Chronology of events in the Face Down Series
1525
May 1 Robert
Appleton born (Appleton Manor, Lancashire)
1528
Frideswide Darbee
Appleton, Robert's mother, dies
Sir George
Appleton makes pre-contract with Euphemia Holden
1529
Walter Pendennis born (Launceston, Cornwall)
1530
Constance Crane
born
1532
Lord Robin Dudley
born
April 22 Nicholas
Baldwin born (London)
1533
Mark Jaffrey born (Eastwold, Kent)
September 7 Elizabeth Tudor born
1534
October 25 Susanna
Leigh born (Leigh Manor, Kent)—St. Crispin's Day
1536
Dissolution of the
Monasteries
Sir George
Appleton loots a monastery in Lancashire
Susanna's
grandfather acquires dissolved abbey, rebuilds it as Leigh Abbey
Joanna Leigh born;
Marcella Leigh dies in childbirth
Gilbert Russell
born
1537
January 7 Jennet Barton born
(Barfreystone, Kent)
1538
Eleanor Lowell
born in Westmorland
1540
Susanna visits Dodderidge relatives and learns to swim
1541
Alys Sparcheforde
born (Dover)
Annabel
MacReynolds born (Scotland)
1542
Joanna Leigh dies
from eating banewort berries
Lady Mary Grey
born
1543
Susanna's
grandfather, Sir Anthony Leigh, dies at Leigh Abbey
1544
March+ John Dudley, Lord Lisle invades Scotland as Lord
Admiral
Walter enters household
of John Dudley, Viscount Lisle at 15
Robert enters
household of John Dudley, Viscount Lisle at 19
Fulke Rowley born
(not necessarily in Kent)
September Susanna becomes acquainted with
Bess Brooke of Cobham Hall
1545
Catherine "Denholm" born in Lancashire
Amata Leigh,
Susanna's grandmother, dies
November Katherine Dudley born
1546
July Lord
Lisle to Paris (returned to England in August)
Lionel Hubble born
(not necessarily in Kent)
Bess
Brooke at court and attracts the interest of the widowed Marquis of Northampton
December Sir Amyas Leigh drowns; Susanna
becomes Lisle's ward at age 12
1547
January 28 Henry VIII dies (Friday)
Lord Lisle becomes
Earl of Warwick
Walter Pendennis
enters Cambridge
September Invasion of Scotland
1548
November Susanna Leigh betrothed to Robert
Appleton (after October 25)
Sir George
Appleton marries Jane Denholm
1549
August Kett's Rebellion put down by Warwick; Lord Robin
& Robert with him
1550
Robert at court
with Lord Lisle (yngr. John Dudley); affair with Constance Crane
Jennet Barton to
Leigh Abbey as a maidservant
June 4 Lord Robert Dudley marries Amye Robsart at Sheen
on day after Lisle m. Anne Seymour
Pendennis leaves
Cambridge without taking a degree
Pendennis goes to
Italy with John Shute on trip sponsored by Warwick
poor harvest
1551
April Lord
Protector Somerset arrested
May embassy
to France includes Robert
October11 Warwick becomes Duke of
Northumberland; Lisle becomes Earl of Warwick
Mary
Dudley married Sir Henry Sidney; given Halden, Kent
Susanna met John
Dee in Northumberland’s household
1552
January Dudleys and Robert at court; Robert continues affair
with Constance
January 22 Somerset executed
April measles
outbreak (misdiagnosed as smallpox or as measles AND smallpox)
May Nick
Baldwin to Antwerp
May-June “The Body in the Dovecote”:
Anne, wife of Lord Ambrose Dudley, dies at Otford while
Northumberland is in residence (early AM June
1st)
November Susanna and Robert marry
1553
May expedition
sailed for Russia (Muscovy Company)
May 25 Lady Jane's wedding to Lord Guildford Dudley at
Durham House
Northumberland
retinue: 40 gentlemen and 30 yeomen ushers
Northumberland
fails to put Lady Jane on the throne
July 25 Robert & Pendennis arrested
early
August Robert & Pendennis
released
August 22 Northumberland executed
September Susanna hides Protestants at Leigh
Abbey (continues through 1558)
Jennet becomes
Susanna's tiring maid
1554
October 3 Dudley sons freed from the Tower (Ambrose still
held)
1555
May Baldwin
to Russia; he has already met John Dee before this time
August Cordoba left England at end of month
summer bleak and
sunless; cold; rainy
late in year
Robert slept with Petronella
1556
March 7 comet
“Much
Ado About Murder”
1557
March 2 Shrove Tuesday riots threaten Long Nell's
March18 King Philip arr.
Dover
April18 Easter
April 25 Lora Tylney murdered on St.
