Vengeance

Vengeance is a recurring theme in this novel that is used to move the action forward. One act of horror demands another until both sides are bloody and no one is innocent. The first act of vengeance that sets the action of the novel in motion involves the de Montfort brothers.

The de Montforts play as children with their cousins Ned and Hal. They love each other, but as they grow into men, their loyalties are tested. Bran and Guy are so overcome by the need for vengeance that they murder their cousin Hal in cold blood on the altar in a church. Distraught over the death of their father on the Evesham battlefield, the brothers seek to take blood whereever they can. Their dear cousin is not at the battle of Evesham, but he betrays their father and that is enough. When he appears in Italy, they...