A Conspiracy of Wolves

‘Oh, that he is,’ said Lucie.

Author’s Note

Writing this book was a homecoming for me. A few of the series characters could not wait for my return and infiltrated my other series set in medieval York, the Kate Clifford mysteries, but in Kate’s world they are a quarter century older, so not quite the same. I hope those of you who are returning to the series enjoy being back as much as I do. And for those of you new to Owen and Lucie’s world, welcome!

With the death of Archbishop Thoresby in A Vigil of Spies my sleuth was out of work. What next for Owen? A period of mourning, perhaps returning to his earlier interest in apprenticing to his wife as an apothecary, a survey of the manor Thoresby had directed William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, to cede to Owen in gratitude for his considerable efforts on his behalf – all this might occupy him for a year or two, but I could not imagine him staying idle. Nor would the people of York (and Princess Joan’s household) forget his skill in solving crimes.

But who could I find to replace John Thoresby, whose patronage brought Owen to York in the first book of the series? Theirs was a prickly partnering. It was not long before Owen was questioning the wisdom of choosing to serve Thoresby rather than John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He’d expected a churchman to be far more ethical than a duke of royal blood, but he realized that was not always so. The ensuing friction between Archer and Thoresby added a tension that was a gift to me, the writer. A gift that ended with Thoresby’s death. Who would now be Owen’s foil?

In A Vigil of Spies Thoresby recommends Owen to Princess Joan, wife of Prince Edward, heir to the English throne. But I did not want to shift the main stage to the royal court. What to do? I briefly flirted with his working for Alexander Neville, the new archbishop, but failed to find a plausible scenario in which Owen would agree to serve him; nor could I imagine Neville trusting Owen, who had worked so closely with members of the Thoresby/Ravenser clan. R. B. Dobson captured the character of Alexander Neville, Thoresby’s successor as Archbishop of York, in referring to him as ‘so stormy an ecclesiastical petrel.’[1] A younger son of the patriarch of the increasingly powerful Neville family, the new archbishop saw rivals everywhere, and he was infamous for his aggressions against the powerful Bishop of Durham, the chapter of Beverley, and even the treasurer of York Minster, among others. He particularly disliked the ‘stranglehold on the exceptionally lucrative canonries there exercised by members of the great Thoresby clerical affinity.’[2]

Dobson sums him up: ‘Neville suffered in his confrontations with the highly professionalised clerical elites of late fourteenth-century England by being every inch a non-professional.’[3]

The Nevilles arrived in England in the army of William the Conqueror, establishing themselves in the Northeast and rising through political and military service, as well as strategic marriage alliances. Alexander was born in Raby Castle, the family seat at Staindrop. His father, Ralph, was the hero of Neville’s Cross, his mother, Alice, the sister of the Earl of Gloucester. With three older brothers, it was natural that Alexander and his twin Thomas sought careers in the Church. Family influence brought them early preferments. When Thomas died young, Alexander benefitted by becoming the focus of his family’s ambitions in the Church. But he proved to be a man never satisfied, aggressively fighting for the offices he felt he deserved, which led him to the papal court, where he sought the pope’s favor and influence against the hierarchy of the English Church, a majority of whom he had alienated. His efforts were rewarded when he won the vote of the chapter of York to become their new archbishop. No doubt his being a member of one of the two most powerful families in the north appealed to the canons, as well as his connection with the court – his brother John was steward of the royal household and brother-in-law to the chamberlain. The chapter would regret their decision. And therein lies a delicious tension for the ongoing series.

But what of Owen?