I’ve just fininished re-reading the Lord Darcy stories in my collection. For those of you who have not read them, they are set in an alternative world where Richard Plantagenet survived his crossbow bolt wound in 1199 but was changed by his brush with death, gave up Crusading and devoted the rest of his life (twenty years) to ruling England and its feudal fiefs. He outlived his brother John (who still died in 1216) and was succeeded by their nephew Arthur. Arthur’s direct descendant rules as John IV. (more…)