Publishers:
Harper Collins
Pages: 269
Main Characters:
Louis X, Marguerite,
Guccio Baglioni, Robert of Artois
The Strangled Queen is
the second book in Maurice Druon's nail-biting The Accursed Kings series. The novel follows on from The Iron King and finds medieval France
in turmoil after the death of one of its most successful and respected Kings,
Philip the Fair. His son Louis has inherited the Kingdom but does not possess
the brilliance of his late father and is easily swayed in making decisions by
his bold and charismatic uncle Charles of Valois. Charles is of the old ways of
France and hated most of Philip the Fair’s new bureaucratic methods which
modernised the Kingdom. In addition, Charles hated the new methods most of all
because they raised the middle class into the social elite. He wants France to
return to the era of chivalry and the time of powerful nobility. To do this,
Charles manipulates his weak nephew by promising him a new marriage after the embarrassment
of Marguerite of Burgundy (Louis wife) and Philippe d’Aunay’s affair. However,
to achieve his goals Charles must first remove his greatest rival Enguerrand
Marigny, the old King’s closet advisor, from the French court.
Meanwhile, Marguerite of Burgundy and her sister Blanche are
still been held prisoners by Louis X, whom is awaiting the appointment of a new
Pope to divorce his marriage from his adulterous wife. The miserable dark cell
is enough to crack the once beautiful and powerful Queen of France and forces
her to write a confession that states her marriage was never valid. However,
after no news is heard from the King after the departure of the letter, Marguerite’s
future looks very bleak and when new condemning evidence is discovered against
Marguerite and her protector, Enguerrand Marigny, her future also looks very
short…
I found this book much better than The Iron King. Don’t get me wrong, I did really like the first book,
I thought as a historical-fiction novel it was probably one of the best I’ve
read this year because it was so full of historical detail. However, as a
thriller I didn’t think it was that thrilling and thought marketing the novel as ‘the original Game of
Thrones’ was very misplaced. The
Strangled Queen on the other hand totally fits this bill! It was full of political
intrigue, plots and betrayal that I loved and like The Iron King, Druon’s historical detail was top notch. Coupled
with the intrigue, Druon successfully and entertainingly shows the weakness of
the French crown at the start of the thirteenth century.
This was a great novel and has got me really excited to read
the next book in the series The Poisoned
Crown, which from the sound of its title already sounds epic! I’d suggest
this book to anyone who likes historical-fiction, especially authors such as Bernard Cornwell and his Grail Quest series.
I’d also suggest it to fans of Game of
Thrones because as George R. R. Martin explains in his Forward note at the
start of the book, this novel was the inspiration behind GoT.
For author's official Goodreads page click here.
