The Royal Succession is the midpoint of The Accursed Kings sequence (The Strangled Queen, the second installment, is also reviewed on this blog, but my reading of The Iron King predates it). Louis X, the strangler of queens, is dead, poisoned by his brother's mother-in-law, the giantess Mahaut, Countess of Artois. Louis's second queen, Clemence of Hungary, is five months pregnant. The late Louis already had a daughter by his first wife. If a healthy son is born, the succession is clear. If there's a second girl ... what then?
In the interim, someone must take charge. The someone who succeeds is Louis's senior sibling, Philippe, Count of Poitiers. Philippe is twenty-three; he has the political skills of his father and namesake, the Iron King, but not the military. Philippe the younger is known as the Myope - he is acutely short-sighted. On the plus side, he has the backing of his murderous mother-in-law. By bricking up the cardinal electors in a cathedral, he is also able to secure the backing of the new pope, John XXII, formerly Cardinal Jacques Dueze - a pontiff so notorious that it was over 600 years before Rome dared allow John XXIII.
Most of Philippe's enemies are within the royal family, and therefore controllable. Most are simply buyable. But there are others, like Robert of Artois, whose lands have been appropriated for Mahaut and who is not even permitted to be in his nominal county. Robert is the anarchic backbone of The Accursed Kings and his appearance always livens up proceedings.
Druon is the absolute master of historical background. His knowledge of political wrangling through the ages is second to none. His subject matter is so dark, so twisted and amoral, that it is only the rock-solid foundation in fact that makes it credible. Frankly, it's no wonder that Druon was the literary hero of Republican France. Not to everyone's taste, then, but certainly to mine. My only reservation - I'm not entirely sure about the translation by Humphrey Hare. It's a bit old-fashioned. I wonder, are there are other translations?
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