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Will Somers was friend as well as Fool to the Tudor family. This seems to be proved not only by the many stories told of him at the time, but also by the fact that he was painted with Henry the Eighth for one of the few illustrations in the Kings own psalter which is now in the British Museum, and that he appears in the background of other Tudor family groups. He knew all six of Henry’s wives and lived just long enough to see each of that monarch’s three children come to the throne. Queen Mary the First and Queen Elizabeth the First each gave Will an annuity.

The outline of his life and many of the incidents and conversations used in my story are founded on contemporary records, and the way in which several writers mentioned him, both then and later, shows him to have been a popular and well-loved character. The main facts about his first master, Richard Fermor, are authentic; but as nothing is known of Will’s love story this is purely fictional. There is an excellently preserved brass of Richard Fermor at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, and a mural tablet to William Somers in St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, London, where he was buried in 1560. Richard Tarleton, Queen Elizabeth’s jester, and James Burbage, the actor, were also buried there, and the registers and several memorials were preserved when the church was rebuilt by Dance in 1740.

My sincere thanks are due to the Manuscripts Department and the Prints and Drawings Department of the British Museum. Also to the County Librarian and staff of the County Seely Library in Newport and Freshwater, Isle of Wight, for their help in getting me reference books.

MARGARET CAMPBELL BARNES