Dark Serpent (Hugh Corbett 18) Read online

  Copyright © 2016 Paul Doherty

  The right of Paul Doherty to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

  First published as an Ebook by Headline Publishing Group in 2016

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

  Cover by craigfraserdesign.com

  eISBN: 978 1 4722 3368 4

  HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

  An Hachette UK Company

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  www.headline.co.uk

  www.hachette.co.uk

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  About the Author

  Also by Paul Doherty

  Praise

  About the Book

  Character List

  Historical Note

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  Part Five

  Part Six

  Part Seven

  Part Eight

  Part Nine

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  © David Headley

  Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough. He studied History at Liverpool and Oxford Universities and obtained a doctorate for his thesis on Edward II and Queen Isabella. He is now headmaster of a school in north-east London and lives with his family in Essex.

  By Paul Doherty

  Novels

  Dark Serpent

  The Peacock’s Cry (digital novella)

  Roseblood

  The Death of a King

  Prince Drakulya

  The Lord Count Drakulya

  The Fate of Princes

  Dove Amongst the Hawks

  The Masked Man

  The Rose Demon

  The Haunting

  The Soul Slayer

  The Plague Laws

  The Love Knot

  Of Love and War

  The Loving Cup

  The Last of Days

  Non-fiction

  The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun

  Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II

  Alexander the Great, The Death of a God

  The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303

  The Secret Life of Elizabeth I

  The Death of the Red King

  Series

  Hugh Corbett Medieval Mysteries

  Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan

  Sir Roger Shallot Tudor Mysteries

  Kathryn Swinbrooke Series

  Nicholas Segalla Series

  The Templar Mysteries

  Matthew Jankyn Series

  Alexander the Great Mysteries

  Canterbury Tales of Murder and Mystery

  The Egyptian Mysteries

  Mahu (The Akhenaten-Trilogy)

  Mathilde of Westminster Series

  Political Intrigue in Ancient Rome Series

  Praise

  Praise for Paul Doherty’s historical novels:

  ‘Teams with colour, energy and spills’ Time Out

  ‘Deliciously suspenseful, gorgeously written and atmospheric’ Historical Novels Review

  ‘Supremely evocative, scrupulously researched’ Publishers Weekly

  ‘An opulent banquet to satisfy the most murderous appetite’ Northern Echo

  ‘Extensive and penetrating research coupled with a strong plot and bold characterisation. Loads of adventure and a dazzling evocation of the past’ Herald Sun, Melbourne

  About the Book

  Sir Hugh Corbett returns in the eighteenth novel in master historian Paul Doherty’s brilliant series.

  Summer 1311, and Sir Hugh Corbett has taken up a life of danger again …

  After his recent unveiling of a devious assassin, Sir Hugh Corbett has returned to service as the Keeper of the Secret Seal, begrudgingly admitting that his appetite for adventure has once again been whetted.

  Summoned to meet the King to be congratulated on their work together, Corbett and Ranulf learn of the death of Corbett’s close friend, Ralph Grandison. Ralph, a leper, has been found dead in a rowing boat, a dagger thrust through his chest. But this murder is not the first of its kind. Other patients of the hospital in which Ralph was staying have similarly slaughtered and it seems as though the lepers, all former knights of the Royal household, are being targeted.

  The discovery that Ralph was killed by no ordinary weapon, but a poison dagger that once belonged with the Crown Jewels before being famously stolen, leads Corbett down a complex path, where the risk of disease plays out against the backdrop of finding an assassin who will use any means necessary to kill. As Corbett puts himself in the path of extreme danger, will he survive to see another day?

  CHARACTER LIST

  John Naseby Master of The Candle-Bright

  Laurence Torpel Leading mariner

  Peterkin Ship’s boy

  Gaston Foix Master of The Black Hogge

  Ysabeau Gaston’s wife

  Blanquit Leading seaman aboard The Black Hogge

  Sulpice Sailor aboard The Black Hogge

  Matthew Fallowfield Matthew Aschroft, Templar knightw

  Henry Sumerscale Henry Poultney, Templar knight

  Sir Hugh Corbett The Keeper of the Secret Seal

  Lady Maeve Sir Hugh’s wife

  Edward Sir Hugh’s son

  Eleanor Sir Hugh’s daughter

  Boudon Sir Hugh’s steward

  Ranulf-atte-Newgate Senior clerk in the Chancery of the Green Wax

  Chanson Sir Hugh’s clerk of the stables

  Walter Creswell ‘The Deacon’; one of Sir Hugh’s spies in France

  Fitzosbert Chief muniment clerk at the Tower

  Robert Burnel Bishop of Bath and Wells

  Gabriel Rougehead King’s approver

  Crispin Slingsby Owner of the Salamander tavern

  Philippa Henman Owner of the Merry Mercy tavern

  Raoul Henman Vintner and alderman of Queenhithe

  Matthias Sokelar Harbour master

  Agnes Sokelar Matthias’s daughter

  Geoffrey Layburn Vicar of Holy Trinity the Little

  Waldo Henman Previous vicar of Holy Trinity; Raoul Henman’s uncle

  Primus Leader of assassin band

  Edward II King of England

  Peter Gaveston Earl of Cornwall, the king’s favourite

  Philip IV King of France

  Isabella Daughter of Philip IV, wife of Edward II

  Guillaume de Nogaret Philip’s chief minister

  Thomas, Earl of Lancaster Leader of the great lords

  Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembroke, opponent of Edward II

