The book is of course a work of fiction. And yet the underlying events are, in the most part, factual. The same applies to these genealogical trees. In the main they are factual but with some fictional injectios.

John Stanley

John Stanley is a real person, who somehow progressed from working as a shepherd to becoming the King of the Isle of Man within his lifetime.

How could this happen? The story attempts to explain.

Ximene Trencavel

Ximene is however a totally fictional character. There probably was someone who was the inheritor of the Trencavel estates, but if there was, they never made their case. Her genealogy and her family connection to the Pedilla family is also ficticious

The book theorises that John Stanly had a partner before he eventually married relatively late in life, a partner who was the mother of his eldest child and founded the Stanley dynasty. She must have been somebody special! Perhaps Ximene Trencavel?

Alyse Perez (Perrers)

The identity of the most amazing Alyse Perrers is also subject to much speculation. Circumstantial evidence shows the solution depicted in the book to be credible but most mainstream histories have her as a non-entity who just got lucky.

Alyse was the Mistress of Edward III but also personally invented the concept of a legal solicitor and founded the inns of court. A non entity? Perhaps not!