John Reed Scott (born Gettysbury, Pennsylvania 8 September 1869; died Westminster, Maryland, 21 January 1942) was a lawyer and author of several books, possibly the best known being The Colonel of the Red Huzzars. This tale, set in 1483, is essentially a love story wrapped around the momentous events between Edward IV's demise and the Duke of Buckingham's rebellion. After the last few pro-Lancastrian stories, it was a refreshing change to encounter a positive character study of Richard, Duke of Gloucester then King.
Richard's overall portrayal is that of a kind but formidable Plantagenet - clearly in love with Anne, his wife, and whose love is returned in full. His approach to Beatrix of Clare and Sir Aymer de Lacy is almost avuncular but to a rebel such as Buckingham or the fictitious Lord Darby cold and unforgiving. We first meet him in Pontefract Castle: the pale, clean-shaven face, with its beautiful mouth and straight Norman nose, and the short, slender figure in its mantle and doublet of black velvet furred with ermine...and dark brown hair hanging bushy to the shoulders, would have been effeminate but for the massively majestic forehead and the fierce black eyes - brilliant, compelling, stern, proud - that flashed forth the mighty soul within...Richard had been famed for his wisdom and statecraft...while his royal brother was dallying in a life of indulgence amid the dissipations of his Court, the brave and resolute Richard was leading his armies, administering his governments, and preserving order on the Marches of the Border. No mention of any deformity or involvement in previous murders. Later in the book, the author again sings Richard's praises: he wore no armour, but in his rich doublet and super-tunic of dark blue velvet with the baudikin stripes on the sleeve, he made as handsome and gallant a figure as one was wont to see, even in those days of chivalry. And no reign, since his protonymic predecessor's, gave promise of a brighter future...England had known Richard of Gloucester, even since his boyhood, as a strong man among strong men - a puissant knight, an unbeaten general, a wise counsellor, a brilliant administrator; in all things able, resourceful, proficient; combining, as it were, in the last of the Angevines, all the keen statesmanship, stern will, and fiery dash of the great House that had ruled England for three hundred turbulent years. And, rather amazingly, he is as shocked as anyone to be told that the Princes in the Tower were dead. On it being suggested that Edward killed Richard and himself. He had lately been oppressed with heavy melancholy, King Richard replies, "yes, that is doubtless the solution, yet scant credence will be given it. To the Kingdom it will be murder foul...Richard, you were a good seer.
The hero, Sir Aymer de Lacy, has returned to England after a spell abroad. He is making his way north from Windsor to beg service in Gloucester's when he is attacked and robbed by outlaws. Wounded, he is found by a slender figure in green velvet - the sweet, bow-shaped mouth, the high-bred, sensitive nose, the rounded chin, the tiny ear, the soft, deep grey eyes, and crowning all, the great rolls of the auburn hair that sunbeams spin to gold. He can't help but be smitten and falls headlong in immediate love! She departs, without him finding out her name. A little later, on Edward IV's death, de Lacy is sent by the Duke of Buckingham (whom he had met some years previously in Paris) with a message to Richard at Pontefract. From then onwards, he is intimately bound up with the fast-moving events of that summer and autumn of 1483. At Pontefract he not only meets Anne Neville, but Beatrix de Beaumont, in her own right Countess of Clare. He finds he has a rival also enamoured with her: Lord Darby (not to be confused with the real Lord Derby) is determined to wed her, by fair means or foul. It is to be very foul as, in league with the duplicitous Cistercian Aldam, Abbot of Kirkstall - an intriguing, political priest of Lancastrian inclination - he has her kidnapped and inured in his castle at Roxford. Lord Darby and the Abbot are both enmeshed in Buckingham's Rebellion. Thanks to the support of the older Sir John de Bury of Craigston Castle, Beatrix's uncle, de Lacy rescues Beatrix from the castle. She finally agrees to marry him, he will become Earl of Clare, and they will live happily ever after. Or do they, as Scott's story ends in 1483?
There maybe occasionally touches of a Mills & Boon, or Robert Hale, romance about the tale, but the author draws the reader in well and one begins to care about the result. De Lacy follows the Duke of Gloucester to London; is present when Rivers and Grey are seized and Edward V is escorted south; witnesses the famous Council at the Tower of London, when Hastings is taken out to be executed. Thomas, Lord Stanley is duly assessed: His countenance was peculiar, for in it there was both cunning and frankness; cunning in the eyes, frankness in the mouth and chin; a face, withal, that would bear constant watching, and that contained scarce a trace of virility - only a keen selfishness and a crafty faithlessness...with that cool indifference to aught but expediency which characterized his whole life...whilst the Duke of Buckingham, according to King Richard, has no statecraft in him and can learn none
Scott writes persuasively - there are compelling accounts of the [in]famous Council Meeting in the Tower; of the Kirkstall abbot's Chapter House meeting; of Buckingham's final moments at Salisbury; and Lord Darby's unmasking in front of King Richard at the end of the tale. Having recently read some rather juvenile books - to be fair, deliberately so - I enjoyed John Reed Scott's account of the intrigues of those Yorkist days. His characters were well-fleshed out; the pace of the narrative was admirable and sustained; and the atmosphere of the late fifteenth-century was realistically conveyed.
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