Summer 1341, Kings Langley Palace, Hertfordshire, England

On an unusually hot day in the late afternoon, Queen Phillippa gave birth to a fourth living son. She fell back onto the bed as the midwives cleaned the baby. It wasn't as painful as some others, but it was still a trial on her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she was told he was healthy and his cries echoed throughout the chamber. She gazed upon him.

"He's ruddy like his father. Since I already have an Edward, this babe shall be Edmund," Philippa said.

Word was sent to the King.

Spring 1342, Tower of London, London, England

Phillipa's next birth was longer and more painful. The room was cool and no fire was lit on her request. She was sweating, twisting, begging her body to release the child. When it finally did, the girl was small and pale.

"Get the doctor for the baptism. Make haste!" Philippa shouted. The baptism was done quickly in the queen's bedchamber to secure the rites before the inevitable. The Queen was glad to send the little girl to heaven.

The daughter was named Blanche and was dead within a day.

Word was sent to the King.

Autumn 1344, Bishop's Waltham Palace, Hampshire, England

It took over a year for Philippa to mentally and physically recover from the death of her last child. Also she had limited contact with a husband frequently overseas, so conception took more time. Phillippa once again prepared to give birth. A long day's labour and one screaming but healthy infant later, Edward and Philippa at last had another living daughter, their first living baby girl in 8 years. She was named Mary.

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Word was sent to the King.

Summer 1345, Gaunt, Flanders

Jacob van Artevelde, the de facto leader of Flanders, was rumoured to plan to recognize Prince Edward of England as the official Count of Flanders. Fearing their leader was leaning too far pro England and too far away from the Pope, an angry mob marched to Gravensteen Castle and killed van Artevelde.

Kent, England

When Joan received the news from Flanders, she was shocked, but the world shifting back to the way it was did not shock her. Van Artevelde led without being born to lead, and the world wasn't ready for the way things were done to change. Only royals would rule, and royals could only marry who they were told, she had learned.

Her time in mainland Europe felt so long ago. She spent years growing up as a true English princess. She was almost 12, starting to become a woman, and on the brink of her future and dreaming about what was to come.

Paris, France

An unusual astronomical event occurred wherein Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars formed a triple conjunction in the sky. Each planet was symbolic of bodily humours, so appearing all in proximity in the sky spelled a bad omen. The medical faculty of Paris alerted King Philip VI. The King noted their concern and kept their letter, but he was unsure how to act on it. The summer was hotter than usual, making people naturally warmer and moist and susceptible to illness. He knew something in the air was wrong. He would never tell his enemies what his medical experts suspected, and he had no greater enemy than Edward III of England.

The medical experts could not say for sure where or when the omen would come to fruition, but they noted first the great pestilence in the air.

Kaffa, the Golden Horde, Mongol Empire

Thousands of miles away from England, the Genoese–Mongol Wars raged on over control of the Black Sea. The Mongolian troops became infected first in a way they had never seen. It was a deadly illness that appeared as if from nowhere. The sickness covered soldiers in black boils and fever, demolishing scores of healthy young men in days.

Wars don't stop for strange diseases, so the Mongols attempted to seize the Genoese stronghold by inflicting their enemy by catapulting the infected dead over the city wall. Rats feasted on the corpses as the bodies piled up. Those soldiers who were safe from war within their high walls could not avoid plague-infected rats in their living spaces. Soon the Genoese also became sick, and the fleas on rats boarded Genoese ships that sailed around the Mediterranean Basin.

The Great Death had begun.