I disliked history in high school. It was all about battles, dates, dry facts I seldom remembered beyond the next test. I changed my mind in college, after taking World Culture I and II. The professor was brilliant. His lectures were all about people and how they lived, what they believed, the details of their daily lives, how events in the larger world impacted them.
In The Tyburn Trilogy, I wanted to set the stories amid actual history. Not the vague sort of background that I usually use, but specific events. The Judas Kiss, for example, takes place during all the political posturing and turmoil and outraged public reactions to George IV’s attempts to rid himself of his much-loathed wife.
The press of the time had a field day.
I’d meant to include a bibliography at the end of Judas. At the last minute, I changed my mind. I’d read so many books about Queen Caroline’s trial — which was even more farcical than I portrayed it — that it would have been impossible to include them all.
It was immensely difficult to provide enough detail to portray those background events without including so much information that it slowed down my story.
I left out a lot.
Though times may change, humankind remains the same.
For anyone interested in further reading, I’d suggest:
The Trial of Queen Caroline (The Scandalous Affair That Nearly Ended A Monarchy) — Jane Robins — Free Press, NY, 2006.
The Trial of Queen Caroline — Roger Fulford — Stein and Day, NY, 1968.
A Queen On Trial (The Affair of Queen Caroline) — E. A. Smith — Sutton Publishing, NY, 1993/2005.
The Unruly Queen (The Life of Queen Caroline) — Flora Fraser — University of California Press, 1996.
I found myself sympathizing with the ill-used princess, disagreeable though she might have been.
Maggie MacKeever, Novelist 
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