The Lady of the Ravens. Джоанна Хиксон

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      John de Vere, Earl of Oxford – 1st Lord Chamberlain, PC, KG & Arthur’s Godfather

      Sir Henry Wyatt – Master of the King’s Jewels & Comptroller of the Mint

      Giles, Lord Daubeney – succeeded Sir William Stanley as Lord Chamberlain, PC & KG

       Queen Elizabeth:

      Joan Vaux – former ward of Lady Margaret, later Lady Guildford

      Katherine Pennyson/Lady Vaux – Joan’s mother, known as Mother Vaux

      Lady Mary Rivers – widow of the queen’s uncle Anthony, Earl Rivers & former ward of Lady Margaret Beaufort

      Eleanor Verney – Lady-in-Waiting, married to Sir Ralph Verney, sister of Richard Pole

      Elizabeth Jerningham – Keeper of the Queen’s Robes

      Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond – Queen’s Lord Chamberlain

      Lady Elizabeth Stafford – 3rd Chief Lady-in-Waiting & daughter of the Duke of Buckingham

       Guildford Family:

      Sir Richard Guildford of Halden, Kent – Master of Ordnance & Armaments

      Sir John Guildford – Richard’s father & Comptroller of Royal Household

      Richard’s children in age order:

      by Anne Pympe:

      Edward (Ned)

      Maria

      George

      Philippa (Pippa)

      Friedswide (Winnie) – Friedswide a popular saint in this period, also known as Winifred

      Elizabeth (Lizzie)

      by Joan:

      Henry (Hal)

      Elizabeth (Bess) Mortimer – Richard’s ward

       English citizens:

      Rosie – a London silkwoman

      Nicholas Vaux – Joan’s brother, a landed esquire, later knighted

      Beth Fitzhugh/Vaux – his Yorkist bride

      Lambert Simnel – name given to the pretend Edward of Warwick

      Richard Pole – Esquire (later Knight) of the King’s Body, brother of Lady Eleanor Verney & husband of Margaret Plantagenet

      Martin Steward – a senior Guildford servant

      Hugh – a scullion training as a server

      Luce – a Guildford maidservant

      Jake – the Guildford cook

      Wynkyn de Worde – printer at Caxton’s Westminster press

      Mistress Wood – governess to the Guildford children

      Sir John Digby – Lieutenant Constable of the Tower of London

      Lettie Stock – a London midwife

      Mistress Strood – a Kent farmer’s wife & breast nurse to baby Hal

      Hetty Smith – a maidservant from the Kent village of Rolvenden

      Sir Robert Poyntz – a landed knight, husband of Meg Woodville

      Anthony Poyntz – their eldest son

      Jane Howell – governess to Prince Henry & former nurse to King Henry

      Mistress Brook – 2nd governess to the Guildford children

       Deceased characters:

      Queen Marguerite – Marguerite of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI the last Lancastrian King of England

      Edward (Édouard), Prince of Wales – their son

      Sir William Vaux – Joan’s father

      Edward IV – Yorkist king who deposed Henry VI

      Prince Edward of York & Prince Richard of York – The Princes in the Tower, deaths unknown

      Richard of Gloucester – Richard III (the usurper), Edward IV’s brother

      Anne Pympe – Sir Richard Guildford’s 1st wife

      Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers – executed on Richard III’s orders (father of Meg Poyntz)

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      THE CART RUMBLED PAST so close that it almost killed me. I was forced to flatten myself against the gatehouse wall or I would surely have been crushed before I had even entered the Tower of London. Limewash and mortar flaked off the masonry, smearing my gown with white dust. Then suddenly, above the diminishing sound of rolling wheels and clattering hooves, I heard the rasping ‘kwaark’ of a raven and a childhood memory rushed in to swamp my senses. I became my nine-year-old self, trembling under the gaze of a large black bird with a bill like the hook of a soldier’s halberd and an eye that could pierce the soul. Then that fearsome beak had opened to emit a hoarse cry, bringing tears to my eyes, and I heard the gravelly voice of my escort, an elderly knight from the Tower’s garrison.

      ‘Think yourself honoured, young mistress. The ravens avoid us men because the archers use them for target practice. But there is a legend, which says that as long as they haunt the Tower, it and the kingdom will stand. Just lately they’ve been coming and going, so perhaps there’s something in it.’ At the time I didn’t understand what he meant but so vividly had the raven’s image imprinted itself in my mind, that the incident and his words had remained with me ever since.

      Now thirteen years later another cart, heaped high and shedding fragments of its cargo as it juddered over the cobbles, made me press even harder against the wall and my heart thudded as a real raven was suddenly there at my feet, rushing in with a triumphant flap of feathers to peck up a speck of shiny discarded metal that glimmered in the gatehouse gloom. My daydream dissolved into reality. The carts were carrying СКАЧАТЬ