Book
Courting Dragons
First published 2023
Greenwich, 1529. Will Somers, Henry VIII’s jester, occupies a privileged but dangerous place at court: he entertains the king, carries gossip and can say things that would cost another man his position or his head. When Will finds the murdered Spanish courtier Don Gonzalo in the palace gardens and then receives a blackmail demand for royal secrets, his own private life becomes entangled with a possible political conspiracy. To protect himself and the king, Will must use access, wit and observation rather than formal authority to uncover who is killing and why.
The mystery unfolds during Henry VIII’s Great Matter, as the king seeks to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and pursues Anne Boleyn. Foreign diplomacy, imperial interests and the question of the succession therefore run beneath every palace intrigue. Will Somers was a real Tudor court fool whose long service to Henry gave him unusual proximity to the monarch. Westerson turns that historical freedom of movement into a detective’s advantage while emphasising how precarious favour could be at a court approaching religious and dynastic rupture.
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