Straightaway, in The Iron King, Druon posits an overarching literary device that explains the general title of the series, The Accursed Kings, and thematically ties the books together. Maurice Druon tells of the last five Capetian kings of France (1285-1328), descendants of the famed Louis IX (Saint Louis)–Philip IV and three successor sons, Louis X (whose infant son, Jean I, did not survive), Philip V, and Charles IV–and along the way he draws in two kings of England related to the French kings by marriage–Edward II, husband of Philip IV’s daughter, Isabelle, queen in England, and Edward III, their son.

So which kings of France were purportedly “accursed,” why are they singled out, and what are the consequences? The first two volumes, in the main, are considered here and the others in passing. Casting the books as novels, not histories, the author nevertheless throws the reader into deep historical waters with no lifeline. All of them, especially the early ones, hold the attention the way novels freely dispensing fantasy can, and as histories reined in by evidence cannot. The first three books steam to a boil the next two simmer and the final two trickle down and out. Caught up in stories so boldly told, however, I ended up reading all of them. Along the way, the kingdom of France suffers injury, but stays afloat, as does the kingdom of England caught alongside. For this review, I was to read the first two books.

Recounting the fortunes of the last Capetian kings of France during the early 1300s, the books are steamy potboilers featuring transnational political power brokering, corruption in government, clashes over secular and religious authority, and malignant competition for entitlements familial intrigue, ungovernable lust, adultery and murder, homosexual dalliances, baby-switching, and all manner of vices vividly described. Translated into English in the 1950s, they are currently being reissued in paperback editions by Harper Collins: The Iron King and The Strangled Queen ( 2013), also The Poisoned Crown, The Royal Succession, The She Wolf, The Lily and the Lion, and The King Without a Kingdom (2014). The reputed French historical novelist Maurice Druon wrote seven volumes for his medieval series, The Accursed Kings (Les Rois maudits), that proved to be very popular.

The accursed kings box set