 | |
| Author | Greg Keyes |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Stephen Youll |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
Publication date | January 2003 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 608 |
| ISBN | 1-4050-3351-7 |
| Followed by | The Charnel Prince |
The Briar King is a fantasy novel by American writer Greg Keyes, the first book of four in the series The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone .
The Born Queen, Virgenya Dare, defeats the evil Skasloi with magic and frees humanity from slavery. The Skasloi king tells Virgenya humanity is cursed. About 2300 years later, Dare's grave is found by her descendant, rebellious Princess Anne.
The forester Aspar White rescues a novice monk, Stephen Darige, from a kidnapping. Aspar is warned about the mythical Briar King by the strange Selfry travellers.
Evil Prince Robert murders his sister and tricks his brother into war with nearby Hansa. Queen Muriele secretly sends Anne and her friend Austra to a convent to be trained as an assassin. Muriele and her two other daughters evacuate to the country, aided by loyal knight Neil MeqVren who is in love with Princess Fastia.
At the monastery, Stephen finds corruption within the church, and prophecies concerning the terrifying Briar King. Beneath the castle, the captive last Skasloi (known as "the Kept") makes evil predictions. Anne's training takes a strange turn as she finds herself in a magical realm. On her return, Anne is warned she must be Queen to save the world.
The other princesses are murdered as Neil and Muriele watch helplessly - themselves saved only by the appearance of the Briar King. As the assassins aim for their final target, Anne and Austra escape the mass slaughter at the convent, aided by swordsman Cazio and his mentor z'Acatto. Prince Robert murders the king who deals a fatal wound as he dies.
Muriele, back in Eslen, consults the Kept from whom she gets the most terrible curse imaginable to cast on the murderer of her husband. She does not know that it was Robert and that he is also dead. The curse, however, is more powerful even than death and by casting this on Robert, Muriele inadvertently and unintentionally breaks the Law of Death.
The Briar King ends with the awakening of Robert, now a form of undead, which also explains the title of the next volume, The Charnel Prince.
The Briar King provides a fantasy explanation for the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke Colony in 16th century Virginia, suggesting the colonists had been abducted by the dimension-crossing Skasloi and enslaved. [1] Virginia Dare was a real person, dubbed the "first English child born in the Americas". With subtle linguistic change, "Virginian" became "Virgenyan", which translated in the language of the slaves as "the born men".
Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Electress of Hanover from 11 June 1727 until her death in 1737 as the wife of King George II.
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Princess of Mindelheim, Countess of Nellenburg, was an English courtier who rose to be one of the most influential women of her time through her close relationship with Anne, Queen of Great Britain. The Duchess of Marlborough's relationship and influence with Anne were widely known, and leading public figures often turned their attentions to her, hoping for favour from Anne.
Richard III is a play by William Shakespeare. It was probably written c. 1592–1594. It is labelled a history in the First Folio, and is usually considered one, but it is sometimes called a tragedy, as in the quarto edition. Richard III concludes Shakespeare's first tetralogy and depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England.
"Sleeping Beauty", also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a fairy tale about a princess cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years before being awakened by a handsome prince. A good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakes, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest asleep, to awaken when the princess does.
The 10th Kingdom is an American fairytale fantasy miniseries written by Simon Moore and produced by Britain's Carnival Films, Germany's Babelsberg Film und Fernsehen, and the US's Hallmark Entertainment. It depicts the adventures of a young woman and her father after they are transported from New York City, through a magical mirror, into a parallel world of fairy tales.
Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, also known as Grimm Masterpiece Theater in the original version and The Grimm's Fairy Tales, is a Japanese anime anthology series by Nippon Animation based on the Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Xcalibur is a CGI sword-and-sorcery children's television series that aired on YTV from 1 September 2001 to 1 April 2002.
Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency was an heiress of one of France's leading ducal families, and Princess de Condé by her marriage to Henri de Bourbon. She almost became a mistress of Henry IV of France, but her husband escaped with her after the wedding and did not return to France until after King Henry's death.
The Charnel Prince is a fantasy novel by Greg Keyes. It is a sequel to The Briar King and the second book of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone.
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Louise Françoise, Duchess of Bourbon was the eldest surviving legitimised daughter of Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan. She was said to have been named after her godmother, Louise de La Vallière, the woman her mother had replaced as the king's mistress. Before her marriage, she was known at court as Mademoiselle de Nantes.
The Blood Knight is a fantasy novel by Greg Keyes. It's a sequel to The Charnel Prince and the third book of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone.
The Born Queen is a fantasy novel by Greg Keyes. It is the fourth and final novel in the series The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone.
Maria Fortunata d'Este was a Modenese princess by birth and a princess du sang by marriage. By her marriage to Louis François Joseph de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, her first cousin, she became the Countess of La Marche and later the Princess of Conti; and was a member of the French court of King Louis XV and King Louis XVI. She was the last Princess of Conti, and died without issue.
Diane Adélaïde de Mailly-Nesle, duchesse de Lauraguais was the third of the five famous de Nesle sisters, four of whom would become the mistress of King Louis XV of France. She was his mistress on and off from 1742 to 1745.
Elizabeth Killigrew, Viscountess Shannon, was an English courtier.
The mistresses of Henry VIII included many notable women between 1509 and 1536. They have been the subject of biographies, novels and films.
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