Having said all that, Constance was a remarkably vivid character, and she certainly seemed a very real person to me. Now I have stopped writing about her, I really miss her, it's like an old, dear friend has emigrated or something. I can say that she (and also Edmund Mortimer) insisted on doing some things in that book that I definitely did not plan out even in my mind - they just seemed to happen as I wrote it. Does that make any kind of sense? Probably not! I would love to know how far the real Constance co-coincided with "my" Constance. To a point I think they did, but there is no way of knowing for sure, not this side of death anyway. Do you know Maria from the lists? Maria who knows so much about Spain produced an historic description of Katherine of Lancaster, Constance's double cousin, and the physical description of Katherine was remarkably close to my imagination of Constance.
One thing that was odd was that in an early draft I had Edmund Kent left behind in Ireland by Richard II, but then found (from what few references there were) some indications that this was not so. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found a letter from Kent to his uncle, which made it clear that I was right first time! He and his sister in law had been left behind, and were arrested landing in England in early 1400, not (as some historians mistakenly believed) trying to flee!
I think I told you about my visit to Elsing and my subsequent discovery (thanks to Rania) of the marriage between Margaret Hastings of Elsing and John Russell. On my travels I would quite frequently see a signpost and think - ooh, that was one of Constance's manors! (Sometimes I would divert to see it, but rarely to any great profit except satisfying curiosity.)
I certainly don't rule out the possibility we are guided in some way. I always think that most people who are interested in history have a particular affinity with certain periods. Why is that? I must admit I am more "at home" in Constance's era than in the Yorkist period, and although I am interested in the latter I am ultimately not as life-and-death passionate about it. It's very odd. Why do we take sides? What made me write about one particular person out of all the interesting characters who thronged Richard II's court? Don't know. Just did. She's not even particularly famous - in fact she's rather obscure - but I just had to tell the story, and I had to get it right, however long it took. She and her family were so real to me; it was almost like a vision. How do you explain all this? I really don't know - it just "is".
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