The Iron King (The Accursed Kings Book 1) - Historical Fiction Novel for Medieval Fantasy Lovers | Perfect for Book Clubs & History Enthusiasts

The Iron King is terrific. So much historical fiction today is thinly disguised romance (the recent novels of Sharon Penman spring to mind). Maurice Druon doesn't make the mistake of romanticizing history. The Iron King is the pellucid tale of Phillip the Fair, who found France fractured like a medieval Humpty Dumpty and set about putting it back together again. Through sheer force of will and a combination of dastardly deeds he succeeds spectacularly.To achieve his goals Phillip needs money. What he doesn't have, the Knights Templar do, so he ruthlessly and single-mindedly goes about taking what isn't his. Recent historians have been kinder to Phillip, pointing out the Knights Templar who returned from the crusades brought with them Christian rituals foreign to western Europeans that could indeed seem heretical. A few have argued (unconvincingly, I think) Phillip regarded their destruction as his duty. Surely if so he would not have pilfered their coffers but given the money to Mother Church.Regardless, Druon doesn't indulge in simplistic interpretations. The Phillip he presents is something of an enigma and therefore it is up to the reader to determine just how venal and mendacious the French king was. My conclusion was, very. If one is know by the company one keeps, his ministers Marigny and Nogaret attest to his cruelty and selfishness. Either would have felt right at home in the Gestapo. Phillip's and their relentless persecution of Jews and Templars (15,000 by some accounts( belies a saintly temperament.I thoroughly enjoyed the author's of daughter Isabelle: cold, beautiful and seething with rage against a husband (Edward II of England) who has publicly shamed her with his infatuation for young men. I have always wondered how the three wives of Phillip's sons could have been so errantly stupid. Yet when you meet them and their husbands (particularly the heir Louis), it's not so surprising they would take lovers. Druon convincingly makes Isabelle their nemesis from bitterness and hate and their exposure and disgrace is very well done. There is also a delightful sorceress who likes to pretend the lover she's copulating with is actually the Devil. Only the French....Like Phillip, I pitied a France that had Louis in the wings as heir, and was hoping against history the famous (though certainly apocryphal) Grand Master's curse would fall one short. Alas, it was not to be. Phillip follows Boniface and Nogaret to the bowels of hell....or thereabouts. Can't wait to read The Strangled Queen.