Darnley; Or, The Field of the Cloth of Gold
1830
A young knight rides the March roads of Kent in 1520, and the world is holding its breath. King Henry VIII prepares for the legendary Field of the Cloth of Gold, where England's pride will clash with France's in a spectacle of chivalric excess. Sir Osborne Maurice is a man of ancient blood and earnest honor, the kind of hero the historical romance perfected: strong in body, tender in sentiment, destined for greatness but blind to the currents swirling around him. When he rescues an old man from ruffians and receives cryptic warnings from a mysterious astrologer, Osborne steps into a web of fate, danger, and hidden parentage that will define his entire existence. G. P. R. James, the century's most prolific historical novelist, weaves courtly intrigue, swordplay, and doomed romance against the backdrop of one of England's most glamorous and volatile moments. This is the historical novel in its swashbuckling youth: before irony, before psychology, when a knight could still believe his sword might reshape his destiny.
