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.