Death of Kings. Bernard Cornwell

      

      DEATH OF KINGS

      BERNARD CORNWELL

       Copyright

      HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by

      HarperCollinsPublishers 2011

      Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2011

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

      Cover illustration © Lee Gibbons/Tin Moon – www.leegibbons.co.uk

      Map © John Gilkes 2011

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

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

      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.

      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.

      Source ISBN: 9780007331802

      Ebook Edition © September 2011 ISBN: 9780007331826

      Version: 2019-09-27

      DEATH OF KINGS

      is for Anne LeClaire,

      Novelist and Friend,

      who supplied the first line.

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

       Dedication

       Map

The Royal Family of Wessex

Place Names

Part One: THE SORCERESS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Part Two: DEATH OF A KING

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Part Three: ANGELS

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Part Four: DEATH IN WINTER

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Historical Note

       Keep Reading …

       About the Author

       Also by Bernard Cornwell

       About the Publisher

       The Royal Family of Wessex

       PLACE NAMES

      The spelling of place names in Anglo-Saxon England was an uncertain business, with no consistency and no agreement even about the name itself. Thus London was variously rendered as Lundonia, Lundenberg, Lundenne, Lundene, Lundenwic, Lundenceaster and Lundres. Doubtless some readers will prefer other versions of the names listed below, but I have usually employed whichever spelling is cited in either the Oxford or the Cambridge Dictionary of English