10 h 51 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does loyalty cost when a king’s ambition carries his people into war and exile?
In Kings-at-Arms, Marjorie Bowen takes you into northern and eastern Europe in the age of Charles XII of Sweden. A young warrior king stands at the head of a northern empire, surrounded by rivals. Courts and campaigns shape a world where conquest tests what people owe their ruler, their country and their own conscience.
Kings, soldiers and exiles move through a Europe at war. Behind the ceremony of crowns and arms lie retreat, divided loyalties and the loss of home. Bowen’s historical novel explores the human cost of imperial ambition: rulers demand service, while defeat and politics can leave leaders and followers dependent on the mercy of foreign courts.
What you’ll discover
- A king among rivals Enter the age of Charles XII, when Sweden’s northern empire faces rival powers.
- Loyalties under strain Consider what happens when duty to a ruler presses against country and conscience.
- The uncertainty of exile Explore a world where defeat can mean losing home and seeking mercy abroad.
- Behind the royal ceremony Look beyond crowns and arms to the labor and suffering that sustain empires.
- History with human stakes Read conquest and retreat through the lives of kings, soldiers and displaced followers.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love court intrigue, vivid portraits of real rulers, and big European wars told through the people who fight and scheme in them.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A drunken boy king hears a hard truth
- The king gives up wine and declares war
- A Czar in his marsh envies his young rival
- At Narva, the Czar learns what war costs
- Patkul builds a league and Augustus joins it
- Aurora von Königsmarck tries her charm on Karl
- Poland falls and Karl gives away a crown
- Peace is offered at the price of a friend
- Two kinds of greatness, and what each destroys
Who’s who
- Karl XIIThe young king of Sweden, tall, sober and fearless, who sets out to punish his enemies and dethrone the Czar.
- Peter AlexievitchThe Czar of Russia, a giant of a man tormented by fits and melancholy, who dreams of a new capital and a Baltic port.
- Count PiperKarl's clever minister, who longs for a sensible peace and fears that his master's ambition will ruin Sweden.
- Prince MentchikoffPeter's devoted favorite, once a pastry cook's boy, who bears his master's blows and burns with loyalty.
- John Rheinhold PatkulA Livonian nobleman who wants to free his country from Swedish rule and builds the league against Karl.
- Aurora von KönigsmarckThe beautiful and clever mistress of Augustus, who uses charm and wit to protect her high position.
- Augustus of SaxonyThe elegant, easygoing King of Poland, a strong man who loves pleasure and is poor at facing danger.
- Hélène D'EinsiedelA gentle young Saxon lady, betrothed to Patkul, who believes in love and fears for his safety.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Reyes en armas in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Reyes en armas
by Marjorie Bowen · 1918
A drunken boy king staggers into dinner, and one sharp-tongued baroness sets him on the road to war.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A boy king staggers into his grandmother's dining room covered in bear blood, drunk, and just eighteen. This is how Marjorie Bowen opens Kings-at-Arms, her novel of Karl XII of Sweden and his great rival, Peter of Russia.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A drunken boy king hears a hard truth
The story opens in Stockholm, in a gloomy palace where the Queen Dowager Eleanora and the minister Count Piper wait for dinner. Karl XII is eighteen and the absolute ruler of a rich country, yet he spends his days hunting. He arrives late, muddy, bloody and drunk, boasting that he has killed three bears.
At table he flies into a rage when his grandmother mocks him over the Czar of Muscovy, and he drags the cloth to the floor with his spur. Piper knows that Denmark, Poland and Russia are ready to carve up Sweden while its king plays. In desperation he plans to steer the boy through a woman, and he turns to Viktoria von Falkenberg, a clever widow who serves Karl's sister, the Duchess of Holstein.
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What is Kings-at-Arms about?
It is a historical novel about the wars of Karl XII of Sweden and his rival Peter the Great of Russia. It follows the kings, their ministers and the people caught between them across Northern Europe.
Is Kings-at-Arms based on a true story?
Yes. Its main figures, including Karl XII, Peter the Great, Augustus of Saxony, Count Piper and Patkul, were real people, and the novel follows the real events of the Great Northern War, with invented scenes and talk.
Who is Patkul in Kings-at-Arms?
John Rheinhold Patkul is a Livonian nobleman who wants to free his homeland from Swedish rule. He builds the league of Denmark, Poland and Russia against Karl, and he is engaged to Hélène D'Einsiedel.
The author
Marjorie Bowen
1885–1952 · British historical novelist
Marjorie Bowen was the pen name of Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long, a British writer born on Hayling Island in 1885. She wrote historical novels, biographies, and supernatural fiction. Her first novel, The Viper of Milan, appeared in 1906. She also used the name Joseph Shearing. She died in London in 1952.
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