The Tournament (39 page)

IVAN IV
, at the age of seventeen, would crown himself the first ‘Tsar’ of Russia. Known to history as
Ivan Grozny
(variously translated as ‘Ivan the Terrible’, ‘the Formidable’ or ‘the Awesome’), he transformed Russia into a formidable nation state. He would build many great monuments including the famous St Basil’s in Moscow and he would correspond with Queen Elizabeth I for a period of fifteen years (he even proposed marriage to her, but she declined). Ivan would ultimately be remembered for the cruelty of his later reign, during which time he organised the torture of some 15,000 people, variously boiling, impaling and beheading them. He died in 1584 having turned Russia into a virtual police state. And he died, apparently, while playing chess.

ST IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA
founded the religious order known as the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. His Catholic missionaries would indeed do battle with Queen Elizabeth I for the hearts and souls of England’s Christian population, with many of them being hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn during her reign. Ignatius died in 1556. There is a statue of him in St Peter’s Basilica.

In addition to his many other famous works,
MICHELANGELO
completed the magnificent dome of St Peter’s Basilica, having accepted the commission from Pope Paul III with some reluctance. He died in 1564.

The quote from
MARTIN LUTHER
about girls being ‘weeds’ is real.

ELIZABETH I
was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. Known as the Virgin Queen or Good Queen Bess, she is widely regarded as England’s most successful monarch. She became queen at the age of twenty-five after her younger half-brother Edward died of tuberculosis (in 1553) and her half-sister Mary also died (in 1558). At one point during Mary’s reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for two months in the dreaded Tower of London.

She would rule over what has been described as a golden age of English life, one that saw the works of Shakespeare written and performed, the defeat of the Spanish armada, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire, and the exploration and exploitation of the American colonies. During her reign, Elizabeth employed and made great use of the brilliant master of spies, Sir Francis Walsingham. She also opened up the animal collection in the Bulwark of the Tower of London to public view. Famously, she never married.

ROGER ASCHAM
is regarded as one of history’s finest teachers. He was an expert in Latin and Greek and a believer in ‘gentle’ schooling techniques (his book
The Schoolmaster
was one of the first major works on teaching). From 1544, his protégé, William Grindal, was Elizabeth’s primary tutor, although Ascham did actively participate in her education. When Grindal died in 1548, Ascham took over her teaching full-time. He was a lifelong advocate of the bow and argued that every Englishman should be proficient in its use. He died in 1568.

WHILE RESEARCHING THIS NOVEL
, I discovered several fine books on the topics of both chess and Queen Elizabeth’s life that deserve special mention.

First,
The Immortal Game
by David Shenk (Random House, New York, 2006) is a marvellous history of chess throughout the centuries and is a most enjoyable read to boot.

As for Elizabeth, her early life is only loosely recorded. As Elizabeth was a child who was always at least one step removed from the line of succession and who was disinherited at an early age, historians of the time may have decided she was not worth following—until she was suddenly restored to the line of succession and became a legitimate player again. Her childhood is thus not as closely documented as her famed later rule, but some excellent works which do address her childhood are:

Elizabeth
by David Starkey (Random House, London, 2000) is very comprehensive in its coverage of Elizabeth’s childhood and early learning under William Grindal and Roger Ascham.

Elizabeth & Mary
by Jane Dunn (Harper Collins, London, 2003) follows the parallel lives of Elizabeth and her rival, Mary Queen of Scots. I am indebted to both of these books.

For insights into everyday life in 16th-century England,
Elizabeth’s London
by Liza Picard (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2003) was invaluable. It was this book that introduced me to the term ‘occupy’ as a synonym for sexual intercourse. Needless to say, if you have got this far, you will have seen that I use several more terms to describe it in the novel.

