HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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New York, NY 10007
First published in Great Britain by Rupert Hart-Davis 1960
Arrow edition 1988
First published in ebook in Great Britain 2014
Copyright © Maurice Druon 1955
Jacket layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014
Cover illustration © Patrick Knowles
Maurice Druon asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007492251
US Ebook Edition © March 2015 ISBN: 9780007591879
Version: 2015-01-07
‘History is a novel that has been lived’
E. & J. DE GONCOURT
‘It is terrifying to think how much research is needed to determine the truth of even the most unimportant fact’
STENDHAL
‘She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs, That tear’st the bowels of thy mangled mate …’
THOMAS GRAY
Contents
Part One: From the Thames to the Garonne
1. ‘No One ever Escapes from the Tower of London’
3. Messer Tolomei has a New Customer
Part Three: The Disinherited King