Dan Jones

He wasn't an especially charismatic or commanding individual, but what he lacked in personality he emphatically made up for in diligence.

He was more than comfortable with the language of imperious persuasion.

Much of the outward business of kingship came naturally.

The king's "only interest in government was a pious but simpleminded desire for reproachment

As with many tragedies, our story opens in a moment of triumph.

Here was a king who saw his subjects as peers and allies around whom he had growing up rather than semi-alien entities to be suspected and persecuted.