Uhtred’s sword will leave one king dead and the other victorious. For two kings claim the empty throne, and a new kingdom cannot be born without bloodshed. Rumours build about the fatal sickness of the King, and the country awaits an heir.Ī violent clash at sea forces the warrior Lord Uhtred to lead his men from his Northumbrian fortress to London and plunge into the eye of the storm. But an attack on him by a leading supporter of one of the candidates and an unexpected appeal for help from another, drives Uhtred with a small band of warriors south, into the battle for kingship-and England's fate.England is in turmoil as Vikings and Saxons battle for territory. Uhtred was tempted to ignore the demands of the oath and stay in his northern fastness, leaving the quarrelling Anglo-Saxons to sort out their own issues. Despite attempts at pulling him into the political fray, Uhtred of Bebbanburg cares solely about his beloved Northumbria and its continuing independence from southern control.īut an oath is a strong, almost sacred commitment and such a promise had been exchanged between Uhtred and Aethelstan, his onetime companion in arms and now a potential king.

There are two potential heirs-possibly more-and doubt over whether the once separate states of Wessex and Mercia will hold together. It is a time of political turmoil once more as the fading King Edward begins to lose control over his successors and their supporters.

The twelfth installment of Bernard Cornwell's New York Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England-'superior entertainment that is both engaging and enlightening' ( Washington Post), and the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit Netflix series.

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