A Knight and a Spy Series
Treachery, the 100 years war, revolts, battles, the wool trade, piracy and pivotal events: all are brought alive in this story of the 15th Century England and the fight for the crown.
Book 1
A Knight and a Spy 1410
Subterfuge or sword, which will save the kingdom?
January, 1410 and King Henry IV is brought down with an unknown illness. Despite his 10 year reign the kingdom is far from secure: he is at odds with his son Prince Hal who vies for a new Council; Owen Glyndower threatens his Welsh border, whilst the Scots are ever in revolt seeking secret alliances with France.
Burgundy and the French King, Charles VI plan to take back Calais and re-ignite the 100 years war. England is torn with enemies on each side and within. The court is a swirl of rumours and treachery, with the powerful seeking the ultimate prize: the English crown.
Power is controlled by unlikely forces, the most important of these men is Sir Richard Whittington, merchant, former Lord mayor of London, financier, adviser to the Crown and spy master for the King. Realising the peril of the kingdom, he needs someone who can move inconspicuously abroad and at home. Skilled yet unobtrusive.
Jamie de Grispere: squire in training, son of a merchant, known to Whittington, is tasked to do his bidding and spy for the good of the crown. He holds the future of the realm in his hands. It is a perilous path, from the depths of France to Wales and the Scottish borders. Joining with two comrades he seeks to aid the crown and Sir Richard's plans for the safety of the realm.
Book 2
A Knight and a Spy 1411
A PIRATE WAR, TRAITORS AT COURT, A SPY IN PERIL.
In the midst of the Hundred Years War, with Henry IV threatened by revolts in the north and the precious English wool trade imperiled by pirates in the English Channel, Sir Jamie de Grispere, newly appointed Royal Household Knight, is secretly tasked by Royal Spymaster Sir Richard Whittington to infiltrate and inform on the rebels. Jamie soon uncovers a plot to seize the crown for the young Prince Henry. With the court a swirl of rumours and treachery, Jamie must decide who to follow: the king to whom he has pledged his allegiance, or the strong prince who knighted him. The wrong choice will cost him his life. A Knight and a Spy 1411, is the second in the new medieval series by Simon Fairfax.
Book 3
A Knight and a Spy 1412
A new war with France. A deadly assassin. A kingdom to claim.
With Henry the Fourth’s hold on the English throne weakening, his putative heir must choose a side as a new conflict with France threatens. Sir James de Grispere, knight of the royal household and spy for Sir Richard Whittington, is forced to deal with treachery and deceit on the dark streets of London, Paris and Florence.
Sir James faces his nemesis at the Parisian court, a hotbed of murder, intrigue and duplicity, where Whittington warns him that ‘not all that is deadly is clothed in maille.’ The Western Schism within the papacy brings England to the point of financial ruin, and Sir James is tasked with a perilous mission – to take the papal levy overland to Italy to secure stability for the realm.
The road to Florence is long and perilous and not all are as they seem. With spies and assassins in every shadow, can Sir James and his companions survive the deadly journey to Italy, or is he - and those he holds dear - destined to fall?
A Knight and a Spy 1412 is the third book in the new Medieval series by Simon Fairfax
Book 4
A Knight and a Spy 1413
England 1413: the king is dead, long live the king!
Household knight and spy Sir James de Grispere has never faced such overwhelming odds.
The turbulent reign of Henry IV has finally come to an end, yet his son inherits a kingdom riven with debt and dissension. The Scots threaten to breach the treaty of peace, raising a banner under the imposter Richard II to unite with English rebels.
Paris is torn apart by a terror that could unite France against the English king; and in England, a deadly heretical sect threatens to undermine the fabric of all society linking these forces to assassinate the new King Henry V.
Sir James must face a charge of treason and his own mortality to save his family and the king.
