John F. Shaw first edition - n.d. (1877)
The publisher John F. Shaw was well known for producing what one might term 'Sunday School Books', usually with a firm moral tone to them. It published nearly all of Emily Sarah Holt's large output of morally uplifting tales, and the advertisements at the end of this short novel includes titles under the heading 'Happy Sundays for the Little Ones' and 'Books for Christians'. Along with the Religious Tract Society (RTS) and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), Shaw dominated religious publications in the second half of the nineteenth century.
C.M.M's tale is a slight one, more aimed at the juvenile market rather than adults. It commences with a description of a small group working under Master Caxton in the Chapel of St Anne besides the Westminster Abbey almshouses. Apart from the Master Printer, there are Wynkin de Worde and his young brother Bertram, and Arthur Falconer, a strangely silent, reserved but diligent young man. They are to be honoured by a visit by King Edward IV, his wife and entourage. As early as Chapter II, the reader learns that Arthur is actually the Earl of Wynnehamme, a devoted Lancastrian who had escaped from prison a year earlier and was now the subject of a large reward for his capture. His father Maurice fought at Barnet and Tewkesbury and escaped with his son, by now his page, to wander for seven weary years up and down through the loneliest parts of the country. Finally caught and imprisoned in the Tower, the father was executed and his son imprisoned. However, this was not in a cell but at the old Manor House of Arnewoode, under the guardianship of its lord. Here a love affair begins between Arthur and Margaret, the only child of the master of Arnewood. Arthur escapes from further confinement under another Yorkist lord and eventually ends up at Caxton's works in Westminster.
Amongst the contingent visiting the printing works with King Edward is Margaret, now an orphan and Lady of Arnewoode. Their eyes meet...! However, all will not end well, thanks mainly to the inevitable 'baddie' in such tales. On this occasion it is a Yorkist, Sir Ralph Moreton, who is desperate to marry Lady Margaret, but is constantly rebuffed by her. Having seen the look that had passed between Arthur and Margaret during the royal visit, he disguises himself as Gilbert Tyler, and gets a job working for Caxton. By trickery he unmasks Arthur and has him imprisoned again. Five years go slowly by; the captive Arthur pines for Margaret; she is sent back to Arnewoode in disgrace for refusing to marry Moreton. Then came the news that Richard of Gloucester was King instead, and that the royal children were dead too; and with it, dark rumours crept all over the land, rumours that made women shiver...
Two further years pass and Henry Tudor lands at Milford Haven. Moreton, most unwillingly, has to join King Richard at Nottingham. Before he goes, he imprisons Arthur in a dungeon hard by Westminster Abbey (it appears to be under the Jewel Tower). Luckily, he is rescued by Wynkin and Bertram de Worde, borrows a fast horse and gets to Bosworth just in time to join Tudor's army. Allowed by the grateful new king to travel to Arnewoode to find Margaret, he finds not a living soul but a tomb, a single figure lay upon it, carved all in pure white stone; the figure of a young girl with her hands clasped on her breast, lying peacefully as in sleep... Oh dear. What would normally be a story with a happy ending, serves up a tragedy. Margaret had died in 1483, two years earlier. The only balm is that her uncle is able to tell Arthur that so long as she lived, she loved thee and clung to thee with all her very heart.
Six more years pass by, and the reader is amongst mourners again - this time for old Caxton - in the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster. Arthur is there, a tall noble-looking man of about thirty-four years of age, whose fair hair was prematurely streaked with grey, and in whose dark eyes there was a look that told that he had suffered long and patiently. However, in the correct vein of a J.F. Shaw tale, Arthur murmurs to himself at the very end - "And then out of this world, full of wretchedness and tribulation, I may go to heaven, to God and His saints, unto joy ever durable." So, everything will be alright then.
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