Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims

Name: Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims
Rating: 4.3 (2072 reviews)

by Toby Clements Book 1 in the Kingmaker series.

First published 2014

Amazon

4.3(2,072)

In February 1460, novice nun Katherine is attacked outside her priory and rescued by Thomas, a young monk. The violence destroys the protection of their religious houses, and the pair flee from the law, the Church and the knightly household determined to punish them. Crossing an England already divided between Lancaster and York, they survive through disguise, resourcefulness and skills neither expected to need.

Their journey takes them through Calais and into the Yorkist armies gathering around Edward, Earl of March, and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Thomas learns the longbow while Katherine works as a healer and adopts a male identity, drawing both into the campaigns that culminate at Towton. The novel treats the battle not as a clean dynastic turning point but as a freezing, exhausting catastrophe experienced by common soldiers and camp followers.