Niccolo Rising Read online

  DOROTHY DUNNETT

  Niccolò Rising

  Dorothy Dunnett was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. She is the author of the Francis Crawford of Lymond novels; the House of Niccolò novels; seven mysteries; King Hereafter, an epic novel about Macbeth; and the text of The Scottish Highlands, a book of photographs by David Paterson, on which she collaborated with her husband, Sir Alastair Dunnett. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth appointed her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Lady Dunnett died in 2001.

  Books by

  DOROTHY DUNNETT

  THE LYMOND CHRONICLES

  The Game of Kings

  Queens’ Play

  The Disorderly Knights

  Pawn in Frankincense

  The Ringed Castle

  Checkmate

  King Hereafter

  Dolly and the Singing Bird (Rum Affair)

  Dolly and the Cookie Bird (Ibiza Surprise)

  Dolly and the Doctor Bird (Operation Nassau)

  Dolly and the Starry Bird (Roman Nights)

  Dolly and the Nanny Bird (Split Code)

  Dolly and the Bird of Paradise (Tropical Issue)

  Moroccan Traffic

  THE HOUSE OF NICCOLÒ

  Niccolò Rising

  The Spring of the Ram

  Race of Scorpions

  Scales of Gold

  The Unicorn Hunt

  To Lie with Lions

  Caprice and Rondo

  The Scottish Highlands

  (IN COLLABORATION WITH ALASTAIR DUNNETT)

  FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, APRIL 1999

  Copyright © 1986 by Dorothy Dunnett

  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 hardcover in Great Britain by Michael Joseph, London, and in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1986.

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

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

  Dunnett, Dorothy.

  Niccolò rising.

  (The House of Niccolò)

  I. Title. II. Series: Dunnett, Dorothy. House of Niccolò.

  PR6054.U56N5 1986 823′.914 86-45306

  eISBN: 978-0-307-76235-1

  Author photograph © Grazia Ippolito

  www.randomhouse.com

  v3.1_r1

  Contents

  Cover

  Map

  About the Author

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Preface

  Characters

  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

  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

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  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 multi-millionaires 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

  (Those marked are recorded in history)

  Charetty company, Bruges and Louvain

  Marian de Charetty, the owner

  Felix, her son by her late husband Cornelis

  Mathilde (Tilde), her daughter

  Catherine, her younger daughter

  Julius, her notary

  Claes, an apprentice

  Gregorio of Asti, a lawyer

  Henninc, Bruges manager

  Astorre (Syrus de Astariis), mercenary leader

  Thomas, Astorre’s deputy

  Olivier, Louvain manager

  Cristoffels, Louvain manager

  Medici company, Bruges, Geneva and Milan

  Angelo Tani, manager, Bruges

  Tommaso Portinari, under-manager, Bruges

  Francesco Nori, manager, Geneva

  Francesco Sassetti, Geneva

  Pigello Portinari, manager, Milan, and brother of Tommaso

  Accerito Portinari, factor, Milan, and brother of Pigello and Tommaso

  Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici of Florence, head of the Medici Bank

