Introduction

[Manny]

Here’s what I’m proposing for a reading schedule for Come Rack! Come Rope! I’m looking at about 50 pages per week, and that’s seven weeks based on the pagination in my edition. 50 pages a week is not too difficult I think for fiction, but I’m always conscious that others have multiple reads going on.

The book is divided into four parts, and each part has anywhere from eight to ten chapters. There are thirty-six chapters in all, but they are not evenly spaced. So here’s how I divide the reading weeks.

Week of:
14 August: Part 1, Chapters 1 thru 4
21 August: Part 1, Chapters 5 thru 9
28 August: Part 2, Chapters 1 thru 5
4 Sept: Part 2, Chapters 6 thru 10
11 Sept: Part 3, Chapters 1 thru 5
18 Sept: Part 3 Chpt 6 thru Part 4 Chpt 3
25 Sept: Part 4 Chapters 4 thru 9

Remember, discussion will start on the week after the reading week. Our etiquette is you can always go back to discuss, but we wait for the reading week to be over for those that read ahead.

I'll have a short introduction in a few days. Kindle is selling it for 99 cents I think. If you wish, you can read it free online here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/...

Or listen to it on Librivox here:
https://librivox.org/come-rack-come-r...

[Celia]

Thank you very much Manny.

The Kindle version I found is $3.45. It is called Tredition Classics Edition. The chapter designations in the Kindle do not match the Gutenberg version. I will read and highlight in the Kindle Version and try to make a notation on which Gutenberg Chapter it is.

[Manny]

Celia wrote: "Thank you very much Manny.

The Kindle version I found is $3.45. It is called Tredition Classics Edition. The chapter designations in the Kindle do not match the Gutenberg version. I will read and ..."

That's interesting. I can't seem to find that Kindle version. I bought the 99 cents illustrated version (Aeterna press). I lists 338 pages as its length. There is also a completely free version by Amazon which lists as 283 pages. I have no idea if either match the Gutenberg.

[Manny]

Oh now I found the Tredition Classics version. It lists its length as 392 pages. Quite a difference between the three versions.

What is specifically different about your versions Celia from the Gutenberg? Just glancing between them I don't see it.

[Celia]

Manny wrote: "Oh now I found the Tredition Classics version. It lists its length as 392 pages. Quite a difference between the three versions.

What is specifically different about your versions Celia from the G..."

My version is supposed to be the Gutenberg. They both have a preface but the free version does not. My version does not number the chapters as Chapters within Parts but the content is identical.

I got the free version and will read and highlight that since it matches your schedule.

Thanks Manny.

[Casey]

I'll jump in on this one. I read Paradoxes and that one really stayed with me through time. So I'm very curious about this one.

[Manny]

Great Casey! This is a historical novel, so you might really like it.

[Patrick]

I’m in too. First 2 chapters grabbed me.

[Manny]

Fantastic. Seems like we will have a good group. Now I just have to keep up! ;)

[Manny]

Introduction, Part 1

Given that this is a historical novel, with characters both fictional and historical, an understanding of the time period I think is necessary. The quickest way to grasp the time is to put up a timeline of the period. This is certainly not comprehensive. In fact it’s selective, selective to grasp several key elements which I will summarize at the end. We all know how tumultuous a period this was. Henry VIII for personal reasons challenged the Catholic Church and saw his objectives met by joining with the Protestant Reformation which had suddenly come on continental Europe. The plot of the novel centers around the Babington Plot, a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth I and install Mary, Queen of Scots as the ruler of England. I’m going to present three timelines here, that of the Protestant Reformation, that of England over this period, and that of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Protestantism Timeline

1517 Luther nails 95 thesis to wall
1521 Luther excommunicated
1522 The Reformation spreads to Switzerland through former priest Huldrych Zwingli
1525 Anabaptists formed.
1534 Henry VIII is declared head of the Church of England
1536 John Calvin starts his Protestant church in Switzerland
1538 Most Scandinavian countries declare themselves Lutheran
1560 The French Wars of Religion (1560-1598)
1618 The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) Officially ends the conflict between Catholics and Protestants though unofficial battles still go on.

Timeline in England

1534 Henry VIII is declared head of the Church of England
1535 Thomas More Executed
1536 Pilgrimage of Grace Uprising
1537 Henry VIII executes 178 Catholic protestors from the Pilgrimage of Grace
1539 Legislation passes to close all monasteries
1540 Waltham Abbey is last monastery in England to close.
1547 Henry VIII dies; Edward VI (b. 1537) becomes king
1549 Kett Rebellion ends in Catholic massacre
1553 Edward VI dies
1554 Mary I (b. 1516) becomes Queen; tries to reverse Protestantism
1558 Mary I dies; Elizabeth I (b. 1533) becomes Queen; restores Protestantism
1559 Catholic Mass banned
1570 Pope excommunicates Elizabeth I
1571 Ridolfi Plot to assassinate Elizabeth & replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots
1586 Babington Plot and trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, for treason
1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, executed
1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada
1597 Second Spanish Armada defeated
1603 Elizabeth dies; James I of Scotland becomes King
1604 Peace Treaty between England and Spain
1605 Gunpowder plot to assassinate King James uncovered
1607 Jamestown Colony of Virginia founded
1608 James approves the establishment of plantations owned by English Protestant colonists in Ireland.
1611 King James Bible published
1620 The Mayflower lands in Massachusetts
1625 King James dies;

