The eagerly-anticipated third novel in HRH Princess Michael of Kent's Anjou Trilogy.
From HRH Princess Michael of Kent, bestselling author of The Queen of Four Kingdoms, comes the eagerly-anticipated third volume in the Anjou trilogy.
Jacques Cour is one of the richest and most powerful men in France. From humble beginnings, he has become the owner of the largest fleet of armed merchant ships in the Mediterranean, and is the highly-prized confidant of the royal family of Anjou. Through this regal connection, the king is now Coeur's partner in his profitable trade within France and the Levant. Wealthy, determined and with the ear of the Anjous, Jacques Cour is a man to be reckoned with.
As the fiercely ambitious merchant rapidly ascends to greatness, his path becomes intricately linked to the royal family, particularly to that of his beloved patroness, Yolande, the Queen of Four Kingdoms, and her protégé, the beautiful and captivating Agnès Sorel, the king's mistress, who Jacques Cour comes to know and understand as a friend. As the three grow closer, the merchant's fate begins to spiral out of his control due to the jealousy, betrayal and deception that infiltrates the court of France.
Honoured and ennobled by the king for his generosity, Jacques Cour's ambition and success are at risk of becoming his downfall as he must choose between self-preservation and the good of the country. His progress is a devastating epic of a man's rise to great heights and the speed and ease of his fall.
Meticulously researched and powerfully evoked, HRH Princess Michael of Kent vividly re-enacts the seldom-told life story of Jacques Coeur.
