The Making of The Eldridge Conspiracy

Guest Post by Don Winn

It’s finally here: the fourth and final installment in the Sir Kaye the Boy Knight series, The Eldridge Conspiracy.

So what can you expect from book 4 in the Sir Kaye series? In this exciting finale, the young knight, Kaye, and his friends Reggie and Beau enter Eldridge in search of the only man who can save Kaye’s father. During their journey, they encounter and make a powerful enemy of Baron Thomas—the self-proclaimed heir to the throne of Eldridge—who also has his sights set on ruling the country of Knox. Together, the boys dodge the baron’s henchmen and race against time to stop an assassination that would plunge the two kingdoms into war. At the end of this post is an early review of The Eldridge Conspiracy from the UK Wishing Shelf Awards.

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that there are elements of the story that are inspired by actual historical events. Without giving too much of the story away, I thought I would share one of the historical accounts, and that is a story about John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

Parliament had assembled on January 27, 1377, with Crown Prince Richard of Bordeaux and his uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, presiding. Disturbing rumors spread throughout Parliament that John of Gaunt was a changeling (not born of noble blood, but substituted as a baby for the real royal infant, who had died). These rumors were causing “great noise and great clamor” throughout the assembly.

The rumors were not true. They appear to have been spread by the banished Bishop William of Wykeham in an attempt to discredit and topple the duke. The duke was a target because of his power over the young prince.

John of Gaunt dines with John I of Portugal, from Jean de Wavrin’s Chronique d’Angleterre

The bishop asserted (falsely) that John of Gaunt’s mother, Queen Philippa, actually gave birth to a daughter but “overlaid and suffocated” her. Fearful of confessing this to King Edward, she had another infant smuggled into St. Bavoon’s Abbey and replaced her dead daughter with this living child, the son of a Ghent laborer, butcher, or porter. She named the child John and brought him up as her own. Philippa was said to have admitted this in confession to Bishop William of Wykeham on her deathbed in 1369, insisting that should there ever arise any prospect of John succeeding to the throne, the bishop must break the seal of the confessional and publicly reveal the truth.

As you read The Eldridge Conspiracy, keep on the lookout for how aspects of the account of John of Gaunt are interwoven in the story.