The keepers of the rose

The Guardians of the Rose is a historical novel by the writer Rebecca Gablé from 2005. It follows on from her first historical novel in the Waringham saga The Smile of Fortuna .

Historical background

The novel begins in 1413. After the death of his father, Henry IV , the young Henry V becomes King of England. Although power in England is secured despite his father's usurpation , the Hundred Years War between England and France has stalled. He would like to take this up again and bring it to a successful conclusion. The chances are not bad either, the French King Charles VI. is sick and France weakened after decades of war.

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Part 1 1413–1415 By chance, thirteen-year-old John of Waringham, the youngest son of Robin and his late wife Blanche, believed that his father had planned for him the church career and that he would soon become Henry Beaufort , Bishop of Lincoln and Winchester and Brother of the recently deceased King Henry IV . He decides to rebel against his father and to go to Winchester to the court of King Henry V , called Harry, where he meets John Beaufort , here called Somerset, with whom he soon becomes friends. Together with him, the stubborn and stubborn Welshman Owen Tudor , his half-brothers Edward, Earl of Burton, Raymond and Mortimer, and his worst adversary, Arthur Scrope, he went to war in France for England, where he uncovered a plot against the king , at the battle of Agincourt participates and its accolade receives. The first part ends with the death of old Robin, who suddenly dies of a stroke .

Part 2 1419–1423 At the beginning of the second part, shortly before his departure for France, John briefly met Juliana of Wolvesey, the younger of the bishop's two illegitimate daughters. In order to protect his illegitimate son Daniel from the supposedly harmful influences of the stable master Conrad, Raymond, who has been Earl of Waringham since Robin's death, gives him as a squire in John's care, who then takes him to France, where he takes part almost incessantly in campaigns . He, Somerset and Tudor are now a well-rehearsed team. While on an errand to the Duke of Burgundy , a potential ally of England, John is captured by Victor de Chinon, an agincourt veteran who only by chance survived the warrant to murder the French prisoner, in order to avenge the death of his young cousin, the John captured then. John is detained and tortured under inhumane conditions in Jargeau for two months until he is freed, seriously injured, at the instigation of Bishop Henry. But instead of being able to return to England, he is still a prisoner at the French court, where he makes the acquaintance of the French royal family. Reluctantly, he does his job of teaching English to Princess Katherine de Valois , Harry's future queen, as he has felt a deep hatred of all French since his captivity. Shortly after his return to Waringham, John's eldest half-brother Edward dies and his brother-in-law, also an Edward, becomes Earl of Burton. John agrees to become Waringham's steward and secretly marries Juliana of Wolvesey, originally promised Arthur Scrope, at the cost of falling out of favor at court and being dismissed from the King's service while Owen Tudor finds himself unhappy in England's young queen falls in love and Somerset actually becomes Earl of Somerset. Shortly thereafter, Raymond marries Eugénie de Blamont, a lady-in-waiting to Katherine de Valois who was originally intended for John, because of the dowry , and their marriage becomes a disaster. John, who now commands a group of archers for the bishop, is finally taken back to court.

Due to the tactical clumsiness of the Duke of Clarence , the younger brother of King Harry, the English armed forces experience a debacle. Somerset becomes a Scottish prisoner of war, but is soon sold on to the French. Clarence himself is killed in the Battle of Baugé . Harry moves back to France while his wife is expecting a child. Raymond's wife Eugénie gives birth to a son almost at the same time as the Queen, while Juliana suffers multiple miscarriages. Contrary to his expectations, Raymond returns to Waringham with Victor de Chinon as his prisoner. John, who now sees his chance for revenge, feels torn between morality, decency, self-respect and the thirst for revenge, finally seeks advice from his father-in-law, the bishop, and makes a deal with God. Shortly thereafter, Harry dies unexpectedly in Vincennes of an uncured dysentery . Before his death, he appoints John to be his young son's tutor. John puts together a bodyguard for England's King Henry , while Owen Tudor stays with the widowed queen. On March 1, 1423, John's and Juliana's first daughter, Kate, is born, and John fulfills his part of the deal with God by releasing Victor Chinon and sending him back to France.

Part 3 1429–1432 Owen Tudor begins an affair with Queen Katherine that will mark the beginning of the House of Tudor . Henry, now seven years old, is to be crowned King of France and England first in Westminster and then in Paris, as the Treaty of Troyes provides. But he is disturbed because his mother will not accompany him to France (she is hiding in Fernbrook with John's eldest sister Anne because of the impending birth of her and Owen's first child) and because Joan of Arc is hindering the journey through France for whom Raymond develops a certain affection. Together with him and Henry, John takes part in the trial of the French freedom fighter who, contrary to the Treaty of Troyes, arranged for Charles VII to be coronated in Reims and is now charged with witchcraft and heresy . Soon the English lords decide that Joan of Arc cannot possibly stay alive and set a trap for her. When Raymond is insulted by Thomas de Beauchamp , Earl of Warwick , the tutor of the young Henry, and then smashes his nose, Henry banishes him from his court and to Waringham. When he later learns that Raymond saved his father's life, he regrets his decision and wants to bring Raymond back. But John warns him, as King of England and actually also of France, to keep his word. Joan of Arc is finally burned at the stake as a witch and Henry is crowned second King of France in Notre-Dame de Paris without pomp or pomp.

