Niccolo Rising
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.