1356

1356
Bernard Cornwell

This special edition Ebook features exclusive extra content by the author, with an extended Historical Note and two contemporary accounts of the Battle of Poitiers.Go with God and Fight like the Devil.The Hundred Years War rages on and the bloodiest battles are yet to be fought. Across France, towns are closing their gates, the crops are burning and the country stands alert to danger. The English army, victorious at the Battle of Crécy and led by the Black Prince, is invading again and the French are hunting them down.Thomas of Hookton, an English archer known as Le Bâtard, is under orders to seek out the lost sword of St Peter, a weapon said to grant certain victory to whoever possesses her. As the outnumbered English army becomes trapped near the town of Poitiers, Thomas, his men and his sworn enemies meet in an extraordinary confrontation that ignites one of the greatest battles of all time.

BERNARD CORNWELL

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2012

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2012

Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Maps © John Gilkes 2012

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Source ISBN: 9780007331840

Ebook Edition © September 2012 ISBN: 9780007331888

Version: 2017-05-05

FIRST EDITION

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

is for my grandson,

Oscar Cornwell,

with love.

‘The English are riding, no-one knows where.’

Warning sent in fourteenth-century France, quoted inA Fool and His Money by Ann Wroe

Contents

Title Page (#u8008159b-6034-502f-a0a6-4266bcc863f5)

Copyright (#u97147b1c-8dea-531d-939a-297f1be7c239)

Dedication (#udf31057e-b3d9-5231-a797-f9a0469fbe57)

Epigraph (#uaf7af1f5-42ad-538a-8589-417682b3f032)

Map (#u42bcb124-3cde-5a16-b984-b1e42973c416)

Prologue: CARCASSONNE (#u2c884663-7e97-5f41-acc8-e0422ba41a2f)

Part One: AVIGNON (#ub84db1fd-dc48-595c-ab5d-d801ae560d04)

Chapter One (#ueca2de33-461b-5e45-8c3b-d861f6842c04)

Chapter Two (#u36769b39-ead0-516b-808d-7c6ef1cad521)

Chapter Three (#u92e4e2ab-80cf-57e3-8de6-dcf847ac4cad)

Part Two: MONTPELLIER (#u36538026-6192-518e-9272-090f124c910c)

Chapter Four (#u806f114a-9dd0-58ab-8083-e91bce468a2a)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three: POITIERS (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Four: BATTLE (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)