Maurice Druon: Damned kings. It is not good for lilies to spin. French she-wolf. Books 4-5

Creating his cycle about an incredible era that determined the future of beautiful France, Maurice Druon painstakingly worked in the National Archives, researching ancient documents. The novels “It is No Good for Lilies to Spin” and “The French Wolf” continue the series “Cursed Kings”, this unique series of grandiose historical frescoes, opened by the novels “The Iron King”, “The Prisoner of Château-Gaillard” and “Poison and the Crown”.

The country is already losing its second king: Louis X the Grumpy, having reigned for only eighteen months, dies, leaving the queen pregnant. The life of an unborn baby, the future monarch, becomes a stake in a power struggle between the most powerful members of the French nobility, which risks plunging France into civil war. And on the other side of the English Channel, in England, the daughter of Philip IV the Fair, Isabella of France, lives in constant fear and weaves conspiracies, organizing a rebellion against her own husband Edward II.
It seems that the curse cast from the fire by the Grand Master of the Templar Order, Jacques de Molay, who was burned by order of Philip IV. Since 1314, for more than half a century, French kings have replaced each other on the throne, but no one has stayed for long. Palace intrigues, sudden deaths, dynastic upheavals and bloody wars still accompany this dark procession of damned kings.

The country is already losing its second king: Louis X the Grumpy, having reigned for only eighteen months, dies, leaving the queen pregnant. The life of an unborn baby, the future monarch, becomes a stake in a power struggle between the most powerful members of the French nobility, which risks plunging France into civil war. And on the other side of the English Channel, in England, the daughter of Philip IV the Fair, Isabella of France, lives in constant fear and weaves conspiracies, organizing a rebellion against her own husband Edward II.
It seems that the curse cast from the fire by the Grand Master of the Templar Order, Jacques de Molay, who was burned by order of Philip IV. Since 1314, for more than half a century, French kings have replaced each other on the throne, but no one has stayed for long. Palace intrigues, sudden deaths, dynastic upheavals and bloody wars still accompany this dark procession of damned kings.

Author: Maurice Druon

Translation: Nadezhda Zharkova, Yuri Dubinin

Pages: 672 (offset). Hardcover

Dimensions: 220x150x32 mm

Series: Foreign literature. Big books