A Burnable Book

Stephen Weldon, knight of Oxford’s faction

Katherine Swynford, governess and consort to John of Gaunt, sister-in-law of Geoffrey Chaucer

Robert Braybrooke, Bishop of London

William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester

Michael de la Pole, Baron de la Pole and Lord Chancellor of England

Isabel Syward, Prioress of St Leonard’s Bromley

OFFICERS OF THE CITY OF LONDON AND SERVANTS OF THE CROWN

Thomas Pinchbeak, serjeant-at-law

Ralph Strode, common serjeant of London

James Tewburn, his clerk

Thomas Tyle, King’s Coroner of London

Nicholas Symkok, clerk to the King’s Coroner

Richard Bickle, goldsmith of London, beadle of Cheap Ward

Thomas Tugg, keeper of Newgate Prison

Geoffrey Chaucer, controller of the wool custom

Philippa Chaucer, his wife, sister of Katherine Swynford

COMMON WOMEN OF LONDON AND SOUTHWARK

Eleanor/Edgar Rykener, maudlyn of Gropecunt Lane

Mary Potts, maudlyn of Gropecunt Lane

Agnes Fonteyn, maudlyn of Gropecunt Lane

Joan Rugg, their bawd

Bess Waller, bawd of the Pricking Bishop; mother of Agnes and Millicent Fonteyn

St Cath, maudlyn of the Pricking Bishop

TRADESMEN, FREEMEN OF LONDON AND SOUTHWARK, AND COMMONERS

John Gower of Southwark, esquire and poet

Will Cooper, his servant

Simon Gower, his son, clerk to Sir John Hawkwood

Mark Blythe, mason of Southwark

George Lawler, spicerer of Cornhull

Jane Lawler, his wife

Denise Haveryng, widow of Cornhull

Nathan Grimes, master butcher of Cutter Lane, Southwark

Tom Nayler, his first apprentice

Gerald Rykener, his second apprentice and ward; brother of Eleanor/Edgar

Millicent Fonteyn, singlewoman of Cornhull; sister of Agnes Fonteyn

Sam Varney, gravedigger

IN OXFORD

Peter de Quincey, keeper of the books of Durham

John Clanvowe, knight of the King’s Chamber

John Purvey, curate of Lutterworth, disciple of John Wycliffe

IN FLORENCE

John Hawkwood, mercenary knight, chief of the White Company

Adam Scarlett, his chief lieutenant

Jacopo da Pietrasanta, his chancellor

Giovanni Desilio, doctor of the Studium Generale, Siena

Prologue (#ulink_f8492548-1859-580a-846d-e7ce021350cd)

Moorfields, north of the walls

Under a clouded moon Agnes huddles in a sliver of utter darkness and watches him, this dark-cloaked man, as he questions the girl by the dying fire. At first he is kind seeming, almost gentle with her. They speak something like French: not the flavour of Stratford-at-Bowe nor of Paris, but a deep and throated tongue, tinged with the south. Olives and figs in his voice, the embrace of a warmer sea.

He repeats his last question.

The girl is silent.