"De ce visage en feu, la voix effrayante profera: - Pape Clement!. Pope Clement, Chevalier Guillaume de Nogaret, King Philip, I summon you to the Tribunal of Heaven before the year is out, to receive your just punishment! Accursed! Accursed! You shall be accursed to the thirteenth generation of your lines!"
As he is burnt alive before the King and his court, the old warrior cries out: The plot is fast paced, and reflects the morals and cruelty of a despotic era.īut dominating the book is the figure of Jacques de Molay, the aged Grand Master of the Templars. The scheming Robert of Artois the calculating banker, Tolomei the vicious Guillaume de Nogaret. The story is populated with wonderful characters, vividly drawn from the historical record. After a trial lasting 7 years he is about to destroy the last vestiges of the Knights Templar whose vast wealth he has stolen for his own ends. But unknown to Philip a scandal is about to rock the foundations of his family and turn the fourteenth century into the Hundred Years war. Philip the Fair was obsessed with creating a centrally organised state at the expense of all other considerations. The Iron King tells the events of the year 1314, when Philippe le Bel sits on the French throne. This is the first book of the seven under the title "The Accursed Kings", translated into good clear English. Imagine then my surprise on seeing the name "Maurice Druon" on the cover of The Iron King in W. In the days before the internet and search-engines it was not easy to find out about a set of French novels! Then in 2005 the novels appeared - still in French - to help launch an indifferent remake of the original TV series.
Some years later my French friend told me that it had been based on a set of seven books written by Maurice Druon, but she did not know if they had ever been translated into English. As one habituated to late rising I decided to take a peek at the first episode and was hooked. The British dumped the drama into the graveyard slot - after 11pm on a Saturday. In 1972 French television produced a series entitled, " Les Rois Maudits", which was screened on BBC 2 with English subtitles.
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