I am also a huge fan of Robert Lacey’s
Great Tales from English History
(Volumes I–III; Little, Brown, London, 2003, 2004, 2006). It is a marvellous summation of myths, incidents and memorable moments over the last thousand years of English history. Elizabeth I and Henry vIII feature prominently and I owe the wonderful term ‘sportsman-king’ as a description of Henry vIII to Lacey.

When it comes to Islam, I would direct the interested reader to
Nine Parts of Desire
by Geraldine Brooks. It was in this book that I discovered the notion that the modern veiling of Muslim women comes from ordinary Muslims imitating Muhammad’s veiled wives.

I first learned about the Didache of 60 A.D. and those other historical instances of the Catholic Church’s problem with paedophile priests in an episode of the excellent Tv show,
Hungry Beast
, which aired on the Australian ABC network. This was a great show that, alas, is no longer around. I did my own further research to verify what I saw in that episode.

Finally, regarding chess and life, I would thoroughly recommend Joshua Waitzkin’s
The Art of Learning
. Waitzkin was a chess prodigy as a child and the subject of the book (and film)
Searching for Bobby Fischer
. It was from his wonderful book, however, that I learned of the Tai Chi notion: ‘If aggression meets empty space it tends to defeat itself.’ (I also read about some of the distracting tactics employed by less scrupulous players in competitive chess!) It’s a truly great book.

After all that, any errors in this novel are mine and mine alone. I have made every effort to ensure that all historical references, including the locations, the vocabularies used by the various characters, their dress and their weapons, are accurate. I might have added a few languages to Elizabeth’s and the Sultan’s abilities, but this is, ultimately, a story, and I felt it helped the tale along.

M.R.

Matthew, this novel certainly represents something of a departure for you: what is
The Tournament
about to you?

To me, this book is about the development of a young girl who will go on to become a famous queen. While Roger Ascham is the ‘hero’ of the story, for me Elizabeth is its heart: the story is actually about her, her development as a person and her ultimate decision to become a virgin queen.

And while the medieval murder mystery was inspired by
The Name of the Rose
(one of my favourite books), I also wanted to write the story from a young person’s point of view, like another of my favourite novels,
To Kill a Mockingbird
. We witness horrific events through the eyes of a young girl and thus see how those events will mould her into the queen we know she became.

That said, it was also fun to populate the book with famous people who were alive at the time—Michelangelo, Ivan the Terrible (as a boy), Sultan Suleiman, Ignatius de Loyola, and of course, the one and only Henry vIII.

As for it being a departure for me, well, I’ve shown a great liking for historical subject matter before: in
Temple
and in the three books of the Jack West Jr series. I’ve also actually made a departure before:
Hover Car Racer
. That book was written for younger readers. I suppose this one is for more mature readers. And the reason I wrote
Hover Car Racer
was the same reason I wrote
The Tournament
: I just liked the story. As a creative person, I enjoy writing different kinds of stories: thrillers, action-adventures, comedies (like my TV script,
Literary Superstars
), children’s stories like
Hover Car Racer
, and now, coming-of-age-historical-murder-mysteries-as-seen-through-the-eyes-of-a-soon-to-be-famous-queen.

Okay. The sex. This novel contains some fairly explicit sex scenes, something we’ve not seen in any of your previous books. You even state at the beginning of the book that you don’t think it is appropriate for younger readers. Why?

This is a curly one and I knew when I conceived the book that the sex in it would offend some readers.

In short, this book is about why Queen Elizabeth never married and ostensibly remained a virgin her entire life. I was proposing an early life event that might explain this. As a result, the book is chiefly concerned with sexual politics and some rather horrible sexual practices (that continue to this day).

The main reason I don’t believe the book is appropriate reading material for younger readers is the child abuse depicted in the story: the use of children for sex by the churchmen and the men in the brothel. To my mind, this is subject matter best read by mature readers. And, yes, I know I have many younger readers out there, but this is the story I wanted to tell—the story is
all about
the use and abuse of sexual power and Elizabeth’s ultimate rejection of it as an adult queen, so such scenes, however ugly, were necessary for the telling of it.

