In the Palace of the King: A Love Story of Old Madrid

In the shadow of the Escorial, where the air hangs heavy with incense and ambition, a love story unfolds that the rigid courts of sixteenth-century Spain will not easily sanction. Maria Dolores de Mendoza has poured her heart into a letter meant for Don John of Austria, the king's celebrated half-brother, returned triumphant from the wars. But her father sees only disaster: a princess cannot marry a soldier, however glorious his victories, when royal politics and family honor hang in the balance. The old Moorish palace where Maria and her blind sister Inez wait becomes a cage of longing and duty, as Mendoza's threats of the convent sharpen the choice between passion and preservation. F. Marion Crawford paints the Spanish court as a world of gilded cruelty, where love is always a political calculation and the heart's defiance carries the weight of dynasty. This is historical romance at its Victorian height: sweeping, passionate, and painfully aware that some victories cannot be won on any battlefield.