Guest Post: The Traitor's Son by Wendy Johnson
- Archaeolibrarian
- 2 hours ago
- 8 min read
Book details:
Book Title: The Traitor’s Son
Series: Richard III Series
Author Name: Wendy Johnson
Publication Date: 14 April 2024
Publisher: MadeGlobal
Pages: 422
Genre: Medieval Historical Fiction
Any Triggers: Warfare, grief and loss, corporal punishment, execution.
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Caught between a king and a kingmaker, young Richard Plantagenet knows he’ll have to choose...
1461: Richard Duke of York, King by Right, has been branded a traitor and slain by his Lancastrian foes. For his eight-year-old son—Richard Plantagenet—England has become a dangerous place.
As the boy grapples with grief and uncertainty, his elder brother, Edward, defeats the enemy and claims the throne. Dazzled by his glorious sibling, young Richard soon discovers that imperfections lurk beneath his brother's majestic façade. Enter Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick—cousin, tutor, luminary—whose life has given him everything but that which he truly craves: a son. A filial bond forms between man and boy as they fill the void in each other’s lives. Yet, when treachery tears their world asunder, Richard faces an agonizing dilemma: pledge allegiance to Edward—his blood brother and king—or to Warwick, the father figure who has shaped his life and affections.
Painfully trapped between duty and devotion, Richard faces a grim reality: whatever he decides will mean a fight to the death.
In "The Traitor’s Son", Wendy Johnson masterfully weaves a tapestry of loyalty, love, and sacrifice against the backdrop of England's turbulent history. Through the eyes of a young Richard III, readers are transported into a world where every choice is fraught with peril, and the bonds of kinship are tested to their limits. As Richard Plantagenet navigates the explosive tensions within his own family, readers are swept along on a journey of intrigue and passion that will leave them spellbound until the final page.
INCLUDES: Book club questions
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“Exquisitely written. An evocative and thoughtful retelling of the early life of Richard III.”
~ Philippa Langley, MBE
“Sometimes the perfect use of the written word takes my breath away. Not very often but this book is it. A wonderful story written so beautifully that I shall not forget it for a long time. Everything to my mind is perfect. The language, the story, the pacing. Just wonderful.”
~ Kindle Customer, 5* Amazon Review
“Wonderfully woven story of a young Richard III. Woven with a sure knowledge of the history and a realistic telling of a story about a young boy finding his way through tragedy and triumph, uncertainty and a legacy he cannot escape.Brilliant debut which promises more and more.”
~ Cris, 5* Amazon Review
“I loved this novel, it was beautifully written, extremely atmospheric, the characters’ personalities came through perfectly, can’t wait for the next instalment.”
~ Linda Hayward, 5* Amazon Review
“Really enjoyed this book. Holds the reader enthralled from the first paragraph to the last. The next volume can't be released soon enough.”
~ J.M. Henderson, 5* Amazon Review
How did you research the relationships between Edward IV, Warwick, and Richard to craft believable emotional tension?
I’ve been fascinated by the period known retrospectively as the Wars of the Roses since childhood, so when I came to write ‘The Traitor’s Son’ I already had a grounding in the history. Over the years I’ve amassed a great number of secondary sources: biographies of the principal figures, battlefield histories, political commentaries and so on, and these have proved invaluable in forming the backbone of the novel. These days many primary sources are digitally transcribed, and the Internet can prove a valuable tool if a writer needs to verify details which would be more difficult to access in person.
My intention whilst writing the book, was for the historical facts to form the backbone of the novel. I didn’t want to invent things for the sake of the story—for me, the events of the Wars of the Roses are in themselves dramatic and exciting enough without the need to fabricate things. But of course, the duty of an author of historical fiction is to add flesh to the bones, to bring the past to life, and this is essential as the reader needs to empathise with the characters and understand their motivation, otherwise the story will have no meaning for them. So, how did I go about reimagining Edward IV, Richard Neville, earl of Warwick— and of course my protagonist, young Richard Plantagenet, the future Richard III?
I do feel as though I’ve grown up with these figures—my lifelong interest in Richard III was kindled during a visit to Middleham Castle, Yorkshire, at the age of eight. I’ve always had a sense of what I feel my characters were like as people, but of course, that wasn’t enough, I needed to fully research their lives, and the events which formed them, before I could consider recreating them on paper. Biographies proved extremely helpful, most providing a clear background to the life of each individual and helping me to form a mental picture of that particular person, what their personalities may have been, and in particular, who and what may have influenced them. This was significantly important when it came to Richard himself.
