the heart of standing

To get the obvious out of the way: Northumberland is "Hal" in the text, his dad is "Henry" irrc, Hotspur is "Harry". Obviously, with three Henry Percys (and to say nothing of the forthcoming fourth Henry Percy and the future King Henry (IV) and Prince Henry (V)), you have to find some way of making it work and using Hal and Harry as nicknames obviously works.

But I am laughing about how authors dealing with Two Many Henries always default to Hal for their fave/love interest (Susan Higginbotham did this in her Margaret of Anjou novel)

For the sake of my sanity, I'll be sticking with calling them Northumberland and Hotspur. Except I started calling Northumberland Northie for short.

There is a bit of, idk, a soap opera vibe about everything? The early part of the story is focused on Northumberland's romance for Margaret Neville and it's all very heightened emotions operating at lightning speed speed and at a fever pitch.

Similarly, the characterisations. Women are always bitches, men are always scheming dickheads. Every marriage is desperately unhappy except Northumberland's.

This feels like a fairly different take on Northumberland to Shakespeare's - he's much more obviously the moral centre of the story, even if he isn't the shining, perfect hero.

I don't know much about baronial politics in the age of Edward III or the Percys before the reign of Richard II, but I think it's much more likely that Northumberland and Margaret Neville were a political match than a love match that defied everyone's will but their own.

Northumberland is the son Henry of Grosmont wished he had and he even fantasises about Northumberland marrying one of his daughters except that's too incestuous for him (Northumberland is the son of Grosmont's sister, Mary of Lancaster) and so he's going to marry Northumberland to another heiress but then, horror of horrors, Northie marries Margaret, who has no lands or wealth of her own so FRIENDSHIP WITH NORTHUMBERLAND OVER.

(Weirdly, the "other heiress" is one of the Earl of Hereford's daughter and it is Way Too Early for Eleanor and Mary de Bohun to even be born.)

Years down the track, Northumberland hears Grosmont is dying of the plague and he's like "not my surrogate father!" and immediately abandons his young to family to ride to Grosmont's deathbed - despite Margaret's very sensible protest of "don't go, the chances of you catching plague yourself are very high". Of course, Northie doesn't get plague.

Margaret and some of their children do die of plague but without Northie's presence and the fall-out from Margaret's death gives us one of the best scenes between Northie and Hotspur.

There isn't a lot of Hotspur thus far but when he does appear, he is very much his father's biggest fanboy.

The depiction of Northie's relationship with John of Gaunt is giving big "author hates John of Gaunt and doesn't want to deal with the fact that Blorbo had a positive relationship with him" vibes.

Basically, Northie is friendly with Gaunt and then has a moment when he realises Gaunt can't wait for Grosmont to die so he'll get the Lancastrian estates and is all disgusted and "FRIENDSHIP WITH JOHN OF GAUNT OVER!"

But historically, Northie was still hanging out with Gaunt and their only known falling out was in 1381, during the Peasants Revolt. So after their friendship breakup, Northie gets mad that Gaunt is favouring John Neville, who is a horrible person and hates Northie, in the north and Northie is all "well, I must seek Gaunt's support to fight back against the Nevilles who are trying to erode Percy supremacy in the north 😤but I shall use Gaunt and dump him the moment I become secure"

this is immediately after he gets made Earl of Northumberland during Richard II's coronation.

look, it's better than "Northie is inexplicably best friends with a slimy toad with no redeeming qualities" (cf. how pro-Richard II novels tend to treat his friendship with Aumerle) but that's a very low bar.

Also: Grosmont makes Northie promise to support his grandson (Bolingbroke/Henry IV) which is so obviously foreshadowing Percy support for Bolingbroke's usurpation but knowing this novel, it'll be all betrayal! Bolingbroke is more like Gaunt than Grosmont!

Chaucer cameo! Northie and Margaret Neville are fans! But I almost wish they weren't so it'd heighten their distance from the court culture since Chaucer is so embedded in the Ricardian court.

Surprised that Alice Perrers's son marrying Northie's little sister was just... entirely skipped over, despite Alice having a few cameos.

I actually forgot that Northie was involved with Gaunt's bishop yeeting incident until William Courtenay had a cameo. Sadly, the incident was fumbled. I ask for so little in life...