I think you'd enjoy the book reading the history of the place from an earlier historical POV is interesting in and of itself.
I have not read O'Brian's The Catalans though it's on my list--I've read all the Aubrey-Maturin tales, though, and as Dr. Maturin is Irish/Catalan, there is quite a bit abut the culture, geography and languge discussed in the stories since O'Brian is nothing, if not thorough in his ability to be descriptive, informative and interesting all at the same time!
As far as the family line, our theory followed the Valois line; since Lestat took that as his stage name we figured there might have been a concrete reason for that. There is a lot of information to be had in the book Lines of Succession - Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe (Tables by Jiri Louda, Text by Michael MacLagan - ISBN 9 781840 125039 ).
I can email you the notes she worked out if you are interested--it's always nice to know I am not the only one who likes to drown in minutiae. I only wish I was better at organizing the swirl of ideas I have regarding history like that as it might affect the VC-verse that I love so well--organizing and then, of course, disciplining myself to make better use of free time!
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I have not read O'Brian's The Catalans though it's on my list--I've read all the Aubrey-Maturin tales, though, and as Dr. Maturin is Irish/Catalan, there is quite a bit abut the culture, geography and languge discussed in the stories since O'Brian is nothing, if not thorough in his ability to be descriptive, informative and interesting all at the same time!
As far as the family line, our theory followed the Valois line; since Lestat took that as his stage name we figured there might have been a concrete reason for that. There is a lot of information to be had in the book Lines of Succession - Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe (Tables by Jiri Louda, Text by Michael MacLagan - ISBN 9 781840 125039 ).
I can email you the notes she worked out if you are interested--it's always nice to know I am not the only one who likes to drown in minutiae. I only wish I was better at organizing the swirl of ideas I have regarding history like that as it might affect the VC-verse that I love so well--organizing and then, of course, disciplining myself to make better use of free time!