Revenger characters
There are many well-known figures in Revenger, but these lesser-known names are worth getting acquainted with, too…
Thomas Becon: 1512-1567
Famous for saying “when the wine is in, the wit is out,” he was a fervent Protestant reformer and writer who fell foul of the Catholic authorities under Henry VIII and Mary, but prospered under Edward VI and Elizabeth. During the bad days he hid under the alias Theodore Basil before being caught, imprisoned in the Tower, forced to recant and destroy his books, then exiled. In the good times, he wrote prolifically and influenced the 1549 prayer book. Though he said that women and horses should be well-governed, he was in favour of education for girls and believed in social justice.
Charles Blount: 1563-1606
As a young courtier, he wounded the Earl of Essex in a duel over an insult – and won his respect. Later, he won the love of Essex’s sister, the beautiful Lady Penelope Rich, even though she was married. They eventually wed in 1605 after she scandalised society by being divorced. Like all good romantic heroes, Blount was handsome, dark-haired, strong, silent and happiest on the battlefield. He became Lord Mountjoy on the death of his brother in 1594 and was acclaimed for his decisive victories in Ireland. King James I honoured him with the title Earl of Devonshire. His early death has been attributed to heavy smoking.
Christopher Blount: 1555-1601
A distant relative of Charles Blount (see above), Blount began and ended his life as a Catholic, though in his middle years he seemed to turn against Catholicism and may have worked for spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham to bring about the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. He served the Earl of Leicester and, on the earl’s death, married his wealthy and beautiful widow Lettice Knollys, who was 12 years his senior. One claim is that their affair began before Leicester’s death – and that she poisoned her husband to leave her free to wed Blount. He became stepfather to the Earl of Essex, whom he vowed to serve “until after I be dead”. In 1601, he played a crucial role in Essex’s abortive coup and, like him, was beheaded.
Henry Cuffe: 1562-1601
Classical scholar whose fatal flaw was his admiration for the Earl of Essex – and his own Machiavellian nature. As secretary and close associate to the earl, he pushed hard for him to take up arms against Elizabeth and snatch the crown. In the end, he did not take part in the rebellion of 1601 but stayed at home reading. That did not save him, for he was implicated by Essex. Cuffe was sentenced to death, accused of being “the very seducer of the earl”. Essex said to his face: “You have been one of the chiefest instigators of me into all these my disloyal courses”. Cuffe was never interested in women and may have been homosexual. He was executed at Tyburn.
Arthur Gorges: 1550s-1625
A close friend and cousin of Sir Walter Ralegh, he was a poet, courtier and sea captain. He was bereft when his beloved young wife Douglas Howard died, aged 18, in 1590. His grief inspired the 1591 elegy Daphnaida by Edmund Spenser. The following year, he visited his kinsman Ralegh in the Tower (he had been imprisoned for marrying Bess Throckmorton without the Queen’s permission) and was injured in an altercation between Sir Walter and the gaoler, causing him to write that he wished both their heads had been broken. Ralegh, in his will, left him his “best rapier and dagger”. Gorges was often short of money and probably died of the plague.
Robert Greene: 1558-1592
He was a prolific playwright and writer of courtly romances, as famous in his day as William Shakespeare, whom he sneered at as an “upstart” in his notorious tract Greenes Groats-worth of Wit. Born in Norwich, he went to Cambridge and prided himself on being one of the “university wits”, whereas Will Shakespeare did not attend university. Yet Greene was a mass of contradictions, for he was also deeply attracted to the seedy side of life: he left his wife at home in Norfolk and lived in London with the whore Em Ball, sister to the infamous master criminal Cutting Ball. Greene wrote entertaining pamphlets detailing the language and habits of London’s underworld. He died in poverty, supposedly demanding more wine after eating a dodgy dish of pickled herrings.
Richard Hakluyt: 1552-1616
A geographer and one of the prime movers of the idea of colonising north America. In 1584, he wrote his Discourse of Western Planting, which was presented to the Queen as a blueprint for the ventures to Roanoke sponsored by Sir Walter Ralegh. He argued forcefully for a modernising of the university curriculum to include subjects such as mathematics and navigation to help England become a colonial power. Hakluyt only once went abroad, to Paris, as chaplain to the ambassador. His most famous work was his compendium of the great sea voyages of English sailors from earliest times to Drake’s circumnavigation. In his later life he was a clergyman in Suffolk. He is buried in Westminster Abbey
Thomas Harriot: 1560-1621
The greatest English scientist of the age, he became a loyal friend to Sir Walter Ralegh, and a permanent part of his household. He was paid to lecture Ralegh’s sea captains on navigation and astronomy. In 1585, he went to Roanoke in Virginia having learned the Algonquian language from the American natives Manteo and Wanchese (see below). On his return to England, Harriot wrote his famous A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. He courted controversy (and spent some time in jail for his pains) by sticking to Ralegh and his associates in bad times as well as good. In 1605, he voluntarily took up residence in the Tower to be close to Ralegh and his other great patron, the Earl of Northumberland. But it is for his scientific work that he should be remembered, for he made important advances in optics, mathematics and astronomy.
