The Courts of Illusion — Rosemary Hawley Jarman

Mais father (a Richard supporter), living with his imperious mother, hard-working brother, and beloved sister in near-poverty. And, in the three-act tragedy that follows, Nicholas will eventually become the most trusted follower of ""Richard IV,"" pretender to the throne. The first act is the most mesmerizing: virginal Nicholas develops an unrequited homoerotic passion for his London-wastrel chum Hugh Finch (stepson of the king's jester) while his mother and upright brother Edmund become involved in anti-Tudor conspiracies; but, when Hugh seduces Nicholas' innocent sister Josina, it's Edmund who dies in the ensuing fray -- so the stricken Nicholas vows to atone by taking Edmund's place in the Plantagenet conspiracy. Off, then, in the second section, to the Continent -- where Nicholas is part of the ragged army/court that follows mercurial young Richard, nephew of the dead Richard III: he follows the Pretender to Flanders when the French king betrays them; he falls in love there with weaver Krista; he hears the persistent rumors that ""Richard"" is really a fake, a commoner named Pieter Warbeck; he's mistaken for the Pretender at one point, captured by the Tudors, then luckily rescued before martyring himself. And finally, in the third section, though pessimistic (""No one wins against Tudor"") and loath to leave Krista, Nicholas follows the Pretender on his would-be invasion -- getting support in Scotland from King James (a practical sort who condones atrocities) but finding no welcome as they attempt to bring the insurrection south (""A turdpot aimed at the prince hit my visored face""); the flighty Pretender, who takes on Richard II-like dignity through his defeats and humiliations, is indeed doomed...while Nicholas reaches for spiritual peace after a ghastly discovery about Krista. This melodramatic revelation, in fact, is the only hackneyed moment here. Everywhere else, Jarman invests her straightforward scenario (a far simpler design than the Crown in Candlelight maze) with ironic dialogue, Shakespearean dimensions, and distinctive period colors -- from cockfighting and Bartholomew Fair to the looms of Flanders. And the result is a noble yet earthy journey through an unfamiliar decade of British-royal tension: the fiction of choice for readers who want more than frills and jousts from historical drama.