Edward of York

Since my Facebook readers asked to friend me knowing that I’d written a thousand page book about Richard III in which my Richard bore little resemblance to Shakespeare’s bottled spider, I think it is safe to assume that most of you are Yorkists at heart. So today we celebrate the birthday on August 28, 1442 of Edward, eldest son of the Duke of York and Cecily Neville. (Just in passing, no, I do not believe he was the result of a liaison between the proud duchess and an archer; I think that is about as likely as my chances of finding a unicorn in my garden tomorrow morning.) Speaking of unicorns, anyone read that short story by James Thurber, in which a husband tells his ill-tempered wife that there is a unicorn in their garden, which does not end well for the wife.
Getting back to Edward of York, I confess that he is one of my favorite characters. There are very few I enjoyed writing about as much as Edward, and I missed him very much after he had to die. I think it was his sense of humor that I found so appealing; Edward took little in life too seriously, including himself, and it was great fun writing his scenes with his wife, who took everything with deadly seriousness. He had interesting flaws, too; perfect people are rather boring, both in person and in fiction. You can usually tell if I do not like a character in one of my books; he will have no sense of humor whatsoever and will be cheap in the bargain; paging Henry Tudor. But I play fair. You all know Edward I is not one of my favorite kings, but he did have a sharp sense of humor and I let the readers see that, as well as other admirable qualities like his courage, intelligence, affection for his wife. Now his father, Henry III, was by no means a villain; he was a decent man simply in over his head, a convincing argument against hereditary kingship. Naturally I loved writing about the Welsh princes, who offered me a rare opportunity to surprise my readers.
I think I probably had the most fun, though, with the Angevins, for Henry and Eleanor and their Devil’s Brood were all born scene-stealers, quick-witted, sardonic, dramatic, ruthless, and always entertaining. I am going to miss them even more than I missed Edward once Sunne was finished. Fortunately, writers are fickle and we move on, so I am now having fun in Outremer with another cast of colorful characters, for as my favorite writer, Mark Twain, expressed it so well---Truth is always stranger than Fiction, for fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, and Truth isn’t. Certainly not when the Plantagenets were involved.
PS This was also the date in 1192 that Conrad of Montferrat, newly named as King of Jerusalem was murdered in the streets of Tyre by two of the feared cult, the Assassins. I didn’t get to give him many scenes in Lionheart since he was at odds with Richard, who supported Conrad’s rival, Guy de Lusignan, not one of Richard’s better decisions; the bitter rivalry between Richard and the French king, Philippe Capet, led both of them astray more than once. Conrad will get more time on center stage in Outremer, much more so than his elder brother, who was of great importance to the kingdom, but who got only one line of dialogue in his brief appearance.