Manteo and Wanchese: dates unknown
Algonquian Indians brought to England – apparently voluntarily – by the initial Ralegh-sponsored foray into the New World, in 1584. They lived with Ralegh at Durham House and were presented to Elizabeth (swapping their loin-cloths for taffeta). Their extraordinary personalities and speedy learning of English helped persuade the Queen to back Ralegh’s colonisation plans. They returned to America with the short-lived colony of 1585. Wanchese rejoined his tribe but Manteo stayed with the settlers and went back to England with them the following year. He then returned to Roanoke with the “lost colony” expedition of 1587. Manteo, from the friendly Croatoan tribe, was baptised a Christian, but Wanchese, from the more hostile Roanoke tribe, may have been in the raiding party that murdered the settler George Howe. The ultimate fate of both Indians is unknown.
Gelli Meyrick: 1556-1601
A Bishop’s son from Wales, his family was closely associated with the Essex clan (Meyrick’s uncle Edmund was chaplain to both the earl and his father). In 1579, Meyrick joined Essex, who was then a student, and looked after his horses. Soon his role had grown and he was organising his estates and finances. Meyrick became increasingly influential. He was unpopular with tenants in Wales for his tough dealings, but Essex always supported him. He, in turn, backed Essex to the hilt and died for it, being accused of treason for his part in the rebellion of 1601. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. There was said to be much rejoicing in the valleys of South Wales.
Sir John Perrot: 1528-1592
A large, powerful man, he was generally held to be the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. Certainly, he was quick to anger like Henry. A gifted linguist and a lifelong Protestant, he went to the royal court at 18, but soon became known as a brawler. There was no doubting his courage – he once saved King Henri II of France from a wild boar. His bad habits dogged him and he lost all his money through his passion for the tilt “and other toys I am ashamed to tell”. He spent various terms in prison, fought battles at sea and served with the English army in Ireland, where he did well. But he made enemies and with the death of his main protector Walsingham, he was vulnerable. In 1592, he was brought to trial for treason, having called Elizabeth “a base bastard pissing kitchen woman”. He did not deny saying the words and was condemned to death, but died in the Tower while awaiting execution.
William Segar: 1564-1633
A fine portrait painter, who took himself rather too seriously as an officer of the College of Arms. He was first employed as a scrivener by the courtier Sir Thomas Heneage, and soon became a herald. His expertise in the finer points of noble family trees did not, however, hamper his other career as a portraitist. He was patronised by the Earl of Essex and was also commissioned to do pictures of the Earl of Leicester and Queen Elizabeth. Under King James I, he was the victim of a heraldic hoax by a rival, who tricked him into awarding a coat of arms to the London hangman Gregory Brandon (who enjoyed the joke and ever after styled himself “esquire”). King James was not amused – and briefly jailed both Segar and the hoaxer, saying he hoped to make Segar more wise and the trickster more honest.
John Watts: 1550-1616
A larger than life merchant and pirate who typified the go-getting adventurousness of the Elizabethan age. Arriving in London as a teenager, he married the daughter of a rich merchant and never looked back. He sent wave after wave of privateers to the Caribbean to prey on Spanish – and neutral – shipping, and became exceedingly wealthy. He took his own ships to fight the Armada and was involved in some of the fiercest exchanges around Calais. Later he became an alderman, a governor of the East India Company, Lord Mayor of London and was knighted by King James I. One Spanish envoy said he was “the greatest pirate that has ever been in this kingdom”.
Roger Williams: 1539-1595
One of the foremost military men of Elizabeth’s reign, he first went to war aged 17 and made his name in the Low Countries by fighting bravely in single combat against a Spanish champion. Neither man was hurt and they ended up having a drink together. Williams soon became the most trusted lieutenant of Sir John Norris, Elizabeth’s top general, but later the two men became rivals. After fighting all over Europe and writing important military books (including A Brief Discourse of War), Williams was drawn to Essex and called him “my great prince”. His main stumbling block to high office was that Elizabeth did not like him and once dismissed him from her presence telling him “begone, thy boots stink”. Williams died of a fever.
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