Cressy and Poictiers: The Story of the Black Prince's Page

London blazes with Midsummer Eve celebrations when young Arthur Winram arrives from the countryside, burning with ambition to make his name. A natural fighter, he catches the eye of Edward, the Black Prince, at a tournament and is taken into the Prince's household as a page. Thus begins an extraordinary journey from obscurity to the very heart of the Hundred Years' War. Through Arthur's wide eyes, we witness the legendary victories at Cressy and Poictiers, where the flower of French chivalry is shattered by English archers, and where the Black Prince earns his place as one of history's greatest captains. But Arthur carries a secret: he was not born to the humble station he occupies, and dark forces conspire to keep him from his rightful inheritance. Edgar, writing for Beeton's Boys' Own Magazine in its heyday, understood exactly how to blend real history with the stuff of boyish dreams. This is adventure fiction in the grand Victorian tradition: blood and glory, loyalty and betrayal, the thunder of cavalry charges and the sing of bowstrings across the French battlefields.