The second novel in the thrilling historical trilogy about the rise and fall of the powerful and mysterious Templars, from the author of the immensely popular Camulod Chronicles. In 1187 one of the few survivors of the Battle of Hattin, young Scots Templar Alexander Sinclair, escapes into the desert despite his wounds. Sinclair has learned about the execution of the surviving Templars after the battle, so when he is rescued, he says nothing of his own standing among the Order of the Temple. Sinclair is one of the Inner Sanctum of the Order-a member of the ancient Brotherhood of Sion, a secret society within the secret society. Two years after the battle, Sir Henry St. Clair is awakened after midnight by a visit from his liege lord, Richard the Lionheart. King Richard is assembling an army to free the Holy Land from the grip of Saladin and his Saracens, and he wants Sir Henry, his first and favorite teacher, to sail with him as his master-atarms. The old man is unwilling to go-he neither likes nor trusts Richard, having found him both a sadist and an egomaniac. But his future, and that of his young son Andr�, a rising knight in the order, depends on his allegiance to Richard. Sir Henry knows that Andr� worships his older cousin, Alexander Sinclair of the Scottish branch of their family, who has been in the Holy Land for years. Alexander will be an ally in an unfamiliar land. Sir Henry agrees to go despite serious misgivings about Richard, and his motives for war. From the moment the first soldiers of the Third Crusade set foot in the Holy Land, the story of the three templars unfolds as the events of the campaign and the political and personal intrigues of the Crusade's leaders again bring the St. Clair family-and the Order-to the edge of disaster.

The new Templar novel from the USA Today bestselling author On the morning of October 13, 1307, every Templar knight in France is arrested by the order of King Philip IV, who then seizes all the Order's assets and set the Inquisition against them. Warned of the plot, Sir William St. Clair flees from France with the Temple's treasure, several hundred knights, and the widow Lady Jessica Randolph to seek sanctuary in Scotland. There, with his men deprived of everything they valued and held dear at home, he will lead them into battle as Templar Knights one last time in defiant support of a king who is not their own, but who has earned their trust.

From the bestselling author of the Dream of Eagles series and The Guardians trilogy comes a tale of revenge, dark secrets, and a mysterious cataclysm that decimated a Roman legion: the story behind the story that began it all.Fleeing the massacre of his entire family save a single uncle, young Roman aristocrat Quintus Varrus arrives in fourth-century London not knowing who is to blame for the murders nor whom he can trust now. He fears for his life, but when he meets a young Irish woman named Lydia Mcuil, their lives quickly become intertwined and her father offers to set the young Roman up as a smith (under an Irish alias) in the town of Colchester while the young lovers get to know each other from a distance. But the assassins haven't forgotten Quintus and a deadly ambush is barely thwarted, bringing the young Roman into friendship with his rescuer, a hardened former military policeman known as Rufus Cato, who has...

