James as diplomat. A Nightrider episode.
The narrative takes us to James' death. But first James attempts to hear cases like Daenerys Stormborn, knights cuts of beef, gives knighthoods to those who don’t want them and fines those who refuse them, raises money through forced “donations,” commits a classic diplomatic blunder and allows the craziest of royal marriage proposals. The proposal would be soon regretted, but at least all parties survived.
The farcical pattern in the Stuart monarchy is developed, as prelude to the tragedies to follow in Episode 42.
Charles and Buckingham’s romantic, antic, incognito trip to Madrid is covered in some detail as the subsequent switch from a peace policy to a war policy seemed to be largely based upon this as shallow and trivial as that sounds.