The Unicorn Hunt Read online

  FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 1999

  Copyright © 1993 by Dorothy Dunnett

  Introduction copyright © 1994 by Judith Wilt

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph, Ltd., London, in 1993, and subsequently published in hardcover in the United States in slightly different form by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, in 1994.

  Vintage Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:

  Dunnett, Dorothy.

  The unicorn hunt / Dorothy Dunnett. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  1. Vander Poele, Nicholas (Fictitious character)— Fiction.

  2. Fifteenth century— Fiction. 3. Bankers— Europe— Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6054.U56U55 1994

  823′.914 — dc20 93-35692

  eISBN: 978-0-307-76243-6

  www.randomhouse.com/vintage

  v3.1_r1

  Contents

  Cover

  Map

  Title Page

  Copyright

  The House of Niccolò: Preface

  Characters

  Introduction

  Part I - Open Season: The Waiting Game

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Part II - High Season: Doubling

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Part III - Close Season: The Empty Field

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Part IV - The Whipping-In

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Part V - The Prise

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Reader’s Guide

  About the Author

  Other Books by This Author

  The House of Niccolò

  PREFACE

  When my chronicle of Francis Crawford of Lymond ended, it seemed to me that there was something still to be told of his heritage: about the genetic lottery, as well as the turmoil of trials and experience which, put together, could bring such a man into being.

  The House of Niccolò, in all its volumes, deals with the forerunner without whom Lymond would not have existed: the unknown who fought his way to the high ground that Francis Crawford would occupy, and held it for him. It is fiction, but the setting at least is very real.

  The man I have called Nicholas de Fleury lived in the mid-fifteenth century, three generations before Francis Crawford, and was reared as an artisan, his gifts and his burdens concealed beneath an artless manner and a joyous, sensuous personality. But he was also born at the cutting edge of the European Renaissance, which Lymond was to exploit at its zenith—the explosion of exploration and trade, high art and political duplicity, personal chivalry and violent warfare in which a young man with a genius for organization and numbers might find himself trusted by princes, loved by kings, and sought in marriage and out of it by clever women bent on power, or wealth, or revenge—or sometimes simply from fondness.

  There are, of course, echoes of the present time. Trade and war don’t change much down through the centuries: today’s new multimillionaires had their counterparts in the entrepreneurs of few antecedents who evolved the first banking systems for the Medici; who developed the ruthless network of trade that ran from Scotland, Flanders, and Italy to the furthest reaches of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, and ventured from Iceland to Persia, from Muscovy to the deserts of Africa.

  Scotland is important to this chronicle, as it was to Francis Crawford. Here, the young Queen of Scots is a thirteen-year-old Scandinavian, and her husband’s family are virtually children. This, framed in glorious times, is the story of the difficult, hesitant progress of a small nation, as well as that of a singular man.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Edinburgh, 1998

  Characters

  October, 1468 – February, 1471

  (Those marked * are recorded in history)

  Rulers

  *England: King Edward IV, House of York, vying with *Henry VI, House of Lancaster

  *Scotland: King James III

  *France: King Louis XI

  *Flanders: Duke Charles of Burgundy

  *Pope: Paul II

  *Venice: Doge Cristoforo Moro

  *Milan: Duke Galeazzo-Maria Sforza

  *Cyprus: King James de Lusignan (Zacco)

  *Portugal: King Alfonso V

  *Ottoman Empire: Sultan Mehmet II

  *Mameluke Empire: Sultan Qayt Bey

  House of Niccolò

  (COUNTING-HOUSES IN VENICE AND BRUGES):

  Nicholas (Niccolò) de Fleury, master (formerly vander Poele)

  Gelis van Borselen, dame de Fleury, his wife

  Gregorio (Goro) of Asti, lawyer and manager

  Margot, Gregorio’s mistress

  Julius of Bologna, notary and manager

  Cristoffels (Cefo), Venice management

  Tobias Beventini of Grado, physician

  Father Godscalc of Cologne, chaplain

  Father Moriz of Augsburg, chaplain and metallurgist

  John le Grant, engineer, Alexandria agent

  Diniz Vasquez, Bruges management

  Mathilde (Tilde) de Charetty, his wife

  Catherine de Charetty, her younger sister

  Henninc, dyeworks manager, Bruges

  Astorre (Syrus de Astariis) mercenary commander

  Thomas, deputy to Astorre

  Michael Crackbene, shipmaster

  *John (Jannekin) Bonkle, agent in Scotland, bastard of the Provost of Trinity College, Edinburgh