  Pierfrancesco de’ Medici of Florence, nephew of Cosimo

  The company of Thibault & Fleury

  Jaak de Fleury, Geneva

  Esota, wife of Jaak de Fleury

  Thibault, vicomte de Fleury of Dijon, elder brother of Jaak

  Maffino, Milanese agent of Thibault & Fleury

  The company of Strozzi, Bruges and Naples

  Jacopo di Leonardo Strozzi, manager, Bruges

  Lorenzo di Matteo Strozzi, son of Jacopo’s cousin, and under-manager, Bruges

  Niccolò di Leonardo Strozzi, Naples, elder brother of Jacopo

  Filippo di Matteo Strozzi, Naples, elder brother of Lorenzo

  Caterina di Matteo, sister of Filippo and Lorenzo, and wife of Marco Parenti

  Marco di Giovanni da Parenti, silk merchant
of Florence, husband of Caterina

  Merchants and noblemen, Flanders

  Anselm Adorne of the Hôtel Jerusalem

  Margriet van der Banck, wife of Anselm Adorne

  Jan Adorne, eldest son of Anselm

  Anselm Sersanders, son of Anselm’s sister and Daniel Sersanders

  Louis de Bruges, seigneur de Gruuthuse

  Marguerite van Borselen, wife of Louis de Bruges

  Guildolf de Gruuthuse, grandson of the seigneur’s bastard cousin Louis

  Jehan Metteneye, host to the Scots merchants

  Griete, wife of Metteneye

  Mabelie, Metteneye’s servant

  Pierre Bladelin, household controller in Bruges to Philip, Duke of Burgundy

  João Vasquez, secretary to Isabelle, Duchess of Burgundy

  Tristão Vasquez, kinsman of João, and married to Lucia of Kilmirren

  Charles, comte de Charolais, son of Philip, Duke of Burgundy

  Henry van Borselen, seigneur de Veere

  Wolfaert van Borselen, son of Henry and Count of Buchan, Scotland

  Mary, sister of King James II of Scotland and wife of Wolfaert van Borselen

  Charles van Borselen, son of Wolfaert and Mary

  Florence van Borselen, half-brother of Henry

  Katelina van Borselen, elder daughter of Florence

  Gelis van Borselen, younger daughter of Florence

  Michiel Losschaert, knight of Bruges, formerly in Constantinople

  Giovanni di Arrigo Arnolfini, merchant of Lucca in Bruges

  Marco Corner, merchant of Venice in Bruges

  Jacques Doria, merchant of Genoa in Bruges

  William, Governor of the English merchants in Bruges

  Colard (Collinet) Mansion, writer, translator and artist in Bruges

  Oudenin, pawnbroker of Damme

  Scots of Scotland and Bruges

  Alan de St Pol, lord of Kilmirren, Scotland

  Simon de St Pol, son of Alan’s younger brother Jordan

  James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews, cousin of King James II of Scotland

  George Martin, factor of the Bishop of St Andrews

  Alexander, Duke of Albany, son of King James II and Queen Mary of Guelders

  John Bonkle, illegitimate son of Edward Bonkle of Edinburgh

  Stephen Angus, kinsman of the Bonkles and agent of the Scots in Bruges

  Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston, controller of King James II’s household

  Richard Wylie, archdeacon of Brechin and procurator at the Curia

  John de Kinloch, chaplain of the Scots in Bruges

  John Reid of Boston, Scots merchant trading in England and Calais

  Muriella, sister of John Reid

  French and Franco-Scots

  Louis, Dauphin and heir to King Charles VII of France

  Charlotte, daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy, and 2nd wife of the Dauphin

  Gaston du Lyon, chamberlain and equerry to the Dauphin Louis

  Raymond du Lyon, brother of Gaston and man-at-arms in the Dauphin’s guard

  Isabelle, sister of King James II and widow of the Duke of Brittany

  Antoinette de Maignélais, mistress of the rulers of France and Brittany

  Sir William Monypenny, seigneur de Concressault, adviser to King Charles

  Jordan de St Pol, vicomte de Ribérac, financial adviser to King Charles

  Patrick Flockhart, captain of King Charles’ men-at-arms

  Andro Wodman, archer serving under Flockhart in France

  Lionetto, a French mercenary captain serving in Italy

  Flanders galleys: Venetians

  Alvise Duodo of Venice, commander 1459

  Piero Zorzi of Venice, commander 1460

  Quilico, ship’s surgeon to Alvise Duodo

  Loppe (Lopez), Guinea slave from Alvise Duodo’s galley

  Piero Bembo, agent of Venice

  Milan and Genoa

  Cicco Simonetta of Calabria, secretary to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan

  Alessandro Sforza, lord of Pesaro, brother of the Duke of Milan

  Prosper Schiaffino de Camulio de’ Medici, envoy of the Duke of Milan

  Francesco Coppini, Bishop of Terni, papal legate and secret envoy of Milan

  Federigo da Montefeltro, Count of Urbino, captain of the Duke of Milan

  Giammatteo Ferrari da Grado, professor and physician to the Duke of Milan

  Tobias Beventini of Grado, his nephew, physician to captain Lionetto’s band

  Count Jacopo Piccinino, mercenary captain, son of Milan army leader Nicholas

  Prosper Adorno, future Doge of Genoa and kin to Anselm Adorne

  Tomà Adorno of Chios, kinsman of Prosper Adorno

  Naples

  Ferrante, King of Naples, bastard son of Alfonso V of Aragon

  John Duke of Calabria, son of King René of Sicily and claimant to Naples

  Margaret of Anjou, sister of Duke John and wife of Henry VI, King of England

  René, King of Sicily and Duke of Anjou, father of above and uncle of the Dauphin Louis

  Greeks and Levantines

  Nicholai Giorgio de’ Acciajuoli (“the Greek with the wooden leg”)

  Bartolomeo Giorgio/Zorzi, alum farmer and silk merchant of Constantinople

  Agnolo Acciajuoli, banker, grandson of Donato, Prince of Athens

  Laudomia Acciajuoli, sister of Agnolo and wife of Pierfrancesco Medici

  Giovanni da Castro, godson of Pope Pius and ex-dyer at Constantinople

  Caterino Zeno, merchant of Venice with Levantine connections

  Violante, wife of Zeno and granddaughter of Emperor John of Trebizond

  Chapter 1

  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. Or as if there existed no sort of fool, of either sex, who might one day treat trade (trade!) as an amusement.

