The Necromancer Part I
Page 12
“Brecon is too far from London. Shall I trust your agents? Will you keep me in their confidence?”
The Duke was hooked. He was now in the hands of Tudor’s most dangerous servant.
“Your Grace, I will now confess, I still have communications with the Earl of Richmond. He is as concerned as any honest Englishman for the honour of England.”
Duke Henry suffered agonies of doubt still. It was impossible not to listen to Morton but he needed time to think…
He was almost absolute ruler in the west, he could act now, by joining with Henry Tudor; the quarrel then would be the murdered princes, not his own claims to the throne. He had to decide, he had to move, his mind turned through all the labyrinth John Morton set for him.’
Henry, duke of Buckingham, was sucked into rebellion almost in a dream. Through the raising of musters, calling for support, Margaret Beaufort’s son promising to bring soldiers from Brittany, all slid him into open treason against his best friend. Of one thing he was certain, Richard had killed his nephews, he was therefore unfit to rule and must be removed.
The Duke knew nothing of warfare. His estates and following were a sleeping giant, spread right across England and Wales, but his rebellion was disorganised. His followers were unready and faced by a choice between loyalty and good sense. It took just six weeks to quash the rising and bring the Duke to summary execution. But the consequences for Richard were devastating.
First was a truly huge hole in England’s administration, from the top to the very most local level. Not only had those who followed the Duke now run, but those who were left were not keen to serve their lord’s enemy. Not only that, those who ran went to Margaret Beaufort’s son, Henry Tudor, in Brittany. They made Henry, for the first time, look a serious opponent to King Richard.
A worse problem was this; if Henry Buckingham, the man who put Richard on the throne, believed Richard killed the Princes what man in England would not? The English hated child murder, they hated abuse of guardianship. The Buckingham Rebellion ended English loyalty to Richard, at least in south and central England. It no longer mattered how good a king Richard was. It opened the door to Henry Tudor’s invasion less than two years later.
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Comment So Far
If there were not to be a second part to this book I’d very much like to answer some questions here and now; but to do it properly requires Part II.
Given Thomas breached the security in the White Tower, and given the success of Morton’s propaganda, without any evidence of murder; why were the Princes not simply killed in their beds? If the corpses were left, perhaps with incriminating evidence, would this not have served Morton and Margaret Beaufort better?
Why did King Louis want the Princes alive and in captivity in France?
And why were there to be doubles substituted? Indeed, why did the Young Gentlemen consent to play such a role?
It goes further:
What became of Thomas?
What became of Prince Richard?
The Tudor vilification of King Richard went on long after he was killed, why did they need to keep placing the blame on him so actively?
A rather profound question is how was Thomas Nandyke able to move between worlds? When I asked this I got no magic answer. I did get a simple answer, but it wasn’t High Magic. Perhaps it wasn’t magic at all and perhaps, one day we will all be able to do it, and know we can do it. If that day ever comes you may reasonably expect a degree of confusion; but ‘reason’ has very little to do with this particular skill.
I hope, in Part II, to answer these questions. I hope you may already think Part I fits the facts. Does it answer some of the puzzles set by the mystery of the Princes’ disappearance? Or the added mystery of the discovery of the bodies found under the stone staircase in the reign of Charles II? Did you know; the distance to the point below the stone stairs where the bodies were found, from the point where Thomas dropped the box, was the same as from a corresponding point above the floor in Hatfield’s Great Hall to the bottom of the well?
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List of Hyperlinks
Part I
Prologue
Edward – Interactive
Margaret Beaufort
King Henry VII
King Richard III
Introduction
Sir James Tyrell
Chapter 1 – The Reverend Doctor Thomas Nandyke
Stansted Hall
Great Saint Mary’s Church
Bishop John Morton of Ely (1)
Wikipedia (Necromancy 1)
Wikipedia (Necromancy 2)
The Odyssey
Chapter 2 – John Morton, bishop of Ely
John Morton (2)
Wikipedia (Archbishop Bourchier)
Chapter 3 – A Further Meeting and a Mystery
apports
Sai Baba
Chapter 4 – The Workings of a School of Mysteries
scrying
Chapter 5 – In Meditation
YouTube (Olivier’s film, ‘Richard III’)
Bramall Hall
Mistress Shore
Chapter 8 – On Eavesdropping
Dogma and Ritual of High Magic (Eliphas Levi)
Liber Juratus
Chapter 10 – Hatfield Palace
Etheldreda
Chapter 12 – London and the Great Council
Ely Palace
Robert Stillington (1)
The Queen (Elizabeth Woodville)
Henry of Buckingham
Anthony Woodville
And the Princes
Chapter 13 – The Conspiracy against Hastings
Edmund Tudor
Catherine de Valois
William Hastings
Chapter 15 – Placing the Princes
Guide to the Tower of London
Chapter 18 – Of Thomas’ Comings and Goings
grimiores
Chapter 28 - History
The History of King Richard the Third by Sir Thomas More
The history of the life and reigne of Richard the Third by Sir George Buck .
Donald MacLachlan (Richard III Society)
Helen Maurer (Richard III Society)
Richard III: His Life & Character
Chapter 29 – Magic and Other Issues
The Disenchantment of Magic
here (extract of above)
Wikipedia (Louis XI)
Picquigny
Chapter 30 – Morton’s Final Coupe
Edward – Interactive
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