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At the end of April, 2024, sitting in a tea room in Cambridge, I was impressed by an article in the "Daily Telegraph" praising an historical crime fiction series set in Tudor Times, written by C.J. Sansom and featuring a hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake. This article had been prompted by the author's sad death a few days earlier. I still had the Telegraph obituary at home and read it later. Anyway, in Cambridge, I thought I would give the series a go, and about an hour later, by pure good fortune, I found the first 3 books in the series in a charity shop, each priced at 95p.
Christopher John Sansom was an award winning writer whose books have sold in millions. He was born in Edinburgh in 1952, an only child, the son of an English father and a Scottish mother. He had a poor experience of early education in Edinburgh at George Watson's College. He was bullied, and he left with no qualifications. Later he made amends at Birmingham University getting first a BA degree, and then a Ph.D in History. He later trained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex. Helped by an inheritance when his dad died, Sansom took a year off to write, and happily the early success of his Shardlake series allowed him to become a full time writer. This series featured Matthew Shardlake, a hunchback lawyer. It was set in Tudor times, in the 16th century reign of Henry VIII. How appropriate for a practising solicitor with a PhD. in history.
Sansom was diagnosed with a treatable bone marrow cancer in 2012. He eventually died at the age of 71. This was in a hospice near Brighton, in April, 2024. He had never married.
The House of Tudor comprised 5 monarchs, 6 including Lady Jane Grey (9 days):
Henry VII 1485-1509
Henry VIII 1509-1547
Edward VI 1547-1553
Lady Jane Grey 1553-1553 (9 days)
Mary I 1553-1558
Elizabeth I 1558-1603
Following the Black Death of 1348, the population of England roughly doubled in Tudor times from about 2 million to 4 million. This helped economic growth in agriculture, the production and export of the wool trade, and the growth of London. It was a period of social upheaval with the gap between the rich and the poor widening, and the enclosure of manorial land previously village lands open to all.
In 1500, England was devoutly Catholic. The Reformation changed the religion from Catholic to Protestant mostly through widespread dissatisfaction and disgust at the corruption of the established Church, it's wealth was not used for charitable purposes, their heirarchies lived off the fat of the land, they worshiped preposterous relics, and all the deceits galore were abhorrent . Reformers included John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
Henry VII became King after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), thus ending the Wars of the Roses .
King Henry VIII is the most famous of the Tudors, excluding Elizabeth I. He married 6 times in an effort to produce a male heir :
1 Catherine of Aragon - 1509 to 1533, annuled, died 1536, was the mother of Queen Mary I
2 Anne Bolyn - 1533 to 1536, beheaded in the Tower of London, was the mother of Elizabeth I.
3 Jane Seymour - 1536 to 1537, died in childbirth, was the mother of King Edward VI
4 Anne of Cleeves - 1540 to 1540, annuled, died 1557.
5 Catherine Howard - 1540 to 1542, beheaded in the Tower of London.
6 Catherine Parr - 1543 to 1547, died in 1548. She had remarried to Thomas Seymour, brother of Queen Jane Seymour.
Henry VIII ruthlessly executed many top officials and aristocrats. When the Pope refused to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry broke from Rome and installed himself as Head of the Church. National sovereignty required the absolure supremacy of the King. Parliament supported this, with little dissent. Decisions were taken by the King himself, or by top aids such as Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. The decisive move was the Act of Supremacy of 1534. Some opposition came from Bishop Fisher and Thomas More, but both were executed. Monasteries were siezed, monks and nuns pensioned off, and Church valuable lands sold to the King's friends. However there was little change to the Church theology and ritual - this was not Lutherism.
Henry organised the navy as a permanent force, and built and launched many new ships. Between 1515 and 1529 Cardinal Wolsey was the most powerful man in the land, but for the King. Wolsey did much good, but eventually he conspired with Henry's enemies. He died of natural causes before he could be beheaded. Thomas Cromwell (1485 -1540) was then the King's chief minister from 1532 to 1540, and instigated many far reaching reforms. However he picked the wrong bride for the King, and was beheaded in 1540 for treason. These were indeed savage times !
The Dissolution of the Monasteries took place 1536 to 1545. The King desperately needed money. His annual income was about £100k, but the Church revenues were about £300k. Taking ownership of Church lands and selling them off cheaply brought the King over £1 million. The huge influx of money had to be managed by Cromwell. He set up the Court of Augmentation, later incorporateed into the Exchequer in 1554.
Henry's health deteriorated in his fifties, and he died in 1547. His successor was a 9 year old boy Edward VI. Somerset, elder brother of the late Queen Jane Seymour was Edward's uncle and became Lord Protector, ruling from 1547 to 1549. However his wars were costly, and he was overthrown by his former ally John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland whose top aid was William Cecil. The King died suddenly in 1553. Dudley tried to make his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey Queen, but this attempt failed after 9 days when Queen Mary I took over the throne, had Dudley beheaded, and Jane Grey too, after a period of imprisonment.
