The Tudor Secret - C. W. Gortner [127]
In The Tudor Secret, I weave three separate threads into the plotline: The first thread involves the events surrounding the demise of Edward VI in July 1553 and the Duke of Northumberland’s plot to raise Jane Grey to the throne. I have not so much altered the facts in this case as reexamined them from another perspective, conjecturing what Northumberland’s ultimate goal may have been. In the second thread, I deviate from the facts in that I speculate what may have occurred had Elizabeth decided to follow in her sister Mary’s footsteps and visit the court during those tension-filled days leading to Edward’s death. Historical accounts tell us that the princess in fact did not go to court, that she remained in Hatfield; however, it is not outside the realm of possibility that she undertook a secret trip, and that is my premise. I do not alter what is known about Elizabeth’s character or motivation. In the third thread, I create a purely fictional plotline that intersects with the above, involving Brendan, who is brought to court to serve Robert Dudley and is thrust into the drama surrounding the princess. While nothing in The Tudor Secret contradicts the known facts of what happened in the summer of 1553, I do mix things up and seek to reveal what might have been transpiring behind the scenes. This is, after all, a book about secrets—the secrets we carry; the secrets we use as weapons; the secrets we use to seek truth.
In your research, what was the most interesting/surprising/shocking thing you learned?
I was actually surprised to discover how truly ruthless people at court were. We tend to see the court as a glamorous place of gorgeous costumes, minstrels, and rumors—and it was. But there was a much darker and more lethal side to it; proximity to the monarch promised riches or ruin, and fortunes rose and fell on a whim. Success was most often determined by how far you were willing to go to win, and at court people went very far, indeed.
Take, for example, Robert Dudley. I’d always seen him as a romantic figure—the forlorn and long-suffering suitor for a fickle Elizabeth’s hand. After all, she was a survivor, scarred by the past; she cannot have been easy to love. However, as I researched Robert’s youth and his actions in the days I describe in The Tudor Secret, I began to see a less sympathetic edge to him, one of callous disregard, of determination and ambition that mirrored his father. I think he learned the hard way that he had to bend his pride but I also think he’s more complex than he’s been popularly seen. To me, that makes him more interesting and fun to write. Likewise, William Cecil emerged as a much tougher character; he was not so much the benevolent paternal figure who guided Elizabeth to glory as a manipulative genius. But all this is what makes researching and writing historical fiction so engaging; you begin with an idea that sparks your imagination, you plunge into research, and that idea is transformed as if by alchemy into something entirely new and unforeseen.
Why do you think readers are so drawn to historical fiction?
I believe historical fiction helps us fill in spaces in history—we can know the facts by heart but what we crave is to experience the emotion, the inner lives, to share the trajectories and worlds of these people we feel so connected to. I write historical fiction because for me, it offers the ideal medium for bringing these long-gone people into our present, in a way that is immediate, visceral, and relevant. While they of course reflect the imaginary constraints and preferences of the author, that in and of itself makes the genre exciting. My vision of Elizabeth may differ wildly from another novelist’s; in this way the past remains alive, constantly reexamined and reinvented.