Days of the Dead Book 1: The Thief's End

Afterword

Same as with the Last Knights of Cambia series, I've done all I can to do my due diligence and be as unbiased as possible with research, and comparing multiple sources. I've touched Henry V and Queen Cathrine and their Henry VI previously, so I'm not going to go back into it here. Portrayals are based on as accurate of accounts of the figure's movements and actions, same with Courtenay. People like Courtenay or Owen Tudor, they were real people but we have almost no directly letters from or to them, let alone personal accounts. Encyclopedia Brittanica and engilshmonarchs.uk are some great places to start research, but often facts will be strictly not true, or based off of highly biased information sources. For example it's still on multiple pages that Courtenay was buried 'accidentally' beneath Henry's crypt. That's simply not true. Henry arranged and gave orders for both their burials, also there is no reason at all a Bishop would be 'accidentally' buried in a hall of kings. I'm not saying they were gay lovers, I'm saying they were quite intentionally buried together and to imply they weren't isn't good fact keeping. For whatever reason Henry fully meant to do that.
Anyway. Point being, check your sources, and then recheck them against other sources, and who is providing the information. It takes a while, I have done my best. As always this is a silly wizard book with dragons, like, I'm not claiming to be a historical representation.
So, a couple more notes on historical figures who show up in this book, and not others, because Gideon didn't get to touch on them :)
Richard the Lionheart, I spent many hours researching this guy, only to discover that historians are wildly homophobic. Here's the facts. Richard was noted to have shared a bed with Philip II of France. He did that, servants said he did, he never denied it. Historians will say that that was common practice at the time, but I can't find ANY record of any one else doing that. So. He and Philip basically behaved like shitty exes the rest of their lives, but whatever.
I chose to portray Richard the Lionheart as gay here, because of frankly, all the highly homophobic articles I had to read trying to get some facts on the guy. People claiming it's part of the 'gay agenda' to 'repaint historical figures as gay'. Yeah, this is out there in notable publications. Anyway. After all that homophobia, I'm like, just because you're mad about it, up yours. He's gay. I'm making him gay.
Really, though, like we don't want him in the gay community, he was not a great person. Killed a lot of people, went on crusade which is problematic as hell.
Also, historically, Richard probably never met Saladin. However they did get along and had correspondence and a truce, and Richard was even going to arrange for his sister to marry Saladin so that's nice, he wasn't racist/Islamaphobic? I mean, it doesn't redeem Richard, but it's interesting. Richard was fine with his wife, very good to his mummy who loved him, and he had correspondence with his sisters as well. Loads of fun stories about Richard, he was not, necessarily smart, he once got caught going through enemy territory, because while in disguise he tried to pay with an ancient coin, plus he was wearing fine robes a disguise but like, nicer clothes than a peasant would have, and his excuse was that he was born to privilege and couldn't hide it. Yeah.
Anyway, no we don't have proof of his sexuality anymore than anyone else's. No. But the thing is people have always been gay..so..it's not not plausible. Again, we're never going to exactly know who anybody was in love with or sleeping with. There is reasonable proof to suspect his sexuality. He had an illegitimate son (supposedly, records are scant), but bisexuality is a thing, so it doesn't mean he wasn't also attracted to men. I made the choice I did because I was sick of people trying to straight wash him when we're arguing a stupid point. Like, please stop being so obsessed with who this person a thousand years ago slept with, or didn't.
Also, like I said, Saladin and Richard probably never physically met (they may have), but based off their locations, maybe not? Anyway, in the Talisman and other books about the crusades, they're usually depicted as meeting. So, I just followed suit here, it's fictionally accepted that these two meet so why not? Also I wanted Saladin to have a cameo he's pretty interesting too.
Speaking of cameos, the time period Kit visits early in the book, where he goes for a walk to the Thames, is intended to be the 1200s and during the reign of Edward II. I drop plenty of hints if you know it. If you don't: Edward II was almost definitely gay/bi, known for taking walks by the Thames and hanging out, he had a natural son Adam (probably, no mother found so I find it suspect the boy was his and not just a ward, but whatever), and then Edward (to be Edward III) and John (who would die in his early twenties). Anyway, please check out the edwardthesecond.blogspot for lots of wonderful information on him. That was just a cameo because I love Edward II's reign and his family, they're so fun very fascinating.
The Beggar's Tomb and all associated spells, like all the magic, is purely made up for the book. The 'Little Sauce Pan' song is a traditional Welsh Song, and it is open source. It's not necessarily a drinking song like in the book, but it is a common song everyone would know.

Also, in the book I note that there is a globe in Henry and Courtenay's study. This is historically accurate (ish), because while Europe wasn't aware of the Americas, they likely would not have believed the earth was flat, so a well educated scholar might have a globe. I know that's a nerdy little thing to care about but it's there now you know as well.