1558

Elizabeth crowned Queen of England.

1566

Solomon Kane (b. 1549) enters the merchant marine and fights against the Turks with Sir Richard Grenville (b. 1542), in whom he finds a great friend and comrade. During the next few years he will travel as far as Hindoostan and Cathay and rise to the rank of ship’s captain.

1572

Solomon Kane travels to Hispanola where he becomes a buccaneer with letters of marque against Spanish ships.

Jack Bishop born in Torkertown.

1573

Solomon Kane returns to Europe and fights for the Hugenots in the Fourth and Fifth Wars of Religion.

1575

Solomon Kane leaves France for the Black Forest, where Gaston l’Armon (Gaston the Butcher) nearly kills him, and sees a mad innkeeper slain by the vengeful bones of an old sorcerer. (“Rattle of Bones“) He confronts the wicked Baron von Staler with a fellow Englishman he meets along the road, named John Silent, (“The Castle of the Devil”) and crosses paths with a horrific black rider. (“Death’s Black Rider”)

1576

Solomon Kane travels to the Mediterranean where he and John Silent become privateers. He falls captive to Moslems who sell him as a galley slave.

1577

Kane escapes from the Moslems and returns to England, where he signs on to Francis Drake’s (b. 1540) expedition to harry the Spanish.

1578

Francis Drake holds a mock court to try the “rebel captains,” including Sir Thomas Doughty. Solomon Kane steps forward, saying that while the traitor may deserve death, that Drake’s court mocks true justice. Drake has his once-friend clapped in irons and thrown into the brig. Kane escapes, intending to kill Drake, but as he steals into Drake’s quarters, he makes no move to defend himself. Kane sees that Drake lies dead inside already, so he silently leaves. (“The One Black Stain“) Solomon Kane slips off into Patagonia, and soon returns to Europe via Spanish settlements.

1579

While traveling in France, Solomon Kane chances upon a girl mortally wounded by the bandit, Le Loup. After stalking and killing his band, Le Loup escapes, but Kane hounds him. (“Red Shadows,” ch. 1-2)

Francis Drake lands in what we now call California, which he claims for Queen Elizabeth I, calling it “Nova Albion,” meaning “New England” in the Latin tongue. With an English claim here and in Newfoundland, English colonial charters will claim all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from “sea to sea.”

1580

Solomon Kane catches up with Le Loup in Africa, where the bandit has made an alliance with a chief named Songa to dominate his tribe there. With the aid of the “ju-ju man” N’Longa whom he meets there, Solomon Kane unseats the tyrant Songa, helps liberate N’Longa’s people, and kills Le Loup. (“Red Shadows,” ch. 3-5)

Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, completing his circumnavigation of the globe. Drake’s royal reception after his attacks on Spanish possessions influences Philip II of Spain to build up the Spanish Armada.

1581

English parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism. Francis Drake knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

1582

Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian Calendar.

1584

Sir Walter Raleigh (b. 1552) organizes an expedition, led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, to explore the eastern coast of North America and determine the best location for an English colony. At this point, they have in mind a military outpost from which the English navy might harry Spanish ships going to and from the New World. They choose the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a perfect base, and begin making relations with the local tribes. They meet Wind and Content Not Found: marten, bringing them back to Elizabeth’s court, where Thomas Hariot learns their language. John White accompanies the expedition as a scientific illustrator.

1585

After holding posts in Ireland, Sir Richard Grenville becomes admiral of a seven-strong fleet intended to establish Raleigh’s colony in the New World. He sends word for his old friend, Solomon Kane, asking him to join the expedition, and during this time, Kane befriends the artist and surveyor, John White, who accompanies this expedition as well. Both men count themselves among the Separatist branch of Puritanism.

The Tyger, Grenville’s flagship, hits shoals near the Outer Banks, ruining much of the food supplies and delaying the initial establishment of the colony. The pilot conspires with Ralph Lane to sow discontent and slander about Grenville, trying to put Ralph Lane in command. An expedition goes out to form relations with the native tribes, but a small silver cup goes missing at the village of Aquascogoc. Accused of theft, Ralph Lane sacks and burns the village, and burns their weroance alive. Kane reacts with horror, but Grenville must return to England for supplies. Because of his conspiracy, Grenville must leave his 75 men under the command of Ralph Lane.

