My Tyndale "Connection"

During the course of revisions on my current work-in-progress, I came across a scene in which my heroine is imprisoned by the Germans occupying Brussels during the First World War. I could have imagined a prison, since this work is fiction and it’s set almost 100 years ago, but one of my favorite aspects of historical fiction is researching factual details. So of course I sentence my heroine to a real prison, but I needed to know more of what it looked like. There are actually two prisons mentioned in this book, and the one at St. Gilles can be seen online. (I’ll provide links below.)

But the other prison is in a town called Vilvorde, just outside of Brussels. When my husband and I were in Belgium, we unfortunately didn’t make it a point to visit this particular area. Simply ran out of time to see everything we would have liked. 🙁

So I turned to the Internet again to see if there were pictures. I did come up with some photos of the interior (see link, below) but not of the exterior. I did, however, come across some nicely written descriptions, so I have a pretty good image of what it should look like.

The fun part of all this relates to some of the history of this particular prison. If you recall, I wrote the original draft of this book some 8 or 9 years ago. It was the first thing I wrote after a long hiatus from writing, and the entire process was sort of a bonding thing between God and I, with Him affirming me along the way— I could almost hear Him asking – “Isn’t it fun to do what I designed you to do?”

Okay, so how does this relate to the prison at Vilvorde? Good question! Little did I know at the time I placed my unfortunate heroine inside the walls of this prison that on that same site (not the exact same building, which has since been destroyed) was imprisoned William Tyndale, the man for whom my publisher was named. As you might recall if you know church history, William Tyndale was martyred in the 16th century because he dared to translate the Holy Scriptures into the modern English language of his day. He was imprisoned in Vilvorde then strangled and burned at the stake (believe it or not, the strangulation was actually a favor to him so he wouldn’t suffer the slower death of burning).

After thanking God I live in America and in this present (albeit troubled) time, the connection struck me. Perhaps I’m alone in my marveling, but I thought it extremely interesting that as I was writing this scene so many years ago, placing my character where Tyndale was imprisoned and killed, the Lord knew that someday this book would be published by a house inspired by the saint who was martyred there.

Of course I didn’t know it would be so many years later, and the final version will be somewhat different from that first, passionate enjoyment of writing. But I think if I’d known I would have been smiling, too.

Link to see pictures of St. Gilles prison in Belgium: http://home.clara.net/clinchy/neeb2a3.htm or
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7534773

Link to see the interior of the prison in Vilvorde:
http://telefunker.wordpress.com/2006/07/22/prison-belgium/