When this book opens in 1416, with the birth of Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Henry V is on the throne and England is at war with France in a series of conflicts that would later become known as The Hundred Years' War. Henry VI takes the throne in 1422 and begins his long reign of England through some of its most turbulent times including Joan of Arc's mission and beginning of The Wars of the Roses - though at the time it was known as The Cousins' War as the feuding families of York and Lancaster fought for power and position.

Henry VI is a child king, only 9 years old, crowned before his first birthday after the death of his father Henry V on campaign. England is in the midst of the Hundred Years' War in France however life in England is peaceful for most. Sensing an opportunity to overthrow the weakend House of Lancaster, the House of York led by Richard, Duke of York claim a stronger link to the throne. This rivalry brings about a series of devestating battles which would come to be known as The Wars of The Roses and would turn neighbour against neighbour, cousin against cousin.

Now a grown man, Henry VI has maintained his hold on the English throne, despite decades of political and military challenges by the House of York. The Hundred Years' War comes to an end in France and England is defeated, losing all of her territory except for Calais. News of defeat drives King Henry into an unresponsive stupor. His wife, the despised Margaret of Anjou, cannot keep control and their great rival Richard Duke of York becomes Protector of the Realm. England is in limbo: a King crippled by insanity, a disliked and mistrusted queen, and two great families vying for control of the Kingdom. Meanwhile a third potential line of succession is emerging from the agreed marriage of the newly ennobled Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond to the child heiress Margaret Beaufort.

In Italy, the renaissance is gaining momentum and Italians are becoming increasingly interested in learning and understanding classical thinking and philosophy. Despite this growing focus on intellectual curiosity, there remains a strong loyalty to the Catholic Church and belief in magic, mysticism and superstition is rife. In order to retain its control, the Church must identify which phenomena can be rationally explained and which may really be magic.

During a time of religious fervour and superstition, the enormously powerful Catholic Church is facing its greatest threat to date. Its longstanding religious enemy, the Ottoman Empire has captured and taken control of Constantinople, overthrowing the Byzantine Empire and becoming one of the most powerful states in the world - and now a very real threat to Western Europe. Christian men and women are kidnapped by the Ottoman slaving galleys and sold as slaves, the seas are no longer safe from Ottoman raiding ships and the Ottoman armies of Sultan Mehmed II are moving ever further into central Europe.

The Venetian empire was one of the most powerful and wealthy empires in Europe. Its influence was ever increasing, as its borders expanded in all directions. At the heart of the empire is Venice, the shimmering, sparkling city of canals and fine buildings. Its inhabitants are from all over Europe and the East, and jewels, spices, gold and silver are traded daily. Everything and anything can be bought in Venice - for a price. There were rumours that scholars who studied the science of alchemy were able to make gold or silver by heating base metals over a very high heat, and that they could even create the elixir of life, which could grant immortality to the person who possessed the elixir.

The country has been torn apart by the Wars of the Roses between the royal houses of York and Lancaster. The old king Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou have escaped to Scotland and the Lancastrian armies have been decimated by the York forces at the Battle of Towton - the bloodiest ever fought on English soil. England has a new king on the throne: Edward IV of the House of York - young, handsome and daring.

King Edward IV's secret marriage Elizabeth Woodville, fractured his relationship with his cousin and supporter Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick who was known as 'The Kingmaker'. Warwick believed that he would be in a position to rule England through Edward, when he could not, he began to look elsewhere for power and used his daughters Isabel and Anne to create new alliances.

Henry Tudor is king, snatching the crown from Richard III in a surprise victory at the Battle of Bosworth. Raised in exile in Brittany and having taken the throne with a French and Scottish force, Henry had neither the easy popularity nor the longstanding political allegiances of the House of York. As a result, he has had to face repeated rebellions and threats to his throne. In an attempt to unify the warring Houses of Lancaster and York, Henry married the York Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. 

Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York's son Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales is betrothed to the Spanish Princess Katherine of Aragon. But Arthur's sudden death, followed by his mother's, leaves Henry Tudor with a difficult to decision, to marry his son's wife himself or to arrange her marriage to his younger son.    

King Henry VIII is married to his brother's widow, Katherine of Aragon who has given him a daughter, Princess Mary. An attractive and charismatic King, Henry quickly created a grand and fashionable court, full of celebration and pleasure. When Katherine cannot give him the son that he needs and his lover's sister Anne Boleyn arrives at court, he decides to take action that will change England and its religion forever. 

