I prefer my historical novels breezeblock sized, though I give The Iron King bonus points for having endnotes explaining and contextualising certain events throughout the book.

Sensitive dependence on initial conditions is the most succinct way to put it: the infidelity of Philip's daughters-in-law, with some extremely bad luck (or good luck, if you're Jacques de Molay) led to the end of the line for the Direct Capetians, a succession crisis and subsequently the Hundred Years' War.Īn enjoyable read overall, but it's a little short for my taste, more like beach-read than a historical epic, though that's not to put down its exceptional literary qualities. The plot revolves around the destruction of the Knights Templar, and the Tour de Nesle affair, both events involving lots of brutal torture and horrifying executions, with hugely significant historical effects. Reading this novel it can be hard to remember that Philip IV, called the Fair, was a real person, that a human could be the way he was, do the things he did they way he did, and ultimately die almost arbitrarily, not in battle, nor poisoned by rivals, or even old and respected, but from an aneurysm. My copy of The Iron King is actually introduced by Martin himself, who credits Druon as a major inspiration for his fantasy series: 'the Starks and Lannisters have nothing on the Capets and Plantagenets.' Somehow the true story is the more horrifying because the characters were real - we can go to their tombs, and see what's left of them. Martin's Game of Thrones became a global phenomenon. Maurice Druon's series The Accursed Kings, of which The Iron King is the first novel, is woefully obscure in the Anglosphere - though less so since George R.

The iron king druon