He also continues to pay close attention to particularities of the time, often expanded or further illustrated in the Notes. In fact, Druon quotes several of the letters that Edward II sent to the French court which were, of course, written in French.Īs in the previous novels, Druon handles very well the suspense and likes to use the darker legends surrounding some unclassified circumstances or events, such as whether Edward had been assassinated or not. Silly me, I had forgotten that French was very much in use in the English court at the time. What I also found disconcerting at the beginning was dealing with England in French. This novel then deals with a fascinating period, the one that led to the revolt against Isabelle's husband, king Edward II, in which she, together with her lover Roger Mortimer, had a hand – hence the epithet Louve de France (the She-Wolf of France). But since Druon thinks that Philippe was a relatively good monarch, the series jumps over his reign, and we are to follow his sister Isabelle, who is the Queen of England. The previous volume ended with the coronation of Philippe V, after he retrieved and manipulated an old law that prevented women to access the throne.

I guess historical fiction is a bit like journalism – the hideous make better stories.

So far, the volumes were roughly consecutive, but this time there is a jump of about five years and we also change countries. The beginning of the fifth volume in Druon’s series Les Rois Maudits is a bit disconcerting.

The she wolf maurice druon