The death of Leofric's father leaves the fifteen-year-old orphaned and alone in a world that offers little mercy to the poor. But beneath his threadbare clothes and worn shoes lies a mind hungry for more than survival. When a kindly monk tells him of opportunity in Oxford, Leofric takes up his wallet and staff and walks toward a city in turmoil, where the King's failing government has stirred the barons into open rebellion. Oxford in the 1260s is no sanctuary. Here, scholars and townspeople clash, political tensions simmer, and the great lords are gathering their forces for war. Leofric must navigate not only the challenges of his studies but the dangerous currents of a society tearing itself apart. What begins as a quest for knowledge becomes a test of character in an age when even clerks find themselves caught between kingdoms. A vanished England comes alive in this Victorian tale of one boy's determination to forge his own path through chaos.