  Oliver Semple, Scottish land factor

  Wilhelm of Hall, goldsmith

  Bertuccio, agent in Florence

  Achille, sub-agent, Alexandria

  Govaerts of Brussels, steward

  Ederic of Antwerp, manservant

  Donat of Louvain, huntsman/groom

  Dionigi, cook

  Ochoa de Marchena, former shipmaster of the Ghost/Doria

  Scotland

  *James Stewart, (third of the name), King of Scotland

  *Alexander (Sandy) Stewart, Duke of Albany, his brother

  *Sir James (Jamie) Liddell of Halkerston, Albany’s steward

  *John Stewart, Earl of Mar, the King’s younger brother

  *Margaret Stewart (Bleezie Meg), the King’s younger sister

  *Mariota Darrauch, nurse to Margaret

  *Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran, the King’s elder sister

  *Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran, her husband

  *Robert, Lord Boyd, father o
f Thomas

  *James Stewart of Auchterhouse (Hearty James), half-uncle to King James

  *John Stewart, Earl of Atholl, another half-uncle

  *Margaret of Denmark, Norway, Vandalia etc., bride of King James

  *Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll, Master of the Royal Household

  *Archibald Whitelaw, Royal Secretary

  *Andrew Stewart, Lord Avandale, Chancellor

  *Patrick Graham, Bishop of St Andrews (nephew of Bishop Kennedy)

  *James Hamilton of Cadzow, 1st Lord Hamilton

  *Joneta Hamilton, his natural daughter

  *Sir Robert Semple of Elliotstoun, sheriff of Renfrew

  *William Semple his son, ‘second cousin to Oliver Semple’

  *Robert, Lord Fleming of Biggar

  *Malcolm Fleming, his son

  *John and David, his grandsons

  Jordan de St Pol of Kilmirren, vicomte de Ribérac, merchant-magnate of Scotland and France

  Simon de St Pol the Younger of Kilmirren, his son

  Henry de St Pol, son of Simon’s late wife Katelina, sister to Gelis van Borselen

  Lucia, sister of Simon and mother of Diniz Vasquez

  Matten, her maid

  Isobella (Bel) of Cuthilgurdy, her neighbour

  *Andro Wodman, ‘escort of Bel’

  *John Lamb, Leith merchant

  *Thomas (Thom) Swift, Edinburgh merchant

  *William of Berecrofts (Old Will), Canongate merchant

  *Archibald of Berecrofts the Younger (Archie), his son

  *Robin, son of Archie

  *William Sinclair, Earl of Caithness and Orkney

  *Elizabeth (Betha) Sinclair, his daughter, widow of Patrick Dunbar of Blantyre and Cumnock

  *Catherine Sinclair, his daughter by another wife

  *Euphemia (Phemie) Dunbar, Betha’s cousin, daughter of George Dunbar, Earl of March, and of Orkney’s sister

  *Elizabeth, Prioress, Cistercian Priory, Haddington

  *Dame Alisia Maitland, nun of the same priory Ada, priory servant

  *William Roger (Whistle Willie), English musician

  *Thomas Cochrane, master mason

  *William Scheves, cleric, royal apothecary

  *Archibald Crawford, Abbot of Holyrood

  *Sir William Knollys, Preceptor in Scotland of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem

  *John Gosyn of Kinloch, a chaplain of the Order

  *David (Davie) Lindsay, 5th Earl of Crawford

  *James (Jack) Lindsay, his cousin in the Tyrol

  *George, second Lord Seton

  *Edward Bonkle, Provost of Trinity College, Edinburgh

  *Andrew Haliburton, merchant

  *Cornelia, his wife, daughter of Catherine van der Goes

  *Alexander Napier of Merchiston, merchant, vice-admiral of Scotland

  *Gilbert of Edmonston, merchant of Leith

  *Walter Bertram, merchant of Canongate

  *Stephen Angus, agent, Canongate and Bruges

  *John Brown, merchant of Leith

  *John Lauder, burgess of Canongate

  *Martin Gordon, merchant, Canongate and Leith

  *William Touris, merchant of Canongate

  *Matthew Auchinleck, goldsmith of Canongate

  Flanders and the Duchy of Burgundy

  *Charles, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, Count of Flanders, Holland, Zeeland etc.