Mary Queen of Scots Timeline

1542 Born; Catholic, Niece to Henry VIII, Cousin to Elizabeth I
1543 Crowned Queen of Scotland
1547 Scotland defeated by England at the Battle of Pinkie
1548 Mary sent to France and betrothed to the heir of France
1558 Mary marries Francis, dauphin of France, in Paris
1559 King of France dies; Francis and Mary are crowned king and queen of France
1560 Francis, Mary’s husband, passes away
1561 Mary returns to Scotland
1565 Mary marries her 19-year-old cousin Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley
1566 Mary’s only child James born (later king of Scotland and England)
1567 Mary’s husband, Lord Darnley, murdered; Mary weds James Hepburn, the 30-year-old Earl of Bothwell; the Carberry Hill confrontation; Mary is imprisoned at Lochleven Castle; Mary’s one-year-old son James is crowned as James VI of Scotland
1568 Mary escapes from Lochleven Castle; Battle of Langside, Glasgow; Mary flees to England
1568-87 Mary is held captive in various English prisons
1569 Elizabeth exonerates Mary from the charges made against her
1578 Mary’s third husband, the Earl of Bothwell (age 41), dies in a prison in Denmark
1580 Mary writes Essay on Adversity in prison
1586 Mary is tried for conspiring to kill Elizabeth
1587 on 8 February, Mary is executed in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire

I must confess something I have mixed up for a very long time. For as long as I can remember I have conflated Queen Mary I of England with Mary Queen of Scots. They are separate women, separate Queens. I didn’t realize that. I thought they were the same person. In my defense I didn’t know this history in detail and they are both Catholic, both tried to restore Catholicism, and they more or less overlapped. Also the successor to Queen Elizabeth to the throne of England was James, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. If you have made that mistake in the past, I hope this corrects your understanding too.

A number of points should be taken away from the above timelines.

• The Protestant/Catholic conflicts were incredibly bloody. Nothing stirs people more than disagreements over the nature of religion. Both the French Religious wars and the Thirty Years War had huge casualties.
• The Protestant/Catholic conflict pulled in almost every country in Europe: Germany, Italy, England, Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland, France, Spain, and the rest. It was truly an international conflict with high stakes international politics.
• International politics produces a high level of espionage. Foreign plots and conspiracies were common.
• In England, the number of revolts indicates a high level of resistance against Protestantism.
• The north of England seemed to be the Catholic center.
• When outright rebellion failed for the English Catholics, they seemed to switch over to secret plots and assassinations to reach their objectives.
• Executions were common and merciless.
• Despite the high level of Catholic resistance, by and large the English preferred Protestantism.

I hope this helps. I’ll provide an introduction to the author and novel in a few days.

[Frances]

How helpful! Thanks so much, Manny, for these excellent timelines.

[Celia]

TY Manny

[Kerstin]

The Thirty Years War left a huge wound. So many places in southern Germany still remind you of it. One of the most famous is the shrine of Maria Vesperbild outside of Augsburg. It is one of the most visited pilgrimage shrines in southern Germany. It is also a stop on a spur of the famous "El Camino" pilgrimage way leading into Spain.

Maria Vesperbild means Maria's Pieta. It is a woodcarving (painted) from the 16th century over the altar. Mary lifts her hand in grief and sorrow up with a kerchief in her hand, and Jesus is pointing down to the tabernacle.
https://bistum-augsburg.de/var/plain_...

The shrine in the little town of Ziemetshausen dates back to 1650 when a small field chapel was build in thanksgiving to the end of the Thirty Years War (ended 1648 only two years prior to the building of the chapel). The present church dates back to 1756. It looks like the church is undergoing renovations at this time. There is also a large grotto in the woods behind it.

https://search.brave.com/images?q=mar...

[Patrick]

Fascinating! Thank you.

[Manny]

Was I the only person who never distinguished Mary I from Mary Queen of Scots?

[Patrick]

So far I can say I enjoy this novel better than “The Lord of the World”.

[Kerstin]

Manny wrote: "Was I the only person who never distinguished Mary I from Mary Queen of Scots?"

I've never spent in-depth time with this time period, so I would have put the two together as well.

[Frances]

I hadn’t realized that James I of England was the same person as James VI of Scotland, nor that he’d been taken away from his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, as an infant.