  Sir John Howard Knight

  Ap Ythel Leader of Edward’s bodyguard

  Chancellor Baldock King’s councillor

  Walter Reynolds Royal chaplain and king’s councillor

  Pierre du Bois Lawyer to Philip IV

  Amaury de Craon French envoy

  Guido Tallefert English agent in France

  Lord Scrope English envoy in France

  Rochfort Former Templar

  Pietal English courier in Boulogne

>   Brother Jerome Clerk to Amaury de Craon

  Jacques de Molay Grand master of the Templar order

  William Boveney Templar serjeant

  Ralph Grandison Templar knight

  Reginald Ausel Master of St Giles lazar hospital

  Edmund Datchet Templar knight

  Master Crowthorne Leech at St Giles lazar hospital

  Walter Burghesh Templar captain

  Roger Stapleton Templar knight

  Sir Peter Mausley Leper knight

  Richard Puddlicot Master felon

  John of St Albans Mason

  Elijah Woodman Magister Viae, leader of the Fraternity of the Hanged

  Matilda Poultney Owner of the Sunne in Splendour tavern

  John Poultney Son of Matilda Poultney

  Penda At the Sunne in Splendour

  Gunhilda Penda’s sister, at the Sunne in Splendour

  HISTORICAL NOTE

  ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the Crown.’ Shakespeare’s description of English kingship certainly applied to Edward II of England as he fought to protect the great love of his life, Peter Gaveston, during the summer of 1311. Sinister dark forces ranged against both the King and his royal favourite. Across the Narrow Seas, Philip IV of France wove his own tapestry of treason to trap Edward and Gaveston as well as their principal clerk Sir Hugh Corbett. The French king’s secret poisonous design had been well planned and cunningly plotted, and was on the verge of full flowering …

  PART ONE

  ‘What use is it to oppose the king?’

  The Monk of Malmesbury, Life of Edward II

  ‘From all the terrors of the deep, Lord, deliver us. From those who prowl the seas, wolves seeking those whom they may devour, Lord, deliver us.’ John Naseby, master of the two-hundred-tun cog The Candle-Bright, quietly murmured his prayer. The journey out of the Thames to Boulogne-sur-Mer in the English-held enclave of Ponthieu in Normandy was short but highly dangerous.

  ‘You are praying, Master Naseby?’

  ‘I certainly am,’ the master replied, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Laurence Torpel, his leading mariner. ‘I am praying for swift and smooth passage. You there!’ Naseby steadied himself against the pitch and swell of the sea. ‘You there!’ he repeated, bellowing at the ship’s boy high on the falcon perch at the top of The Candle-Bright’s soaring mast. ‘What do you see, Peterkin?’

  ‘Nothing, sir,’ the boy’s voice carried back. ‘Nothing to the north, south, east or west.’

  Naseby heaved a sigh of relief and carefully made his way across to the taffrail, gesturing at Torpel to join him. Both seamen stood grasping the rough-hewn wood, feet apart as they braced themselves against the fast-running swell of the Narrow Seas. Naseby glanced across at the great sail billowing out under a vigorous north-easterly wind. A good wind, indeed the best for the crossing they had to make. His heart skipped a beat as he glimpsed a shadow against the sail like that of a man hanging from the great crossbar of the mast, yet it was only a loose rope. He glanced away, staring out over the swollen grey sea broken by ripples of frothy white, his heart and mind thronging with the names of those he had killed at sea, above all those of Matthew Fallowfield and Henry Sumerscale. He glanced over his shoulder at that dangling rope. He had hanged Fallowfield and Sumerscale from the mast of The Candle-Bright three years ago. He murmured another prayer.

  ‘Master, you still think of them?’

  ‘Of course I do. How can I forget?’ Naseby leaned against the side of the ship, his eyes watering as his face was whipped by the salt-edged wind. ‘Three years ago last January, The Candle-Bright was part of the royal fleet mustering to leave London and Dover to accompany our noble King Edward across to Notre-Dame de Boulogne; he was to marry Isabella, the twelve-year-old daughter of Philip IV of France, God curse the Frenchman as a sinner and a reprobate.’ Naseby was now talking to himself as he recalled the events of that fateful time. ‘Yes, January 1308,’ he murmured. ‘The old king had been dead for six months, his wounded cadaver opened, embalmed and sent to Westminster for burial; his beloved son Edward of Caernarvon had succeeded to the throne. Now the young king did not want to marry Isabella. Philip threatened all-out war against Gascony, and the seizure of all England’s possessions in France. Edward conceded, as he did over the question of the Templars. Do you remember, Torpel?’

  ‘Of course. Philip of France had declared the Templars to be warlocks and magicians, corrupt, degenerate and guilty of the most appalling practices.’

