The Legend of Richard Keynes
In Golden Spurs Richard Keynes, travels across Normandy from Castle Tancarville and towards war.
Today Castle Tancarville is in private hands, but a tower is still visible from the village, rising mysteriously above the trees which have claimed the fortress.
You can find the book, available in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and in paperback in the UK here or the US here
After leaving Castle Tancarville, Richard and his companions journey through the historical important settlement of Lillebonne. From the top of its castle tower, Richard gazes down upon the ruins of a Roman theatre which could sit over seven thousand spectators.
That theatre still sits in the town, a grass-covered structure you can walk around, and from the stands you can look up to a tower and see where Richard stood, for the castle has also endured.
Richard finds the war, his enemies, and himself in the town of Neufchatel-en-Bray, although in the 11th century it was known as Driencourt.
Today a bustling town, the church of Notre Dame stands where its 12th century predecessor did, and that gives us a chance to stand where Richard and William Marshal became knights. It was likely on this very spot that England’s greatest knight William Marshal had golden spurs fixed around his heels for the first time. And it is here that Richard turns a corner in his life, because from now on he is not a defenceless young man being hunted by his treacherous relatives, now he is a knight, and he’s the one doing the hunting.
