The King's Men

Queen Blanche’s attendant, Lambert, washes up on the shores of the Mediterranean island of Kibrit at the moment in Medieval history when King Claude of the House of Lusane is consolidating his power over the island state. Blanche, already married to Claude in absentia, falls into the hands of the ruler of the last mini kingdom holding out against Claude on Kibrit, and Lambert is sent to Claude with ransom demands. Even as Claude is forging his nation and preparing to free his bride, his two lieutenants, Duke Guy and Sir Rene, in a classic good-and-evil struggle, begin to vie not just for ascendant power in the newly established island nation but also for mastery of the very body of the young golden-haired king. Blanche is saved and enters the fray as yet another seeker of power over and through Claude. Her servant, Lambert, follows the intricate and cunning power struggles between Blanche, Guy, and Rene for possession of King Claude as a “salamander on the wall,” who can be present in the chamber to learn of all forms of scheming and trickery without the nobles even recognizing that such a lowly servant is there.

Lambert watches as the understewards Guido and Kobus become embroiled in the struggles for power and themselves enter the scheming, which encourages Lambert too to take on a role of nation mover and king maker.

Rife with court gossip, complex double dealing and treachery, sexual innuendo, and a ménage of couplings, The King’s Men, inspired by Richard the Lionhearted’s conquering of the island of Cyprus during the Medieval crusades, is a gay male romp of how lowly court attendants were able to manipulate and influence major events in the Europe of the Middle Ages.

Excerpt:

It was a day that changed history when I finally was passed through the lines and stood before the chamberlain of King Claude in the castle keep of St. Jerome’s. The battle had just been won, the castle within a half hour of final capitulation. Soldiers, sweating and running in blood themselves, were still walking among the vanquished laying about where they had dropped, checking for life, and extinguishing it when they found it.

The three of them—the three principle men I was to follow with my eyes and ears and interest for the next half year and more, with them rarely even knowing I was in attendance—were standing there in the flush of victory, leaning