The Lute Player

The Crusaders

Out of the courts o f twelfth-century Europe and the clanging, bloody Saracen battlefields of the Holy Land comes this turbulent story of three proud, passionate people engulfed by the stormy current of the Third Crusade.

RICHARD OF ENGLAND, "The handsomest man in Christendom." This great warrior king was desired by every woman who came under his spell. Yet he lusted only for the soldier's world that no woman could share.

BERENGARIA, the beautiful and doomed young princess who became Richard's Queen but never his wife.

BLONDEL, the drunken lute player, the only man who shared Richard's darkest secret.