This novel follows the fortunes of Isabella the sister of the French king Charles IV. Married to the weak Edward II of England, Queen Isabella, dubbed “The She-Wolf of France”, deserts her husband and elopes with the charismatic Roger Mortimer. Together they lead an invasion of England, depose the king and incarcerate him Berkeley Castle where he is later murdered in circumstances of peculiar horror. This is the fifth book of “The Accursed Kings” series of historical novels by Maurice Druon about the decadent, criminal and incompetent monarchs who ruled over early fourteenth century France and brought the country to the utter prostration and weakness which the English invaders exploited in the Hundred Years War.
