THE PRINCESS CONEYBURY !

    The PRINCESS Coneybury [occasionally refereed to as the Vicecountess] is Michele Sant Denys and she lives somewhen around 1200 but she won't admit when she was born.
    It happened in Normandy but she was sent to England as a child bride for her cousin, Edward Sant Denys. He gave her wealth and a son.
    She farmed that out pretty quickly to a wet nurse and, apart from consolidating her claim on Edward's estate, he plays very little part in her life until he becomes old enough to help her in her attempts to befriend Prince John's son and heir.
    Most of this went on while Edward was off on the crusades leaving Michele to look after his lands with only the Prince and the castle warden for company ....big mistake
    However, all seemed fine when he returned with presents, Saracens and lands in the Outremeer for her. The Lady happily welcomed him home and encouraged his willingness to continue crusading. In an unfortunate 'accident' on the way to the next crusade Edward fell off his horse on the Isle of White and died.. Broken hearted Michele was comforted by her castle warden but when marriage entered the conversation [on his side] he suddenly and mysteriously died of food poisoning.
    King John was quick to offer condolences.
    As the guardian of Edwards heir and the 'friend' of the King she has not been pressured to marry again. Although she did once attempt it.
    Thinking she'd hooked a really wealthy lord, Lord Nicholas Fairbourne, she pretended to be wealthy in her own right. At the wedding reception both parties discovered they had been lying to one another. Luckily they discovered they were [very] distantly related so the marriage was quickly annulled.
    The lady, now a Viscountess, also discovered a new source of wealth. Living in the Grim, [part of the Far Isles] taught her some dubious methods to get rich. The forest around her castle is swarming with bandits but whenever people come looking for them they all vanish. The castle happens to be built on top of the Reigate caves [real feature associated with King John!] She was assisted in this by her Saxon servant, Joanna, not a girl to entrust your valuables to. [Actually Joanna is NOT the head of the Guild of Assassins - which doesn't exist.]
    She has been the subject of terrible slander as she was accused of assisting in the theft of treasure, especially pearls, belonging to the ex Princess of the Far Isles.
    At the coronation of King Guy in January [2002] the Viscountess was suprised to be called up by the new King and made a Princess!!!! She became King Guys heir and should he die she would take over!
    Suprisingly this was not her aim. Why kill someone if you could marry them!!!!
    The Princess then suffered a terrible shock and has slight and selective amnesia concerning the 'wedding' of her beloved King Guy. As has been reported the King was to have married a foreign Princess and of course THE Princess did all she could to make the day a happy one. She even sent her two most trusted servants, Johanna and Morgan, to see the bride safely to the Hall. However she never turned up! The Princess immediately offered to step into the breach [and the marriage bed] revealing a wedding dress already beneath her black gown! The King gently remarked that he couldn't possibly marry her as he thought of her as his MOTHER!
    It is reported that the Princess [who doesn't remember any of this,] is still wailing occasionally as her plans lay in ruins - yet again!. .
    However her fortunes took a turn for the better. The sad loss of King Guy in a late night accedent involving a swollen stream and an overturned carrage resulted in The Princess Coneybury becoming Queen Michele! At last!
    Not only that but her wayward son, who is currently living it up in Europe somewhere with a few other like minded knights, left a young 'maiden' behind pregnant with her grandchild! The couple were duly married [in his absence] and she was delivered of a son and heir to the Princesses lands!
    Queen Michele proceeded to rule the Far Isles in a fairly erratic manner giving away various pieces of land [that she may not even own] to people as bribes! She even had the Cardinal arrested and jailed in the castle of Tinragel.
    However she has now seen the light and repented of her megalomania. She threw herself on the Cardinal's mercy and has gone into a nunnery in the order founded by the original Princess Heloise.
    Her daughter in law, Ceris, has become Queen.

KIA HESA

    Kia Hesa was born in Egypt early in the Far Isles period, around the first century.
    She and her mother were followers of the old religion and worshiped the God Annubis,the jackal headed God of death.
    Once the Romans arrived and took over the region they attempted to convert the population. They tried to stamp out 'paganism' by burning Kia's mother. Kia ran away with the four jackals from the cult of Annubis. For several years she and a succession of dogs and puppies wandered around Africa having various adventures until she finally crossed into Europe.
    She made her way in life by acting as 'undertaker' for people. She never kills people in fact she's one of the few honest people in the Grimwood.
    For a while she lived in the Viscountessess castle where a very suspicious Lady of the Manor kept an eye on her and let her live in the stables.
    After some time she met the 'good' people of Tintagel who invited her to join them as they were building a lighthouse and required a keeper. Kia has always been fond of towers and took to the 'pharos' at once. The dogs live on the first floor.
    Kia lights the light whenever the people of Tintagel tell her to - which strangely isn't always a great help to shipping. She also sends out the dogs with little warning lights around their necks along the cliff top. There still seem to be an awful lot of wrecks and a lot of work for Kia to do with drowned sailors.[Some of them occasionally seem to have survived the water but died of accidents on shore.]
    Living in a tower is having an effect on Kia, she's becoming stranger and more shamanic by the day. She's even invented 'Finger Pharoahs' to tell stories with !!!!!
    However, with the return of Sir Tristram to Tintagel she has been told to light the fire only on the tower and all the time. This has resulted in far fewer ship wrecks and not nearly so many dead people to bury. She has also become Black Cat Herald to the new Queen Ceris.