A Spectacular Crusading Adventure Novel - "The Will of God" by Julian de la Motte - Blog Tour and Book Excerpts

BOOK EXCERPT:

And so there had been, far more than a ‘little something’ in fact. Grandesmil was carrying in his panniers documents that entitled him to vast swathes of new lands in the Cotentin and he was carrying in his head visions of the likely reaction to William’s death of certain of his more immediate family. And thus, to Robert his eldest son: The boy had been with the King of France for four years now. Kept on a short leash and harboured by William’s greatest enemy; a boy caught in rebellion and in open defiance of his father. To Robert then, full pardon and restitution and the bestowing of the Duchy of Normandy for himself; but no Crown of England.

And thus, to Odo, his half-brother. A man so steeped in sin and villainy and treachery that he could no longer personally enjoy his former high estate. While he languished under close but comfortable confinement for his unchurchly crimes, the bounty of Kent, his bishopric of Bayeux and a score of other properties and estates had gone, untasted by him and savoured by others. To Odo, then, forgiveness and a return of all his former glories and previous estate. To his problematic and scandalous second son William, called Rufus for his red hair and high complexion, the great prize of the Kingdom of England itself and all that it brought, good and bad. To Henry, his youngest and avaricious son, the sum of the weight of five thousand pounds of silver, to make of it what he would.

It was ever the fate of younger sons to make of themselves what they could. That, after all, was what the wild lands of Spain, of Italy and Sicily and the possessions of the Byzantines were for, so that determined men with horses and swords could take and make of them what they could. But the strange and cold and calculating boy would not embark upon the world empty handed.