David Barnett
Ardron was a village Saxon, the second son of the village Thegn, and content to be so. The conflict waging throughout the country for the crown of England between the Empress Matilda and Stephen Blois was a Norman war, and of no particular concern to a village Saxon. No concern that was, until the arrival of, Stephen sympathiser, Robert Fitzhubert. Under his order, his force without mercy, plundered the village, traumatised the villagers and left the village in flames when they left. Worst still, without compunction, he had two village maids seized and kidnapped for personal amusement. Ardron was tasked by his father to go after Fitzhubert’s band and rescue the maids. It would be a mission that, chance by chance, event by event, would see Ardron become deeper and deeper involved in the conflict until, eventually, he became a significant figure in the cause of Empress Matilda against the usurper Stephen.This novel will appeal to those keenly interested in English history. Most people are familiar with the English civil war between King Charles Royalists and Oliver Cromwell Puritans. However, not so familiar is this civil war which lasted much longer and was brutal. The only law of the period being that which the powerful and ruthless of the time said it was. The period has been labelled by historians as ’The Anarchy,’ and with justification.
