Diana's Foresters

Afterword

Since it's revisionist history, this is going to be pretty much the same information as from the first one. Also considering all of this is made up, there's not a lot of true facts to tell you lots of these people, Bernard, Exeter, Richard, and Roger, should have all been dead by now. That said, of all the things I made up, it is completely true Richard Courtenay (Devon in the books), owned a poison ring. On his skeleton (which is buried beneath Henry V's), was a ruby ring, which had a secret compartment. Compartments like this were for either a saint's relic (which there was none), messages (a bit too small), or poison. He was Henry's spymaster so it's easy to imagine Henry sent him into his dark dealings with at least some protection.
As stated in the previous book, yes I take the 'gay unless otherwise stated' approach, we don't know what happened with any of these people behind closed doors, obviously, that would be weird.
Lady Joan, was regent for her son when he was a minor, that's completely true, and she was pretty tough. She and Henry V got along fine pretty much their whole lives, she liked him just fine.
It is true that at the time, even young teens would be given wine. Wine was not as alcoholic as what we think of, nor was ale, sack was the stronger variant. Children would have water or milk, or perhaps cut wine. As upper nobility, Harry and his brothers were likely getting at least cut wine by the time they were seven or so. And yes it would have been quite high in sugar as well, the variety Henry V drank were extremely sugary (like sherry), John of Gaunt, preferred it dryer interestingly enough. As an adult Henry V didn't seem to be interested in ale, water, or milk, the latter two of which likely a grown man or noble man wouldn't drink. That said, while they took wine on campaign, Edward III and the Black Prince were known for hanging out with their men and they didn't seem to have anything against drinking ale if they were out of wine, similarly Richard II would stop in most any pub called the White Hart (presumably named so he would do that), so I assume he had nothing against the odd cup of ale either because the taverns weren't serving wine (more than likely).
All of the outfits Harry is described as wearing are based off of actual outfits he wore. Yes, him consistently draping himself in expensive silk and velvet, and his boyfriend's poison ring, are the two most accurate parts of this bloody book. Henry liked to look fancy, yes he was king, no he didn't have go as far as he did he had capes for so many occasions where capes were not necessary.
Cyanide isn't fatal or even terribly damaging in low doses, as shown in the novel, they could easily use it just to spoil a party. It takes a good deal of cyanide to actually kill.

Isabela, we know relatively little of her personality besides what I've stated before. The girl did remain strong and argue with Henry IV, refusing to marry his sons, and she handled horses and liked hunting and spoke fondly of Richard, so pretty tough. And she was a Scorpio so you know.

Hemlock was a poison used in the Middle Ages, as described. It's symptoms and reactivity are correct, it's the only poison that would react fast enough to save a life, as Devon was trying to do. In reality, he probably would have used arsenic, which is order less and tasteless and dissolves instantly in liquid (if you didn't get that reference you need more education). But seriously, arsenic was impossible to detect, and as a bonus it took days to take affect, meaning that the poisoner could be long gone, even back in england, before the victim died. A much better tool for a spymaster who doesn't want to be implicated, that said hemlock, while having some taste, could be disguised in a strong wine, and would save his life if an encounter is going south. I just assume that the British did not bother to test the ring for traces of poison, they were too scandalized by finding him in Henry's tomb. Yes they're tombmates, do what you want with that information. Henry was known for inviting another man back to his room, and he didn't ever have an eye for the ladies including his own wife, do what you want with all that information.

Beaufort's daughter was born sometime around 1402 about, we think it's not clear, after or during 1402 he starts contracting nurses so we assume the baby was born around then. That said he later claims she was born before he became a priest. Which, yeah right Beaufort, you became a priest at fourteen or so years old in 1394, you didn't have a baby then and if you did, why are you hiring care givers eight years later? It's not actually clear if Alice is the mother definitely or not, we do think she was, and her husband died in 1402, which makes sense why they had the baby around then she finally moved in or whatever with Beaufort.

Sadly, there's no real information out there about Philip and his son and their relationship, beyond the fact that they were quite similar people, his son growing up to be quite the grifter himself, creating a lending syndicate, and going so far as to carry counterfeit coins to get out of paying for things, along with generalized spying for Henry. That said, we've no proof father and son didn't get along, Philip didn't write his boy out of his will or anything, and by then he knew he was basically living with Henry, don't know how far he thought that went, but Richard Courtenay was known early on as the 'Flower of Devon' for his 'great personal beauty' which is pretty much slang at the time for being gay. So it was suspected of him even if it wasn't of our warlike Harry. He did complete the library project and get universal access, which he used, to check out books regarding succession of the english and Scottish crown. Odd interests for a priest from Devon...unless his boyfriend is the crown prince.

And yes, we have no idea what Bishop Beaufort was doing during his brother's little insurrection thing. Seriously he is not involved in deposing Richard II, he just shows up much later, years later, helping out in Parliament and stuff. Which is eternally amusing I mean yes he's a priest but during the whole period we get nothing which implies he was completely oblivious, busy having his affair leaving his brother on read for like six very formative months.

**R rated, sexuality and the middle ages***
I usually do this note and so here it goes again. They were aware of men (not women) engaging in homosexual sex. But there were slightly different views on it than you might suppose.
Any sex, outside of marriage, not to conceive a child, is sodomy. Period. That said 'sodomy' was a slang for presumed gay sex, but technically it didn't mean that. Usually they used 'sodomite' to mean, 'gay', but technically it didn't officially mean that.
That said, obviously you've got people who are prejudiced, but, as a whole, since Ancient Greek times, if you're still doing manly masculine things, then it doesn't matter so much, namely if you're, ahem, sexually dominant. Then it's just a high sex drive and for a professional soldier like Henry V or Richard the Lionheart, well, it's honestly less of a sin than having a woman about, with a woman you can't have sex with her if she's on her period, pregnant, or a host of other times. With a guy, you go to confession, you're done. As Warwick expresses, and Lady Joan, they're not going to be scandalized, it's a solider thing. Now, obviously there's still stigma but in inner circles so long as you're not Edward II, this is a known secret.

Names, if you care, and why I use titles.

The Duke of Exeter is named John Holland, Harry's younger brother is named John, Lady Joan's son is named John, and Harry's grandfather is named John.
King Richard is named Richard, Richard Courtenay of Devon is named Richard, Exeter's oldest son is name Richard.
Harry is named Henry, Bolingbroke is named Henry, Somerset's oldest is named Henry, Scrope (who appears briefly) is named Henry, Beaufort's name is Henry Beaufort, and Hotspur is you guessed it named Henry.
We THINK King Richard was called "Hart" as a nick name (from the second part of Rich-ard...it makes sense in their accent). In text now everyone goes by their full names, but Henry V is called Harry of Monmouth, as a kid, and later on as a crown prince occasionally they will write "Harry Prince of Wales" so he was probably being called Harry, not Hal as Shakespeare led us to believe. That said we have to call him something, his father is called Henry but I don'T see any 'Harry's' for him, so I suspect he had some other nick name they all used. Sadly we just don't know what many of their nicknames actually were.

I fully admit to fudging times because they get back and forth around London and to Brittany rather quickly, we're going with Our Flag Means Death, rules of movement, like it's a satire, come on. In reality a sea voyage then galloping from the coast would take days to a week, and that's moving fast.

And however sick you thought some of that was, I want you to know I laughed so hard while writing Somerset's final fight, that I gave myself an asthma attack.