Team Nicholas versus Team Francis
I admit that I am firmly on Team Nicholas. I love Francis, but I find Nicholas far more interesting.
If you have not read any Dorothy Dunnett historical fiction, stop reading now. Spoilers ahead. She died in 2001 so I am not going to offend her in any way if I choose one of her heroes over the other. Dunnett excelled at integrating her characters into the real world of the 15th and 16th centuries. Written in the 1960s and set in the 1500s, The Lymond Chronicles focuses on the attempts of the noble Scotsman Francis Lymond to build a life after being exiled for treason. Written in the 1980s and set in the 1400s, The House of Niccolo tells tells the story of the rise of the Frenchman Nicholas van der Poele from servitude to rich and wealthy merchant banker with powerful enemies. The intricately woven presence of real historical figures doing what they were known to have been doing is exciting and satisfying. The books are set all over the Renaissance world from Scotland to France and England, from Portugal to Malta, North Africa, West Africa, Poland and Russia.
Francis was in every way written as an anti-hero. He was exiled from Scotland for spying for the English. He was a thief. He was a mercenary. He was a power to be reckoned with. But Francis was innocent. He fell for Margaret, Countess of Lennox, who used him to cover her own tracks. He was but 16. He protected his own people, even if they disacknowledged him. He hunted his persecutors and punished them, albeit outside the law. Despite the trappings of anti-heroism, he was every bit the hero. His heroism is gradually revealed through the telling of the story.
Nicholas is the opposite. He is written as the hero of the story. He is the hapless youth of 18, Claes, who follows his employer’s son, the 17-year old Felix, around Bruges. They get into hijinks, but Claes always takes the punishments with good will. They say he tells all the girls they can stop whenever they want, but they never want to stop. He is clearly intelligent but doesn’t look it. He marries his widowed employer who has raised him like a son because she wishes it. Because she wishes to give him the company to manage because he is the one with the big ideas, with the analytical skills. She believes in him. He succeeds, and succeeds and succeeds. It is a wild ride. But his colleagues realize only too late that he also lies and lies and lies. That every one of his enemies is dead or ruined because of something he did and carefully disguised. Bought his evil uncle’s debt and sold it off to a foreign bank. Carefully created the conditions to ensure that there would be a massive run on debt from that bank and then deliberately triggered it. Loans all called in. Uncle ruined. Business enemy dead in an attack. Even the death of the Scottish King James might be attributed to the sinking of the cannon Mad Martha in the canal on a boat which Nicholas was guiding. His colleagues need him because he is a source of wealth and status. But they do not trust him.
It is hugely satisfying to see Francis best his enemies and gradually regain his rightful place in Scotland. He spends much of the six books attempting to regain custody of a child that might be his own and might be the product of an incestuous union between an evil sister and brother. His worst enemy Philippa becomes his most ardent admirer, but only long after their marriage of convenience to protect her reputation, innocence lost due to her lengthy stay in the harem of a Persian prince. His innate goodness is not difficult to determine and the story thrilling.
Nicholas is a man with a good heart but he makes bad decisions. He relies only on himself. He never lets anyone know his true motives. His best friend Loppe knows that the one thing that you can always trust about Nicholas is that he will lie. His colleagues band together to try to control him, to let him keep the nominal leadership of their joined company but to make all the essential decisions together and circumvent him. He is so far ahead of them that they never even know what he is doing, what provisions he has made, what plans are laid. Every step they make he is ready. They only realize the vastness of their underestimation when the next disasters strike. They are in Trebizond, they are ruined. King David has decided to accept exile from his lands in exchange for peace with the Persian invasion from the East. Nicholas has done what he can to shore up the regime but when it fails he is ready where his team is not. He has already diverted their goods for export to another city. He has engaged a ship’s captain. He has arranged their escape. They are not only alive but wealthy beyond their own imagination. They must accept his leadership but he has enemies more powerful than they. One of them is his own wife who sets out to destroy him in every way possible. The others are his father and grandfather, who hate every thing he is and stands for.
Dunnett is not an easy writer. Her words are dense on the page, every one serving a purpose. Characters behave in or out of character and it is for you the reader to determine if they are lying, or dissembling, or acting according to their own desires. She does not tell. She shows. Towards the end of each book, she provides a narrative summary of what happened for those of us (me) who did not get everything. Much is hidden and if you paid attention to the clues of behaviour, dialog and the art of what is not revealed, you should reach the end of each book with a lot of questions that are then resolved by a narrative discussion that outlines the major plot events.
Why am I on Team Nicholas? Why do I need to choose a side? I have not re-read The Lymond Chronicles in decades. The books are excellent reads. I confess I find Francis a bit boring, even a bit Mary Sue-ish?. Nicholas is, in my opinion, a richer character. OK, he is good at almost everything. However, he is flawed in more interesting ways. He makes bad personal choices even as he makes excellent business decisions. He keeps people at arms length and manipulates them for his own ends. In some cases, his ends are to help them, but they don’t trust him so refuse the help. It is heartbreaking, right the end of the 8th book when it turns out that he has held his worst enemy closest to his heart for his whole life. Not to love him or forgive him, but to control him.
We live in world where The Tudors, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings have made it to the small screen in elaborate productions. I wait the day for someone to realize that The House of Niccolo is their next big hit. It has it all. Beautiful period costumes. Sex. Power. Corruption. And in the centre of it all, the damaged heart and soul of Nicholas van der Poele.
