Barbara Blomberg — Volume 08
A woman who caught the eye of the most powerful ruler in Christendom now faces an impossible choice. Barbara Blomberg, the linen-weaver's daughter from Augsburg who became Emperor Charles V's secret mistress, stands at the center of this devastating volume. She carries the Emperor's child, a son who will become legend, yet she refuses to surrender him to the palace's cold calculations. Her father lies dying, his letter a plea for her to accept help from Pyramus Kogel, the faithful friend who has tended him through illness. But Barbara's heart is torn between love for the man who abandoned her to save his empire and her fierce, defiant refusal to become another discarded woman in history's shadows. The Emperor demands what emperors always demand: obedience. Barbara demands what only a woman of courage can demand: dignity. In this eighth volume of Ebers' masterwork, history's private wounds bleed dry, and one woman must choose between her child, her father, and the last remnants of her pride.
