Meet Richard Fitzwarren - An anti-hero with a dubious past, questionable morals but unswerving loyalties Jack Fitzwarren, Richard’s displaced bastard brother, seeks a place at his brother’s side. Impulsive and hot headed, his attempts to gain his brother’s acceptance and approval often end badly. Finally the brothers are brought head to head when Richard tries to foil a plot against Elizabeth I. Can Jack murder his brother to save a woman he’s never met? Will Richard accept his fate and fight? Or will he run? “It combines murder, mystery, and intrigue in a most masterful way.” Rita Kroon - Author of "Letters from the Past" As Tudor England erupts following the death of Edward VI, can one young spy protect his queen? International bestselling author Sam Burnell takes us deep into the treacherous world of powerful monarchs, intrigue, murder, and treason with this magnificent new epic, A Queen’s Spy. In 1553, England is torn apart by religious conflict. Power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and brotherly love. Richard Fitzwarren, caught in the middle of a cruel family feud, wants nothing more than to make his own way in the world. A childhood friend of the Princess Elizabeth, he cannot forget his loyalty in her time of need. Pressured by her sister, Mary, Elizabeth’s continued existence remains precarious throughout her reign. The divide between Catholic Mary and Anne Boleyn’s Protestant daughter Elizabeth is a deep one. PAGE UP AND ORDER

Based on actual historical events, an epic tale of a young Tudor nobleman's courage as he tries to keep the future Queen Elizabeth I safe in one of England's most turbulent eras. If you enjoy Tudor Fiction by Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir then A Queens Spy is perfect for you. A fascinating insight into Tudor England and the life of Elizabeth I before she sets foot on the steps to the throne.Richard Fitzwarren, a Tudor nobleman with a dubious past takes risks for a living.As a younger man he had been attached to Thomas Seymour's household, working with Seymour's spy and intelligence network. Seymoure, married to Henry VIII's widow, Catherine Parr, was as close to the power at Court as he could get. Through his wife he became guardian of the young princess Elizabeth, and so Richard Fitzwarren became a close childhood friend of Elizabeth Tudor. So close that Seymoure was readily believed when he blamed Richard for the liberties he himself had taken with the young princess. Banished from his father's house for the crimes he didn't commit he's learnt his trade well in France returning to England a self styled soldier of fortune selling his services, and those of his mercenary band to the highest bidder.Now he's back in England, his bastard sibling at his side and a band of mercenaries at his back. Despite selling his services to support Northumberland place Lady Jane Grey on the throne he remains loyal to the lady Elizabeth; soon he is embroiled in Tudor intrigue and mystery as he tries to keep the Lady safe.At his side is Jack, his bastard sibling; their relationship a troubled one. Jacks seeks to be his brothers equal but Richard has difficulty accepting him; impatient, impulsive and impetuous, he is everything Richard is not. There is a dark family secret Richard had always suspected; as this medieval mystery unfolds the final discovery of it changes the relationship between them forever.Caught up in struggle to place Jane Grey on the throne is Catherine De Bernay. Daughter of Peter De Bernay, a close supporter of Mary Tudor, the young woman finds herself losing her home and family and is forced to turn for help to the men who orchestrated her fall, the Fitzwarren brothers. Intent on revenge she finds herself on the side of others who would like to see Richard Fitzwarren's downfall. Hidden within the text are some clues, find them, crack the code and claim the prize which is a 16th Century Tudor Ring.Praise for a Queens SpySam Burnell's historical novel, "A Queen's Spy: The Fitzwarren Trials", is a highly charged cloak and dagger mystery set in the troubling times that followed the reign of King Henry VIII. - Readers FavoriteDialogue and descriptive narrative carry this story along and give the reader a sense of time and place. A thrilling and educational read. Readers Favorite It is very well written, the prose really conjure up a picture and a feel for the period. The story is complex and there is lots going on and plenty to keep you turning the pages, indeed I found it difficult to put down and I was sad to reach the final pages. Josephine Jones GoodreadsThere are so many things going on in this book, but the author does a terrific job at making it all come together perfectly as well as grabbing and holding the reader's attention from the first page right to the last. Denise Lucas Goodreads"A Queens Spy: The Fitzwarren Trials" grabs your attention and doesn't let go. Maranda Russell GoodreadsIf you like SK Penman or Elizabeth Chadwick I think you should give this a read.I'm truly looking forward to the forthcoming book two! Amazon Review

What induced the British to adopt foreign coffee-drinking customs in the seventeenth century? Why did an entirely new social institution, the coffeehouse, emerge as the primary place for consumption of this new drink? In this lively book, Brian Cowan locates the answers to these questions in the particularly British combination of curiosity, commerce, and civil society. Cowan provides the definitive account of the origins of coffee drinking and coffeehouse society, and in so doing he reshapes our understanding of the commercial and consumer revolutions in Britain during the long Stuart century. Britain’s virtuosi, gentlemanly patrons of the arts and sciences, were profoundly interested in things strange and exotic. Cowan explores how such virtuosi spurred initial consumer interest in coffee and invented the social template for the first coffeehouses. As the coffeehouse evolved, rising to take a central role in British commercial and civil society, the virtuosi were also transformed by their own invention.