  It began mildly enough, the awkward chain of events that was to upset the bankers so much. It began with sea, and September sunlight, and three young men lying stripped to their doublets in the Duke of Burgundy’s bath.

  Of the three, Claes and Felix were watching the canal bank for girls. Julius, his instincts blunted by an extra decade, was content to sink back, agreeably fortified, and forget he was anyone’s tutor. A good astrologer would have told him to get out at once.

  The sun warmed the bath, and the water bore it along on the last stage of its meandering journey. From the leadfounder’s in England it had crossed the narrow sea to the Low Countries in a serviceable wind-battered caravel. It had been unloaded with some trouble in the crowded harbour at Sluys, and strapped with some trouble athwart a canal boat with a scratch crew of oarsmen.

  And now, here it was. Lumped with cherubs: a bath for the noble Philip, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, Margrave of the Holy Roman Empire and all the rest of his high-yielding honours. A communal bathing-basin now on its way to the Duke’s occasional residence in the merchant city of Bruges. And working their passage inside it, Julius, Felix and Claes.

  For the moment, there was nothing to do. In the peace, a wave of philosophy overcame Julius. “What,” he said, “is happiness?” He opened his eyes.

  “A new hound,” said Felix, who was seventeen. His crossbow lay on the points of his pelvis and his ratlike nose was red with the sun. “The kind with big ears.”

  Julius curled a lip, without malice. So much for Felix. He turned his gaze towards Claes, who was eighteen and built like an oak tree with dimples.

  “A new girl,” offered Claes. He jerked open the wine flask, gripping the neck like the hock of a stallion. “The kind with …”

  “That’s enough,” Julius said. Philosophy was wasted on both of them. Everything was wasted on Claes. Julius was sometimes glad that civilization had reached the advanced stage it had, so that it could stand up to Claes. The Greeks would have gone back to tents.

  Claes looked at him, p
ained. He said, “I’ve only had –” Beside him, young Felix was grinning.

  Julius said, “Drink! Drink! I said that’s enough about girls. Forget I said anything.”

  “All right,” said Claes, surprised. He drank. He inhaled. His nostrils were indigo blue. He said, “This is nice.”

  Julius refrained from agreeing. A dyeshop apprentice would find any change nice. Felix (his charge, his employer’s son, his daily burden) had enjoyed the day’s rabbiting, but didn’t deserve to. Only he, Julius, had left his cares in the dyeshop and had a right, for one day, to indulge himself.

  The canal banks glided past. The lightermen bickered companionably and dropped into snatches of song as they paddled. The sun-warmed cherubim lodged three indolent heads, cheek by jowl round the bath-rim. Julius found the wine flask in his hand, and eclipsed the whole sun with its bottom. A conscientious youth, yet with a troublesome lightness of character. So they had assessed him, while he was earning his scroll at Bologna.

  God take all law schools and dispose of them. This is Flanders, not Italy. You volunteer to unload a bath from a ship. You accept a lift in the bath back to your place of residence and employment. You close your eyes the better to ponder. Where is the lightness in that? Julius, notary to the Charetty family, closed his eyes. Almost at once, so it seemed, he endured a nasty blow to his ribs. Half-awake, he flung out a fist in return. He hit something.

  “Hey!” said Felix and, his face flushed, made to kick him again.

  Julius rolled over, escaping the foot. The sound of rushing water told him why Felix had wakened him. They were approaching the lock.

  Felix’s voice was continuing, monumentally resonant because of the bath. “You’ve knocked my hat off,” boomed Felix. “You’ve broken the feather.”

  The lightermen, steering up to the lock, glanced round appreciatively, and so did Claes, who had got up to help them. The truth was, it was hard to hit Felix and avoid hitting his headgear. This one had a peak and a long pointed brim like a paper boat. Its osprey feather curled, broken-backed, on the rabbit-bag. Where the hat had been, Felix’s brown hair was sweaty and flat, and his curls had sagged into corkscrews. He looked furious.