This is the true story of the Gunpowder Plot; read the facts, read the truth; know that you have been brainwashed by the Tudor Court's king of spin who went on to manipulate the Stuart court. James was hoodwinked and encouraged to persecute Catholics, in order for Cecil to deal with the greater threat of Puritan rebellion.

Cecil was a consummate plotter who undermined enemies and helped his supporters, he himself wrote: "I spend my time in sowing so much seed as my poor wretched fingers can scatter, in such a season as may bring forth a plentiful harvest. I dare boldly say no shower or storm shall mar our harvest except it should come from beyond the middle region."" This was written just a fortnight before the discovery of poor Guy Fawkes. What does it mean? It is ambiguous, which is probably what Cecil wanted. I think it is a coded message proclaiming that nothing could stop his plot from succeeding except if those in his service, in the Midlands bungled their part; that is failed to kill all the Catholics hiding in the house. This must surely refer to the assassination of all those Catholic nobles who fled London. If they were dead, they could not protest their innocence. The sherif's men ambushed and destroyed anyone who might have told the truth. Might those 'plotters' have set the record straight?

The true story of the Gunpowder Treason and Plot, told for the first time. Events leading up to the 5th November show categorically that Robert Cecil was behind the scheme and that it was a government plan to discredit and destroy the Catholic elite in England.

"This book takes a fresh look at the most famous treason case in English history, a complex tale of treachery, suspicion, rebellion and retribution. [The author] shows how, starting with the most slender of leads, the Jacobean government built up a full picture of the conspiracy and tracked down the guilty men and brought them to justice. The story does not end with the bloody executions of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators in 1606. For the first time in a book on the Gunpowder treason, [the author] investigates in depth the role in the plot played by the ninth earl of Northumberland, seen by many as the plotters' logical choice for a protector of the realm after blast, who was imprisoned in the Tower for sixteen years on suspicion of complicity. By examining the earl's political career in the years around 1605, the author shows how the government investigations, though shedding much light on the plot, never revealed the whole truth. [The author] cuts through the distortions of centuries of political and religious propaganda to explain the real motives of the Gunpowder plotters. [The author] disposes of the 'conspiracy theory, ' which holds that the king's chief minister, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, framed the conspirators for his own political purposes, and ... sheds considerable light on the workings of early Jacobean government, particularly the privy council. [This book] should appeal to anyone interested in English history, as well as historians and students of seventeenth-century England"--

'What a wonderful storyteller Maitland is' THE TIMES DANIEL PURSGLOVE BOOK THREE From the stark Yorkshire landscape to the dark underbelly of Jacobean London, Daniel Pursglove's new mission sees him fall prey to a ruthless copycat killer... London, 1607. As dawn breaks, Daniel Pursglove rides north, away from the watchful eye of the King and his spies. He returns, disguised, to his childhood home in Yorkshire - with his own score to settle. The locals have little reason to trust a prying stranger, and those who remember Daniel do so with contempt. When a body is found with rope burns about the neck, Daniel falls under suspicion. On the run, across the country, he is pursued by a ruthless killer whose victims all share the same gallows mark. Are these the crimes of someone with a cruel personal vendetta - or has Daniel become embroiled in a bigger, and far more sinister, conspiracy? A new river of treason is rising, flowing from the fields of Yorkshire right to the heart of the King's court . . . PRAISE FOR THE DANIEL PURSGLOVE SERIES 'Dark and enthralling' ANDREW TAYLOR 'This gripping thriller shows what a wonderful storyteller Maitland is' THE TIMES 'Colourful and compelling' SUNDAY TIMES 'Full of tension and danger... powerfully atmospheric' JENNIFER SAINT 'Goes right to the heart of the Jacobean court' TRACY BORMAN 'Spies, thieves, murderers and King James I? Brilliant' CONN IGGULDEN 'There are few authors who can bring the past to life so compellingly... Brilliant writing and more importantly, riveting reading' SIMON SCARROW 'A beautifully crafted thriller... Breathtaking and bone-chilling' MANDA SCOTT 'Maitland is a superlative historical novelist' REBECCA MASCULL 'Devilishly good' DAILY MAIL 'The intrigues of Jacobean court politics simmer beneath the surface in this gripping and masterful crime novel' KATHERINE CLEMENTS 'Beautifully written with a dark heart, Maitland knows how to pull you deep into the early Jacobean period' RHIANNON WARD