About the book: 2023 / For thirty dramatic years, England ruled the vast territory of France at the point of the sword. After Agincourt, Henry V's second invasion of France in 1417 began a campaign that would make the English king heir to the crown of France. Inspired by success, the English army seemed invincible. By the time of Henry's sudden death in 1422, almost all of northern France was in his hands, and the Dauphin Charles of Valois was deprived of succession to the throne. Only the appearance of a simple peasant girl, Joan of Arc, who trusted in God's help, was able to stop the advance of the British, but not for long. Just six months after her execution, Henry's young son was crowned in Paris as the first and last English king of France. Henry VI's kingdom lasted twenty years, but when he came of age, he proved not to be the charismatic leader that his father and the Dauphin had been. Joan of Arc was crowned Charles VII and eventually drove the English out of France. Juliet Barker chronicles these thrilling events—epic battles and sieges, conspiracies and betrayals—through a kaleidoscope of characters, from John Talbot, “the English Achilles,” and John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, to brutal mercenaries, unscrupulous gunslingers, resourceful spies and lovers separated by war.