"This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,"
-Richard II, by William ShakespeareThis is historical revisionist fiction, ergo, none of this actually happened. Many of the characters are based off of real people, but have been fictionalized for narrative purposes, and they interact with purely fictional characters, and all the situations are fictional. Because it is historical revisionist fiction, many main characters are based on real people who unfortunately often have the same first name. Because this gets understandably confusing, I am electing to use a 'Shakespearean' naming convention, and refer to most people by their titles. This wouldn't have been done in reality (e.g. you're not gonna call your lover or your sibling 'York' or 'Richmond' or what have you), in reality they would have known who they were talking about or said something like 'my John' or 'your Harry' or something like that to distinguish. I have done enough historical fiction that I am sick of doing grammatical back flips to make it clear which Harry, John, Thomas, or Richard, we are talking about. It's bad, like, there are two brothers who are both named Henry, one of whom has a son also named Henry and they have a knight also named Henry all four interact often and it's just way too many Henries I give the fuck up. Therefore, for those who have and keep a title, they will be referred by that title, if the character has no title, place of birth will suffice, if the name is unique or they are a child and/or gain and lose titles or are the only one using it due to others being eliminated they will go by their actual name or a shortening there of. I'm not doing a character list it'd be too damn long you'd skip it. It'll make sense, I'm doing you a favor, I promise.
The year is 1399.
Let's begin...
YOU ARE READING
Seat of Mars
Historical FictionMurder, secrets, forbidden love affairs, and more abound in this scintillating alternate history court drama. 1399 England is filled with intrigue, with banished Henry Bolingbroke returning to England to take the throne from his cousin, King Richard...