G. P. R. James

George Payne Rainsford James (1799–1860) was an English historical novelist, the most prolific of the generation that followed Walter Scott, who encouraged his first book, Richelieu (1829). He published nearly a hundred works over thirty years, among them Darnley, Henry Masterton, The Robber, Forest Days and Agincourt, usually opening with two horsemen riding into view, a habit Thackeray parodied. William IV appointed him Historiographer Royal, and he wrote lives of the Black Prince, Charlemagne and Richard Coeur de Lion. Financial difficulties led him to accept consular posts in Virginia and finally Venice, where he died.