In Ashes Lie

Author’s Note

If you go looking for the Vale of the White Horse, you will find it in Oxfordshire, not Berkshire (as described in this book). This is because the county boundaries have changed since the seventeenth century. It’s a lovely place, and well worth visiting, especially on a fine English summer day.

Alert readers may also notice that the spelling of the Queen of Scots’s surname has changed between books. This, believe it or not, is an attempt to avoid confusion. Spelling was a flexible thing back then; I’ve generally chosen to use the forms favored by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. They list the Queen of Scots as Mary Stewart, but her grandson as Charles Stuart. Since that relationship is relevant to this story, I decided to bring Mary in line with Charles, even if it meant contradicting my choice in Midnight Never Come. Likewise, what was Candlewick Street in the previous novel is Cannon Street in this one; its name changed over time.

Regarding the calendar: my habit has been to follow the convention of most recent history books, which is to date these events as if the year began in January. In the seventeenth century England still followed a convention wherein the new year began in March, but I decided to forgo that piece of historical accuracy in favor of clarity.