So what happened on March 4th?

Well, The Land Beyond the Sea has been “born” on this side of the Atlantic and will make its appearance tomorrow in UK bookstores and on British kindles. (It is so much fun to pre-order a book and then to have it “magically” pop up on my Kindle weeks or months later.) Meanwhile, I am trying to find all sorts of tasks to do today, anything to avoid going back to working on my income taxes. And for all of you who’ve already finished yours, you do realize you are setting a bad example for your procrastinating brethren?

This date was an important one for several of my characters. Okay, I have never written Frederick Barbarossa into one of my novels, but he is mentioned a lot. And Saladin and King John both get to spend time on my stage, especially John, of course; I’d have hated to have John in my family or to be one of his subjects or vassals, but he is always welcome to swagger into one of my books.

On March 4th. In 1152, Frederick Barbarossa was elected Holy Roman Emperor and cast a formidable shadow across Europe until his unexpected death as he led a German army toward the Holy Land in 1191. On March 4th in 1193, Saladin died of a lingering fever in Damascus at the age of fifty-five, and on March 4, 1215, John took the cross to placate the Pope and win papal support in his struggle with his barons; I don’t doubt that he did it with his fingers crossed, for John was as keen to go on crusade as his father, Henry, had been.