Prince John to King Richard

[Prince John]

To Richard, King--or soon to be--of England, Duke of Aquitaine and Normandy, and Poitou and Anjou, and half a dozen other places, John, King of Ireland and Duke of Gloucester, sends greetings.

I trust you will have had a happy time of it, setting matters to rights, letting mother out of prison (which will cost you, in the end, you know), and so on. Father's death being what it was, I cannot help but empress upon you the utmost necessity of keeping these English lords on a tight leash. The best thing to do would be to take as many of them as you can on crusade with you. Lord knows they fight enough as it is, squabbling with these wretched Welshmen all the time. Did you know Auntie Emma has gone completely native? Anyway, I've been keeping them in line until you can arrive and collect their promises of obedience--for whatever they're worth. You can thank me later.

Hunting's better this year than in year's previous. You might find it a fair pastime if you plan to stick around long enough. Solid networking opportunity. There's a band of lads I go out with when I need a ride--we can get together, make time for it. Bit of brotherly bonding. We probaly should, seeing as we're the only two left.

There's lots more to be telling you, of course. Little Ranulf de Blondeville's marriage isn't going too well, I hear. Constance is making a complete nuisance of herself. I shall never understand why father let her keep looking after the children. She can't be doing Arthur any good, filling his head with who knows what Breton nonsense, repeating who knows what hateful rumors of this, that, and the other thing. Isabel's been after me about children, and lately I've been thinking that she might be right about us looking after them, particularly if it would be helping Geoff's kids out of a bad situation. You think on it, brother.

See you in a couple days,
John.

[King Richard Lionheart]

John.

Noted.

Richard R.