The English Gambit

Arrows fly, swords clash, women are bedded, prizes are taken, nobles and churchmen are gulled out of their coins, and the French and Venetians are successfully blamed for things they did not do. This is another exciting story in Martin Archer's continuing and action-packed saga about the men of a company of English archers in the medieval world's very real game of thrones. It is one of the longest and most action-packed and wittiest stories in the saga. Flashman would be proud, Tom Brown appalled, and the men of the Marines and the SAS would have felt right at home. The year is 1221 and the commander of the Company of Archers sails back to England with stops along the way in Constantinople to kill his father's murderer. England is in turmoil with King John dead and no regent for his young son because William Marshal has died and the Great Council of barons cannot agree on a successor. Prince Louis of France has returned to make another effort to take the throne. This is the story of a real life game of thrones set in the early years when the first of the great heavily-armed English merchant companies were being formed and Britain was just beginning to grow into a naval and commercial powerhouse that would punch far above its weight in the centuries that followed. It is a good read.