Michael JECKS: The Traitor of St Giles

Sir Baldwin de Furnshill

The Keeper of the King’s Peace in Crediton, who is known as a shrewd investigator of crimes in his jurisdiction. He has a reputation for helping those who have been persecuted.

Jeanne

The widow of Ralph de Liddinstone has now married Baldwin. She has the nagging fear that her husband may be sent to fight for his Lord.

Edgar

Baldwin’s servant, formerly his man-at-arms, and for several years now his loyal companion.

Bailiff Simon Puttock

The long-standing friend of Sir Baldwin. With his own legal experience as a Stannary Bailiff, Simon has often joined forces with Baldwin to investigate murders.

Lord Hugh de Courtenay

The head of one of the country’s important families, Lord Hugh is worried by rumours of impending war and seeks to consult his most loyal men as to which faction to support.

Sir Gilbertde Carlisle

A renegade Templar, one of the many who escaped the vindictive persecution of the French King. Now he is being used by the Despensers as a messenger. He hopes to regain a little of his dignity by joining a Lord’s retinue.

William the Small

Man-at-arms to Sir Gilbert. William was with Despenser as a sailor, but he left the ship when he saw that Sir Gilbert needed help

Joan Carter

The raped and murdered daughter of Matilda Carter.

Matilda Carter

Married to Andrew Carter, Matilda is sister to Nicholas Lovecok. She came down to Devon with Nicholas when he had to leave his old home in Lincolnshire.

Nicholas Lovecok

A wealthy and powerful merchant in Exeter, he built up his business from nothing. He is visiting Tiverton to help with the provisions for the feast at Lord Hugh’s castle.

Andrew Carter

Husband to Matilda and step-father to Joan, he has been Nicholas’s close friend for several years. Their wealth has grown as a result of their shared business interests.

Philip Dyne

An apprentice spicer who was Joan Carter’s lover. He has confessed to killing Joan but managed to escape capture by gaining a place of sanctuary. Now he must leave the country.

Harlewin le Poter

The Coroner of Tiverton – a bluff, vain womaniser who has Lancastrian sympathies.

Father Abraham

The local priest in Tiverton who has a loathing bordering on hysterical fear of heretics in general and the Knights Templar in particular.

Father Benedict

The old Templar priest for Templeton. He refused to leave the area and desert the small parish flock when the Templar manor was closed.

Avicia Dyne

Sister to Philip. She never believed that her brother could have killed the girl he loved.

Sir Peregrine of Barnstaple

A bannaret and trusted follower of Lord Hugh, he is the Keeper of Tiverton Castle.

Felicity

A well-known whore who works in Tiverton.

I have always had a fondness for Tiverton. It’s one of those old market towns which has been altered almost out of recognition in recent years: one-way systems and, more recently, pedestrianisation make it a difficult place to get to – it’s even worse finding a parking space – but local councils and central government haven’t managed to entirely destroy its atmosphere. My own ties with the town extend to my being married in Tiverton’s Register Office – and I can recommend it as a venue!

It was while on honeymoon in Devon that my wife and I visited Tiverton Castle, Bickleigh Castle and Fursdon House, the three places which inspired The Last Templar and subsequent stories. For some time recently I had been promising myself that I would return north of Crediton to base another story in Tiverton itself. This book is the result.

Tiverton was founded under the Saxons; the name comes from Twyfyrde , or ‘Two Fords’ because it lies between two rivers, the Exe and the Lowman. In 1106 King Henry I gave it to Richard de Redvers and it was Richard’s son Baldwin who became the first Earl of Devon. The castle was built by the de Redvers family, but they died out in 1293 and the castle then passed to Hugh de Courtenay, who became Earl himself in 1335, a mere five years before his death.

Little remains of the early castle buildings, but there is enough to give you a good feel for the place. It was held by Royalists in the Civil War, and when Fairfax and his Roundheads captured it they ‘slighted’ it (i.e. destroyed it as a defensible fortress) to prevent its being held against Parliament again: the curtain walls to west and north were blown up or pulled down. A huge southeastern tower survives, there are fragments of a hall visible and some of the 14th-century solar block remains but there is little else from the 1300s.

Although Tiverton Castle has been badly knocked about over the years it is well worth a visit. Its museum holds a fascinating collection of Civil War arms and armour. Equally interesting are Bickleigh Castle a few miles to the south, and Fursdon House near Cadbury. I can also recommend a visit to Templeton, a beautiful little village to the west of Tiverton.

Lord Hugh de Courtenay was an interesting character. The early 1300s were dangerous times to live in and yet he managed to survive in a world of richer and more powerful magnates.

King Edward II was very fond of his favourites. The first was Piers Gaveston, the younger son of a Béarnaise knight, who compounded the jealousy that better-born men felt for him by giving them disrespectful nicknames. For example, he referred to the Earl of Warwick as ‘the black dog of Arden’ and the Earl of Gloucester as ‘a cuckold’s bird’. During the reign of King Edward I, Gaveston was banished from the realm, but as soon as Edward I died, his son recalled his companion (and, most believe, homosexual lover) from exile. He smothered Gaveston with titles and lavish presents, giving him the Earldom of Cornwall and the honour and castle of Berkhamstead among others, and arranging for Gaveston’s marriage to Margaret de Clare, the King’s niece.

Gaveston was thrown from the kingdom when Parliament selected Ordainers – among them Lord Hugh de Courtenay – to control the realm better and stop the King’s spendthrift habits from ruining the country. During the Parliament of 1311 they forced the King to accept new counsellors, but their success was short-lived since the King soon invited Gaveston back. Certainly the barons and earls believed that Gaveston had returned because, that same November, Lord Hugh was one of two men ordered to seek him in the West Country.

The end of Gaveston came the next year, when he was executed by lords sick of his greed and fearful – or jealous – of his hold over the King. However, this wasn’t the end of the King’s troublesome selection of his friends, because now he chose young Hugh Despenser as his favourite; Despenser being the greediest and most corrupt baron the King could have fixed upon as advisor – and again, probably, lover.

Hugh Despenser the Younger, as he is now known, was if anything more ambitious than Gaveston. His marriage to Eleanor de Clare (arranged by the King) ensured his wealth when, at Bannockburn, her brother Gilbert de Clare died without an heir. The Clare estates were subsequently split up and divided between his sisters and their husbands, and Despenser, being favoured by the King, was able to extort those pieces of land he wanted. He was arrogant, determined, and prepared to use violence whenever it suited him.