I just hope younger readers will trust my judgment and wait till they are a little older to read this book.

You make some startling assertions about the use of Catholic ‘embassies’ in the novel. Are these true?

First of all, I would like to make it clear that the parts of this story relating to unpleasant sexual activities taking place inside Catholic ‘embassies’ in Europe during the Middle Ages are the product of my imagination. That said, the historical references to the Catholic Church’s problem with paedophile priests—including the Didache of 60 A.D., the Council of Elvira in 309 A.D., and Peter Damian’s accusation in 1051 A.D. that the Church concealed the crimes of its clergymen—are all real.

Of course, the initial inspiration for a network of Church embassies being used for nefarious sexual practices came from my observations of the very public sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

A more specific inspiration came from an article I read sometime around 2002. I read how a high-ranking member of the Church had suggested that documentary evidence about suspect priests be sent to the Vatican’s
embassy
in Washington, D.C. Since the embassy enjoyed diplomatic immunity, US police could not enter it to obtain those documents. It made me wonder what else such embassies could be used for, but in a simpler time.

The character of Elsie is a striking one. Tell us your thoughts about her?

For me, Elsie is a tragic figure. Almost from the start, we know that she is destined to meet a disastrous end.

I wanted Elsie to represent a carefree sexual adventurer who learns too late that sexual relations can be about much more than simple fleeting pleasure. She is, ultimately, a cautionary tale for Elizabeth and perhaps the biggest reason for Elizabeth going on to live her life, determinedly unmarried and celibate. This is the key to the book: everything that occurs in it is about what we know happens afterward.

A murder mystery set in the 1500s. What motivated you to write something so different from your other, more modern and action-packed works?

I’ve always been interested in history, which I think shows in my action novels (
Temple
and the whole Jack West series). But for the last few years I found myself thinking about writing a novel set in the Middle Ages, a murder mystery in which the hero used what we today would call
profiling
to solve the crime. I just needed a story.

The breakthrough idea came when I was on a holiday. I was reading a book called
The Art of Learning
by the chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin (great book, by the way) and as I was enjoying reading about his experiences at chess tournaments, it hit me: my murder would take place at a grand chess tournament held in the Middle Ages, one that, for some reason, was lost to history.

And so I did some research and discovered that the 1540s were an absolutely pivotal time in history: the Ottoman Empire was threatening Europe, its sultan, Suleiman, was the greatest they would ever have, Henry VIII had split from the Church, and his daughter Elizabeth was a young girl, third in line to the throne, and being educated by William Grindal and his mentor, the great Roger Ascham (I knew of him because there is a girls’ school in Sydney named ‘Ascham’). I also looked into chess and discovered that it was a game that was played in both the East and West: it was the perfect vehicle for telling a story about the collision of Christendom and Islam and Elizabeth’s awakening to sexual power politics.

I like to think that, while it is set in the past,
The Tournament
is still very much a ‘Matthew Reilly book’: it’s fast-paced and thrilling, and the fate of the world is at stake.

Do you play chess?

I have played chess since I was very young, yes, but these days I play it very irregularly. Like Elizabeth, I lost many games as a child, but I learned from every defeat!

I hope I relayed the rules of chess well enough so that non-players still enjoyed the matches and players of chess didn’t feel I was stating the obvious!

This would make a great film: are there any updates on any of your books reaching the big screen?

I recently optioned
Contest
, which is very exciting. My screenplay is being used and I humbly think it’s a very strong script. Fingers crossed.

The option on
Scarecrow
recently expired, so those rights returned to me.
Hover Car Racer
is still with Disney and they remain excited about it (the 3D possibilities are pretty awesome).

It would take a brave studio to make
The Tournament
, but then I suppose someone once stepped up and made
The Silence of the Lambs
, didn’t they? I would love it if the makers of the excellent
Elizabeth
movies starring Cate Blanchett showed an interest.