1586

In the previous expedition upriver, Lane had seen savages bedecked in copper, and heard of the mines at Ritanoc. Convinced they must have a fabulous city of copper and gold, Ralph Lane leads an expedition up the Roanoke river to find it. The native tribes, outraged by Lane’s violence, press upon the colony, leaving Kane to its defense. Kane discerns many factions among the natives. He manages, with Wind’s help, to establish an alliance with the Chowanoc of Croatoan, who help him defend Roanoke.

Meanwhile, Lane’s expedition falls under attack from the Secotan. Lane retaliates, sacking the village of the weroance, Wingina, and killing him.

By June, the colony has fallen into desperate straits. Sir Francis Drake, returning from an attack on the Spanish colony at St. Augustine, finds the starving colonists at Roanoke. He gladly offers to take them back to England—all save Solomon, whom Sir Drake takes special pleasure in abandoning. John White expresses his regrets to Solomon as he accepts Drake’s offer, telling him that he has a daughter named Eleanor back in England; Kane forgives him, and tells him not to worry for his sake.

Shortly thereafter, Grenville returns to find Kane the only colonist left. He leaves Kane once again, with a token force of fourteen men to maintain Raleigh’s claim to Virginia, and returns to England once again to find the forces needed to re-establish the colony his men deserted under Lane.

Seeing their enemies withdraw, the Secotan try to press their advantage, but Kane’s goodwill with the Chowanoc proves crucial. The Secotan kill five, but Kane manages to save the remaining eight by retreating north, leaving word with his allies in Croatoan village.

1587

Raleigh organizes another colonization attempt, this time sending families to establish a full colony, rather than simply a military outpost. John White’s experience and keenness to return (his Separatist congregation feels under particular threat now, with the Spanish Armada assembling), convinces Raleigh to place him in charge of the 121 settlers, mostly members of White’s own congregation. Their orders instruct them to pick up the fifteen men Grenville left behind and establish a new colony further north, in the Chesapeake Bay area.

The pilot, Simon Fernandez, tarries in the Carribean for weeks, refusing to proceed according to plan. White and Fernandez become enemies, as the pilot refuses to listen to the colonists. When he finally does set sail for the north, he has waited so long that it has become too late for the colonists to plant anything for their crucial first winter. But then, he does not take them to the Chesapeake as planned, but instead lets them off at Roanoke, refusing to go any further. White realizes with horror that Fernandez means to leave them here to die, left too late to grow food, and surrounded by enemies still enraged by Ralph Lane’s cruelty before. White suspects that Fernandez has been paid off to do this by one of Raleigh’s enemies, but he cannot prove it.

They find only the bones of a single man at the old colony site; the Chowanoc of Croatoan village, the only remaining friendly natives, report that they had fallen to attack, but that nine had survived and sailed up the coast.

The settlers arrive on Roanoke Island on 22 July, whereupon John White meets his old comrade, Solomon Kane, the only remaining survivor after a long year of struggle and violence.

On 18 August, John White’s daughter delivers her baby, White’s granddaughter and the first European born on American soil. They name her Virginia Dare, in honor of Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. With Kane’s help, White re-establishes relations with the Chowanoc, and tries to set right the problems caused by Lane previously, but many of the aggrieved tribes refuse to meet with the colonists. While searching for crabs along the coast alone in Albermarle Sound, the remaining warriors loyal to Wingina, led by Content Not Found: marten, killed George Howe. Fearing for their lives, the colonists insist that White return to England for help. White relents, though the journey home so late in the year involves great peril. He brings with him Solomon Kane, and he leaves behind him 116 colonists, including his newborn granddaughter.

Winter delays their return, and Solomon Kane retires to the moors near Torkertown, which he finds haunted by a phantom who demands vengeance upon her murderer, the cruel hermit, Ezra. Perhaps jaded by his recent experiences in the Virginia wilderness, Solomon leads the townspeople in his execution, tying him to a tree for the phantom to kill. (“Skulls in the Stars“)

Jack Bishop, now 15, meets Solomon Kane here, and becomes inspired by his example. He leaves Torkertown and heads for London, where Sir Francis Walsingham enlists him as an agent. Bishop proves himself by helping retrieve secret documents from Spanish spies, staying in taverns and inns in London.

Meanwhile, the attacks of Marten and his warriors force the colonists to retreat to Croatoan, to beg Wind for help. The town cannot support their numbers, though, so they head 50 miles inland, according to a plan they had discussed with White.

