Winter Pilgrims
Chapters (55)
- Cover
- About the Book
- About the Author
- Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims
- Dedication
- Though the Lancastrian Claim comes from Edward III’s THIRD son, it relies on a) possession and b) that the crown can not pass through a woman – Philippa Mormer – so must fall to the next male in line. The Yorkist Claim relies on their descent from Edward III’s SECOND son, and says it can pass through Philippa. The Tudor Claim ignores the fact of passing through a woman – Lady Margaret Beaufort – or that John, Earl of Somerset, was born illegimate.
- Factions in the Wars of the Roses
- Prologue
- PART ONE
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- PART TWO
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- PART THREE
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- PART FOUR
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- PART FIVE
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- PART SIX
- 32
- 33
- PART SEVEN
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- Acknowledgements
Cover
About the Book
February, 1460: in the bitter dawn of a winter’s morning a young nun is caught outside her priory walls by a corrupt knight and his vicious retinue.
In the fight that follows, she is rescued by a young monk and the knight is defeated. But the consequences are far-reaching, and Thomas and Katherine are expelled from their religious Orders and forced to flee across a land caught in the throes of one of the most savage and bloody civil wars in history: the Wars of the Roses.
Their flight will take them across the Narrow Sea to Calais, where Thomas picks up his warbow and trains alongside the Yorkist forces. Katherine, now dressed as a man, hones her talents for observation and healing both on and off the fields of battle. And all around them, friends and enemies fight and die as the future Yorkist monarch, Edward, Earl of March, and his adviser the Earl of Warwick, later to become known as the Kingmaker, prepare to do bloody battle.
Encompassing the battles of Northampton, Mortimer’s Cross and finally the great slaughter of Towton, this is war as experienced not by the highborn nobles of the land but by ordinary men and women who do their best just to stay alive. Filled with strong, sympathetic characters, this is a must-read series for all who like their fiction action-packed, heroic and utterly believable.
About the Author
Toby Clements was inspired to write Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims having first become obsessed by the Wars of the Roses after a school trip to Tewkesbury Abbey, on the steps of which the Lancastrian claim to the English throne was extinguished in a welter of blood in 1471.
Since then he has read everything he can get his hands on and spent long weekends at re-enactment fairs. He has learned to use the longbow and how to fight with the pollaxe, how to start a fire with a flint and steel and a shred of baked linen. He has even helped tan a piece of leather (a disgusting experience involving lots of urine and dog faeces). Little by little he became less interested in the dealings of the high and mighty, however colourful and amazing they might have been, and more fascinated by the common folk of the 15th Century: how they lived, loved, fought and died. How tough they were, how resourceful, resilient and clever. As much as anything this book is a hymn to them.
He lives in London with his wife and three children. Winter Pilgrims is his first novel.
Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims
Toby Clements
Dedication
To Karen, with all my love.