Mary I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Mary tried to restore Catholicism, but this was later reversed by her younger sister and successor, Elizabeth I. On the continent the Jesuits lead the Catholic Counter Reformation, but Mary's chief religious advisor Cardinal Pole refused to allow the Jesuits into England. Mary's marriage to King Philip II of Spain was deeply unpopular. They had no children.
Elizabeth I ruled 1558 to 1603. She returned the country to become Protestant once again. Her half sister Mary, Queen of Scots 1542 to 1587, was a devout Catholic and was next in line to the English throne. Mary had many troubles and dalliances, and was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of her infant son James VI . Mary fled to England where she was held in captivity for the next 19 years. She was involved in many plots to assassinate Elizabeth. Enough was enough, and Mary was eventually executed in 1587. Elizabeth had no children, and the Stuarts inherited the English throne on her death in 1603.
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I read this book in May, 2024.
Some time ago, impressed by all her awards, I bought Hilery Mantel's trilogy about the life and times of Thomas Cromwell in Tudor England. I haven't got round to reading them yet. Recently, in Cambridge, I was reading an article in the Telegraph about the Matthew Shardlake novels of C. J. Sansom. It said they covered the period just as well as Mantel, but were a lot more readable. C. J. Sansom died recently (April,2024). I thought why not start with these books. Anyway, a couple of hours later I had found and bought the first three Matthew Shardlake books in a charity shop - only 95p each.
"Dissolution" is book one. It's an impressive effort which gives both sides of the Dissolution of the Monasteries story (1536 to 1540). The Church was corrupt, the monasteries lived off the fat of the land, and had strayed too far from their honourable founding principles. But all the Reformation did was to replace one lot of greedy, self agrandising people with another. Much of the Church was good and sweeping it away destroyed a way of life that had existed for some 400 years. It was the dissolution of a civilisation, a heritage, the old ways dissolving away - "Dissolution".
Of late, I have been writing these reviews under three headings - Characters , Personal Lives and Main Plots .
Characters . Matthew Shardlake is a 35 year old hunchback lawyer living in Chancery Lane and practising in London. He has a maid, Joan Woode, and a horse, appropriately called Chancery. Thomas Cromwell is the all powerful vicar general acting for the king in dissolving the monasteries. Mark Poer is the son of the steward at Mathew Shardlake's father's farm. Shardlake senior told his steward that Matthew would take care of young Mark, and so he is staying with and under Matthew Shardlake's protection. However Mark, a commoner, bedded a knight's daughter, and is currently very much out of favour. Robin Singleton, a lawyer known to Shardlake, is the Cromwell commissioner who was sent to arrange the dissolution of Scansea Monastery in Sussex, and Dr Goodhaps his accompanying lawyer advisor. Singleton is the first murder victim
There are various monks at the Benedictine Scarnsea monastery :
Abbot Fabian is in charge, but leaves day to day duties to others so that he can go off hunting and living the life of a lord.
Brother Mortimus is the prior, second in charge. He handles discipline and welfare, but is cruel and vindictive.
Simon Whelpley is the youth probationer, ill treated and abused by the prior who died of cruelty.
Brother Edwig is the bursar, zealously maintaining monastery finances.
Brother Gabriel is the sacrist handling building maintenance, but also monastery music. He is a homosexual, and dies saving Matthew Shardlake.
Brother Guy is the infirmarium, attending to the sick and prescribing medicines. He is a dark skinned Moor, who studied at Louvain, Europes finest medical school. Alice Fewterer (22) is his young nurse / assistant. Orphan Stonegarden was the previous nurse / assistant who allegedly stole treaures and ran off.
Brother Hugh is the chamberlain in charge of household duties.
Brother Jude is the pittancer, paying bills, and distributing charitable doles.
Brother Jerome is a Carthusian monk, and also a cousin of Jane Seymour. He was forced to renounce his religion when tortured on the rack by Cromwell and now is a pain stricken cripple.
Brugge is the guard / gatekeeper at Scarnsea Monastery
Finally, Mistress Joan Stumpe runs the poorhouse in Scarnsea village, and Master Copynger the Justice in Scarnsea.
