The story begins in England in the 1500's. Fourteen-year-old Catherine (Cate) Archer was the daughter of a Hampshire gentleman, Sir Thomas Archer who died fighting in the Netherlands. With her mother dead and only a blind, elderly nurse left to care for her, Cate was taken in by her aunt and uncle who had three daughters. Without an inheritance, Cate's aunt did not really want her. But two months later, a letter dated October 13, 1583 from Queen Elizabeth I requested that she attend her as one of her ladies-in-waiting. This was a favour for the sacrifice of her father to his country.
Catherine is met at the queen's palace by Lady Mary Standish and taken to the maids' dormitory which is under the rafters. There she meets two other maids of honour, Emme and Frances.
In the morning the queen treats Catherine kindly telling her to think her as her mother. At Whitehall Palace Catherine's job is to help Emme and Frances care for the queen's clothing. She learns that the queen has an extensive wardrobe that includes many bodices, skirts, chemises, coifs, pantofles and shoes. The mistress of the wardrobe is Lady Veronica who explains that clothing out of fashion is either remade or given away to whomever of her ladies is in her favour. Catherine finds caring for the wardrobe a demanding task.
One day Catherine, Emme, and Frances accompany Queen Elizabeth and her court on barges along the Thames River to the Tower of London. Accompanying Catherine and Emme on their barge is Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester, whom Emme claims the queen loves but who is married, Thomas Graham, Lady Veronica, and Lady Anne, the queen's cousin. Along the way they see Walter Ralegh's ship, the Roebuck. Emme tells Catherine that Raleigh was sent to Ireland to put down the rebellion there, and then to the Netherlands. This leads Catherine to believe that Ralegh possibly knew her father.
The Tower of London is where Elizabeth's mother, Anne Bolyen was beheaded. Elizabeth is visiting the menagerie which includes a lion, a leopard and a bear, but Catherine doesn't see them as she is overcome with fear and has to leave. After leaving their barges upon returning, Catherine is stunned to see Walter Ralegh offer his beuatiful embroidered cloak for Elizabeth to walk on instead of the mud.
Meanwhile, Walter Ralegh wants to continue the work of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and explore North America with the hope of finding the northwest passage to China and the Indies. His attempts to earn her permission for such are initially not successful, despite poetry and gifts of a diamond. At a banquet hall, Ralegh spies Catherine Archer, the daughter of Sir Thomas whom he knew in the Netherlands. Ralegh finds her black hair and grey eyes attractive. Finally on March 27 1584, Ralegh writes that the queen has granted him Humphrey's patent to explore and bring back silver and gold. Ralegh has two ships, captained by his servants Barlowe and Amadas, and piloted by Portuguese sailor, Simon Hernades to conduct reconnaissance voyates. However, since the royal treasury will not be financing the voyages, Ralegh must find investors.
Meanwhile Catherine earns the nickname "Cat" from the queen which pleases her. Like the other ladies in waiting, Catherine is determined to earn the favour of Elizabeth and being given such a nickname is a sign of favour. Frances tells Catherine that if she wants to know what the queen thinks about anything she should ask Walter Ralegh. On a trip to Durham house with the Queen and Frances, Catherine wonders how she will approach Ralegh, but before the trip Emme advises her to keep quiet for fear of making the queen jealous. While the queen is with Thomas Harriot in his room viewing his radius astronomicus, Catherine questions Ralegh about his plans to travel to America. He explains that he travelled with his relative, Sir Humfrey Gilbert twice but that on last year's voyage they were forced to return and Gilbert was drowned in a storm off the Azores. his goal is to bring back riches as Francis Drake did. The two talk quietly and Ralegh gives Catherine his hankerchief. When Elizabeth returns she tells Ralegh that the purpose of his voyage "...must be to bring the true religion to the pagan peoples and induce them to follow the laws and customs of England."
After their meeting, Catherine discovers that the hankerchief Ralegh has given her was a gift to him by Elizabeth, while Ralegh cannot remember what he's done with Elizabeth's hankerchief. The two begin a romantic correspondence and at a meeting in the palace garden, Catherine urges Ralegh to take back his hankerchief. She suspects the queen knows about it but Ralegh tells her that Elizbeth is simply "sporting" with her. As Catherine learns that Elizabeth is concerned about her cousin Queen Mary she begins to realize that corresponding with the queen's favourite courtier may not be safe. But although she attempts to end her correspondence with Ralegh, he persists in writing to her.
