The King's Earl — M.J. Porter

Part 5 in the epic Earls of Mercia series Ealdorman Leofwine, bereaved and betrayed by the new Danish king of England, hides away from the politics of the Witan, desperate to forget his past links with Cnut and his father, Swein, only Cnut won't let his most trusted ealdorman go quite so easily. He knows that for his fledgling kingship to survive, he needs the old guard from the previous king's reign to add legitimacy to his own. His new men, the men who've followed him from Denmark, know how to conquer, but not how to rule the English. And Cnut has his eye on an even bigger prize. Leofric, left reeling by the murder of his older brother and with an aging father, and dying mother, turns his own thoughts to how he can uphold his family's position against the sudden and magnificent rise of the family of Godwin, the newly promoted Earl of Wessex, one of the men involved in the death of his brother. As much as he feels ambivalent towards the new king, he knows his family's position needs to grow or risk losing even more. His father has sacrificed too much to allow a usurper to claim the position at the Witan that is rightfully his. With Cnut's view increasingly focused on conquering and ruling the Scandinavian lands, with dangerous arguments between the Scandinavian men threatening the stability of the Crown, can the House of Leofwine survive the kingship of the new Danish king and keep its place at the heart of early eleventh century politics, whether they want it or not?