Now, just before we get into this episode, I thought I'd better warn you there will be a vivid description of a stench that probably isn't best paired with breakfast.

But if you want the specifics behind the medieval scent I'm about to describe, join the royal favourites over on our Patreon.

It's where you get bonus episodes and extra delectable titbits from the show,

including evidence of my one-time attempt at jousting. I'd love to see you there. Now, on with the

episode.

It's a damp day in early February 1399, and a draft moves through Lester Castle.

Doctors pace the chilly corridors, their faces etched with worry.

Servants scurry about, carrying trays laden with tinctures and potions.

The mood in the castle is sombre, because, in the grandest bedchamber, propped up on beautifully

embroidered cushions, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, lies dying.

He's been ill for months, growing frailer and weaker each day.

He's only 58, but the strain of a hard life on the front line of politics and warfare has

finally caught up with him.

Gaunt is too ill to receive many visitors, but today, footsteps in the

corridor, announced the arrival of someone who can't be kept away. It's Gawnt's nephew,

the 32-year-old Plantagenet King of England, Richard II. He arrives with a look of syrupy sympathy on his face and a sheaf of government papers under

his arm.

The chamber door opens, and Richard sits down at his uncle's bedside, handing him the documents.

Just a bit of light reading, he says, to help keep your mind active.

Exactly how happy Gaunt is to see Richard is moot. Four months ago, the King sent Gaunt's beloved son,

Henry Bollingbrook, into exile for ten years. Now the little bastard is visiting his deathbed to bring him treasury accounts.

According to a scurrilous story told later, Gaunt shows Richard exactly what he thinks of this sort of caper.

...