The King Without a Kingdom

This is the seventh and final novel in Druon's Accursed Kings series of novels set in 14th century France. The previous six novels were a splendid series of novels full of drama, conflict and scandal, a colourful Medieval soap opera of fighting kings and their families and nobles, marred on occasion by the author's tendency to "infodump" chunks of history instead of showing it through the plot. This final volume of the series jumps forward over 25 years to the reign of John II and the run up to the Battle of Poitiers. The style is very different and is told in the first person by the Cardinal of Perigord, who is travelling across France and between the lines trying to make peace between French and English. This unfortunately leads to show more even more infodumps, whole chapters of it, especially in the first part and not much of a feeling that I was reading a novel. So a bit of a disappointing close to the series. show less

I was not fond of this book, as it is told from the point of view of a traveling cardinal narrating happenings in France to (mostly) his nephew, and he includes the bumps in the road and rain during his journey. It just seemed very tedious. I enjoyed the other books in the series.

Druon trata com mordacidade o reinado do vaidoso e irrefletido Jean II, o Bom. A batalha de Crécy é impressionante. Mesmo quando Jean II age acertadamente, o autor nota que nem mesmo o maior dos ineptos pode ser desastroso ininterruptamente.
Os personagens que mais me interessaram foram o Delfim, o Cardeal de Périgord, o jovem Philippe da Borgonha, o Príncipe Negro e Johann de Hainaut. Alguns não somente por esse livro ou por essa série.
“E lá, ao que consta, quando chegaram, o Delfim teve dificuldade em retirar a manopla, de tão inflamada que se achava a sua mão direta, inteiramente roxa. E viram-no chorar.”
Adorei a mudança narrativa nesse livro.

book 7/7 in the Accursed Kings series. No need to read this book! Books 1-6 are a superior read and the end of book 6 ties up all the story lines. Book 7 was written 17 years after book 6 and it's just a summation of book 6 with a few bits about John II. This book was narrated by a cardinal telling his life story to his nephew or cousin. What a sad way to end such a wonderful series. I would give this series a rating of 5 overall, but this particular book only a 3, and just barely! 368 pages.

I read this book long ago, so I do not remember pretty well several facts that are in it I just remember that I read it because I need it to finish the saga, it was such a good saga that I need it to know how the author close this story that is part of Europe´s history. The narrative is very different from the rest I will not say that this is bad but I just did not feel that this book was as rich as the others in it;s writing, maybe Druon did not know how to close it properly but I feel that he made this book just to close the last open stories of the other books, nevertheless is a pretty good saga.

C'est Hélie de Périgord, Cardinal, qui narre ce récit à la première personne, sous forme de souvenirs et sans dialogues. Cela déconcerte le lecteur qui ne retrouve plus ses personnages ni la verve entraînante de l'auteur. De ce fait, tous ceux qui ont bien accroché jusqu'au tome VI peuvent être déstabilisés par la rupture. Pour autant Maurice Druon réussit, avec l'attention soutenue du lecteur, à nous faire prendre de l’intérêt pour cette période compliquée centrée sur le règne fort peu glorieux de Jean II dit "le bon" qui perdit la France contre Edouard III

Tome intéressant mais dont on peu se passer.

Quand un roi perd la France

Dans cet ultime volet des Rois maudits, Maurice Druon retrace le règne du roi que l’Histoire a retenu sous le nom de Jean II le Bon. Mal nommé en vérité, ce roi était indécis, cruel, incapable et vaniteux.

Dans une France en guerre où clans et factions se disputent le royaume, dévaluations des monnaies se succèdent, les impôts écrasent les paysans, une crise traverse l’Eglise, la peste traverse le pays. Avec les multiples faiblesses du pouvoir monarchique, le roi multiplie les erreurs et les fautes.

Dans ce tome, on suit le récit par l’intermédiaire d'Hélie de Périgord, légat pontifical, haut personnage qui par un monologue de 350 pages, nous raconte l’évolution du règne de ce piteux show more souverain qui par orgueil perdit la France. Ce dernier tome, un peu plus tardif, est une gageure puisque le récit nous est conté d’un bout à l’autre par le légat pontifical.

On regrette que la mort ait saisi si vite Maurice Druon. Cette saga aurait mille fois mérité de se conclure autrement que par ce tome demeurant moins bon que les six autres. show less