Richard’s father, the Duke of York, was killed at the battle of Wakefield when Richard was only eight years old. One may assume that the youngest son of the highest nobleman in the land would not have had much contact with his father, whose political and military career must have extracted him from Richard’s sphere for months, if not years, at a time. However, evidence from Richard’s life suggests that their relationship may have been a close one. As an adult, this filial affection was to be well demonstrated. Statutes still exist for some of the chantry foundations created by Richard, both as duke and king, and it is noticeable how priests are consistently requested to pray for the soul of the late Duke of York. Richard is also known to have forged close and loyal relationships with those who supported his father, and endured more difficult relationships with those who had not. A good example of this is Richard’s dealings with Thomas Lord Stanley—a man who had at times opposed York. Although Edward IV managed to put the past behind him for the sake of conciliation, Richard’s dealings with Stanley appear to have been strained to say the least.
Considering Richard’s undoubted devotion to his father,it’s possible to envisage the void which must have opened up when York lost his life in such violent circumstances. Richard himself was at an impressionable age—an age at which he needed a father figure to guide him. It is very often supposed that his eldest brother, Edward IV, became that figure, but this has never really rung true to me. Edward himself was only eighteen years old at the time, and despite becoming the saviour of the House of York, the avenger of their father’s death, he was not really old enough to step into his shoes. Doubtless, young Richard admired Edward’s military prowess, and may even have viewed him in heroic terms, but could he ever have looked upon Edward as a second father? My personal view is that there was, in fact, another figure who more closely fitted the bill—Richard’s cousin and mentor, the thirty-seven-year-old Richard Neville, earl of Warwick.
Warwick came from a very large family; grandson of the fecund Ralph Neville, who had sired twenty-three children—twelve of whom were sons. For a fifteenth-century man like Warwick, whose life appeared to have given him everything he could desire, the lack of a son—of an all-important male heir—must have proved disappointing to say the least.
According to the Centre for Male Psychology ‘…research shows the father-child relationship is an important one. In fact, it can be more influential than the mother-child relationship. This is especially true for the 8-12 year old child as they try to make sense of the outside world…’[i] If this observation can be applied to Richard and his quest to find a father figure, then surely it would be natural for a bond to form between himself and his cousin, Warwick. From this idea came my belief that Richard and Warwick—the fatherless boy and the man who so desperately craved a son—could likely have filled the void in each other’s lives.
As for Edward IV, his needs were different. Eighteen, going on nineteen, at his accession, Edward seemed initially to have valued Warwick’s guidance and advice, but the young man soon wanted to break away and rule as he himself wished to rule. His main bid for independence took shape when he entered into a clandestine marriage with a Lancastrian widow, whilst Warwick himself was busily engaged in negotiating a match for the king with a French noblewoman. The fact that Edward chose to keep this illicit union secret until forced to reveal it and, by so doing, humiliated Warwick in the eyes of the French, meant that the relationship between the two began to slowly break down. Edward’s preference for following the political advice of his new in-laws, and his inclination to ally with the Burgundians, rather than the French, divided the cousins even further. Edward and the earl never truly made up their differences and in time Warwick rebelled. An irrevocable break came when Warwick allied himself with the Lancastrians. Surely we can see here the actions of a desperate and angry man who felt betrayed by the prodigy he had helped ascend to the throne of England.
For Edward, Warwick and Richard a line had been crossed and the rot had begun to set in. All three were bound together by the past, in the person of the Duke of York and his inspiring legacy. Edward’s choice of wife and his preferment of her Woodville relatives, Warwick’s pride and sense of humiliation at being cast aside, and young Richard’s affection for both brother and cousin—as well as his unfailing loyalty to his father’s memory—are, as they say, history. They are also the residual elements of ‘The Traitor’s Son’.
[1]Why fathers are important, especially for boys,’ Kevin Wright (2018). The Centre for Male Psychology website—consulted 24.02.25
Many thanks for hosting me on Archaeolibrarian. I hope readers have enjoyed the post.
Wendy Johnson has a lifelong passion for medieval history, its people, and for bringing their incredible stories to life. Her specific areas of interest are the fifteenth century, the Wars of the Roses, and Richard III in particular. She enjoys narratives which immerse the reader in the past, and tries faithfully to recreate the later Middle Ages within in her own writing. She has contributed to a number of historical anthologies and was a runner up in the Woman and Home Short Story Competition 2008.
Wendy is also a founder member of Philippa Langley’s Looking for Richard Project, which located the king’s lost grave in 2012. She co-authored Finding Richard III: the Official Accountof Research by the Retrieval and Reburial Project in 2014, and in 2019 received the Richard III Society’s Robert Hamblin Award.
THE TRAITOR’S SON, volume one in a Richard III trilogy, is Wendy’s debut novel and she is currently working on the sequel.
Author Links:
Author’s Page on Publisher’s Website: https://madeglobal.com/authors/wendy-johnson/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0D14SQJP3
Tour hosted by: The Coffee Pot Book Club
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