Characters from the "Kingsbridge" series Quiz

Answer:

Ken Follett was born in 1949 and began writing fiction in 1974 after a short career as newspaper reporter. His first novels were espionage thrillers, but his two best known series are historical fiction: the Kingsbridge series spans several centuries, and the Century trilogy relates the fate of several families (from the UK, the USA, Germany and the Soviet Union) during the period 1911-1989.

The story of the fictional Kingsbridge started chronologically with the fourth book from the series, "The Evening and the Morning" (2020). Set in 997-1016, the novel started with a Viking raid on a harbour town. Edgar, a young talented boatbuilder, had to move inland with his family and they settled near a village named Dreng's Ferry - the later Kingsbridge. Ragna of Cherbourg was married to the local ealdorman Wilwulf of Shiring, but Edgar and Ragna fell in love at first sight. Bishop Wynstan, Wilwulf's brother, was secretly plotting to obtain the highest possible rank in the clergy. At the demand of King Ethelred, Edgar built a bridge to replace the local ferry and this bridge (plus the village and monastery next to it) were named Kingsbridge.

"Pillars of the Earth" (1989) told the story of Kingsbridge between 1122 and 1170. Jack Builder, an orphan adopted by an ambitious master mason, fell in love with Aliena, daughter of the Earl of Shiring. But William Hamleigh, a local warrior, deposed Aliena's father and de facto occupied the Earldom. Jack meanwhile had two major ambitions: to rebuild the crumbling church of Kingsbridge, and to marry Aliena.

"World Without End" (2007) described events in the fourteenth century - from 1327 to somewhere at the end of the 1350s. One of the protagonists was Merthin Builder, whose main goal was to build a Cathedral in Gothic style with a spire exceeding Salisbury Cathedral. Merthin fell in love with Caris Wooler, the daughter of one of the richest merchants of Kingsbridge and gifted in the use of plants for relieving illnesses. Caris' uncle Godwyn was the sacrist of the monastery cum infirmary, and successfully schemed to become the Prior. But his very conservative nature clashed with Caris, and he even had her accused of witchcraft.

The events in "A Column of Fire" (2017) were mostly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The story started in 1558 with Ned Willard, a pacifist without real adherence either to the Roman Catholic Church nor to the Church of England. Ned declared his love for Margery Fitzgerald, outspoken Catholic but also quite pacifist. But her brother Rollo and the French con man Pierre Aumande tried in France and in England to crush all protestant sects, and they even plotted to kill queen Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary of Scots. The book ended with the gunpowder plot in 1605.

"The Armour of Light" (2023) devolved in 1792 - 1824. Sal Clitheroe, a young widow, was hired by Amos Barrowfield in his textile factory in Kingsbridge. The very conservative Joseph Hornbeaam was Alderman of Kingsbridge and owned a number of textile factories in and around the town. As Amos (helped by Sal and her son Kit, a mechanical genius) gradually acquired more sophisticated machines, tensions between Amos and Joseph were rapidly rising.

The red herrings were all major characters in Ken Follett's Century trilogy.