The Boar (Violent Delights Book 16)

Afterword

This is inspired by true events largely because I had to fill in gaps of information with fiction, or draw logical conclusions.

As always, yes, all conversations are fictional, I don't usually know exactly when someone was meeting someone else for the first time, or who discussed what that's all dramatic license.

As to why the Tudors wind up being kind of villains here...from Richard's perspective they were. I get into all the deaths later on, but there is reason to believe they were responsible for most if not more than what was shown. Usually Henry Tudor is made out to be the villain, and while that may be true later I genuinely believe Jasper was the mastermind in the early Tudor years, someone taught Henry how to survive. Henry got the crown when he was 27, there's no way that he was the mastermind during the early exile when he was 14, the army wasn't taking it's orders from the 14 year old, they were taking their orders from the 37 year old experience soldier. For the rest of his reign, Henry Tudor would pretty quickly execute anyone who even showed the slightest hint of opposing him. Understandable, but even so.

Part of the reason I told Richard's story through one book instead of multiple is because of the trajectory of the War of the Roses, it would take massive catch up to get why we are where we are, so it all became one fluid narrative. Also, I choose after deliberation to include the Tudors and their storyline in this book instead of another one, because they are the villains of Richard's story so to speak, and if they show up at the end at Bosworth they do seem like simple villains. And most of Richard's life is fairly normal so the Tudors showing up is 'what why?'. Whereas if we get their perspective along the way, we at least know why they're doing this, and maybe sympathize with them to a point (or at least up till chapter "Bloodshed").

I do confess I condense movements for sake of time and narrative. Windsor Palace while a main residence is outside of London, the family might stay there or they might go into Sheen Palace or the like to be in London. We mention it but it's not made a big deal of, similarly Richard went between Middleham and Porchester a lot, and as King he had a royal tour and stayed a lot in the north so he's not just like moved in to Windsor. Similarly our beloved exiles got shuffled a bit between houses in Brittany.

All deaths are accurate as I can get them, save those we don't know about (Exeter, Du Parc, Katherine, the Princes, etc, whose cause of death remains a mystery).

I'm going to note here, I love Shakespeare's play on Richard, it's my favorite history play. But it is a work of bloody fiction. Names and some basic events are kept but not all, and play Richard is a hell of a lot closer to reality Henry V, than it is to Richard (right down to some plot points...like nightmares on the day before death). But point being, it is completely divorced from reality and Shakespeare did know that but he was playing to a Tudor audience, it was written for propaganda.

As a rule, I generally don't know where Jasper Tudor was, he would escape battle fields and all around Solid Snake meets Die Harding his way through the War of the Roses. What you have here is my best to track his movements. I don't know who he was particular friends with (Exeter, Somerset, etc), but he was unmarried with no children or mistresses. Yes, this is a bit different from his narrative in Son of Prophesy, for the obvious reasons he's not a reliable narrator.

A couple of times Jasper states that Richard was at Mortimer's cross. This is a common Tudor propaganda (though he realistically may have not known), but Richard was a young child then, and certainly not present. He's usually staged as present, though, including in Shakespeare. But Jasper wouldn't know exactly how old he was and realistically would confuse him with George. So the Tudors get that one, Jasper and Henry may literally not have known Richard's exact age and if he was there or not (though eventually they likely would have realized his age and that he couldn't have been there, if they cared by then).