  *Margaret of York, his wife and sister of King Edward IV

  *Cecily Nevill, Duchess of York, mother of Duchess Margaret and King Edward

  *Isabelle of Portugal, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy

  *Anselm Adorne, merchant, nobleman, magistrate, of the Hôtel Jerusalem, Bruges

  *Margriet van der Banck, his wife

  *Anselm Sersanders, his nephew from Ghent

  *Katelijne (Kathi) Sersanders, his niece

  *Jan Adorne, law student, his oldest son

  *Katelijne Adorne, his daughter, serving Duchess Cecily in England

  *Maarten, divinity student, a younger son

  *Lewisje, Antoon and Arnoud, youngest sons

  Emmelot, maid to Katelijne Sersanders

  *Dr Andreas of Vesalia, physician in Bruges and Scotland

  *Jehan Metteneye, host to Scots merchants in Bruges

  *Daniel Colebrant, Bruges merchant

  *Lambert van de Walle, merchant kinsman of Adorne

  *Pieter Reyphin, merchant kinsman of van de Walle

  *Antoine de Francqueville, chaplain to the Duke of Burgundy

  *Audomaro, monk of St Nicholas, Furnes, his companion

  *William Caxton, Governor of the English Nation at Bruges

  *Henry van Borselen, seigneur of Veere, admiral to the Duke; ‘uncle’ of Gelis van Borselen

  *Wolfaert van Borselen, his son

  *Charlotte de Bourbon, daughter of the Count of Montpensier, Wolfaert’s second wife

  *Paul van Borselen, bastard son of Wolfaert

  *Louis de Bruges, seigneur de Gruuthuse, merchant nobleman

  *Marguerite van Borselen, his wife

  *William Hugonet, Chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy

  *Michael Alighieri, merchant of Florence and Trebizond

  *Nerio of Trebizond, exile, Burgundian court

  *Hugo van der Goes, artist

  *Colard Mansion, scribe and illustrator

  Republic of Venice

  *Marco Corner, merchant, sugar-grower in Cyprus

  *Fiorenza of Naxos, his wife, sister of Valenza and Violante below

  *Andrea Corner, his brother

  *Catherine, his daughter, Queen of Cyprus

  *Giovanni (Vanni) Loredano, deputy Bailie of Cyprus

  *Valenza of Naxos his wife

  *Caterino Zeno, merchant

  *Violante of Naxos, his wife

  *Paul Erizzo, Venetian Bailie in Negroponte

  *Anne, his daughter

  *Niccolò da Canale, Captain-General of the Sea

  *Piero Bembo, merchant

  *Family of Filippo Buonaccorsi of Murano

  *Brother Lorenzo of Crete, steward and treasurer of the monastery of St Catherine’s, Mount Sinai

