The Archer Duke — Robert M. Johnson

The saga of the English Archer continues in this fifth volume, now back on English soil. The son of the village blacksmith, Will Burton, has now become Duke of Devonshire, part of the English aristocracy, favorite of the Warrior King, Edward III. The year is 1360, the Hundred Years War is ongoing, and the excitement never ends. As part of his grandiose plan, King Edward made William Duke of Devonshire in southern England, to be a perfect imitation of his own son's role as Prince of Wales and Duke of Acquitaine in France. The story of the young Duke of Devonshire unfolds in this larger political scheme of uniting England and France under the King of England. 1360 Was to be the year when young Will Burton, the former English Archer, would see his life expand to immense horizons. In this exciting fifth volume of the English Archer Series, Will Burton gains the favor of the English King, Edward III, who sees in him the realization of his grand scheme to unite England and France. To achieve this grandiose goal, Edward names William to the Title and Lands of Devonshire, a duchy in southern England. The Archer Duke tells the story of this transformation of the onetime outlaw into a peer of the realm. It is the saga of the first glimmers of class warfare and the rise of the middle class in medieval Europe. Long before the French Revolution there was the Magna Carta in Britain and the Jacquerie in France. Will Burton has a foot in France and a foot in England. He is a commoner who has risen to the ranks of the nobility. He personifies the powerful changes that are taking place in the Europe of his times. Will's ascendency to the position of Duke of Devonshire was rare for the times, but was also symptomatic of what was coming: the upheaval of medieval structures. Hundreds of years before commoners toppled kings, there is the story of The Archer Duke.