Private Lives :There are two main themes here - the dissolution of the monasteries, and a Matthew Shardlake v Mark Poer rivalry for the affection of Alice Fewterer, but we also learn of the various characters' day to day lives. Matthew, a widower, has bought a fine house with glassed windows in Chancery Lane, but it was very expensive and he cannot afford to fall out of favour or have his loyalty to Cromwell questioned. He reads Machieveli - definitely not approved at Westminister. Matthew has been a hunchback from the age of 5, and so could not help work his fathers farm. Eventually a steward, William Poer, was employed to run the farm. Mark Poer is William's son. Matthew was educated at the Cathedral school in Lichfield. Sadly his mother died when he was 10. When Matthew was 16 he was sent away to study law. He arrived at the Inns of Court in 1518, and never returned to the farm. There he was caught up in ongoing competition between the Church Courts and the King's Court that Matthew represented. Matthew had met Thomas Cromwell when both were students at their debating society and later, Cromwell, working in the service of Cardinal Wolsey, gave Shardlake some departmental work. As Cromwell advanced, so too did Shardlake. These were troubling times following the anulment of the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Mark Poer had bedded the 16 year old maid to Queen Jane, but the girl talked about it, and was sent away. Mark was in disgrace and saved by Matthew who explained that we are commoners, and we don't usually get given a second chance.
Matthew is a hunchback, and many at that time beleived that it was was bad luck to see a hunchback. Matthew had earlier fallen in love with Kate, the daughter of a client merchant. She was educated and they chatted freely. He didn't speak of his feelings until too late - she had fallen for someone else. Kate asked why he didn't speak earlier, and Matthew explained -"because of my deformity". She said that that would have made no difference to her, and told him he was too full of self pity, and made too much of his hunchback. Kate and her father died of sickness.
The Kate / Matthew story was partly repeated at Scarnsea Monastery when Matthew was impressed by 22 year old Alice Fewterer, the infirmarium's assistant. However Mark Poer was smitten too. Mark was good looking, and Matthew stood no chance. Mark and Alice eventually fell in love, but Alice was only a servant, and Mark could never advance if he married her. He says he will give everything up, even though Matthew threatens to disown him. Matthew's life is in danger at Scarnsea monastery. He had taken Mark there as his bodyguard - Mark and Matthew falling out was a very serious matter. Eventually Mark and Alice do run off together, but apparently perish together in the swamps between the monastery and the sea. However there is more news at the book climax.
Finally let me mention the dissolution of the monasteries background which C J Sansom covers very fairly. Brother Guy and Shardlake become friends - Guy even treats Shardlake medically. It's an age when informers are everywhere and wrong words equate to treason which carries a death sentence. Guy asks Matthew if he can speak freely, sort of "off the record" and talks lovingly of his mother church, a universal entity throughout Europe, and loved by most of the people. It has rescued Guy, a foreigner. Matthew criticises the church doctrine of Purgatory - the soul goes to Purgatory pending judgment but time there can be reduced by paying monks to pray for them - a good money earner. It's all nonsense says Matthew. Matthew is an ardent protestant who starts off insisting he is working on the side of right, and that Cromwell, his master, is an honourable man incapable of the cruelty spoken of in many stories. Matthew's eyes are opened as the story unfolds, and he realises that he has been deluding himself. He half knew the truth all along, but would not acknowledge it. Eventually Matthew is no Papist, but a less extreme Protestant. Somewhat out of favour at the end of the book, Matthew still counts Brother Guy a friend, and offers help if Guy ever fleas to London.
The Main Plots : It's 1537, Ann Bolyn has recently been beheaded. Matthew Shardlake, lawyer, is summonsed to visit Thomas Cromwell. The smaller monasteries had been dissolved in 1536, and now Cromwell was starting on the larger ones. Agents would dig for dirt to lay against the monasteries - and there was a lot of dirt to be found - and the monasteries would be invited to enter into voluntary dissolution with pensions for all, and a fat pension for the Abbot. But there is trouble at a smallish Benedictine monastery in Scarnsea, Sussex. Cromwell's commissioner Robin Singleton, sent to arrange dissolution, had been beheaded, and the monks claim they were not responsible. Matthew is tasked to solve / avenge the murder, and if he can implicate the monks, so much the better. He will take his lodger Mark Poer as bodyguard. Mark had slept with a knight's daughter - he a commoner. She was sent away, and Mark is out of favour. This is an opportunity for him to redeem himself.
It's the Monastery of St Donatus - it's capable of holding 200 monks, but currently has 30 monks, and 60 servants. They all live off the fat of the land. Amazingly they are renovating the monastery as if it's future was not in doubt. Heads buried in the sand ! Abbot Fabian is out, hunting with his lordly chums, and so Matthew and Mark are greeted by the second in command, Prior Mortimus. They first visit Dr. Goodhaps, the lawyer who had accompanied Singleton to Scarnsea. He admitted he could find no legal excuse to close the place. Cromwell is having to avoid force nowadays following an uprising in the North. Goodhaps told them of a great commotion at 5 am one day when Singleton was found beheaded in the kitchen. Also the Church had been desecrated and a precious relic (the hand of the thief who died on the cross with Christ) was stolen.
