Status Updates From Richard II

Absolutely obsessed with the footnote 146 on page 325, according to which astrology girlie Richard went to a soothsayer to get a prediction about the outcome of the duel between his cousin Henry and Mowbray. He was apparently told Mowbray was going to win.

As we know he ended up stopping the duel before the opponents could even touch each other. Makes you wonder if he did to try and preserve Henry’s life.

I wish the author would please stop talking about Richard II’s “psychological environment”. PLEASE.

Oh, we're getting glimpses into Saul's psychoanalysis of Richard II. I'm not at all comfortable with attempts to psychoanalyse historical figures, much less diagnose them (as I've heard Saul does) with mental illnesses. It's not a question of whether mental illness existed (it always has), but the impossibility of getting an accurate or ethical diagnosis.