Men of Iron (Version 2 Dramatic Reading)

"The year 1400 opened with more than usual peacefulness in England. Only a few months before, Richard II—weak, wicked, and treacherous—had been dethroned, and Henry IV declared King in his stead. But it was only a seeming peacefulness, lasting but for a little while; for though King Henry proved himself a just and a merciful man—as justice and mercy went with the men of iron of those days—and though he did not care to shed blood needlessly, there were many noble families who had been benefited by King Richard during his reign, and who had lost somewhat of their power and prestige from the coming in of the new King.

...Their plan had been to fall upon the King and his adherents, and to massacre them during a great tournament, to be held at Oxford. But Henry did not appear at the lists; whereupon, knowing that he had been lodging at Windsor with only a few attendants, the conspirators marched thither against him. In the mean time the King had been warned of the plot, so that, instead of finding him in the royal castle, they discovered through their scouts that he had hurried to London, whence he was even then marching against them at the head of a considerable army. So nothing was left them but flight. Some betook themselves one way, some another; some sought sanctuary here, some there; but one and another, they were all of them caught and killed.

The Earl of Kent—one time Duke of Surrey—and the Earl of Salisbury were beheaded in the market-place at Cirencester; Lord Le Despencer—once the Earl of Gloucester—and Lord Lumley met the same fate at Bristol; the Earl of Huntingdon was taken in the Essex fens, carried to the castle of the Duke of Gloucester, whom he had betrayed to his death in King Richard's time, and was there killed by the castle people. Those few who found friends faithful and bold enough to afford them shelter, dragged those friends down in their own ruin.
Just such a case was that of the father of the boy hero of this story, the blind Lord Gilbert Reginald Falworth, Baron of Falworth and Easterbridge, who, though having no part in the plot, suffered through it ruin, utter and complete..." (Taken from the Introduction)

Cast List

Narrator: Rita Boutros

Sir John Dale, Young Squire, Other Squire No. 2, Gosse, Groom, Bishop of Winchester, and Friend No. 1: David Purdy

Lord Falworth, Prior Edward, and Herald: Wayne Cooke

Diccon Bowman and Armorer Smith: Lynette Caulkins

Myles Falworth: Cavaet

Francis Gascoyne: Mozartjr

Earl of Mackworth: Mike Manolakes

Armorer and Sieur de la Montaigne: arbycoors

Walter Blunt: Jake Malizia

Sir James Lee and Earl of Alban: Kerry Adams

Older Bachelor: Adrian Stephens

Edmund Wilkes: llamaart

Other Squire No. 1: The Countess

Other Squire No. 3, Other Person, and Friends 2, 3, and 4: Paul Lawley-Jones

Robin Ingoldsby: Cindy Gorman

Different Bachelor and Surgeon: KevinS

Lady Anne: Nissy

Lady Alice: Michele Eaton

Lord George Beaumont: Andrew Gaunce

King Henry IV: Alan Mapstone

Attendant…