His Excellency Master Stefano da Urbino OL, Court Baron of the Kingdom of Lochac, left the indolent lifestyle of an intinerant polymath and courtier in 1494, and became a condotierri, or soldier of fortune, and fought in the many wars between the Italian city-states and France and Spain. He longs to be knighted, but has shown greater prowess as a strategist, tactician and logistician, particularly with provisions, than as a soldier. Alistair Ramsden is a civil servant residing in Featherston, New Zealand, with his wife Mistress Sancha da Sylva OP, and their two young men Alexander and Pericles.