Heretic by Bernard Cornwell

Heretic by Bernard Cornwell --- 355 pages

This is the third book in Cornwell's Grail Quest series, set during the 14th century Hundred Year's War between England and France.

The story begins at the English siege of Calais in 1347. Thomas of Hookton, an archer in the service of the Earl of Northampton, arrives in the English camp accompanied by his friends, Sir Guillaume d"Eveque (a Frenchman) and Robbie Douglas (a Scot), to report on his mission to learn more about his family's connection with the Grail. Thomas is not convinced there is a family connection to the Grail, or even that the Grail exists. His own ambition is to command a company of archers in the service of the Earl. But the Earl has his reasons for pursuing this quest, and he sends Thomas and his friends, and a company of archers and men at arms, on a dangerous mission into Gascony. deep in the south of France, to the ruins of Astarac, ancestral home of Thomas' family, the Vexilles, rumored to be the last guardians of the Grail.

Cardinal Bessieres, Papal Legate to the Court of France, is also seeking the Grail, convinced that the legendary relic is his key to election as the next Pope and absolute power over all of Christendom. He has sent his henchmen to Gascony to examine the books and records of the Count of Berat, whose lands include the ruins of Astarac, looking for any reference or mention of the Grail and its possible fate.

Thomas and his company take control of a small fortress at Castillon d'Arbizon to which the Earl has some tenuous claim, to use as a cover for their real purpose. But here their task becomes complicated, when Thomas, as commander of the castle and representative of the civil authority, is faced with carrying out a sentence of death by burning on a heretic condemned by the Church authorities. When the heretic turns out to be a young girl whose only crime, so far as Thomas can find, is to be the orphaned child of a vagabond father left to fend for herself in an unfriendly world, he balks at carrying out the sentence. When he discovers Genevieve has been tortured by the Church authorities into confessing her "heresies," he remembers his own torture at the hands of a fanatic priest, and vows to protect her.

This leads to discord and unrest among the men of his command, and an estrangement between Thomas and Robbie when Thomas and Genevieve becomes lovers. Thomas and Genevieve are forced to flee, and Robbie forsakes his friends for a new allegiance. Thomas and Genevieve find refuge with the kindly abbot of a monastery near Astarac, but when the Cardinal's men arrive on their heels, Thomas discovers a plot to fake the discovery of a substitute Grail at Astarac. Then he witnesses the cold-blooded murder of the abbot by the same man who has caused so much grief in Thomas' own life, his cousin Guy de Vexille.

But all the schemes, ambitions and follies of men are swept aside by an implacable foe that none anticipated and no one can defy when the Pale Rider of the Apocalypse joins his grim brothers in their assault upon this ravaged land. Only in the aftermath of that horror does Thomas discover the clue hidden in plain sight that will lead him to the true Grail.    

Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell

Vagabond: The Grail Quest Series, Volume II by Bernard Cornwell - 405 pages

In the second volume in Cornwall's series about the Hundred Years War, Thomas of Hookton is sent back to England to follow the tenuous clues linking his father to the mystery of the Holy Grail. On his way to speak to an elderly monk in Durham who once knew Thomas' father, he is drawn into the battle to defend the city from an invading Scots army. The Scots King, David Bruce, allied with the French King Philip by their shared antipathy for the English, has agreed to strike England from the north while the English king is preoccupied with his siege of Calais.

But the northern English lords, left to guard the border against just such a contingency, hastily assemble in defense of Durham. Thomas, alternating between doubt and fear that there is any truth to this tale of his father's connection with the Grail, joins the other archers defending Durham in a bloody but ultimately successful battle to repulse the Scots. The Scots King is taken along with several of his nobles, a rich source of ransom for their English captors.

But while Thomas was embroiled in the battle, a sinister Dominican priest and the mysterious Harlequin, revealed to be Thomas' cousin, Guy de Vexille, have silenced the monk and murdered two of Thomas' companions. Now Thomas, and a new and unlikely companion with his own losses to avenge, set out to track down their enemies and rescue Christendom's holiest relic. Their quest leads them back to Hookton, where Thomas finds his father had left him a bequest, a book that seems to confirm the Grail's existence. But do these strange tales written by Thomas' father provide some kind of cryptic clues to where it lies hidden?  When Thomas seeks help in deciphering these clues he falls into the hands of the Dominican and the Inquisition. Broken by the torture, Thomas is near death when his friends ransom him from the Inquisitor. The price of his freedom is his father's book.

Thomas finds himself back in La Roche-Derrien, slowly recuperating from his wounds, both physical and mental. Then Philip of Blois, Duke of Brittany, launches his campaign to drive the English occupation forces out of Brittany. Philip believes he has found a strategy to neutralize the English longbows in battle. He will begin by besieging the English garrison at La Roche-Derrien. Once again Thomas prepares to meet his enemies in battle.

The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell

The Archer's Tale: The Grail Quest Series, Volume I by Bernard Cornwell --- 374 pages

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?