The year is 1346. England stands on the brink of catastrophe as French armies mass across the Channel. Into this world of shifting loyalties and brutal warfare steps Walter Fletcher, a boy born of mystery and raised by a blacksmith's hearth. His mother Lady Alice fled a terrible fate, finding shelter in a rural village where she gave birth to her son before vanishing from the narrative. What remains is Walter, apprenticed to the forge, learning the weight of sword and shield while war drums grow louder. When Edward III calls his banners, Walter answers. He marches with English knights to Cressy, that glorious August afternoon where French nobility falls like summer wheat before the longbowmen's arrows. Then to Poitiers, where the captured King of France becomes a guest of the English crown. Through it all, Walter transforms from blacksmith's apprentice to seasoned warrior, his coming-of-age intertwined with the fate of nations. This is adventure history at its 19th-century best: a boy hero, legendary battles, and the rough chivalry of an age when war was both brutal and beautiful.
