The Golden Grasshopper

# The Golden Grasshopper by William H. G. Kingston

This historical narrative, set in 1551 Antwerp and revised from Kingston's earlier work The Royal Merchant, frames the life of Sir Thomas Gresham through the diary of his young page Ernst Verner. The story opens with Thomas Gresham, the King's Royal Agent, conducting financial business—securing a £10,000 loan at fourteen percent interest and observing Protestant persecution under the Inquisition in the Spanish Netherlands. Gresham's secretary Richard Clough reports the arrival of a distressed Englishwoman, Madame Verner, whose husband Karl has been arrested by Inquisition officers for Protestant faith. She entrusts her nine-year-old son Ernst to Gresham's care, choosing to accompany her husband to likely execution rather than escape. The narrative spans Protestant-Catholic conflict, religious persecution, maritime adventures, and Gresham's establishment of the Royal Exchange during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth.