Book # 27 of 2024!
1411 is the second book in Simon Fairfax’s A Knight and a Spy series. (I wrote about 1410 here.) It continues the saga of Sir James (Jamie) de Grispere and his comrades as they foil various plots to unseat King Henry IV. But where 1410 was primarily full of battle scenes and vicious cloak and dagger activities, 1411 dials back the blood and guts to bring courtly intrigue to the fore. There’s still plenty of swashbuckling and swordplay, but as Jamie matures and takes on more responsibilities, he inevitably finds himself in situations where discretion and diplomacy serve him better than brute force.
1411 is divided into four sections: The Midlands (Winter/Spring), The English Channel (Spring/Summer), The English Court (Summer/Autumn), and Lincolnshire and London (Autumn/Winter). In The Midlands, Jamie poses – under orders from Sir Richard Whittington, his spymaster – as a mercenary to join Sir Richard Stanhope’s gang of renegade knights and spy on them. He soon uncovers a plot to wrest control of the region from Henry IV. He is found out, but fortunately, his loyal friend, the Italian Christoforo Corio shows up in the nick of time to rescue him. However, Jamie has now made himself an enemy of Stanhope’s fellow noble conspirators, and his position in the English court is perilous.
In The English Channel, Jamie’s other good comrade Mark of Cornwall joins a shipload of men to learn who is behind all the piracy in the English Channel. Their attacks on trading vessels have endangered the English economy, which depends on safe passage of wool to Calais. As fate would have it, Mark’s ship attacks a royal boat that has Jamie aboard. They manage to extricate themselves from a very tricky position.
It is the third and fourth sections where things get very interesting. While at the court of Henry IV, Jamie soon realizes that he is in a very difficult position. He is steadfastly loyal to Henry IV, but it was Prince Henry who knighted him, and Jamie must walk a fine line between the king and his ambitious son. It’s never clear how much of the political maneuvering is the result of the Prince’s stratagems or his uncles’ – Lord Thomas Beaufort and Bishop Henry Beaufort. The Beauforts both covet the crown and will do everything in their power to drive a wedge between Henry IV and his son.
Jamie, Christo, and Mark manage to turn the tables on a suicide mission they are sent on, and then foil a plot to assassinate Henry IV. Sir Richard Whittington is out of London on business, so Jamie is left to his own wits. As he begins to understand the cynicism and hypocrisy of those who operate in the English court, he is able to discern better who is trustworthy, and who is duplicitous.
As a backdrop to all this, there is still the troubled situation in France, as the Armagnac faction battles the Burgundians for control of the country. Henry IV, who was on death’s door in 1410, has rallied and is much more active in 1411. At the end of the book, Sir Richard Whittington warns Jamie that he has made powerful enemies, and he must be very careful of whom he gives allegiance to. “By his actions, he [Prince Henry] praises and warns you to stay faithful under his protection, and not to go against him on a personal level by siding with his father. Stay true to him, James, and spend as little time in the king’s company as you can, for that way lies your ruin.”
Now that I’ve read the first two installments in the series, I’m hooked, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in 1412!
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