England in 1549
The eleven-year-old Edward VI is on the throne, the youngest monarch in English history. A child as young as he cannot run the country, so a protectorate is established. But who will rule this protectorate? Three men are fighting for control – Edward VI’s two uncles, Edward Seymour, Earl of Somerset and Thomas Seymour, the Lord High Admiral, along with John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, one of the leading protestant nobles.
William Paget, the son of a common labourer, born into wretched poverty but rewarded for his outstanding intelligence by a scholarship to St Paul’s school became, as a result of his wit, charm and shrewd judgement, the right-hand man of the fickle Henry VIII. At the old King’s death, Paget made a solemn oath that he would maintain the succession – Henry’s son, Edward, followed by, should Edward die childless, Mary and Elizabeth, Henry’s two daughters.
His planning and meticulous organisation saw the intelligent but physically frail Edward crowned King. But now the child is beset on all sides by attempted coups and abductions, for whoever holds the King in his power runs the country.
Travel with us as William Paget becomes the most trusted ally of Edward, shielding him from all attackers, including the boy’s own uncles. Paget refuses to leave the side of the young Edward, and protects him from all claimants to the throne, even at the risk of his own life, until they are forcibly separated.
The Murmuring of Starlings is the second part of a trilogy that will allow you to truly live in Tudor times and understand the people who endured the bear pit that was the Tudor court. This novel is no fiction. The resemblance to actual persons and actual events is very deliberate. All the characters you will read of are real, as are the events.
Publishing soon