1. The Rise of Robin Hood
In 1180, the young Robin Odo and his formidable companion Little John are not yet the leaders of a famous outlaw company. They attempt an early robbery in Sherwood and discover that violence, planning and authority are harder to control than the stories told about successful…
3. Holy Warrior
In 1190, Robin Hood, Alan Dale and their companions join Richard I’s expedition to the Holy Land. The campaign carries them from Europe to the siege lines and battlefields of the Third Crusade, where Christian armies contend with Saladin and where rivalries among crusaders can be…
4. The Hostility of Hanno
Acre, July 1191. Alan Dale is recovering from battle wounds in a hospital serving the crusading army when he meets Hanno, a brutal Bavarian man-at-arms whose hostility makes companionship appear impossible. Both men are weakened, isolated and dependent on institutions strained by siege and disease. A…
5. Robin Hood and the Caliph’s Gold
Autumn 1191. Robin Hood, Alan Dale and their companions leave the Holy Land by sea after the Third Crusade. A storm wrecks them on Crete, where local rulers, pirate chiefs and competing armed groups control the routes by which the survivors might continue towards England. Robin…
6. Robin Hood and the Castle of Bones
May 1192. Still travelling home from the Third Crusade, Robin Hood and Alan Dale reach the Duchy of Burgundy and are captured by a renegade knight. Taken across the Saône into the rival County of Burgundy, they enter a conflict of feudal loyalties, murder and competing…
7. The Betrayal of Father Tuck
September 1192. With Robin Hood and most of his fighting men still returning from the Third Crusade, Marie-Anne, Countess of Locksley, is left to defend Kirkton Castle. The Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Sir Ralph Murdac, sees the absence as an opportunity to break Robin’s power and lays…
8. King’s Man
September 1192. Richard I has been seized while returning from the Third Crusade and is hidden somewhere inside the German lands. England’s future depends on locating the king before his enemies can exploit the captivity, and Alan Dale is sent into a network of castles, ransom…
9. Warlord
In 1194, Alan Dale follows the trail of the man responsible for his father’s death while Richard I resumes war against Philip II in Normandy and the surrounding French territories. Robin Hood’s military service places the Sherwood company within sieges and cavalry raids where private vengeance…
10. Grail Knight
After past crimes return to threaten his household, Sir Alan Dale faces the possible death of his wife and the vengeance of enemies created during Robin Hood’s rise. Robin believes that the object capable of changing their fortunes is the Holy Grail, now connected to a…
11. The Iron Castle
In 1203, King John’s continental possessions are collapsing under the advance of Philip II of France. Robin Hood and Alan Dale are ordered to help hold Château Gaillard, the fortress Richard the Lionheart built above the Seine to protect Normandy. Its walls are formidable, but the…
12. Robin Hood and the Heretic Prince
Spring 1209. A failed robbery in Sherwood forces Robin Hood, Alan Dale and a small band of followers to flee King John and the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire. They travel to the Languedoc, where Pope Innocent III has authorised a crusade against the Cathars and northern French…
13. The King’s Assassin
By 1214, King John’s taxation and failed wars have alienated many of England’s leading barons, including Robin Hood, now Earl of Locksley. Alan Dale becomes involved in the effort to compel the king to recognise limits on royal power, while John uses informers, mercenaries and assassination…
14. The Death of Robin Hood
In 1216, England is divided between King John and rebel barons who have invited a French prince to claim the crown. Robin Hood and Alan Dale enter the First Barons’ War carrying the accumulated enemies, debts and loyalties of three decades. The political settlement promised by…