True history and legend combine in a remarkable story of majesty, duty, and an indomitable love that survived the thunder and blood of eleventh-century Britain.

Normans and Saxons fight and die for control of the destiny of a future empire, and Harold of Wessex--second son of one of the sundered nation's most powerful noble families--is thrust into the vortex of a battle royal for the English throne. To wear the crown, however, he must forsake his peaceful life with his adored, hand-fasted wife, Lady Edith of Nazeing, the only woman he will ever truly love. But throughout his reluctant ascendance to supreme leadership of an embattled kingdom--and the concurrent rise of old-friend-turned-adversary William of Normandy, soon to be called "the Conqueror"--Harold will not betray his heart or his lady, though war be their legacy and tragedy their fate.From critically acclaimed, award-winning storyteller Parke Godwin comes an enduring tale of a nobility and a love that changed history--a magnificent epic that surely ranks among the great romantic adventures of all time.