In the Island of Angels Series, Book 2
(Can be read as a standalone)
Historical Fiction
Date Published: 10-28-2024
Publisher: The Book Guild
1580.
Nelan Michaels is a young Flemish, Protestant immigrant who seeks to right the wrongs committed against his family by Catholic Spain, the most powerful nation of the time.
On the way to delivering a message to Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster, Nelan finds a plough head buried in the ground. It sparks a premonition that shapes his future.
Nelan sets out to find Eleanor, his long lost love. During his search, he meets a Gypsy shaman who prophesies that he’s to become a Fyremaster and play a leading role in the unfolding destiny of the Island of Angels.
In 1588, Nelan meets his destiny on the night of the Harvest Moon off Calais in France. It was midnight when it happened. His mysterious intervention changed the course of the sea battle between the English fleet and the Spanish Armada, and changed England’s destiny.
It was a midnight of eights.
The Midnight of Eights is the final book in The Island of Angels series: a two-book saga that tells the epic story and secret history of England's coming of age during the Elizabethan era.
In Book 1, The Mark of the Salamander, Nelan is pressed onto the Golden Hind. During the circumnavigation, he embarks on a voyage of discovery of himself, and learns the arcane arts of the salamander, the mysterious spirit of fire.
My novel, The Midnight of Eights, is set in Elizabethan times, and explores England’s coming of age in that period. This guest post muses on the state of religion in England in the Tudor era.
King Henry VIII ruled in England. He had not yet divorced himself from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, nor from the Vatican in Rome. After Martin Luther posted his 95 theses or complaints about the Catholic Church, Henry wrote a tract condemning Luther. For his efforts, Pope Leo X in 1521 bestowed on him the title of FIDEI DEFENSOR or ‘Defender of the Faith’, which is abbreviated to F. D. It’s one of many ironies in history that, even today, the English monarch, who by law is forbidden to marry a Catholic, let alone become one and remain monarch, still bears the same title, inherited from Henry VIII. You can find it engraved on every coin of the realm. Look for yourself.
Soon after Henry VIII’s break with Rome in 1532, he ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Between 1536 and 1539, the ruby heart was ripped out of England, because, despite their many failings at the time, the monasteries did succour to and aid the poor. The Dissolution helped break the Papacy’s strangle-hold on the English court – for better or for worse. And, with none of its officers, the monks and priests, to represent it, the Catholic religion was exiled from England’s shores. Henry’s other great reform at the time was the ‘Act of Treaty’ (1527-1536) which for the first time allowed ordinary people to own property.
The positive aspect of the break from Rome was that it brought a gradual deliverance from the dogmatism of the Catholic Church, releasing new and liberated ways of thinking. For example, this led to the beginnings of the great English scientific tradition (e.g. Francis Bacon, the father of empiricism, was born in 1561) and to the beginnings of secular theatre (all theatre up to this point had been religious in nature, the ‘Mysteries’ for example).
So in the space of 11 years, from 1547 to 1558, England’s religion had changed from Catholic to Protestant, not once - but twice. No wonder there was a paranoia in people around these times. Look at their portraits, say of Holbein’s portrait of Thomas Cromwell. They are austere, taut, puritan - full of fire and brimstone, and plenty of inner self-disciple. Both men and ladies wore odd-shaped hats that covered their ears. During this fraught eleven years, ordinary people could never be sure that their religious beliefs were not going to cost them or their friends and family their lives. There was little certainty.
Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1558. What she managed to do, though, was to marry both contending parties of Catholicism and Protestantism, and in such a way that satisfied her subjects. She wisely refused to stand as Head of the newly formed Anglican Church, which she left vacant. Instead, she decided that it should be governed by a Synod of Bishops. She also created a High Church and a Low Church. The High adopted the Roman Catholic Rite, and to this day involves mass said in Latin and so on. The Low Church is Protestant. It involves simple worship in the vernacular with few sacraments.
Elizabeth was some lady, as we know. But consider this. Her father was a serial killer and had murdered her mother, Anne Boleyn. Yet she still did what she did over many years.
Gloriana, yes! That is some inner belief!
Justin Newland
28th April 2025
Photo #1: Francis Bacon, courtesy of Wikipedia
Photo #2: Thomas Cromwell, courtesy of Wikipedia
About the Author
JUSTIN NEWLAND’s novels represent an innovative blend of genres from historical adventure to supernatural thriller and magical realism.
Undeterred by the award of a Maths Doctorate, he conceived his debut novel, The Genes of Isis (ISBN 9781789014860, Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies.
His second book, The Old Dragon’s Head (ISBN 9781789015829, Matador, 2018), and is set in Ming Dynasty China in the shadows of the Great Wall.
Set during the Great Enlightenment, The Coronation (ISBN 9781838591885, Matador, 2019) speculates on the genesis of the most important event in the modern world – the Industrial Revolution.
The Abdication (ISBN 9781800463950, Matador, 2021) is a mystery thriller in which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it means to abdicate that faith.
The Mark of the Salamander (ISBN 9781915853271, Book Guild, 2023), is the first in a two-book series, The Island of Angels. Set in the Elizabethan era, it tells the epic tale of England’s coming of age.
The latest is The Midnight of Eights (ISBN 9781835740 330, Book Guild, 2024), the second in The Island of Angels series, which charts the uncanny coincidences of time and tide that culminated in the repulse of the Spanish Armada.
His work in progress is The Spirit of the Times which explores the traumatic events of the 14th Century on the Silk Road and featuring an unlikely cast of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, all shrouded in the mystery of a nursery rhyme that begins ‘Ring a-ring a-roses’.
Author, speaker and broadcaster, Justin gives talks to historical associations and libraries, appears on LitFest panels, and enjoys giving radio interviews. He lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.
Contact Links
Twitter @JustinNewland53
Pinterest @jnewland0711
Purchase Links
https://mybook.to/TheMidnightofEights
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