King Verance I appears in the novel Wyrd Sisters. He plays a very small part as a living king, since he is murdered by Duke Felmet near the beginning of the novel. However, his ghost haunted Lancre Castle throughout the rest of the novel and plays an important role in the plot. He was said to be a womaniser, regularly exercising his droit de seigneur (which many subjects believe is a large shaggy dog). His subjects assume Verence II is a result of a nightly adventure with the Fool's mother. This is not the case. The people of Lancre don't really care who their king is, as long as he does his job and doesn't bother people too much. He is the archetypical king, a Henry VIII type figure who liked big dogs, hunting, chasing women and living life to the fullest.
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He is based on the concept of the ghost of Hamlet's father in the Shakespeare play, Hamlet.