1588

The Spanish Armada attacks with 130 ships and 30,000 men. The Crown conscripts every available ship for England’s defense. Solomon Kane fights in the battle, but it also delays John White’s return to the colony. White does manage to find two small vessels deemed unnecessary, but their captains succumb to greed and try to capture outbound vessels to make the trip worth their while. Their greed outstretches their ability, however, resulting in their own capture and the seizure of the cargo White had meant for the colony.

Walsingham notes Bishop’s preoccupation with battling witchcraft, and so gives him his first job working against the occult: a robbery of John Dee’s library at Mortlake, to retrieve a specific book one of his agents informed him about. Touching the book affected Bishop deeply, but he succeeded in the heist, causing some general disruption and stealing other books to hide his trail amidst the signs of a general robbery, and returned the book to Walsingham, who proceeded to send Bishop on more missions against the forces of the occult.

Hearing of white-skinned people with much copper and the skill to work it, the Copper People attack the Chowanoc, and take the Roanoke colonists as slaves. Ananais Dare dies in the battle, and Wind believes Eleanor has died, as well. Believing himself indebted to help White’s family, Wind heads to the Gathering Place and buys Virginia from bondage. He then heads north.

1589

John Dee returns to Mortlake to find his library ruined and many of his books stolen.

Wind returns from his northern journey with the baby Virginia. He heads to Red Earth, and begins living with them.

1590

Because of Walsingham’s mechanations, John White manages to return to Roanoke only two years later, when he finally finds a privateer willing to stop along his way to the Caribbean. White lands on 18 August, his granddaughter’s third birthday, but finds the settlement deserted. The only clues come from carvings, one in a post of the fort, reading, “CROATOAN,” and another on a nearby tree, “CRO.” He found two buried skeletons, and all the houses and fortifications dismantled. White concluded that the colonists must have retreated to Croatoan village, but a hurricane prevented them from going there, and the privateers refused to investigate further. The next day, White stood on the deck of his ship and watched helplessly as they left Roanoke Island.

Sir Francis Walsingham dies. Jack Bishop, now eighteen, takes orders from Robert Cecil as a specialized agent against the Crown’s occult enemies.

1591

Kane serves aboard the Revenge when the Spanish take the ship. Sir Richard Grenville dies fighting, while they take Kane captive. The Inquisition tortures him, but he eventually escapes.

1592

Solomon Kane fights a duel in England with a man who reveals that he had sold a young heiress named Marilyn to a Barbary pirate named El Gar. Kane tracked him down and slew him, and eventually traces Marilyn’s circuitous route to Queen Nakari, the vampire queen of Negari, a city of vampires deep in the jungles of Africa. Kane frees Marilyn, topples Nakari, and throws the crumbling city of Negari into utter chaos by destroying its revered idol, the skull of Nakura, a sorcerer who aided the slave revolt from ancient Atlantis that originally founded the city. (“The Moon of Skulls“)

1594

Still in Africa, Solomon Kane meets N’Longa again, as well as a girl named Zunna, with whom he begins to appreciate the value of N’Longa’s magic, and helps wipe out a tribe of vampires. N’Longa gives Solomon his magic staff. (“The Hills of the Dead“)

While sleeping, Solomon Kane is roused by his dead friend, Sir Richard Grenville, who warns that the hounds of doom are loose. Together, they fight the monsters like in olden days, but when the fight is over, Kane finds himself alone again, his friend gone once more. (“The Return of Sir Richard Grenville“)

1596

John Smith (b. 1580) leaves home to seek adventure after his father’s death at the age of sixteen. He serves as a mercenary in the army of King Henry IV of France against the Spaniards, and later against the Ottoman Empire.

1597

While wandering Africa, Solomon Kane chances upon Jeremy Hawk, with whom he once served under Sir Francis Drake, and helps him liberate the city of Basti from the cruel Khabasti. (“The Hawk of Basti“)

1599

A ruined village draws Solomon Kane into conflict with the _akaana_s, whom he realizes must have inspired ancient tales of the harpies. (“Wings in the Night“)

1600

While hunting slavers in Africa, Solomon Kane falls victim to them, and becomes the property of the Arab slaver ben Said. Ben Said has heard of Kane’s reputation, and uses him to plunder an ancient tomb guarded by a horrible monster. Kane kills the monster with the staff given to him by N’Longa, and in the process realizes that none less than his Biblical namesake, King Solomon, had sealed the tomb up with the ancient monster, and that the magic staff gifted to him by N’Longa had once belonged to the wise King of Israel. (“The Footfalls Within“)

1601

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, longtime favorite of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I, rebels against the queen. Her Majesty’s forces crush the revolt quickly, after Jack Bishop defeats the sorcerer their plot depended on. Thomas West (b. 1577), the son of the second Baron de la Warr, faces charges of supporting Essex’s ill-fated insurrection against Queen Elizabeth, but acquits himself. The siege of Kinsale establishes English rule over Ireland.