As Walter Ralegh's expeditions do not succeed in the New World, Queen Elizabeth is faced with the dilemma as to what to do about her cousin Queen Mary of Scotland. Meanwhile Catherine learns that he has been sending her letters but she has not received them. Eventually Catherine is betrayed by Frances who steals her letters from Ralegh and gives them to the queen. Elizabeth is furious when she discovers the relationship between Catherine and Ralegh and she imprisons Catherine in the Tower of London.
After several months of imprisonment, Catherine learns from the Earl of Leicester that Elizabeth has decided to banish Catherine by sending her along with the colonists to Roanoke. This prospect delights Catherine who had told Walter Ralegh that she wanted to be a part of the colony. She had advised him that for it to succeed he needed to bring families there and not soldiers who had no interest in forming a colony but in privateering. Unknown to Catherine is that Emme accosted Ralegh and scorned him to beg the queen to forgive her former maid. Ralegh does this but manipulates the queen into sending Catherine to Virginia with Ralegh's ships. However, he is outplayed by Elizabeth who tells him he will not make the journey but will remain by her side in England. And so Catherine boards the Lion, on her way to an uncertain future in the New World. What will be her fate?
Discussion
Cate of the Lost Colony is a romanticized fictional account of the Roanoke Island Colony also known as the "Lost Colony". Lisa Klein incorporates some of the history into the beginning chapters of her novel. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was awarded a charter in 1575 by Queen Elizabeth I to colonize the unclaimed areas of the New World. He claimed the land known as Newfoundland in 1583 but drowned on the return voyage to England.
After Gilbert's death the charter was divided between Sir Gilbert's brother Adrian and his half-brother Walter Raleigh. Raleigh's portion was the lands south of Newfoundland and he was to establish a colony by 1591 or lost the charter. As Raleigh was not allowed to undertake the voyages by Queen Elizabeth who wanted him at court, he had to arrange and oversee everything from London.
The first voyage in April 1584 consisted of two ships captained by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, with Simon Fernandes as pilot. Eventually they reached the West Indies in July and then travelled north where they arrived at Roanoke Island. The Indigenous peoples, the Secotan were friendly. This expedition returned to England along with two Indigenous passengers: a Secotan named Wanchese and a Croatan named Manteo. Both would return to their people in the New World. The English claimed the land was good for settling. This impressed Queen Elizabeth who knighted Raleigh and named the land "Virginia" and Raleigh as its governor.
The first colony was a military one on Roanoke Island in 1585. The voyage from England to the New World was beset with many problems including lost ships and encounters with the rival Spanish. The military outpost was founded by Ralph Lane but was abandoned in early 1586. Just over one hundred colonists had settled in Lane's colony due to a lack of provisions - most of which had been lost due to the wreck of one of the ships. A supply ship was redirected elsewhere during that year, meaning the colonists had to rely on the Indigeous peoples for help. Exploration by the colonists failed to locate gold or silver. In June 1586, Lane and the colonists returned to England with the help of Sir Francis Drake. It was at this time that tobacco, corn and potatoes were introduced to England.
Despite the unsuccessful military colony, Raleigh was given a charter in 1587 to found a new colony with John White as governor. Approximately one hundred fifteen colonists signed up including White's daughter Eleanor who was pregnant and her husband Ananias Dare. The colonists were Londoners and included women and children. Three ships left England on May 8 1587 and arrived at Croatoan Island in mid-July. White located Lane's colony but found it deserted. Fifteen men had been left at Roanoke to continue Raleigh's claim by Richard Grenville, whose supply mission to the colony had been delayed in 1586. Those men were never seen again.
Unfortunately, the relationship between the Indigenous peoples and the English colonists was strained especially after the death of one of the colonists by a native. In August, Eleanor Dare gave birth to a daughter christened Virginia. As the situation became more desperate, the colonists moved and persuaded John White to return to England with the ships to ask for help. It was his intention to return with supplies in 1588 but war between England and Spain prevented this until 1590. The Spanish were aware of the attempt by the English to develop a colony at Roanoke, but a search of Chesapeake Bay in 1588 revealed nothing. Eventually White returned to the New World in the summer of 1590 and although his party found smoke and fresh tracks they were unable to locate any of the colonists. The houses had been scavenged and White's trunks looted. A palisade post was found with the word "Croatoan" carved into it. Eventually White was forced to return to England, and subsequent expeditions failed to locate the colonists and it became known as the "Lost Colony". It is widely believed that the colonists simply assimilated into the Indigenous peoples near them.
