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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
So is The Iron King historical fiction. That is taking real people and events and weaving a fictional story out of that material?
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Yes, it's historical fiction. It's set in the early 1300's under the reign of Philip IV, also known as Philip the Fair or the Iron King, who was very handsome but also very cold and hard. He was ambitious and had been successful in centralising his power over many feudal regions, though he was susceptible to large debts that he dealt with in...creative ways. His daughter Isabella was married to the king of England and was therefore queen of England even though her husband may have been more interested in men. His three sons were all married but there was worry about a lack of male heirs and questions about the parentage of female heirs.
There was a lot of interesting stuff going on at the time, including the French Inquisition, a papacy based in France whom Philip had influence over, the persecution of the Knights Templar and scandalous accusations within the royal family. The novel follows a cast of characters from different social strata though they're all in some way related to the central royal plot.