SusannaG - Confessions of a Crazy Cat Lady
Just another GR refugee. Other than that, I had a stroke in 2004, and read almost anything I can get my hands on, though I have a particular weakness for history, mystery, and historical fiction.
Currently reading
The Strangled Queen, by Maurice Druon
The Strangled Queen is the second volume in Maurice Druon's The Cursed Kings series, which is about the fall of the house of Capet. The first was The Iron King, in which Philip IV "The Fair," who was competent but greedy, attacked the Knights Templar, to whom he was much in debt, in order to confiscate their gold - and their dying Grand Master cursed him, his house, and the pope. And within a year, both Philip and the pope, Clement V, were dead.
Well, now that Philip is dead, his eldest son, Louis X, is king. "Le Hutin" is not the king his father was - he's stubborn, quarrelsome, and yet easily manipulated. He's also a king in a pickle. He has no son. His daughter, Joan, he doesn't believe is his - his wife, Marguerite, was locked up by his late father for adultery. He won't get any sons there, Marguerite is not being cooperative (I know imprisonment at Chateau Gaillard on bread and water wouldn't improve my mood, either), and there still isn't a pope, so he can't get an annulment.
But he's already picked out his second wife in his head - Clemence of Hungary. Her grandmother, however, has ordained that unless he can get matters straightened out before the middle of 1315, she will entertain other marriage offers.
Louis is a desperate man. And heads will roll.
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as The Iron King, but it's still a fine, fun read.
13
6