by Tim Holden
At their camp, the Ketts did in fact operate from two buildings on the heath: St Michael’s Chapel, where Robert is said to have addressed his followers, and Mount Surrey, a stately home built on the site of the former monastery St Leonard’s, which Robert used as a prison. Neither building remains, but some ruins are visible.
Throughout the story, I have opted to use the modern street names in Norwich.
Robert was hung in chains from the top of Norwich castle. His body remained there as a reminder of the penalty of treason until it was removed the following summer following complaints from local residents. His body was buried in an unmarked grave. His brother William suffered a similar fate, being hung from Wymondham Abbey.
More surprising however, are the things I didn’t make up: the act of the rebel children bearing their backsides at the Bishopsgate Bridge fight causing the defenders to flea and the unnamed boy defecating in front of the royal herald are recorded as having occurred. The evacuation of his bowels and subsequent execution turned the course of English history and sealed the fate of Robert and William Kett – you couldn’t make that up!
Whatever the real events of this rebellion, and the myriad of environmental factors that provided such fertile ground from which discontent could flourish, I hope that in writing this novel, despite all its failings, I can draw into people’s consciousness one of English history’s most fabulously tragic romps. And that the current inhabitants and visitors to Norwich will find a renewed appreciation of the parts of our fine city that feature in this book, as they follow in the footsteps of the Kett brothers and their rabble army.
For those interested in the rebellion, I would recommend the following books, all of which were instrumental in helping me develop my own understanding of events. I am indebted to all the following for their research and writing:
The Commoyson in Norfolk by Nicholas Sotherton
An Unlikely Rebel by Adrian Hoare
In search of Robert Kett by Adrian Hoare
Kett’s Rebellion 1549 by Matthew Champion
Medieval Norwich by Carol Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson
Edward Seymour Lord Protector by Margaret Scard
John Dudley the Life of Lady Jane Grey’s Father-in-law by Christine Hartweg
The 1549 Rebellions and the Making of Early Modern England by Andy Wood
Fictitious characters:
Alfred Carter
Lynn Carter
Richard Smith
Master Peter
Anders Marshwell
Adam Catchpole
John Robertson
David Fisher
Geoffrey Lincoln
Luke Miller
Jan Vinck
Tiniker Vinck
Margreet Vinck
Acknowledgements
First of all, I must thank Mark Robinson, my history teacher at Framlingham College. He will have had no idea the impact his throwaway comment left on me during my GCSE history class, ‘Holden I think you have a book in you one day.’ Why he should have thought this and why his words should have resonated with me in the way did, I don’t know. But they stuck, and some twenty-five years later, I am pleased to finally say he was right.
Thereafter Katherine Skala deserves my largest thanks of all, for teaching me to write. Re-reading my early attempts at this novel, it became clear how much her help improved the manuscript. If this book is anything, it will be due to her tutorship.
I would also like to thank Andrew Morris for encouraging me to believe in myself when others thought I was mad. To Vince Tickel for helping me to make it possible. Richard Beck for his advice on military matters. David Rees for lending me his dissertation on the rebellion. Caroline Farrow, for causing me to continue when I’d given up. Emily Richards, Sean Johnson, Terri Johnson, Cheryl Cooper and Richard Beck for reading the unedited manuscript and for their generous feedback and critique. Nathan Butcher and Alex Pollard for their help with the website and video content. Clair Blackledge and Paul Strowger at Farrows for the beautiful book cover. Claire Allmendinger for her painstaking removal of all my errors. And to everyone at Holdens, whose combined capabilities enabled the business to prosper while I attended to this manuscript.
And lastly, to my wife, Heather, for her continued patience and tolerance of my writing, her love and support and all the various drafts she was subjected to.