate the Prince of Orange, pointing out that the would-be killer would be absolved of any sin if he did the deed for God, not gain. After Somerville’s plot to kill the Queen was foiled, Hugh Hall was among several servants and family members arrested. He was convicted of conspiring to ‘compass the death of the Queen’. After the deaths of Somerville and Arden, Hall was questioned again, but was eventually pardoned.

Simon Hunt:
schoolmaster at the King’s New School in Stratford from 1571 to 1575, where he would have known and taught William Shakespeare until he was about eleven. Hunt, a devout Catholic, then went into exile to the English College at Douai, where he was closely associated with Thomas Cottam (see below) and where they were both joined by Hunt’s former pupil Robert Dibdale of Shottery, which is a mile from the centre of Stratford and was the home village of William’s bride Anne Hathaway. Simon Hunt later became a Jesuit and travelled to Rome, where he became English Penitentiary at St Peter’s.

Robert Dibdale:
close neighbour of Anne Hathaway in the tiny hamlet of Shottery, which is now a suburb of Stratford-upon-Avon. He was the son of John Dibdale, a Catholic farmer, and attended the King’s New School, like William Shakespeare, though he was certainly a few years older than the poet, probably born in the mid to late 1550s. He would have been taught by Simon Hunt and in 1576 followed him to the seminaries of Europe, at Douai, Rheims and Rome, also becoming good friends with Thomas Cottam. Dibdale returned to England in 1580 and was promptly arrested, being held at the Gatehouse prison in Westminster from July to September, when he was freed. He was next heard of in the spring of 1583 when he entered the English College at Rheims, being ordained a priest a year later. Returning to England once more, he became close friends with the Jesuit priest William Weston and together they conducted exorcisms at Denham in Buckinghamshire, until both were arrested in 1586. Weston was held prisoner but Dibdale was executed with two other priests at Tyburn.

The Cottam brothers:
John Cottam was one of the schoolmasters who succeeded Simon Hunt at Stratford. He was elder brother to Thomas Cottam, also a schoolmaster, who went to Douai in 1577 and later Rome, where he became a Jesuit priest in 1580. Thomas returned to England but was recognised and arrested on arrival at Dover. He was found to be carrying a letter and Catholic artefacts (including a crucifix and rosary beads) from Robert Dibdale to deliver to his father in Shottery. After being tortured by rack and scavenger’s daughter, Thomas was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn in May 1582. John Cottam left the King’s New School in the same year.

Francis Throckmorton:
he was a member of the powerful Midlands family who held property in Warwickshire. Francis was brought up at Feckenham, fourteen miles from Stratford and close to the most important of the family’s homes, Coughton Court, which is associated with two great conspiracies: Francis Throckmorton’s own plot to kill the Queen and the Gunpowder Plot. By 1580, several members of the Throckmorton family were already in trouble for persistent Catholicism and refusal to conform. Francis went to France where he became involved with various angry English exiles. He returned to England and entered into secret correspondence with Mary, Queen of Scots until Walsingham learnt of his activities through a spy in the French embassy. Under torture, Throckmorton confessed to knowing of a plot by the Duke of Guise to invade England, free Mary and kill or kidnap Elizabeth. He was executed at Tyburn in July 1584. Twenty-one years later, in 1605, Gunpowder plotters took refuge at his family’s home, Coughton Court.

Robert Catesby:
leader of the Gunpowder plotters, Robert Catesby was brought up in Lapworth, Warwickshire, twelve miles north of Stratford. He was the son of the recusant Sir William Catesby and Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court. Robert was cousin to that other notorious conspirator Francis Throckmorton and related by marriage to Edward Arden, through whom they were all related to William Shakespeare. The Catesby family was said to have harboured the Jesuit priest Edmund Campion before his arrest and martyrdom. Robert Catesby’s first taste of rebellion came in 1601 when he was part of the Earl of Essex’s ill-fated insurrection against Queen Elizabeth. He was wounded and fined £3,000. Four years later, aged about thirty-three, he conceived the idea of blowing up parliament and King James. He recruited other conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, but the plot was foiled and Catesby died in a shoot-out as he tried to escape.

Religious strife in the late sixteenth century

Queen Elizabeth I declared that she did not wish to open windows into men’s souls, but once the Pope had excommunicated her and intimated that it would not be considered a crime for Catholics to kill her and usurp her, Catholics found themselves persecuted throughout England.

In all, it has been estimated that 250 priests and other Catholic dissidents were executed for their faith (though treason was invariably the crime cited) in the last twenty years of Elizabeth’s reign.

This is how the iron vice of the law was tightened.

1570:
Pope Pius V issues a papal bull,
Regnans in Excelsis
, which calls the Queen of England a heretic and releases her Catholic subjects from their allegiance to her.

1571:
in England, the government retaliates against the Vatican by enacting a law making it high treason to describe the Queen as a heretic. Treason is always punishable by death. Importing rosary beads, crucifixes and declarations from the Pope becomes illegal. Anyone leaving the country without permission for six months can have their property confiscated. This is to deter Catholics fleeing persecution in England.

1581:
Edmund Campion is executed for adhering to the Pope against the Queen, compassing and imaging the destruction of the Queen and entering England to disturb the quiet state of the realm. Fines are increased for refusing to attend the parish (Protestant) church. The penalty for saying mass is £133; for hearing it £66 and imprisonment; for neglecting to attend church £20 a month in fines (increased from sixpence). Priests or others trying to convert anyone to Roman Catholicism are guilty of high treason. Anyone helping them is guilty of treason. New powers are given to magistrates to order raids on recusants’ houses on the slightest suspicion.