The Pretender

Set during the turbulent final decades of England's Wars of the Roses, a period of dynastic conflict between the Houses of York and Lancaster for the English throne, the novel follows a boy torn from his rural life and thrust into a deadly conspiracy to overthrow King Henry VII.

In 1483, 10-year-old John Collan lives on a prosperous Oxfordshire farm with his father Will Collan and the sharp-tongued head dairymaid Jennott, whom John loves as a surrogate mother. His twin older brothers have left for apprenticeships, and his mother is dead. Will's unusual wealth is a source of village gossip. Meanwhile, King Edward IV dies, his young sons are imprisoned in the Tower of London by their uncle Richard of Gloucester, and Richard seizes the throne.

John's household fractures when Will marries the Widow Mylton and Jennott departs for Southampton with a new husband. A nobleman then arrives at the farm and speaks privately with Will, who announces that a wealthy benefactor will pay for John to be tutored and attend university. Weeks later, the nobleman returns with a scholar-priest named Maister Richard Simons, and John is taken from the farm that same day with barely time for goodbyes. As they ride away, the nobleman reveals that John's real name is Edward, that he is the son of George, Duke of Clarence, a deceased brother of King Edward IV, and that he is the rightful Earl of Warwick, next in line for the throne. Clarence, the nobleman explains, secretly swapped his infant son with a common child to protect him from assassination, and Will raised the boy knowingly. John's name is changed to Lambert Simons.

Lambert is installed in a narrow Oxford house with the vain and petty Maister Richard and a seemingly deaf-mute servant. Forbidden from going outside or speaking to anyone, he finds genuine pleasure in studying Latin, history, and rhetoric. When Henry Tudor defeats King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and becomes Henry VII, Lambert is terrified, knowing the Yorkist conspirators now expect him to overthrow the new king. Maister Richard's lover Bella moves into the household and uncovers Lambert's identity. When the Yorkists' money stops coming, Lambert offers his meager savings in exchange for being taken to Jennott in Southampton. Before they can leave, two agents arrive to collect Lambert. When Bella unexpectedly returns, the supposedly deaf-mute servant suddenly speaks, revealing that Bella knows everything. The agents kill both Maister Richard and Bella, telling Lambert the pair were spies. Lambert, now calling himself Simnel, is taken from Oxford.

Simnel is brought to a secret meeting with John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, his cousin and one of the highest-ranking surviving York nobles. Lincoln fought for Richard III but now seeks to atone by restoring the true York heir. He refuses the crown for himself, convinced he is unfit. Simnel is then shipped to Mechelen in Flanders, to the court of his aunt Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, who governs the Burgundian territories as regent. Margaret teaches Simnel governance and recounts the history of his father Clarence, including the duke's betrayals and his execution by drowning in a barrel of wine. Simnel, now called Edward, befriends Margaret's young step-grandson Philip the Fair, and the two boys bond over shared loneliness. Margaret informs Edward that he must sail to Dublin to begin the campaign for the throne.

Edward arrives at Maynooth Castle, seat of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, a boisterous and politically shrewd man who rules Ireland largely on his own terms. Among Kildare's many daughters, Edward meets Joan, a 14-year-old of formidable intelligence and ruthless cunning. Joan manipulates Edward into delivering a forged document that destroys a man she was secretly betrothed to, resulting in his execution. Though horrified, Edward agrees to a bargain: He will teach Joan Latin in exchange for lessons in political survival. Their combative intellectual partnership deepens into concealed love, and on Twelfth Night they share their first kiss.

Political events accelerate. Lincoln escapes England, and Margaret raises an army of 2,000 German mercenaries. Edward is crowned King Edward VI at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin on Ascension Day, 1487, though he feels no transformation. Joan confesses her love and proposes they steal treasure and escape together, abandoning the rebellion. Edward agrees. But on the morning of their planned departure, the plot is discovered. Kildare kills Grania, Joan's loyal lady-in-waiting, and sends Joan back to Maynooth. Edward is consumed by guilt and grief.

The army sails to England and meets Henry's forces at the Battle of Stoke Field in June 1487. Lincoln charges prematurely, and the poorly armed Irish troops are slaughtered. Edward rides after Lincoln and watches as a Tudor knight, Sir Hugh Cross, pretends to help the fallen Lincoln, then stabs him with a hidden knife. Edward is captured. Lincoln, Kildare's brother Thomas Fitzgerald, and General Swartz, Margaret's German mercenary commander, are all killed.

Edward is brought before Henry's officials and signs a prepared confession declaring himself Lambert Simnel, a fraud manipulated by traitors. Henry pardons him publicly and puts him to work as a spit turner in the royal kitchens. He befriends Beatrice, a kind housemaid who becomes his only real companion. Henry and Bishop Morton, the Lord Chancellor, then recruit Simnel as a spy: Promoted to falconer, he is to report treasonous talk among the nobles.

Simnel accepts, seeing the role as a means to find and punish those responsible for Lincoln's death and Grania's murder. Over the following years, he systematically betrays Yorkist conspirators while pursuing private vengeance, seducing a plotter's wife for information and feeding traitors to Morton. He gradually uncovers devastating truths: Sir William Stanley, Henry's own Lord Chamberlain, is the secret high-ranking Yorkist mole close to the king, and Viscount Lovell ordered Lincoln's assassination through Cross. Simnel also discovers that Maister Richard and Bella were never spies but were murdered simply because they knew too much.

Simnel engineers Stanley's downfall by sending a spy to Mechelen to pose as a Yorkist defector, luring Stanley into revealing his allegiances. He then poses as a loyal Yorkist and extracts from Stanley the locations of Lovell and Cross. Stanley is arrested, tried, and beheaded. Simnel secures a promise of freedom and a pension from Henry.

Before leaving court, Simnel visits Kildare, now a prisoner in the Tower, who tells him two shattering truths: Joan died in childbirth on Christmas Eve, and it was Lovell who betrayed Edward and Joan's escape plan in Dublin to protect his investment in the York heir.

Simnel travels to Scotland and finds Lovell and Sir Hugh Cross, the knight who killed Lincoln, at Irvine Harbor. Lovell tries to bargain, offering gold and another bid for the throne, and plants doubt about Joan, suggesting she may never have intended to meet Edward at the harbor. Simnel kills Lovell with his sword, then kills Cross in a fight.

Now calling himself John Crossey, Simnel joins Beatrice and her partner Elyn on a farm. He buries Lovell's gold and tries to live quietly, but for the first time since his imprisonment he breaks down and weeps for everything he has lost. He agrees to father a child for the two women. After reading about Marco Polo's travels and the philosophers who asked Alexander the Great why he wages war when he must leave everything behind, he decides to travel east. He gives Beatrice and Elyn a large portion of the gold and departs on Lammas Day, an early-August harvest feast. Reflecting on all the selves he has been, he rides toward the unknown, hoping to find a place where he can begin again.