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN!Well actually not exactly back in town, but they are heading towards Venice where they plan to sell a stolen arms shipment to the highest bidder. How badly wrong could it go?Catherine, abandoned in London, finds herself unwillingly recruited by Cecil to spy on her mistress.William Ftizwarren, Richard's father, refuses to succumb to his illness and vows to take his revenge on his son if it is the last thing he does.Robert Fitzwarrren, humiliated by his brother, continues to hunt for him in London. Princess Elizabeth continues to weather the political storm in England and watches quietly as Mary's marriage to Phillip begins to fail.

The tragedy of Lady Jane Grey is unquestionably one of the most poignant episodes in English history, but its very dramatic completeness and compactness have almost invariably caused its wider significance to be obscured by the element of personal pathos with which it abounds. The sympathetic figure of the studious, saintly maiden, single-hearted in her attachment to the austere creed of Geneva, stands forth alone in a score of books refulgent against the gloomy background of the greed and ambition to which she was sacrificed. The whole drama of her usurpation and its swift catastrophe is usually treated as an isolated phenomenon, the result of one man’s unscrupulous self-seeking; and with the fall of the fair head of the Nine Days’ Queen upon the blood-stained scaffold within the Tower the curtain is rung down and the incident looked upon as fittingly closed by the martyrdom of the gentlest champion of the Protestant Reformation in England. Such a treatment of the subject, however attractive and humanly interesting it may be, is nevertheless unscientific as history and untrue in fact. An adequate appreciation of the tendencies behind the unsuccessful attempt to deprive Mary of her birthright can only be gained by a consideration of the circumstances preceding and surrounding the main incident. The reasons why Northumberland, a weak man as events proved, was able to ride rough-shod over the nobles and people of England, the explanation of his sudden and ignominious collapse and of the apparent levity with which the nation at large changed its religious beliefs and observance at the bidding of assumed authority are none of them on the surface of events; and the story of Jane Grey as it is usually told, whilst abounding in pathetic interest gives no key to the vast political issues of which the fatal intrigue of Northumberland was but a by-product. To represent the tragedy as a purely religious one, as is not infrequently done, is doubly misleading. That one side happened to be Catholic and the other Protestant was merely a matter of party politics, and probably not a single active participator in the events, except Jane herself, and to some extent Mary, was really moved by religious considerations at all, loud as the professions of some of the leaders were.

Meet Richard Fitzwarren - An anti-hero with a dubious past, questionable morals but unswerving loyalties Richard grinned and grasping his brother's wrist said, "Terrible apart and even worse together - that would make us a fine family moto. Et mirabilia absque peius."Jack Fitzwarren, Richard's displaced bastard brother, seeks a place at his brother's side. Impulsive and hot headed, his attempts to gain his brother's acceptance and approval often end badly. Finally the brothers are brought head to head when Richard tries to foil a plot against Elizabeth I. Jack Fitzwarren, fearing his brother has died embarks on a reckless path, and whether or not Richard can save him remains to be seen. Branded a traitor to the Crown for helping to foil a plot to remove the Princess Elizabeth from the succession, now he will risk all to save her from a plot to snatch her from England. Protestant Reformers need a figurehead for their cause, and Elizabeth. is it. They truly believe the Princess will be safer in Europe away from her sister Mary's cruel hand, but the lady does not want to go. Elizabeth knows her destiny lies with England, and Jack's lies with his brother - or so he hopes. PAGE UP AND ORDER

Why were so many religious images and objects broken and damaged in the course of the Reformation? Margaret Aston's magisterial new book charts the conflicting imperatives of destruction and rebuilding throughout the English Reformation from the desecration of images, rails and screens to bells, organs and stained glass windows. She explores the motivations of those who smashed images of the crucifixion in stained glass windows and who pulled down crosses and defaced symbols of the Trinity. She shows that destruction was part of a methodology of religious revolution designed to change people as well as places and to forge in the long term new generations of new believers. Beyond blanked walls and whited windows were beliefs and minds impregnated by new modes of religious learning. Idol-breaking with its emphasis on the treacheries of images fundamentally transformed not only Anglican ways of worship but also of seeing, hearing and remembering.