I'm a big fan of Cornwell's historic fiction. Much of his work focuses on English history, particularly important battles and military campaigns. His Richard Sharpe series, for example, focuses on the early 19th century campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars. It was made into a very popular BBC/PBS television series starring Sean Bean, and is probably his best known series.
Somewhere along the line I missed this particular series, The Grail Quest, that tells of the adventures of one Thomas of Hookton, an archer in the English-French wars of the fourteenth century that we know as The Hundred Years' War, when the Anglo-Norman kings pursued their hereditary rights to French fiefdoms to claim the crown of France. This was the century of the ascendancy of the English longbow as a weapon of war. Beginning with the siege of La Roche-Derrien in Brittany, The Archer's Tale marches to the sack of Caen in Normandy, and concludes with the Battle of Crecy, where the English longbows triumphed over the much larger French army.
But in addition to the battles, the book also looks at the beliefs and superstitions of the time, in particular, the legend of the Grail and the power of the Inquisition. Thomas learns that the sea raid that destroyed Hookton and killed his father was no random attack. And now a mysterious warrior called the Harlequin is stalking Thomas. Why? What treasure does the Harlequin seek and why does he think Thomas knows where it lies hidden?
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