England is ruled by regents until Henry comes of age. The most influential of these regents, Henry's uncle Humphrey of Gloucester , Lord Protector of England, seeks to oust his own uncle, Henry Beaufort, now Cardinal of England, from power by curtailing his powers and placing him in a bad light. John also suffers from this. Arthur Scrope, John's adversary, makes common cause with Gloucester, but can be stopped in time. Raymond tries to get to know his son Robert better, whom he has not seen for a long time. For a long time he cannot admit to himself what is obvious to everyone else. Robert, future Earl of Waringham, is of an evil character. Owens and Katherine's three sons are now born: Edmund , Jasper and Owen. The couple secretly married in Waringham before Edmund was born.

Part 4 1437–1442 The fourth part begins with the death of Queen Katherine, who loses her mind before she dies. Owen Tudor loses all zest for life, while his and John's friend Somerset is still in French captivity. John's wife Juliana gives birth to healthy twins, Blanche and Julian, who will later star in the book Game of Kings . Raymond's son Robert now makes common cause with Humphrey of Gloucester and his wife Eleanor Cobham , to whom he reports on the existence of the Tudor brothers. Knowing this, Gloucester could shake King Henry's trust in John, who has withheld from him the scandalous relationship the Queen Mother has with Owen Tudor, which is contrary to the ordinance of Parliament, but Henry has misjudged Henry. Despite his illegal marriage, Owen is pardoned but, at Gloucester's instigation, is locked in Newgate Prison , from which John frees him.

John marries his daughter Kate to Simon Neville, who was a former Somerset squire. Somerset himself, released from captivity, appears at their wedding and a little later meets Margaret Beauchamp, the widow of an insignificant knight named Oliver St. John. Somerset swears allegiance to King Henry.

Gloucester wants to overthrow his nephew Henry and his wife uses satanic rites to curse the king and cause him physical harm. Gloucester's betrayal nearly costs John his life as he is slated for one of these rites and is crucified and nearly bled to death. Raymond and his son Daniel interrupt the ritual in time and capture Eleanor Cobham. Gloucester's power at King Henry's court ends with the trial of his wife. The novel ends with the wedding of Somerset and Margaret Beauchamp in 1442 and the announcement of the birth of John and Juliana's first grandson.

Acting characters

Fictional characters

• The Waringham family
  • The main character of the novel is the youngest son of Robin of Waringham, John of Waringham.
  • Juliana of Wolvesey, John's wife, illegitimate daughter of Henry Beaufort , Bishop of Lincoln and Winchester
  • Katherine, called Kate, her daughter
  • Blanche and Julian, their twins
  • Robin of Waringham, John's father and main character in the novel The Smile of Fortuna
  • Raymond of Waringham, Robin's second eldest son and John's half-brother
  • Daniel, illegitimate son of Raymond, John's squire
  • Liz Wheeler, Daniel's mother and Raymond's affair
  • Eugénie de Blamont, Countess of Waringham, Raymond's wife
  • Robert, Raymond and Eugénie's son
  • Edward, Earl of Burton, Robin's eldest son and John's half-brother
  • Mortimer, Robin's stepson and John's half-brother
  • Joanna of Waringham, Robin's daughter and John's sister
  • Edward Fitzroy, Waringham steward , later Earl of Burton, Joanna's husband
  • Conrad, Robin's nephew, John's cousin, horse breeder in Waringham
• Arthur Scrope, one of John's toughest adversaries

Historical figures

• Henry V , King of England
• Henry VI. , King of England and France
• Katherine de Valois , wife of Henry V and daughter of Charles VI. from France
• Owen Tudor , Welsh nobleman, friend of John of Waringham
• Henry Beaufort , Bishop of Lincoln and Winchester, half-brother of Henry IV.
• Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter , half-brother of Henry IV.
• Joan Beaufort , half-sister of Henry IV.
• John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset , nephew of Henry IV, friend of John of Waringham
• Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset , nephew of Henry IV.
• Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester , brother of Henry V
• John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford , brother of Henry V

• Charles VI. , King of France
• Isabeau , Queen of France
• Charles VII , Dauphin and King of France

• Joan of Arc

Remarks

The Keepers of the Rose is the second novel in the Waringham series. The Waringhams are a fictional English noble family whose ancestral home is in Kent .

The Waringham family continues in the second part with John, Robin's youngest son, the protagonist from The Smile of Fortuna , who is now the main character. In the third part of the series The Game of Kings , John's son Julian becomes the new main character. The series concludes with the novel The Dark Throne , which deals with the reign of Henry VIII and thus the climax of the Tudor family, which was founded in The Guardians of the Rose .

The story of the de la Pole family from Gablé's novel The King of the Purple City is also mentioned. Michael de la Pole appears as the Earl of Suffolk .

Audio book

• LübbeAudio, ISBN 3-7857-3050-0 , 10 CDs, playing time 748 minutes, read by Martin May .