Abbot Fabian has now returned. He had studied law at Cambridge, and was refusing to volunteer for dissolution - he enjoyed too rich a life to give it up. The purpose of Singleton's visit (dissolution) was kept secret from most of the monks, and was known only by some senior ones - the Abbot, the Prior, Gabriel, the sacrist, Edwig, the bursar, and Guy, a Moor, the infirmarium. Which one of these is the killer ? Matthew and Mark request rooms near the infirmary to be near the centre of things. Alice (22), a young nun, who tends the sick and ill for Brother Guy will look after their needs. Guy says she has other duties, and stresses that Alice, a young woman amidst so many men, is under his protection. As he says this he looks directly at young Mark. Guy shows them Singleton's body. He had been beheaded cleanly with no hacking - i.e. by a sword, but who, in a monastery, would have a sword ?
At meal time there is a scene when Brother Jerome, a Carthusian monk, shouts out "the Anti Christ is amongst us, etc." He is lead away. Later the boy probationer, Simon Whelpley, falls to the ground with a loud thump. He was undernourished and overworked as a punishment by cruel Prior Mortimus. Later Alice wakes Matthew in the middle of the night. She had been sent by Guy. Simon is delirious, and wants to talk to Matthew. He says Singleton was not the first death here, speaks of a young girl, and says Alice is in danger. Sadly, Simon doesn't recover, and dies.
Matthew and Mark interview all the senior monks. The Monastery is closed / locked up from 9 pm to 9 am, and Brugge does night patrols. It's like a closed room mystery - it's not an outsider but must be one of the monks - but would they desecrate the Church? Matthew asks for all the books of accounts, but later Alice tells him he hasn't been given them all. Singleton had also found a blue cover one - and he was shouting at the bursar in an argument about what it contained.
In his death throes, Simon had appeared to be mocking Matthew's deformed gait. Brother Guy had a theory about this, and later tells Matthew that Simon was poisoned with Belladonna. It wasn't mockery, but the effects of the poison.
Mark and Matthew visit Justice Copynger in Scarnsea - he will help them all he can. He advises them that there was a young girl at the monastery, Orphan Stonegarden, before Alice. She apparently stole two precious caskets and disappeared. Her friend Mistress Joan Thumpe, who runs the local poor house, defends Orphan, swearing she was an honest girl. She fears some harm came to her.
Looking over the monastery grounds, Matthew thought he had seen something glinting at the bottom of the carp pool - he would return later. We now have a great falling out between Mark and Matthew. Mark wants to give up his life of probable advancement at the Court of Augmentation to live with the servant girl Alice. Matthew says such things are not possible - "if you persist I will disown you". In such a mood, Matthew orders Mark to break the ice on the carp pool, enter the freezing water, and see what was glinting. Mark retreives an elaborate gentleman's sword, but also some old rags which turn out to be a monk's habit. Disturbed by Mark's actions, a horrible, decayed body surfaces in the pool. Yes, it's Orphan Stonegarden who didn't abscond. Guy says it's murder - her neck was broken. She had not had an easy life at the monastery, and had been molested by one of the monks. Matthew has the pool drained, and the caskets she allegedly stole are there too. However, there is no sign of the missing relic.
Matthew's investigation is dragging on. He no sooner gets a clue as to who did it, but that it then falls through. Someone tries to kill Matthew by dislodging an elevated stone statue on to him. Gabriel pushes him to safety , but dies, crushed by the statue. So many deaths, and no solution.
We had earlier been told that Matthew was at Ann Bolyn's beheading. She had been falsely accused of sleeping around, infidelity, with Mark Smeaton, a court musician. He confessed under torture on the rack. Smeaton and Bolyn were beheaded. Brother Jerome had also been tortured on the rack. He was a cousin of Jane Seymour whom the king hoped to marry, and so Jerome would not be allowd to die, but racked, and then racked again until he renounced his religion and was forced to take the oath of allegiance to the king. He is now in physical agony, but ashamed of denouncing his religion.
Now, I've certainly said too much - I'll leave you to read the story and see how Matthew solves everything in the end. He has solved several murders, and even got the Abbot to agree to dissolution (and take the fat pension) - but he gets no thanks from Cromwell because he took too long. Mark had given everything up, and run off with Alice - but apparently they both drowned trying to escape over a water logged treacherous bog in the mist. Did they perish, or survive - this is explained in the epilogue?
All in all, a terrific evocation of life in Tudor times, and a good old mystery and who done it. There is nice final twist, and clues - and two murderers, one suspected, one a surprise. Well done, C. J. Sansom.
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