Just eleven days after King Henry VIII had his second wife Anne beheaded for treason, he married Jane Seymour who gave him a son, Prince Edward, but died soon after his birth.  King Henry needed more sons to secure his line and safeguard the House of Tudor, he looked overseas for this next bride and picked Anne of Cleves but would soon be side-tracked by the young, vivacious Katherine Howard.  

Henry VIII has reformed the Church of England, breaking away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Keen to reinforce his position as the new head of the church and to take advantage of the wealth of the Catholic Church, Henry began the Dissolution - the raiding and wrecking of all of the Catholic convents and monasteries in England. In this time of religious tensions and instability, belief in witchcraft and the supernatural began to spread throughout the country, causing increasing concern. As a result, King Henry decides to introduce an act of Parliament making witchcraft punishable by death - and making England a much more dangerous place for a young woman without wealth or family.

Henry VIII is dead, succeeded by his only legitimate son, nine year old Edward VI. Too young to rule, the realm is governed by a Regency Council, led by his uncle, Edward Seymour. Edward has continued his father's reformation of the church and Protestantism is becoming established, however England is still unsettled with rioting and rebellions common. Edward was close to and well loved by both of his half-sisters: the Catholic Princess Mary, daughter of Katherine of Aragon and the Protestant Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the executed Anne Boleyn. However he and his advisors were concerned that should he die without issue, his sister Princess Mary would return the country to Catholicism.

Upon his unexpected early death in 1553, King Edward VI nominated his cousin, a committed Protestant, Lady Jane Grey as his successor. Just nine days after she was crowned, Edward's sister Princess Mary had raised supporters and persuaded the Privy Council to switch their allegiance - declaring her the rightful queen and imprisoning Jane. Queen Mary began to reverse the Protestant reformation of her father, restoring Roman Catholic bishops and persecuting Protestants. Despite several reported pregnancies, Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain produced no children. So on her death, her sister the Protestant Princess Elizabeth succeeded her to the throne. 

Elizabeth I has been Queen of England for 10 years. She is still unmarried, despite considering several suitors and also conducting a love affair with the married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester - whose wife would later die under suspicious circumstances. With no heir, Elizabeth refused to name a successor - leading to the dissolution of parliament and putting England in a potentially dangerous position. One possible successor to Elizabeth was her first cousin - the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, whom many English Catholics believed to be the true English heir to the throne. However Mary is under imprisonment in Loch Leven Castle after marrying her third husband James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell - the man widely believed to have earlier murdered Mary's second husband Lord Darnley and she appeals to her cousin Elizabeth for support. 

In 1603, at the age of 69 Queen Elizabeth died and was succeeded by her cousin King James VI of Scotland - finally uniting the crowns of Scotland and England and beginning the Stuart reign of England.

Charles I is on the throne.  He has dissolved parliament for the third time and resolved to rule alone.  In order to manage the debts generated during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I and fund his overseas wars with Spain and France, Charles repeatedly invented new and re-established obsolete forms of taxation. This during a time when harvests were failing caused widespread poverty and social unrest. Charles had become increasingly unpopular with the English people - his friendship with the assassinated George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham had alienated the noble families whilst his failure to successfully support Protestant forces during the Thirty Years' War and marriage to a Roman Catholic French Princess caused suspicion and mistrust amongst his people. As the country descended into civil war, many chose to emigrate to the recently settled American colonies in search of freedom - despite Charles's attempts to stem the flow.

The novel is set in the second part of the eighteenth century, during the time of the enclosure acts, a series of UK Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land in the country. The 'Tragedy of the Commons' removed previously existing rights of local people to carry out activities.  Private ownership of land is a modern idea, and was outside the comprehension of most people. The king, or the Lord of the Manor, usually owned an estate, but the people enjoyed all sorts of rights which enabled him, or her, to graze stock, cut wood or peat, draw water or grow crops, on various plots of land at specified times of year.

As the 18th century draws to a close, Great Britain has become a major international power through victory over France in the Americas and the colonisation of large parts of India. In England, the Industrial Revolution is taking hold and radically changing both the environment and society. Alongside the spread of the Empire across the globe, the transatlantic trade in slaves also increased dramatically, becoming a very lucrative business for ports such as Bristol and Liverpool. The majority of the enslaved people, stolen from Africa by the British were sold to the plantations of the European colonies however a number were also brought back to Britain to be kept or sold as domestic slaves. By the 1770s, some Christians were beginning to question the morality of the trade however the slavers would prove unwilling to give up such a profitable business without a fight.