About this edition.

The Lion of Mansfield is a work of fiction and art. Sir Edward de Mansfeld never existed, and the Rufford account and rolls reproduced in this edition are invented. They are presented in the manner of period documents: not as a claim about the historical record, but as the material of an antiquarian edition devoted to a life that might have left such traces.

The scaffolding around that life is real history. The English defeat at Bannockburn on 24 June 1314, the rout at the burn, the reign of Edward II, Mansfield's place as a royal manor in Sherwood, and the rolls of arms through which medieval identities were recorded all belong to the documented past. Against that structure, the edition sets an imagined Nottinghamshire knight, his companions, a coat of arms altered after defeat, and the later voices that attempt to explain them. The form borrows the reserve of a museum catalogue and the conventions of chronicles, heraldic rolls, and translated archival fragments.

The illustrations are modern AI-generated plates made to a written art-direction standard. They are interpretive images rather than simulated artifacts. In the manner of manuscript miniatures, the pictures contain no written words: narration, dates, and captions remain outside the image in real, accessible type. The separation is deliberate, keeping the plate and the editorial voice distinct.

Correspondence concerning the edition may be sent to edward@lionofmansfield.com.