9 h 34 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 34 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In the courts of Renaissance Italy, a blade can defend your honour—but what can protect your heart?
Rafael Sabatini’s Love-at-Arms takes you into a world of rival courts, proud families and quick blades. A hero must defend his honour while enemies smile and plot. Love brings another danger: it refuses to fit the rules of an age that puts family power before the heart.
Here, Italy is a patchwork of duchies, city states and papal lands, with ruling families eager to hold their power. Marriage serves land, rank and alliance. Against that pressure, Sabatini sets a brisk adventure of honour, betrayal and forbidden love, where a good name and a private desire can pull in different directions.
What you’ll discover
- Courts full of danger Enter a world where proud families guard their power and smiling enemies hide their plans.
- Honour under pressure Follow a hero who must guard his good name when both reputation and love are at stake.
- Love against the rules Feel the strain between a private heart and marriages shaped by land, rank and alliance.
- Blades and sharp talk Enjoy strong scenes and quick exchanges in a tale that keeps its conflicts moving.
- Bold, theatrical adventure Find the colour and daring of a romance that places honour beside the heart.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy gallant knights, witty banter, castle sieges and court romance, and if you like heroes who win by nerve and humor as much as by the sword.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A crown is offered and refused
- A wounded knight meets his lady
- Gian Maria courts a bride who loathes him
- Gonzaga plots a siege with an eye on the bride
- A fool is tortured and a count is banished
- The knight arrives and tames a garrison
- A siege is fought with bluff, a letter and a kiss
- Freedom against duty, and charm against courage
Who’s who
- Francesco del Falco, Count of AquilaA famous soldier who loves freedom, refuses his cousin's throne, and becomes the champion and Provost of a besieged princess.
- Valentina della RovereGuidobaldo's spirited niece, raised in a convent, who refuses a political marriage and defies two dukes from her own castle.
- Gian Maria SforzaThe soft, cruel and vain Duke of Babbiano, who wants Valentina and fears his popular cousin.
- Romeo GonzagaA lute-playing courtier who helps Valentina escape, hoping to marry her, and turns bitter when a rival appears.
- PeppeValentina's hunchbacked jester, loyal and sharp-eyed, who sees the truth about everyone and pays dearly for his oath.
- Ercole FortemaniA boastful drunken captain hired to garrison the castle, who learns to follow a worthier leader.
- Guidobaldo of UrbinoValentina's cold, gout-ridden uncle, a prince who puts alliances above feelings and watches events with dry irony.
- Fanfulla degli ArcipretiThe Count's gallant young friend, who follows him into exile and watches Babbiano for news.
Formats and delivery
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- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Love-at-Arms
by Rafael Sabatini · 1907
A count who refuses a crown defends a runaway princess in her mountain castle against his own cousin, the duke.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if a crown were offered to you in a goatherd's hut, and all you wanted was to ride away? That is how Love-at-Arms begins.
Love-at-Arms at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 25 min4 h 15 min fast, 6 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 76,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1907by Rafael Sabatini
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A crown is offered and refused
The story opens at nightfall in a goatherd's hut above the river Metauro. Six nobles stand with bowed heads as the Angelus rings in the valley. Then a tall man in plain clothes steps in. He is Francesco del Falco, Count of Aquila, and he looks like a mercenary in peacetime.
Old Fabrizio makes the case. Duke Gian Maria wastes his days on orgies and hawking and answers every warning with threats. Caesar Borgia spreads across Italy like a plague and means to devour it leaf by leaf, like an artichoke. So the nobles offer the Count the crown in the name of the people, with twenty spears to ride with him.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Sabatini, Rafael. Love-at-Arms. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-at-arms.
Sabatini, R. (2026). Love-at-arms. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-at-arms (Original work published 1907)
Sabatini, Rafael. Love-at-Arms. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-at-arms.
@book{sabatini2026loveatarms,
author = {Sabatini, Rafael},
title = {Love-at-Arms},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-at-arms},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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What is Love-at-Arms about?
It follows the Count of Aquila, a soldier who refuses his cousin's throne in Renaissance Italy. He then defends the runaway Princess Valentina in her castle of Roccaleone against the Duke of Babbiano, who wants to marry her by force.
Who is Romeo Gonzaga in Love-at-Arms?
He is a handsome lute-playing courtier at the court of Urbino. He talks Valentina into her castle rebellion, hoping to win her, and grows jealous and treacherous as the Count takes her trust.
Where is Roccaleone and why does it matter?
Roccaleone is Valentina's mountain fortress in the lands of Urbino, ringed by a torrent. Its strong walls become the stage for the siege, the bluffs and the romance that fill much of the book.
The author
Rafael Sabatini
1875–1950 · Italian-English historical novelist
Rafael Sabatini (1875–1950) was an Italian-born writer who wrote in English. He was born in Jesi, Italy, and settled in England in 1892. His novels include The Sea-Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), and Captain Blood (1922). He also wrote biographies and short stories. He died in Adelboden, Switzerland.
More by Rafael Sabatini
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