  ‘All lies, Master Torpel. Philip just wanted the Templar treasures, their lands and whatever else he could grab. He bullied Pope Clement V for his blessing and approval and,’ Naseby sighed, ‘as Clement lives in exile in Avignon, he falls within easy reach of Philip’s mailed fist. Templars in France and elsewhere were seized and disappeared into Philip’s dungeons, where his torturers soon got the answers their master required. At first, however, Edward II of England refused to believe Philip’s allegations against the order.’

  Naseby drew a deep breath of fresh sea air. He had told this tale to himself as well as to those whom he trusted, time and again. He had to set the scene for what he knew to be the most tragic mistake of his life.

  ‘Gaveston.’ Torpel broke into his thoughts.

  ‘Gaveston,’ Naseby agreed. ‘He is the cause of everything. King Edward is obsessed with him.’

  ‘Are they lovers?’ Torpel asked, lowering his voice.

  Naseby glanced down at the sea-washed deck, wondering how much he should say.

  ‘That’s why we are now crossing to Boulogne, isn’t it?’ Torpel insisted. ‘Peter Gaveston, the Gascon favourite, the beloved friend of our noble king, who has created him Earl of Cornwall and married him off to a royal princess.’ He lowered his voice, as if the very wind could carry his words to where he wished they would not. ‘They say the great earls want Gaveston exiled. They will force the king to agree, and my lord of Gaveston will have to shelter in Ponthieu, probably in Boulogne itself.’ He pointed down at the deck. ‘We are taking treasure and whatever else he will need to live in opulent exile.’

  ‘The king has agreed to this; he has commissioned us even against the advice of Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal.’

  ‘Because of The Black Hogge?’ Torpel queried.

  Naseby ignored the question. He stared out over the grey water, the morning mist thinning fast.

  ‘Are you awake, boy?’ he yelled up at the lookout in the falcon’s perch.

  ‘Awake and watching!’ the boy sang back.

  Torpel decided to change the subject. ‘Master, you were talking about Fallowfield and Sumerscale. I admit I have heard rumours, gossip. I would like to hear the true story, as I did not serve with you then.’

  Naseby nodded. ‘According to Gabriel Rougehead, a king’s approver, a Judas man, Fallowfield and Sumerscale, both members of my crew, became drunk in a tavern, the Salamander, which stands close to the river in Queenhithe. They mocked the king and Gaveston, mimicking them in the sex act, and,’ Naseby sighed, ‘made matters worse with lecherous comments about Edward’s intended wife and new queen. I was ordered to try both men before a hastily convened ship’s tribunal at Queenhithe. I was given the power of oyer and terminer.’

  ‘To hear and to terminate,’ Torpel translated.

  ‘And I certainly did,’ Naseby agreed. ‘At the time, The Candle-Bright was a royal ship in the king’s service, so they were tried in secret according to the articles of war at sea. Rougehead repeated his allegation, which was supported by three other witnesses. No one from the Salamander came forward to vouch for Sumerscale and Fallowfield’s innocence. Both men denied the charge, but they couldn’t even explain why they were in that tavern in the first place. Anyway, the Judas men had their day.’

  ‘And were Sumerscale and Fallowfield guilty?’

  ‘I doubt it very much. Perhaps slurred comments when they were deep in their cups, but Rougehead and his fellow approvers could not be contradicted. You see
, the king had issued a proclamation against anyone attacking Gaveston in word or deed. This same royal proclamation offered rewards to those who laid indictment against offenders and were proved correct. I …’

  Naseby paused as he steadied himself against the roll of the ship, followed by a sharp juddering as it swerved sideways. The sail was now slapping loudly like the snap of a whip. He waited whilst Torpel screamed at the crew to tack according to the shift of the vessel. The sound of bare feet on the slop-soaked deck echoed like a drum; above them a marauding gull shrieked and swooped. Naseby stared across the sullen waters. He did not really know why he was telling Torpel all this, but he had confessed the same to Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster, a room Corbett used to transact the secret business of the Crown. He recalled the clerk’s long oval face with its deep-set, soulful eyes, his shaven olive skin and close-cropped hair. Corbett reminded Naseby of a cleric rather than a royal clerk. An official lacking any ornament except for the signet ring of the Secret Chancery on his left hand and a pure silver cross on a filigree chain around his neck. A wedding gift, so someone had told him, from Corbett’s wife the Lady Maeve …

  Torpel returned to his side, and Naseby continued with his narrative.

  ‘Against my better judgement, I found Fallowfield and Sumerscale guilty. Like so many others, I was eager to please the young king. I was ordered to execute them immediately.’ He looked askance at his leading mariner. ‘I really had no choice. The Candle-Bright was governed by the articles of war; we were on royal business. In the end, the will of the prince has force of law. I mustered the ship’s company and hanged both men from the mast. I was also ordered to keep the bodies dangling there until we set sail, as a public warning not to engage in contumacious or treasonable talk against His Grace and the king’s good friend and brother Lord Peter Gaveston.’