The Death of a King

incredible, but for me, they simply prove that Edward II was not buried at Gloucester and our king knew this from the start. I have spent the entire night wondering what to do next—and I have reached several conclusions.
    Item—there is no trace of our present king’s instigating any search for his father. This is understandable. Fieschi’s letter would need further substantiation before the king began a venture which would surprise Europe. However close he tries to keep the secret, truth will out, and rumour spreads like the plague. I am sure that Fieschi has already received a swift rebuttal of his report, or a substantial bribe to keep him quiet.
    Item—the letter speaks of Edward II going south to Italy. So where would an English fugitive go in Italy? To the north, riven by war, as well as the market for many English merchants? Or the south, where any Englishman, as Sir Thomas Guerney proved, soon comes to the attention of the authorities? No, Richard, all roads lead to Rome, an ideal place to hide. It is an independent state, filled with many nationalities, as well as a refuge for exiles from all over Europe.
    Item—Edward II has been gone for eighteen years, yet has never made any attempt to publicize his existence. This can only mean he wants to lead a sheltered life and the safest place for this is some monastery or friary.
    Consequently, Richard, I intend to go to Rome and look for our unburied king, whatever the risks involved. I did think of visiting Fieschi, but I am sure he cannot tell me more than his letter already has, and such a move would certainly attract the attention of the king. I have drawn up a fictitious report for my royal master, a lie to fight a lie. In this cold London dawn the thought comforts me. I shall write again, written 19 July, 1346, at Bread Street.

Letter Nine
    Edmund Beche to Richard Bliton, greetings. I intended to despatch this letter from Italy but circumstances, as you will see, have forced me to write again.
    I enclose a letter from Sir Thomas Tweng. Please read it as it makes a most interesting revelation.

    Sir Thomas Tweng to Edmund Beche, Clerk of the Chancery, greetings. I write in confidence to one who is also in pursuit of the truth, whatever that may be. Shortly after you left Taunton, one of my agents in the Low Countries, Peter Teloy, sent me an astonishing report. He had managed to track down John Maltravers, living under an assumed name near Ypres in Flanders. Teloy decided not to approach him but keep him under surveillance for a few weeks. He eventually reported that Maltravers (or “Groot” as he now called himself ) was rich and entertained many of the wealthy burgesses, supporters of our king in his war against the French. Teloy could not understand this and so he started to make his own enquiries amongst the burgesses of Ypres. It finally emerged that Maltravers passed himself off as an Anglo-Flemish knight and Edward of England’s special agent in Flanders! Such a position is not wholly remarkable. Maltravers was never specifically accused of the murder of Edward II. He may well have received a secret pardon in return for perpetual but comfortable exile as the king’s spy in the Low Countries. However, more was to come. Teloy became friendly with the wife of one of the most important burgesses who visited Maltravers. From her Teloy learnt that “Groot” was making discreet inquiries on the whereabouts of a certain Englishman, a hunchback called William Ockle.
    Maltravers (or “Groot”) had narrowed his investigation down to the groups of mercenaries who were drifting south to offer their services to the highest bidder. Teloy decided to mix with these landless men, who told him a camp-fire story about an English sergeant-at-arms, one of Edward III’s recruiters, being teased by a band of Flemish mercenaries. Evidently, the latter had mocked our king for hiring Germans to do his killing, while the city of Metz hired a hunchbacked Englishman to do theirs as the public hangman.
    Teloy realized that their description of the hunchback fitted Ockle and so he immediately travelled to Metz, but he was too late. The hunchbacked Englishman had been mysteriously knifed to death two weeks before his arrival. Teloy then returned to Flanders and wrote to me reporting all he had discovered. I was angry that the king had not informed me about Maltravers. I reproached him, (as an old-time friend and colleague in the conspiracy to destroy Mortimer), for