A Net For Small Fishes
A Net For Small Fishes tells the story of Frances Howard and Anne Turner. The title is spoken by one of the characters during the trial which takes place in the book — 'This be a net for small fishes, that the great ones swim away.'
When Frances (Frankie) marries Robert Devereux, the 3rd Earl of Essex, a political alliance between their families is formed but Frankie is desperately unhappy. Then she meets Anne. They bond over the 'tribulations of their sex' and Anne finds herself swept away into the world of the Jacobean Court.
Frankie soon finds her head turned by Robert Carr, a favourite of King James. An annulment suit arguing her marriage is not legal, as it had never been consummated, is not disputed by either party. Frankie and Robert Carr should be free to marry, however not everyone, including Carr’s close friend Sir Thomas Overbury, is keen on this turn of events and later (conveniently it was thought by some) he dies. The annulment goes ahead and Frankie marries Carr but as his standing with the king begins to slip and as rumours persist that the death of Overbury was not natural, King James orders an investigation.
"Woman is born guilty of the sins of Eve and only in perfect purity and good conduct can she redeem herself. Once she has committed any sin, even that of her vanity, her weak virtue is prey to all the evils natural to her sex. She who steps away from the path of duty, who puts herself beyond the guidance of husband, father and brother, is lost to wickedness. You have acted of and for yourself, which is itself against the proper bounds of womanhood, but how shameless is your conduct. An adulteress, a witch, a sorceress and a bawd, reveals herself capable of any crime, including that of murder."
Described by the author as a work of imagination within the bounds of possibility, beginning where the facts end, the 'Overbury Scandal' and all but one of the characters in this book are recorded in historical documents. Plotting, treachery, scandal - it was difficult not to be moved and sometimes horrified by what I read, as Anne and Frankie, while seeking love and safety at a time when women were pawns in the political games played by families, find themselves utterly out of their depth.