by David Field
‘Your ever and steadfast friend in England’s cause,
Francis Walsingham by his hand.’
Tom looked across at Giles, whose jaw had dropped as he stared, bug-eyed, at the vellum in his hand. ‘This woman what’s signed this here paper – her name’s “Elizabeth”. Surely that isn’t . . . ? I mean, it can’t be . . . her, can it?’
Tom chuckled. ‘It can be, if it’s the same woman what signed this one. I’ll read mine out loud, and see if it’s the same as yours, apart from your name of course.’
He held his vellum out in front of him and proudly read its contents.
‘To my most heartily beloved Thomas Lincraft, greeting.
‘I have pleasure in appointing you to the rank and status of Queen’s Constable, with this charge, that you serve me loyally and faithfully in all you shall be commanded to perform in my name.
‘By my hand at Whitehall this Second Day of August in the year of our Lord 1571.
‘Elizabeth’.
‘Bloody Hell,’ Giles muttered, as Tom grinned back at him.
‘Lizzie will be pleased,’ he announced. ‘She might even cook me lamb for supper. She’s been saving it for a special occasion, and I reckon this might be it.’
Endnote
Thank you for taking the time to read this second novella in the Thomas Lincraft trilogy, and I hope it maintained your interest. It was based on historical facts tweaked around the edges, and contained real characters from the turbulent middle years of Elizabeth’s reign.
There really was a Shrewsbury draper called Thomas Browne who was sent north entrusted with a bag containing a large quantity of coin intended for use in a coup against Queen Elizabeth. But unlike the Thomas Browne in this story, he panicked when he realised what he was carrying, and reported it to William Cecil, who did the rest. The real ‘Ridolfi Plot’ was indeed an attempt to replace Queen Elizabeth with her distant cousin Mary Stuart, financed by Roberto Ridolfi, a Florentine banker and fervent Catholic who was urged on by Pope Pius. The Pope had already excommunicated Elizabeth and urged her subjects to rebellion, and Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was a closet Catholic with ambitions to marry the stunningly beautiful Catholic Mary.
It therefore required little effort on my part to re-route Browne to Nottingham and throw him into the confusion surrounding the suspicious death of a local miller. Tom Lincraft is joined in this second story of the trilogy by his younger colleague, and ladies’ man, Giles Bradbury, who wishes to emulate Tom in the meaningful investigation of crimes, and not just the routine chore of locking up those accused by others. Tom and Giles have, by their joint efforts, earned themselves the status of ‘Constables Royal’, and in the third novella in the series, ‘Queen’s Constables’, they will earn their keep by smoking out Catholic priests being smuggled into England.
Tom will also be able to settle a long-standing score.