Kings of the North

Name: Kings of the North
Rating: 4.2 (43 reviews)

by Cecelia Holland Book 6 in the The Life and Times of Corban Loosestrife series.

First published 2010

Amazon

3.7(43)

After escaping Constantinople, Raef and his companions reach Normandy and are drawn back towards Jórvík. Richard II sends his sister Emma to marry Æthelred the Unready, binding Norman interests to an English court already threatened by Scandinavian attack. Raef wants to recover his family’s position in York, but the debts he owes to Emma and Richard conflict with his old kinship to Sweyn Forkbeard and with his responsibility for the young Cnut.

The struggle for England develops through Sweyn’s conquest, Æthelred’s return and the war between Edmund Ironside and Cnut. Raef moves among rival kings while attempting to protect his own children and the people who depend on him. The final volume closes the saga by placing its fictional family inside the Danish conquest of England, where pagan memory, Christian monarchy and personal loyalty are reorganised into the North Sea empire of Cnut.

Historical Periods

Anglo-Saxon Englandc. 476–1066 CE Christianisation of Scandinaviac. 800–1200 CE Danish Conquest of England1003–1016 Rise of Normandy and the Duchy of Normandy911–1066

Genres

Court & Political Fiction Historical Fantasy Historical Sagas War Fiction

Historical people

Æthelred the Unready967–1016 Edmund Ironside988–1016 Cnut the Great994–1035 Emma of Normandy987–1052 Sweyn I of Denmark963–1014 Richard II1367–c. 1400