From WikipediaThe Saxon Shore is a 1998 novel by Canadian writer Jack Whyte chronicling Caius Merlyn Britannicus's effort to return the baby Arthur to the colony of Camulod and the political events surrounding this. The book is a portrayal of the Arthurian Legend set against the backdrop of Post-Roman Briton's invasion by Germanic peoples. It is part of the Camulod Chronicles, which attempts to explain the origins of the Arthurian legends against the backdrop of a historical setting. This is a deviation from other modern depictions of King Arthur such as Once and Future King and the Avalon series which rely much more on mystical and magical elements and less on the historical . Read more - Shopping-Enabled Wikipedia on Amazon In the article: Plot summary | Characters | Political Entities | Style | Literary reception | Historical Inaccuracies | Discussions of Roman and British History | FootnotesFrom Publishers WeeklyThe fourth book in Whyte's engrossing, highly realistic retelling of the Arthurian legend takes up where The Eagle's Brood (1997) left off. Narrated by Caius Merlyn Brittanicus from journals written at the end of the "wizard's" long life, this volume begins in an immensely exciting fashion, with Merlyn and the orphaned infant Arthur Pendragon in desperate straits, adrift on the ocean in a small galley without food or oars. They are saved by a ship commanded by Connor, son of the High King of the Scots of Eire, who takes the babe with him to Eireland until the return of Connor's brother Donuil, whom Connor believes has been taken hostage by Merlyn. The plot then settles into well-handled depictions of political intrigue, the training of cavalry with infantry and the love stories that inevitably arise, including one about Donuil and the sorcerously gifted Shelagh and another about Merlyn's half-brother, Ambrose, and the skilled surgeon Ludmilla. As Camulod prospers, Merlyn works hard at fulfilling what he considers his destinyApreparing the boy for his prophesied role as High King of all Britain. Whyte's descriptions, astonishingly vivid, of this ancient and mystical era ring true, as do his characters, who include a number of strong women. Whyte shows why Camulod was such a wonder, demonstrating time and again how persistence, knowledge and empathy can help push back the darkness of ignorance to build a shining futureAa lesson that has not lost its value for being centuries old and shrouded in the mists of myth and magic. Author tour. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From WikipediaThe Singing Sword is a historical fiction novel written by Jack Whyte, first published in 1993. It is the second novel in "A Dream of Eagles" series. Read more - Shopping-Enabled Wikipedia on AmazonFrom Publishers WeeklyA sequel to The Skystone, this rousing tale continues Whyte's nuts-and-bolts, nitty gritty, dirt-beneath-the-nails version of the rise of Arthurian "Camulod" and the beginning of Britain as a distinct entity. In this second installment of the Camulod Chronicles, Whyte focuses even more strongly on a sense of place, carefully setting his characters into their historical landscape, making this series more realistic and believable than nearly any other Arthurian epic. As the novel progresses, and the Roman Empire continues to decay, the colony of Camulod flourishes. But the lives of the colony's main characters, Gaius Publius Varrus?ironsmith, innovator and soldier?and his brother-in-law, former Roman Senator Caius Britannicus, are not trouble-free, especially when their most bitter enemy, Claudius Seneca, reappears. Through these men's journals, the novel focuses on Camulod's pains and joys, including the moral and ethical dilemmas the community faces, the joining together of the Celtic and Briton bloodlines and the births of Uther Pendragon and Caius Merlyn Britannicus. Whyte provides rich detail about the forging of superior weaponry, the breeding of horses, the training of cavalrymen, the growth of a lawmaking body within the community and the origins of the Round Table. It all adds up to a top-notch Arthurian tale forged to a sharp edge in the fires of historical realism. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From WikipediaThe Eagles' Brood is a historical novel by Jack Whyte set in Post-Roman Britain. It is the third in Whyte's series The Camulod Chronicles. Read more - Shopping-Enabled Wikipedia on AmazonFrom Kirkus ReviewsIn the author's The Skystone (1996), set in the last years of the Roman occupation of fifth-century Britain, the sword Excalibur was forged, presaging the reign of King Arthur years later. This time, the narrator, grand-nephew of the forger of the sword, is none other than that (traditionally) eerie being, Merlin the sorcerer--sanitized here to the most high-minded of soldiers who survives wars, betrayal, and a tragic love affair. Caius Merlyn Britannicus, born in a.d. 401, is the son of the Commander in Chief of the forces of the fortress/town of Camulod, a community of Romans and Britons. Merlyn's best friend from boyhood is his cousin Uther Pendragon, a mighty warrior and the son of a Celtic king, though with a terrible temper that can show itself off the fields of war. Torturing Merlyn is the suspicion that it might have been Uther who brutally beat the waif whom Merlyn will name Cassandra after she violently resists Uther's sexual games. The deaf and dumb Cassandra (her real identity will be a surprise) is healed and then secluded, eventually becoming Merlyn's wife until her savage death. There are wars and invasions, waged principally by King Lot of Cornwall, wars that bring awful innovations like poisoned arrows. There are also theological conflicts, since the free-will doctrines of Pelagius are condemned as heretical by the Church. Merlyn's trek to a seminal debate of theologians is marked by skirmishes--he rescues the warrior/bishop Germanus at one point--and by the discovery of a half-brother. All ends with the deaths of those fierce antagonists Lot and Uther, and with Merlyn holding up Uther's baby son by Lot's dead queen, a baby who has the deep golden eyes of . . . a mighty bird of prey . . . a King perhaps, to wield Excalibur.'' With plenty of hacking and stabbing, pontifications, dogged sex, and a few anachronistic mind-sets: another dipperful from the fertile Arthurian well, sans magic but brimful of action. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

