Henry of Monmouth, Prince Hal, is barely recovered from a near-fatal wound when his father leaves him to retake his land. Owain Glendower and Edmund Mortimer, however, have French allies and the most inhospitable landscape to aid them. All that Prince Hal has to guide him is the guardian of kings, Will Strongstaff. The two of them have to fight treachery and those who count money as well as more traditional enemies, the Welsh archers. 

King Richard is barely buried when the men who opposed him plot and plan to remove the new King, Henry Bolingbroke! With enemies in the north and the west, the new king and his son, Henry of Monmouth, find themselves besieged on all sides not knowing whom they can trust. William Strongstaff, now a lord, is the only one they can truly rely upon, and any thoughts of hanging up his sword are forgotten as King Henry sends the former royal bodyguard to help his son and quash a Welsh rebellion.  

When the Queen of England dies then King Richard suddenly changes. He wreaks vengeance on all those who have slighted him, and only William Strongstaff and John of Gaunt are in a position to curb his excesses. Beginning in the Baltic, where there is a crusade against the Lithuanian pagans, the novel moves to England, Scotland and Ireland before the owner of the crown of England is decided.

The Christian armies of Spain are on the rise and are taking back the land controlled by the Taifa States. All seems well and the star that is Rodrigo de Vivar continues to rise. All of this ends when King Fernando dies, and his heirs begin a self-destructive civil war. Only the knight respected by both Christian and Muslim alike, the man known as El Campeador can unite the troubled land of Spain.

Will Strongstaff has achieved far more than he ever thought. He is a gentleman. He has land, a wife and children. Yet he is still a warrior. He still has an oath to honour. King Richard is now under the sway of the evil Earl of Oxford Robert de Vere. When the king’s cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, sends for Will to fight in Galicia for his father, John of Gaunt, then Will has to return to the world in which he grew up, the world of the hired sword. This time he not only has enemies on the battlefield but enemies closer to hand as murderers try to end the life of his new lord.

The first attempt by the Norse explorers to settle in the New World has ended in disaster. With most of their better warriors dead in a battle with the Penobscot tribe, the survivors decide to head home across the wide and empty seas. They would risk a battle with King Harald Finehair. What they do not know is that they have left their Navigator alone and surrounded by enemies.

This first instalment in the Chronicles tells of Rodrigo’s rise to prominence when he became the champion of Prince Sancho of Castile. This is but the beginning of a tale which still stirs the blood a millennium after it began. The legend that was El Cid began more than 1,000 years ago, and time has meant that reality and fiction are intertwined like the threads of a spider’s web. 

The year is 1264. Simon de Montfort defeats and captures King Henry III of England at the Battle of Lewes to become de facto ruler of the country. Step forward Gerald War Bow, a man of humble birth but noble intentions, a superb archer and leader of men, and a committed servant of Lord Edward – the real heir to King Henry’s throne. So ensues a series of bloodthirsty battles, acts of bravery, and rescue missions, all in the name of toppling the treasonous de Montfort. Finally, Gerald and his archers find themselves at the edge of battle at Evesham. 

After years fighting to reclaim his rightful home, Uhtred of Bebbanburg has returned to Northumbria. With his loyal band of warriors and a new woman by his side, his household is secure – yet Uhtred is far from safe. Beyond the walls of his impregnable fortress, a battle for power rages. To the south, King Æthelstan has unified the three kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia – and now eyes a bigger prize.  

Desperate times cause for desperate measures and when the Clan of the Fox flees, first Northumberland and then Iceland, the Viking warriors have no idea of the world they will find when they sail across the endless ocean. It is not just the sea and the weather which tries to kill them; it is the animals in the land that they find and it is the Skraeling, the natives who see them as a threat from the east. The clan flees danger but finds more in this new world in the west. When divisions emerge in the clan then it seems as though they are doomed to die in this savage wilderness.