Out of the courts of twelfth-century England strode the legendary figure of Richard of England – leading his knights onto the Saracen battlefields – inspired by a vision of the Holy Land. Here is the story of the Soldier-King and the Third Crusade – of his strange, ill-fated union with Berengaria, Princess of Navarre – of his mother, the She-Wolf, Eleanor of Aquitaine who loved her son with a frantic, possessive pride. And, above all, here is the story of the minstrel whose life was linked with that of the King – the story of Blondel – the Lute Player...