How do you find a new way to approach a story as familiar as any in the English language? If you're Jack Whyte, you begin your retelling of the Arthurian saga by taking one giant step backward to the latter days of the Roman Empire in Britain, sometime between the first breaching of Hadrian's Wall and the legendary days of King Arthur. Publius Varrus is the last legionnaire in Britain, and The Skystone is in many ways his story. He is a common man with aristocratic friends, and successful both as a soldier and an ironsmith. As the Roman world slowly crumbles around them, and Publius becomes involved in a political and personal vendetta, he and his friends seek to establish a refuge, a valley where the old Roman virtues will be kept alive and the empire's many faults be avoided. A finely crafted historical novel, The Skystone pays close attention to the details of everyday life in fourth-century Britain. As the first book in Whyte's Camulod Chronicles, it makes few allusions to the usual details of the Arthurian legends until Publius comes into contact with a sword, a stone, a lake, and a Celtic tribe who name themselves Pendragon. Greg L. Johnson

The first book in a trilogy about the most important events in the history of the Order of the Knights Templar. The Templars represent a widely popular period of history at the moment, but the roots of their fellowship have been shrouded in contemporary conspiracy theory and media glamour!.this trilogy tells the true tales of the Knights Templar; beginning with why they formed after the First Crusade and why they continued to grow in power and influence. Immediately after the deliverance of Jerusalem, the Crusaders, considering their vow fulfilled, drifted back to their homes. But some considered that the defence of this precarious conquest, surrounded as it was by Mohammedan neighbours, still remained. In 1118, during the reign of Baldwin II, Hugues de Payens, a knight of Champagne, and eight of his companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom and all god fearing pilgrims who wished to visit the Holy Land.

In Clothar the Frank, the first novel of a two-book miniseries called The Golden Eagle, best-selling author Jack Whyte invites us to explore his cast of fascinating characters during the reign and tragic downfall of the Riothamus Arthur, High King of All Britain. From Gaul, now the land of the Franks, comes young Clothar, the son of one king and the nephew of another. He has just survived a fierce civil war in Benwick, the land of his childhood—a war involving his own family, pitting brother against brother—to discover that his fate is not in his own hands. Instead it rests with his teacher and mentor, the renowned and powerful Bishop Germanus; Germanus’s old friend, the elusive and enigmatic Caius Merlyn Britannicus; and Merlyn’s young ward, the future king, Arthur Pendragon. Clothar's story is the story of Lancelot—his past, his loves, his loyalty and his role as King Arthur’s friend and betrayer.

To the millions of readers who have found themselves entranced by Jack Whyte's historical novels over the past twenty years, this first collection of Jack Whyte short stories might seem like a radical change of direction, if not an absolute contradiction in terms. But that simply isn't true. There is no change of direction on Whyte's part in these shorter tales, merely an adjustment of focus, from the panoramic perspective to the personal, intimate viewpoint. The ten stories featured here are distilled from all the elements that have earned Whyte a worldwide readership among lovers of epic historical fiction, an audience that has remained loyal to him for decades. The people they deal with are real – credible and utterly, convincingly human – and the existential realities that govern their lives are as demanding and immutable as such things have always been. Yesterday's battles are no different from those of tomorrow.