  Republic of Florence

  *Piero de’ Medici, head of the House of Medici

  *Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, his cousin

  *Laudomia Acciajuoli, wife to Pierfrancesco

  *Nicholai Giorgio de’ Acciajuoli, Greek-Florentine cousin of Laudomia

  *Bartolomeo Giorgio (Zorzi) his brother, alum merchant

  *Benedetto Dei, Medici agent in Africa and the Levant

  *Tommaso Portinari, Medici manager in Bruges

  *Maria, his wife, daughter of Francesco Bandini Baroncelli

  *Alessandra Macinghi negli Strozzi, merchant’s widow

  *Filippo Strozzi of Naples and Florence, her elder son

  *Lorenzo di Matteo Strozzi of Naples, her younger son

  *Antonia, his wife, sister of Maria Baroncelli above

  *Caterina, daughter of Alessandra Strozzi

  *Marco Parenti, silk merchant, husband of Caterina

  *Mariotto Squarcialupi, Florentine consul in Cyprus and Alexandria

  *Francesco Sassetti, Medici manager, Lyons

  *Francesco Nori, recently of the Medici company, Lyons

  The Duchy of the Tyrol

  *Sigismond, Duke of Austria and Styria and Count of the Tyrol

  *Eleanor Stewart, his wife, aunt to the King of Scotland

  Gertrude, mistress of the Duchess’s ladies

  *Antonio Cavalli, Venetian adviser to the Duke

  The Vatachino Company and Associates: Genoese

  *David de Salmeton, broker, merchant and agent

  Martin, broker, merchant and agent

  *Prospero Schiaffino de Camulio de’ Medici, Genoese and Milanese agent

  *Pietro de Persis, Genoese consul in Alexandria

  *Tobias Lomellini, Treasurer of the Knights Hospitaller

  Rome

  *Pope Paul II

  *Bessarion (John) of
Trebizond, Cardinal Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop of Negroponte

  *Father Ludovico de Severi da Bologna, Patriarch of Antioch

  *Philibert Hugonet, doyen of St Vincent of Macon (brother of Chancellor Hugonet of Burgundy)

  Mameluke Sultanate of Cairo and Alexandria

  *Sultan Qayt Bey, Cairo

  *Grand Emir the Dawadar Yachbak, Cairo

  *Emir Madjlis, Master of Ceremonies, Cairo

  *Katib Musa, of the imamate of Sankore, Timbuktu

  Abderrahman ibn Said, merchant of Timbuktu

  *Katib al Sirr, the Clerk of the Secrets, Cairo

  *Chief Dragoman, Cairo

  *Cami Bey, Second Dragoman, Cairo

  Cyprus

  *King James de Lusignan (Zacco)

  *Marietta of Patras, his mother (Cropnose)

  *Jorgin, his servant

  *Sir Rizzo di Marino, Sicilian chamberlain to the King

  *Sor de Naves, Sicilian Constable of Cyprus

  *Louis Perez Fabrice, Catalan Archbishop of Nicosia

  *John Langstrother, former Grand Commander of Kolossi Castle of the Knights

  Persia and Karamania

  *Uzum Hasan, Turcoman prince of Persia

  *Hadji Mehmet, his Chief Delegate

  *Emir Kilidje Arslan II of Karamania

  INTRODUCTION

  THE ELEGANT WORKING out of designs historical and romantic, political and commercial, psychological and moral, over a multivolume novel is a Dorothy Dunnett specialty. In her first work in this genre, the six-volume “Lymond Chronicles,” suspense was created and relieved in each volume, and over the whole set of volumes; the final, beautifully inevitable, romantic secret was disclosed on the very last page of the last volume. The House of Niccolò does the same.

  The reader of The Unicorn Hunt, then, may wish to move directly to the narrative for a first experience of that pattern, with a reader’s faith in an experienced author’s caretaking; the novel itself briefly supplies the information you need to know from past novels, telling its own tale while completing and inaugurating others. What follows, as a sketch of the geopolitical and dramatic terrain unfolding in the volumes which precede The Unicorn Hunt, may be useful to read now, or at any point along the narrative, or after reading, as an indication of which stories of interest to this volume may be found most fully elaborated in which previous volume.

  VOLUME I: Niccolò Rising

  “From Venice to Cathay, from Seville to the Gold Coast of Africa, men anchored their ships and opened their ledgers and weighed one thing against another as if nothing would ever change.” The first sentence of the first volume indicates the scope of this series, and the cultural and psychological dynamic of the story and its hero, whose private motto is “Change, change and adapt.” It is the motto, too, of fifteenth-century Bruges, center of commerce and conduit of new ideas and technologies between the Islamic East and the Christian West, between the Latin South and the Celtic-Saxon North, haven of political refugees from the English Wars of the Roses, a site of muted conflict between trading giants Venice and Genoa and states in the making and on the take all around. Mrs. Dunnett has set her story in the fifteenth century, between Gutenberg and Columbus, between Donatello and Martin Luther, between the rise of mercantile culture and the fall of chivalry, as that age of receptivity to—addiction to—change called “the Renaissance” gathers its powers.