All was bustle and activity throughout Flanders and Burgundy after the return of John the Bold from Paris. Night and day messengers were crossing the country from one town to another, and every castle in the land saw gatherings of men-at-arms and archers. The land is devastated by the war but the life cannot stop…

George Payne Rainsford James (1799 – 1860), was an English novelist and historical writer, the son of a physician in London. He held the honorary office of British Historiographer Royal during the last years of William IV's reign.