Gundreda de Beaumont is also here, deep in conversation with the Earl of Salisbury.

"God Save King Richard!" comes the brassy shout of Gundreda de Beaumont.

Some distance toward the rear, a woman that oozes angst sits alone, a halo of empty seats ensuring that she has all the room to fume a woman could want. Her arms are crossed and her head bent, though whether in prayer or slowly charging the batteries of her rage is rather hard to tell.

The Countess of Norfolk writes thus to Roger Bigod-- I have been thinking and praying lately on the matter of your actions against my husband--your late father's--will. And as I was at mass the other day the subject came up in a reading from Proverbs: "If one curses his father or his mother, his lam...