1. The Game of Kings
In 1547, Francis Crawford of Lymond returns secretly to a Scotland that regards him as a traitor, outlaw and possible English agent. Operating through a band of border fighters and elaborate deceptions, he tries to expose the conspiracy behind his disgrace while the Rough Wooing threatens…
2. Queens’ Play
In 1548, Lymond enters the French court under disguise after Mary of Guise asks him to protect the young Mary, Queen of Scots. A succession of apparent accidents suggests that someone close to Henry II’s household intends to kill the Scottish queen before her marriage to…
3. The Disorderly Knights
In 1551, Lymond travels to Malta as the Knights Hospitaller face an Ottoman attack and internal failures of command. He meets the celebrated Scottish knight Graham Reid Malett, whose reputation for holiness conceals an ambition as formidable as Lymond’s own. Their rivalry continues in Scotland, where…
4. Pawn in Frankincense
In 1552, Lymond commands a royal galley across the Mediterranean while searching for a kidnapped child and pursuing Graham Reid Malett. The chase passes through France, North Africa and Constantinople, where diplomacy, slavery and the court of Suleiman the Magnificent become pieces in Malett’s revenge. Lymond…
5. The Ringed Castle
After Constantinople, Lymond enters the service of Ivan the Terrible and helps organise the expanding Muscovite army. Philippa Somerville returns to Mary I’s England and investigates Lymond’s birth while their nominal marriage becomes increasingly difficult to treat as a legal convenience. A Russian embassy brings Lymond…
6. Checkmate
In 1557, Lymond returns to French service during the final phase of the Italian Wars and helps the forces of Henry II recover Calais from England. Philippa continues searching for the truth of his parentage while both confront the emotional and legal consequences of their marriage.…