Mark's Day
Chapter One of Face Down Among the Winchester Geese
July 6 Robert & Pendennis left England with King
Philip's troops
August 10 Battle of Saint-Quentin began (St. Lawrence's Day)
Walter wounded
& sent home
August 27 town surrendered; Robert knighted
Sir George
Appleton murdered; Robert returned to England to settle estate
September English troops disbanded
1558
January Calais lost as an English possession
February
13 Lord Clinton restored as Lord
Admiral
April 10 Easter
Mark appointed
head groom/butler at Leigh Abbey
Lionel is
gardener's boy at Leigh Abbey
Fulke is one of
two grooms of the stable at Leigh Abbey
November
17 Elizabeth Tudor succeeds her
sister Mary
Walter Pendennis
sent to France (secretary to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton)
Robert becomes an
intelligence gatherer
Robert sets Alys
up in house in Dover
1559
March 26 Easter
Robert sent to
Basel, Strasbourg and Geneva in 6 month period
late July Nick Baldwin in
Persia
“The Rubaiyat of Nicholas Baldwin”
August Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie begins
September Robert sent to France
Susanna journeys
to Lancashire
Robert meets and
sleeps with Annabel
Robert meets Diane
Robert and
Pendennis return to England at Christmas
Susanna injures
her leg (slash from knee to ankle)—I never say which leg
1560
January Scots war, ending in religious settlement
Robert signs over
property to Susanna
Mark and Jennet
marry; stay at Appleton Manor
Catherine comes to
live with Susanna at Leigh Abbey
Robert ends
relationship with Alys; sells house in Dover (“just over 3 years ago” in May
‘63)
March Alys
Sparcheforde marries Leonard Putney
April 14 Easter
A Cautionary
Herbal, being a compendium of plants harmful to the health published by John Day, London
August Baldwin returned to Moscow
September
8 Amye Dudley dies
December Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford,
secretly weds Lady Catherine Grey
December
5 Francis II dies; Charles IX
becomes king
December 15 William Cecil appointed Master of Court of Wards
Susanna Jaffrey
born at Appleton Manor
1561
April 7 Easter
June spire
of St. Paul's destroyed by lightning; storms all summer
August Lady Catherine Grey sent to
the Tower
August 19 Mary Stewart arrives in Leith
September
Baldwin returns to London; his
father is already dead
Robert sent to
deal with Scots queen’s horses, accidentally landed in England
Mark and Jennet
return to Leigh Abbey as steward and housekeeper
September 28 Lady Catherine Grey gives birth to a son
October
18 Robert arrives in Edinburgh
with the queen’s horses
Face Down Upon an Herbal
begins
November
3 Walter Pendennis meets Susanna
for the first time
Catherine Jaffrey
born at Leigh Abbey
December 6 Robert arrives at Madderly Castle (St. Nicholas's Day)
December 26 Ambrose
Dudley created earl of Warwick
1562
January Robert returns to Scotland
February Walter
Pendennis knighted for solving murders at Madderly Castle
Robert returns to
London (delayed by heavy snows)
Robert takes up
with Eleanor; she gets pregnant almost at once
March 29 Easter
Lady Madderly's Great Herbal
published
April Civil War breaks out in France
June Catherine
marries Gilbert, Lord Glenelg and moves to Edinburgh
Magdalen Harleigh
moves in at Leigh Abbey
July Nick
Baldwin moves in next door to Leigh Abbey
July 25 Jennet and Alys clash at Dover Fair
August Robert sent to Spain; Susanna meets Nick Baldwin
“Lady Appleton and the London Man”
September Sir Thomas Smith replaces Throckmorton as ambassador in
France
Dudley receives
gift of Kenilworth from the queen
October Robert Jaffrey born at Leigh Abbey
Queen Elizabeth
and Mary Sidney have smallpox
December Rosamond born to Eleanor Lowell, Robert's mistress, in
London
1563
January Eleanor and Rosamond sent to Appleton Manor to live
February 10 second son born to Lady Catherine Grey
Robert returns
from Spain; plots to kidnap Lady Mary Grey
Magdalen Harleigh
marries Lord Madderly at end of his year of mourning
March 25 civil war in France ends
April 11 Easter
Susanna and Jennet move into Catte St. house,
London; Sarah Jaffrey at Leigh Abbey
Face Down Among the Winchester Geese begins
April 25 Diane St. Cyr killed in Southwark
June 7 plague in Le Havre
June 14 Queen from Whitehall to Greenwich by water
Robert believed
drowned near Isle of Wight
Susanna and Jennet
move back to Leigh Abbey
August plague in London
court at Windsor
Catherine Grey at
Pyrgo
Hertford at
Hanworth with his mother
Dudley building at
Kenilworth
September news given out at end of month that Robert died of
plague in France at age 38
(Two
months shy of 11th wedding anniversary)
1564
March John
Dee left Antwerp (arrived in England June 14)
spring romance between Lady Mary Grey and Thomas Keyes
began (possibly began earlier)
mid-June “Lady Appleton and the
