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The Powder of Death
Book 2 in the Moments of History series.
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In Oxford in 1261, Roger Bacon learns from the returning Franciscan traveller William of Rubruck that China possesses a powder capable of explosive force. The two scholars decide that such knowledge is too dangerous to spread, but their attempt to suppress it cannot prevent later generations from rediscovering its ingredients and military possibilities.
The story follows blacksmith Jared of Hurnwych as personal loss and obsession draw him into experiments with the powder, political rivalry and the service of Edward III. Its climax at the Battle of Crécy connects one man’s pursuit of a destructive invention with the early use of gunpowder weapons in European warfare and the changing military order of the Hundred Years’ War.
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