Search results for ""Author Jean Plaidy""

The public pay a price for personal excess in this captivating and dramatic historical novel by multi-million copy and international bestselling author Jean Plaidy. Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory. 'It's hard to better Jean Plaidy ... both elegant and exciting as she steers a stylish path through the feuding Plantaganets' -- Daily Mirror'Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama' -- New York Times'Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting' -- Observer'Fascinating' -- ***** Reader review'Couldn't put it down' -- ***** Reader review'Grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go' -- ***** Reader review'Another first class read from Ms. Plaidy!' -- ***** Reader review**********************************************************************************************************Marguerite, eldest daughter of the Count of Provence, had married a king of France - and now her sister Eleanor is determined to make just as grand a match.Good fortune and wily cunning bring her Henry of England. A good and generous husband but a weak king, he rules a nation that still remembers his cruel and foolish father, King John. As Henry showers gifts on his new bride, his extravagance forces him to levy ever greater taxation on the land, and the spectre of revolt soon looms against him.For Simon de Montfort, the adventurer who will give England its first true parliament, the house of destiny is at hand...

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If you like Philippa Gregory, you will love this vibrant and captivating historical page-turner from multi-million copy and international bestselling author Jean Plaidy - the perfect blend of history with romance and drama. 'Full - bloodied, dramatic, exciting' - THE OBSERVER'Plaidy, by the skilful blending of superb storytelling and meticulous attention to authenticity of detail and depth of charaterization has become one of the country's most widely read novelists.' - THE SUNDAY TIMES'It is hard to better Jean Plaidy . . . both elegant and exciting' - DAILY MIRROR'Just a great book from start to finish' -- ***** Reader review'Gripping' -- ***** Reader review'Plaidy forever!' -- ***** Reader review'A wonderful story and a wonderful history by a wonderful writer' -- ***** Reader review************************************************************************************************When William X dies, the duchy of Aquitaine is left to his fifteen-year-old daughter, Eleanor.But such a position for an unmarried woman puts the whole kingdom at risk.So on his deathbed William makes a will that will ensure his daughter's protection: he promises her hand in marriage to the future King of France.Eleanor grows into a romantic and beautiful queen, but she has inherited the will of a king, and is determined to rule Aquitaine using her husband's power as King of France.Her resolve knows no limit and, in the years to follow, she is to become one of history's most scandalous queens...

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Richard the Second is losing his hold on the crown and Henry of Bolingbroke, previously exiled by the king, returns to England to claim it. Richard is deposed and dies mysteriously, murdered some say on the orders of Bolingbroke, now King Henry the Fourth. But Henry finds the crown harder to hold onto than it was to win. He is beset by enemies, hampered by disease, and concerned about the rebellious behaviour of his son. Dominating the court and with his eye on the crown is Harry of Monmouth, whose reckless conduct in low-class taverns with his crony Sir John Oldcastle causes scandal. When the king dies, Harry became King Henry the Fifth, and the change is dramatic for both him and Oldcastle. The licentious youth becomes a great king, and Oldcastle, the rake, turns into a religious reformer. Oldcastle dies a martyr and Harry becomes the conquering hero of Agincourt. The Star of Lancaster is in the ascendant. Harry has brought France to her knees and married her princess. It seems that the long war was at an end. But a greater enemy than the French awaits Harry ...

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_____________________The first book in the captivating Spanish Trilogy, focusing on the remarkable lives of Spain's most famous monarchs.In the 15th Century, Spain is full of intrigue and threatened by civil war. The independent young princess Isabella has become the pawn of her ambitious, half-crazed mother, kept as a virtual prisoner at the sordid court of her half-brother, France's Henry IV. Just sixteen years old, all seems lost: is Isabella fated to be the victim of the Queen's revenge, the Archbishop's ambition and the lust of Don Pedro Giron, one of the most notorious womanisers in Castile? Numbed with grief and fear, Isabella holds onto one cherished hope: that one day, she will escape her tormentors and marry Ferdinand, the handsome young Prince of Aragon - her only true betrothed. But the forces of Europe are ranged against them, and love's triumphs are rare...

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Sullen-eyed and broken-hearted, fourteen-year-old Catherine de' Medici arrives in Marseilles to marry Henry of Orleans, second son of the King of France. On the promise of a dowry fit for a king, Catherine has left her true love in Italy, forced into trading her future for a stake in the French crown.Amid the glittering fêtes and banquets of the most immoral court in sixteenth-century Europe, the reluctant bride becomes a passionate but unwanted wife. Humiliated and unloved, Catherine spies on Henry and his lover, the infamous Diane de Poitiers. And, tortured by what she sees, Catherine becomes dangerously occupied by a ruthless ambition destined to make her the most despised woman in France: the dream that one day the French crown will be worn be a Medici heir...

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