Cautionary Herbal”
June 22 Don
Diego Guzman de Silva, Bishop of Toledo (Spanish ambassador) met Queen
Elizabeth
September 29 Lord
Robin Dudley created earl of Leicester at St. James's Palace
December 24 queen
ill at Westminster
1565
1st week Thames frozen
solid
January
2 Leicester near ailing queen
Face Down Beneath the Eleanor Cross begins
January
3 Sir Robert Appleton murdered
at age 39 (marriage lasted 12+ years)
February 13 Lord Darnley arrived in Edinburgh
April Lady
Northampton (Bess Brooke) dies of breast cancer
April 22 Easter
May 7 Easter
term begins for London law courts
May 10 Walter Pendennis marries Eleanor Lowell
July 29 Lord Darnley marries Mary Stewart, queen of Scotland
August Lady Mary Gray marries Thomas Keyes
November 5 Sir Henry Killigrew marries Katherine Cooke
November
11 Ambrose Dudley, Earl of
Warwick, marries Ann Russell
1566
July 26 Chelmsford witch trials begin (Essex)
1567
June 9 Maidstone fair
Face Down Under the Wych Elm begins
July 10 Assizes begin in Maidstone, Kent
August Nick leaves England for Hamburg
??? Hester
and Grace in training at Leigh Abbey after Sarah Jaffrey leaves
1568
May Mary
Queen of Scots fled to England (1st prison at Carlisle with Lady
Scrope)
October York conference where Norfolk suggested as husband
for Mary
1569
February 3 Mary to Tutbury to Shrewsburys
April son
(Gavin) born to Catherine and Gilbert
May Walter
and Eleanor arrive in Augsburg
August Susanna leaves for Hamburg with Nick
Face Down Before Rebel Hooves begins
September 18 Eleanor Pendennis run down by runaway horse and wagon in
Augsburg
October 8 Norfolk sent to the Tower
Alys and Leonard
Putney murdered in Rye: “The Riddle of the Woolsack”
November 9 bells ring at Topcliffe for rising
November 25 earls turn back at Tadcaster
mid-December rebels flee to Scotland
1570
January Regent Moray (Gilbert’s employer) dies
spring Eleanor moves into Leigh Abbey to recover from
injuries
spring Nick returns to Hamburg to complete his duties
there
July daughter
(Cordell Russell) born to Catherine and Gilbert
?? Walter
made a justice of the peace for Cornwall
1571
May Susanna
accompanies Walter to Priory House to set up think tank for Dr. Dee
June-Aug Face Down Across the
Western Sea
Nick returns to
England
Lionel marries
Gwyn and leaves Leigh Abbey for Appleton Manor
August Gilbert dies of the plague
Winifred extracts
“deathbed promise” from Nick
Fulke marries Hester Peacock
1572
Feb. “Lady Appleton and the Cripplegate Chrisoms”
Catherine comes to
live at Leigh Abbey with her two children
early July “Lady Appleton and the
Bristol Crystals”
excessively hot
summer in Paris
late
August Hester dies just before
Jamie is delivered by c-section
Nick made a
justice of the peace for Kent
August 24 St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in France
Sept.? Rob Jaffrey (Mole) goes away
to King’s School, Canterbury
1573
Act
for the Punishment of Vagabonds (14 Elizabeth)
March 19 Maundy at Greenwich–Jennet returns the ring Jeronyma
Holme stole from the queen
Face Down Below the Banqueting House
April 30 Visit from Yeoman of Her Majesty’s Chamber (also
visited two dozen other houses)
Aug.
11 first body found
Aug.
12 second body found
1574
summer Eleanor
Pendennis visits the baths at Buxton and meets Lady Bridget
autumn Rosamond sent to Buxton to the
household of Lady Bridget
1575
March-May Face Down
Beside St. Anne’s Well
June “girls’
school” is restarted at Leigh Abbey, this time with tutors for music, dance,
etc.
1576
January son born to Walter and Eleanor at Pendennis House,
Cornwall
Sept-Oct “Encore for a Neck Verse”
Act requiring parents who could not support their bastard
children to be confined in a House of Correction (18 Elizabeth)
1577
April
“Confusions
Most Monstrous”
June-July “Death by Devil’s Turnips”
by August Gavin Russell, Lord Glenelg, to the court of James VI
of Scotland
late Aug.-Oct. Face Down O’er the Border
1578
spring word comes to Leigh Abbey from Italy that
Catherine and Fulke are married and safe
fall (Michaelmas) Rob “Mole”
Jaffrey matriculates at Cambridge at 15 on a 6 year scholarship
1579
February signs and
portents: eclipse, floods, heavy snows
Shrove
Tuesday, March 3 incident
at Cambridge–students ambushed and beaten by town louts
“Any Means Short of Murder”
May Rosamond
Appleton (age 16) and Rob “Mole” Jaffrey elope
1580
April
6 earthquake–Leigh Abbey
damaged
1581
1583
Ivan the Terrible
wants to marry an English “princess”
conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn expected to cause disaster–nothing happened
1585
“Curse of the Figure Flinger” (brief appearance by Nick Baldwin)
1592
by
this time Jennet has five grandchildren under the age of 10
1593
Ann Russell’s
wedding at Blackfriars–Susanna finally meets Queen Elizabeth?
1603
Queen Elizabeth dies; Susanna still living
