Hello everyone and welcome back to the History of England, episode 75, Nemesis.

Last week we ended the story on the edge of a cliff, with a fate of democphate kingdom

hanging in the proverbial balance. The Red Earl, Gilbert Declare, had left court in a

half sometime in April 1265, and events began to move quickly towards their conclusion.

The Montford knew that keeping the Earl on side was essential, and so he gathered his household

knights and in May moved west and agreed to meet Gilbert Declare at the town of Gloucester

to discuss their differences. As he did so, he called out the local funeral leathers.

He would have mean painfully aware that he was putting his head in the lion's jaw,

the further west he went, the closer he came to Declare's power base, and to the uncertain

loyalties of the marcher lords. Before we go on, let's have a brief

geography lesson, with apologies for those of you who will know all of this anyway.

So this forthcoming campaign will take place in the west of England in the Welsh borders.

The River Seven is the longest river in England as my son tells me, and although it rises in

mid Wales for much of its length, it runs north to south near the Welsh border.

Along its length, running north to south again, we have the major towns of Shreysbury

in the north, then Worcester, then Gloucester. On the western side of the river towards Wales,

is the English city of Heriford right on the border. A north of Heriford are the key

Mortimer lands centred on its castle at Wigmore. You'll hopefully remember that Mortimer is a

major marcher lord, not a Demonford supporter. The Declare lands are all over southern and

western Wales, and Demonford lands here are very few. Demonford is well and truly an enemy territory.

And meanwhile, Demonford's capital, our head castle, is a canal within Worcester, about 40

miles east over the River Seven. There is a map incidentally on the website for all of this.

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