Description
Where did the story that ended with the great Edwardian castles of north Wales begin?A?How was it that hundreds of men from Savoy built castles in north Wales? Whose stylisedA?statue sits outside the Savoy Hotel in London on the site of his former palace? Whose castleA?of Pevensey endured successfully the longest English siege? Why does much of Switzerland speak French to this day? Why do we find elements of theA?Magna Carta in the Statutes of Savoy? Who was one of the greatest figures of theA?thirteenth century? Peter of Savoy, known to chroniclers of his homeland as The Little Charlemagne. Peter of Savoy came to England as the uncle of Queen Alianor de Provence, the consort of KingA?Henry III. He quickly found favour as one of Henry?_Ts closest advisers and noblemen. Peter was in effect Queen Alianor?_Ts right-hand man in England, her protector, andA?subsequently the protector of Lord Edward, the future King Edward I. He played a keyA?role in Henry?_Ts military and diplomatic efforts to recover his ancestral lands in France whichA?culminated in the 1259 Treaty of Paris. This rapprochement between the Capetians andA?Plantagenets might have warded off the Hundred Years War, but it was not to be. Nonetheless, the nineteenth-century monks of Savoy thought it his greatestA?accomplishment. Peter played a key role in the Second Baronial War which engulfed Henry?_TsA?reign, at first siding with Simon de Montfort but then changing sides as the reformA?movement veered toward xenophobia.A?Returning to Savoy he laid the foundationsA?for the County of Savoy to become a powerful Duchy which in turn almost became a countryA?before it was dismembered by Switzerland, Italy and France. His historical reputationA?suffered at the hands of English chroniclers keen to eulogise the Montfortian regime. ThisA?work is an attempt to discover the real Peter of Savoy.
Binding: Hardback
Binding: Hardback