Welsh Princes Trilogy Series

Sharon Penman's Here Be Dragons is an absorbing historical novel of power and betrayal, loyalty and political intrigue in thirteenth-century England, Wales and France.

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king's beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband.

But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales – and Llewelyn – Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie.

Beginning the medieval trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.

The Reckoning

by Sharon Penman

Published 5 September 1991

This book completes the splendid sequence of novels on the struggle between the independent Welsh Princes and the growing English strength which began with Here be Dragons, continued with Falls the Shadow and is now completed with The Reckoning. The major figures in The Reckoning are the splendid dominant King of England, Edward I, and The Great Llewellyn II, Prince of Wales. His long love affair and eventual marriage with Ellen, daughter of Simon De Montfort, provides the strong emotional interest in the book, while the political machinations of Edward against the Welsh and the Scots, together with Llewellyn's struggle to control the recalcitrant Welsh Princes provides the political and military drama.

Falls the Shadow

by Sharon Penman

Published 6 June 1988

Sharon Penman's Fall the Shadow brilliantly portrays the struggle for power in England in the Middle Ages.

Simon de Montfort was a man ahead of his time in the thirteenth century, a disinherited Frenchman who talked his way into an English earldom and marriage with a sister of the English king, Henry III. A charismatic, obstinate leader, Simon soon lost patience with the king's incompetence and inability to keep his word, and found himself the champion of the common people.

This is his story, and the story of Henry III, as weak and changeable as Simon was brash and unbending. It is a tale of opposing wills that would eventually clash in a storm of violence and betrayal. An irresistible saga that brings the pages of history completely, provocatively, and magnificently alive. Falls the Shadow is the second novel in the Welsh Princes Trilogy, following on from Here Be Dragons and the trilogy concludes with The Reckoning.