A royal birth, a nobleman's death, a scarlet woman's murder... In March, 1279, Edward I takes a break from hammering the Welsh and bearing down on England's Jews to vacation in Gloucestershire. The royal party breaks the journey at Woodstock Manor. And there one life begins as Queen Eleanor labors to birth a new daughter, and one draws to an end when apoplexy fells Baron Adam Wynethorpe. Hotfoot to the baron's deathbed comes his elder son, Hugh, a...