The Renegade is a blazing, brilliant, new historical adventure in Jack Whyte's Guardians series. Packed with action, heroism, and vibrant historical detail, The Renegade recounts the life of Scotland's greatest medieval king, Robert the Bruce. Bruce was one of the most famous warriors of his generation, eventually leading Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against the Kingdom of England, most famously at the bloody Battle of Bannockburn. Today in Scotland, Bruce is revered as a national hero, but during his lifetime, the rebellious leader and guerrilla tactician was a thorn in Edward Plantagenet's side, earning himself the nickname the Renegade. Set in the 14th century, The Guardians series features three extraordinary guardians of medieval Scotland, the greatest heroes the country ever produced. The exploits and escapades, high ideals, and fierce patriotism of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and Sir James Douglas are the stuff of legends, and the soul and substance of these epic novels.

Merlyn Britannicus and Uther Pendragon—-the Silver Bear and the Red Dragon—-are the leaders of the Colony, lifeblood to the community from which will come the fabled Camulod.But soon their tranquillity is in ruins, Uther lies dead from treachery, and all that is left of the dream is the orphaned babe Arthur. Heir to the Colony of Camulod, born with Roman heritage as well as the blood of the Hibernians and the Celts, Arthur is the living incarnation of the sacred dream of his ancestors: independent survival in Britain amidst the ruins of the Roman Empire.When Arthur is adopted by Merlyn Britannicus, an enormous responsibility is placed on Merlyn's shoulders. Now he must prepare young Arthur to unify the clans of Britain and guard the mighty sword Excalibur.And, above all, Merlyn must see that Arthur survives to achieve the rest of his ancestors' dreams, in spite of the deadly threats rumbling from the Saxon Shore.

In the pre-dawn hours of August 24, 1305 a.d., in London's Smithfield Prison, the outlaw William Wallace, who is to be executed at dawn, is visited by a Scottish priest who has come to hear his last Confession. So begins The Forest Laird, the first book in Jack Whyte’s masterful new trilogy. Wallace's story leads us through his many lives—as an outlaw and a fugitive, a hero and a patriot, a rebel and a kingmaker. He is the first heroic figure from the Scottish Wars of Independence brought blazingly to life in Jack Whyte's new trilogy, the Guardians, and will be followed by his two compatriots Robert the Bruce, King of Scots; and Sir James Douglas, known as The Black Douglas. Their exploits and escapades, desperate struggles and medieval savagery, high ideals and fierce patriotism are the stuff of legends, and the soul and substance of these epic novels.

The Eagles' Brood continues the saga of the Colony known as Camulod, and the tale of the descendants of those brave Romans who forged a new way of life for the Celt and Roman peoples when the Roman legions departed Britain.Most know the new leader of the Colony as Merlyn; all call him Commander. Cauis Merlyn Britannicus is responsible for their safety, and all look to him for guidance, leadership, justice, and salvation. It is a harsh life but a good community, and Merlyn is dedicated to spreading the influence of Roman culture beyond the Colony's borders.Uther Pendragon, the man who will father the legendary Arthur, is the cousin Merlyn has known and loved since they were birthed, four hours apart on the same day, the year the legions left Britain. He is the tireless warrior—the red dragon to Merlyn's great silver bear—and between the two of them, the Colony knows few enemies.As different as...

Jack Whyte has written a lyrical epic, retelling the myths behind the boy who would become the Man Who Would Be King--Arthur Pendragon. He has shown us, as Diana Gabaldon said, "the bone beneath the flesh of legend." In his last book in this series, we witnessed the young king pull the sword from the stone and begin his journey to greatness. Now we reach the tale itself-how the most shining court in history was made.Clothar is a young man of promise. He has been sent from the wreckage of Gaul to one of the few schools remaining, where logic and rhetoric are taught along with battle techniques that will allow him to survive in the cruel new world where the veneer of civilization is held together by barbarism. He is sent by his mentor on a journey to aid another young man: Arthur Pendragon. He is a man who wants to replace barbarism with law, and keep those who work only for destruction at bay. He is seen, as the last great hope for all that is good.Clothar is...