Tony Riches on the subject of his new book, BESS
Bess Throckmorton, the queen’s gentlewoman, catches the eye of the captain of the queen’s guard, adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh, and has to choose between loyalty and love, duty and desire. Can she risk her queen’s anger by marrying without permission?
Like most Elizabethan women, her education was limited to what she might need to run a household. Her children’s tutors helped her to improve her writing, but I was impressed at how her phonetic spelling didn’t stop Bess writing to the most powerful men at court, such as Secretary of State of England and Lord High Treasurer, Sir Robert Cecil.
I always like to have a sense of the ‘voice’ of a character when writing historical fiction, and to imagine what might be on her mind as Bess struggles to protect her family in a dangerous world. I was able to track down several of her actual letters, and used the original text in italics, as in this short excerpt:
Taking a fresh sheet of parchment, Bess dips her pen in the black ink and begins to write. Ignoring what Walter told her, she thanks Robert Cecil for his help and support.
Sur Walter’s remembranse of me to you at his last deeparting shall add and increese if it wer possibl more love and dew respect to him.
Bess stops to read back her words, regretting her poor spelling, and undecided whether she should travel to see Robert Cecil, to appeal to him in person. She has spent long enough away from her son and from Sherborne. She will have Alexander Brett deliver her letter.
A Devon man, and distant cousin, Alexander Brett is bright and capable, taking over the work started by Adrian Gilbert to improve the supply of fresh water to Sherborne. Keen to better himself, he will relish the challenge of meeting such an important man as Sir Robert Cecil.
He is one of the few unmarried men at Sherborne, and Bess is flattered by how Brett flirts with her. The twinkle in his eye when he makes her laugh reminds her of Walter before they married. She suspects Alexander Brett admires her, and tries not to think of what could happen if Walter never returns. She frowns as she dips her pen back in the ink and continues.
Sur I am in hope ere it be long to hear of Sur Walter, thow not of long time to see him, being for a time thus disevered from him as I am.
She waits for the ink to dry in the spring sunshine streaming through her window, satisfied this is enough of a preamble. Bess doubts Robert Cecil will be familiar with the debt owed by Henry Huntingdon, but hopes he will realise the seriousness if she threatens to go to law.
I must entreet your favourable word to my Lord Keeper. I desire no favour, only suferance. The bearer of this leter can tell you the matter. I choose this time to follow it in Sur Walter’s absents, that myself shall beare the unkindness, and not he, the money being long time past due to me.
Once the ink is dry, she folds the letter. One way or another, Henry Huntingdon will become aware that she will not forget the money he owes her. With luck, Robert Cecil will find some quiet way to avoid the matter going to law. Bess smiles as she presses her signet ring into the hot red wax. She has rolled the dice, and has little to lose.
BESS – Tudor Gentlewoman is available from Amazon in eBook and Paperback:
🇬🇧 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D46XQP59
🇺🇸 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D46XQP59
Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of best-selling Tudor historical fiction. He lives in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the history of the Wars of the Roses and the lives of the Tudors.
For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and his blog, The Writing Desk and find him on Facebook, Twitter and Bluesky (see links below).
You can find out more about his research on his popular podcast series, ‘Stories of the Tudors’
Website: https://www.tonyriches.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonyriches
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tonyriches.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyriches.author/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyriches/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyriches.author/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Tony-Riches/e/B006UZWOXA
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5604088.Tony_Riches