Solomon's Crown

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Family Trees Historical Note Prologue: Richard Part One: Descort Chapter One: Philip Chapter Two: Richard Chapter Three: Philip Chapter Four: Richard Chapter Five: Philip Chapter Six: Richard Chapter Seven: Philip Chapter Eight: Richard Part Two: Salut D’Amor Chapter Nine: Richard Chapter Ten: Philip Chapter Eleven: Philip Chapter Twelve: Richard Chapter Thirteen: Philip Part Three: Jeu-Parti Chapter Fourteen: Richard Chapter Fifteen: Philip Chapter Sixteen: Richard Chapter Seventeen: Philip Part Four: Chanson de Geste Chapter Eighteen: Richard Chapter Nineteen: Philip Chapter Twenty: Philip Chapter Twenty-One: Richard Chapter Twenty-Two: Philip Chapter Twenty-Three: Richard Author’s Note Dedication Acknowledgments About the Author A Book Club Guide Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List a b ii iii iv vi vii ix x 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 135 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 343 344 v 345 346 347 349 350 351 352 353 354 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book wouldn’t exist without my marvelous agent, Tara Gilbert, whose passion and dedication never cease to inspire me; and my editor at Dell, Jesse Shuman, whose love for this story made Solomon’s Crown what it is today. I can never thank either of you enough. My deepest thanks also to my team at Dell: Kathleen Quinlan, Megan Whalen, and Melissa Folds for their amazing work bringing this book to readers; Rachel Ake Kuech for her beautiful cover; Kathleen Reed and Nancy Delia for their exceptional editorial work; Kara Cesare, Kim Hovey, Jennifer Hershey, and Kara Welsh for all their support. Evangeline, Hannah, and Susie: you three sat through endless drafts and gave me endless encouragement, I adore you all for it. To Grace, Margarida, Oscar, Rebecca, Saint, and all the others who read and provided feedback, I am also indebted. And Omar—for loving this book, and being in my life—thank you, always. For my family, who have always supported me, I am both privileged and grateful. My sincerest thanks to my godmother, Belinda—your advice and support was invaluable; my father, Kim, whose excitement about my achievements has never ceased; my brother, Jonas, whose kindness, intelligence, and bravery astonish me every day; dear Estela; my aunt Alex, uncle Jonathan, and my mormor Danielle; and my mother, Caroline, to whom this book is dedicated. Mom, you’ve never allowed me to give up on writing, and your imagination and love made me who I am today. I’m so grateful to you, and to everyone else who helped make this book a reality. AUTHOR’S NOTE I had largely abandoned history by the time Solomon’s Crown was finished. The true story of Philip II of France and Richard I of England is fascinating, dramatic, and more than worthy of its own retelling; but it is, in many ways, a tragedy. In real life, the two men had a tumultuous relationship, and by the untimely end of Richard’s reign—he died at age forty-one from a battlefield wound, a crossbow bolt to the shoulder—they were undoubtedly enemies. I first learnt about Richard and Philip’s relationship in James Reston Jr.’s Warriors of God, one of the few histories I’ve read that lends the rumors of their romantic entanglement credence. The concept of two kings so destined to rivalry falling in love utterly captivated me. Further inspiration came from the perfect 1968 film adaptation of The Lion in Winter, in which a young Timothy Dalton made Philip dark-haired and blue-eyed in my mind forevermore. Five years before this book’s publication, I visited Poitiers, and there I saw the window at the cathedral commissioned by Eleanor of Aquitaine that Richard and Philip meet beneath in Chapter Twenty. It still survives today in the exact state it was created, and it’s one of the oldest stained-glass windows in the world. It’s a testament to the beauty, hope, and ingenuity of a period so often defined in the modern imagination by its brutality. For all the blood and grime and suffering of the past, people loved one another just as much as they do now. I think that’s wonderful. When I wrote the first chapter of this