During the late Middle Ages, conflict raged between France and England as they battled in pursuit of power, the throne and beyond. It became known as the Hundred Years' War. Hella S. Haasse's epic masterpiece brings this period to vivid life, as the novel's infamous characters move across a panoramic tapestry woven together by criss-crossed bloodlines and intense rivalries. There is the mad King Charles VI and his heartless Bavarian wife Isabeau; the King's dashing brother Louis, Duke of Orleans and his sensitive Italian Duchess, Valentine. Their son, Charles, inherits a ferocious feud with the powerful and scheming Duke of Burgundy. Meanwhile, their bastard son becomes the right arm of Joan of Arc. Charles of Orleans is the central character of this astonishing novel, a man caught up in deadly dynastic rivalries who survives because he is captured by the English at the Battle of Agincourt and made their prisoner for the next 25 years. In that time he perfects his craft as a writer and becomes one of the great French poets of the era. In a narrative that spans decades, we also bear witness to the reign of three English Kings- Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, the brilliant leader of the English army, who changes the face of war at Agincourt.