1602

Thomas West succeeds his father to become the third Baron de la Warr, and becomes a member of the Privy Council,

1603

Queen Elizabeth dies. King James VI of Scotland crowned as King James I of England. Sir Walter Raleigh arrested for treason.

1604

Solomon Kane taken prisoner by the Assyrians of Ninn, an ancient refuge where they have escaped history and continue to war against the neighboring tribes, including the Sulas. Kane escapes amidst a Sulas attack on the city. (“The Children of Asshur”)

After travels through Europe and Northern Africa, John Smith returns to England.

1605

Bishop returns to Torkertown, working against a necromancer named Roger Simeon. With the testimony of Simeon’s sole friend, John Redley, Bishop takes the necromancer prisoner.

Solomon Kane returns to England, and in Torkertown hears how John Redley betrayed his friend for the bounty. Kane condemns the man for his treachery and greed, despite his hatred for necromancy. That night, Solomon hears scratching sounds from Redley’s room, and enters in time to see him strangled to death by an animate human hand. The next day, Solomon Kane hears that they indeed hanged Roger Simeon, but only after the execution of his final wish: that they lop off his right hand at the wrist. (“The Right Hand of Doom”)

On the fifth of November, the day before King James sits before Parliament, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below Parliament, and orders a search that reveals 36 barrels of gunpowder. The foiling of the Gunpowder Plot horrifies all of England.

John Dee leaves Manchester, returning to London. James I had little interested in Dee’s work, and so Dee spent his final years at Mortlake in poverty, selling off his possessions to support himself.

1606

The London Company establishes a new English colony at Jamestown.

1607

John Smith spends the winter with the Powhatan, following his capture. While there, John Smith inquires about the fate of the Roanoke colony. Wahunsonacock reports that he killed them, producing a musket and a copper mortar to prove the point.

1608

John Dee dies.

1609

Full scale war breaks out between Jamestown and the Powhatan Confederacy. John Smith suffered serious injury from a gunpowder burn after a rogue spark landed in his powder keg. He returned to England for treatment in Oct. 1609, never to return to Virginia.

More colonists arrive at Jamestown, but few new supplies, combined with severe drought, result in “the Starving Times,” in the winter of 1609-1610. Only 60 of 500 colonists survived.

Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia, which intends to replace the council with a Virginia Governor who has absolute control in the colony.

Reports begin to circulate about London of Englishmen from Roanoke living under a chief called Gepanocan, at Pakerkinick. The rumors say that Gepanocan holds four men, two boys, and “a young maid” from Roanoke as copper workers.

1610

Solomon Kane returns to Devon, intent on retiring. He recounts his adventures, and remembers “Bess,” regretting that he “caused her tears.” But he catches an ill wind off the ocean, and wordlessly straps on his sword, realizing that he can never retire. (“Solomon Kane’s Homecoming“)

The rumors of Roanoke survivors living with a chief named Gepanocan reach John White, living as a surveyor on Sir Walter Raleigh’s lands in Ireland, who kindles hope that the “young maid” of the rumors might describe his long-lost granddaughter. The aging artist sends word for his old friend, Solomon Kane, knowing that a return to the New World would constitute his final journey, and that he would need Solomon’s aid.

The Third Supply finally arrives at Jamestown, ending the “Starving Times,” and bringing with it a new governor: Baron de la Warr, who persuaded the colonists not to give up. Along with the governor comes several new colonists, including John White, Solomon Kane, Jack Bishop and Samuell Drake.

Galileo Galilei discovers the Galilean moons of Jupiter. Johannes Fabricius becomes the first to observe sunspots by telescope. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc discovers the Orion Nebula. Henry Hudson sails into a bay he names for himself, thinking he has made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.

And finally, our story here begins.