The Uncrowned Lion - Paperback

Gentlemen, the inheritance of England is to play for.

England, 1376. The aging king, once the terror of the French, has lost his ability to govern and finds himself hidden from sight to live out his final years as a shameful secret. His son and heir, the famed Black Prince who was once England's pride, is also at death's door. The death of both the monarch and his heir would leave behind a ten-year old boy to be king - albeit a puppet one on strings.

The king's other son, the Duke of Lancaster, is charged with running England whilst his father and brother wither - a task he has failed at abysmally. The kingdom's borders lie undefended and enemy forces raid up and down the bankrupt country. Succumbing to his own avarice, the duke and his friends descend like crows upon a corpse to feast on the still-breathing body of England. Reeling from the fallout, Alfonse and his father, Henry Penenden, find themselves teetering on the edge of ruin. Enraged, they join a camp that's filled with lords, bishops, and merchants that are all opposed to the Duke of Lancaster who seems determined to swallow England whole.