The novel employs three narrators: Catherine Archer, Walter Raleigh (spelled Ralegh in the novel), and Manteo, a member of Croatoan tribe. While the main character, Catherine Archer is fictional, many of the characters in the novel are historical figures. To help her readers Klein has provided a list of characters in the novel, identifying the historical figures and those who are fictional. The personal details of all the characters have been imagined. It is evident that Lisa Klein did significant research on Elizabethan England, the voyages, and the Indigenous peoples for her novel. Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 to 1603, is portrayed as a jealous, quick-tempered woman who demanded absolutely loyalty. Walter Raleigh, a staunch Protestant English stateman, was one of Elizabeth's courtiers who was in and out of favour with the queen. Raleigh secretly married Elizabeth (Bess) Throckmorton, one of Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting, incurring the queen's wrath and the couple being committed temporarily to the Tower.
The character of Catherine portrays the English sentiment towards Catholicism and the Pope, a mere fifty years after Henry VIII's break with Rome. By Elizabeth I's reign, state Protestantism (Anglicanism) had replaced Catholicism. However, Catherine's understanding of her own country's religious roots is flawed. For example she states, "I only knew that Spain was wicked for wanting to rule England and to force its Catholic religion on the people of Britain" England was a Catholic nation until the rebellion of Henry VIII against Rome in 1534 when he severed ties with the Catholic Church and made himself head of the church in England. If anything, Catholic Spain was attempting to restore Catholicism to the Netherlands. and eventually England. The attitude towards Catholics is further seen in the reaction of the colonists when they discover they have several "papists" as Catholics were called, among them.
The first one hundred and fifty pages of the novel focus on Catherine's in the Elizabethan court as a maid to Queen Elizabeth. Klein incorporates much of the information that is known about the Elizabethan era of the late 1500's and what is known about the English attempts to start a colony in the New World. As historical documents indicate, the English did not settle on Chesapeake Bay but instead returned to Roanoke Island because the pilot, Simon Fernandes refused to take them there. Many details of the settlement on Roanoke Island were integrated into the story, making Cate's narrative feel authentic. For example, Cate describes the condition of the settlement they find on Roanoke Island: "The dozen cottages built by Grenville's men had fallen into decay. Their doors sagged and the rush roofs were collapsing. Weeds grew waist high and melons with their thick, wide leaves twined like snakes through the windows." There are interesting historical "tidbits" incorporated into the story: for example the planting in Ireland of the potato plant brought back from the New World.
Cate of the Lost Colony digresses from the historical narrative in that Elizabeth I gives permission for Walter Raleigh to sail to the New World to support the English colonists in Virginia. At this time there was a blockade as England was at war with Spain. To get around the blockade and the likely refusal of her ministers, Elizabeth makes it known, falsely, that Raleigh is being sent to Ireland. As Klein notes in her Author's Note, there is no evidence Raleigh ever journeyed to the Virginia colony but there is a gap between March and October of 1590 in his biography. Klein used this time frame to imagine Raleigh accompanying John White to Virginia.
In a reimagined history of the "Lost Colony", Raleigh in fact does locate the sixteen survivors of the Roanoke colony including the fictional Cate Archer. Out of desperation, hunger and survival they have abandoned the colony to live with the Croatoan people and married into their community. Having taken everything with them to the New World, and having given up hope of being rescued or resupplied, they have made new lives and do not wish to return to England. When Raleigh does finally find Catherine, she refuses to return to England with him telling him she does not love him and that he does not love her. Her life is with Manteo and his people.
After his encounter with Cate and his return to his ship, Sir Walter Raleigh's narrative is decisive "When we returned to the ship, I told the captain we had found no Englishmen on the island and no sign of their recent habitation. I decided we would give the same report to the queen, reasoning that because the colonists would not return to England, they should be considered as lost." Although White believes the queen would want to know the truth, Raleigh tells him that Elizabeth would order him back to hang the colonists, something he does not have the heart to do. It is likely that either all of the colonists eventually died due to illness, starvation, or at the hands of the Natives, or that they were eventually assiimilated into the native populations.
Cate Of The Lost Colony is an interesting read, well-researched, offering what is a plausible scenario of the fate of the colony. Because there is some mature content, this novel is for older teens.
Book Details:
Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein
New York: Bloomsbury 2010
329pp.
No comments:
Post a Comment