Of Dukes and Earls — J. Colman McMillan

THE INTERIM KING - Of Dukes and Earls is the first of two books about England's last Saxon king, Harold II. Monumental events occurred during Harold's brief reign in the year 1066, events which irrevocably changed the course of world history and the English language. Like John Kennedy, Harold was the second son of a self-made man who rose from obscurityto influence the kings of England. Harold's father raised all of his eight children to be fierce competitors and groomed them to assume the leadership of his country. Also like John Kennedy, Harold was a lady's man and the marital problems of today's royal family in England seem insignificant when compared to those faced by Harold, who in his quest to become king of England found himself engaged to three different women at the same time. The story includes a broken oath, a vengeful brother, blessings from the Pope, Haley's comet, and the last great Viking warrior. The characters are real people who lived during the turbulent Middle Ages. The problems of the world in those times were different in some ways from our own times, but were no less traumatic for those who lived, loved, and died then.