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THE EMPTY THRONE
BERNARD CORNWELL
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014
Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2014
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016
Cover illustration © Lee Gibbons/Tin Moon – www.leegibbons.co.uk
Map © John Gilkes 2014
Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007504190
Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780007504183
Version: 2019-09-27
THE EMPTY THRONE
is for Peggy Davis
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Place names
Prologue
Part One: THE DYING LORD
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Part Two: THE LADY OF MERCIA
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Part Three: THE GOD OF WAR
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Historical Note
Keep Reading …
The spelling of place names in Anglo-Saxon England was an uncertain business, with no consistency and no agreement even about the name itself. Thus London was variously rendered as Lundonia, Lundenberg, Lundenne, Lundene, Lundenwic, Lundenceaster and Lundres. Doubtless some readers will prefer other versions of the names listed below, but I have usually employed whichever spelling is cited in either the Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names or the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign, AD 871–899, but even that solution is not foolproof. Hayling Island, in 956, was written as both Heilincigae and Hæglingaiggæ. Nor have I been consistent myself; preferring the modern form Northumbria to Norðhymbralond to avoid the suggestion that the boundaries of the ancient kingdom coincide with those of the modern county. So this list, like the spellings themselves, is capricious.
| Abergwaun | Fishguard, Pembrokeshire |
| Alencestre | Alcester, Warwickshire |
| Beamfleot | Benfleet, Essex |
| Bebbanburg | Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland |
| Brunanburh | Bromborough, Cheshire |
| Cadum | Caen, Normandy |
| Ceaster | Chester, Cheshire |
| Cirrenceastre | Cirencester, Gloucestershire |
| Cracgelad | Cricklade, Wiltshire |
| Cumbraland | Cumbria |
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Defnascir
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