Roy Royland; or, The Young Castellan

Roy Royland; or, The Young Castellan

Author: George Manville Fenn (1831-1909)

Year: 1896

This book was originally published under the name "Roy Royland"; or, "The Young Castellan". The edition we used was printed in the US, and for some reason was not given its full name. A Castellan is a person in charge of a castle, and that is what young Roy Royland has become, while his father, Sir Granby Royland, is away defending his king. For the time is about 1640, and there is a move afoot in the country of England to do away with the monarchy. In the castle most of its old defences have not been used for many years, perhaps centuries, and old Ben Martlet sets about restoring them, cleaning up the armour, teaching young Roy the arts of self-defence, by putting him through a course of fencing, by restoring the portcullis and draw-bridge, and by training the men from the neighbouring tenant farms to be soldiers. But eventually, through treachery, the Roundheads, as those who oppose the monarchy, were called, managed to take the castle, and to make Roy and his mother, along with old Ben Martlet and the other defenders, prisoner. This can't do the management of the tenant farms much good. Eventually Sir Granby, Roy's father, appears on the scene, and the Roundheads are chased away