The reading public knows Maurice Druon primarily for his saga “The Accursed Kings,” which reveals the dark secrets of the Middle Ages. Behind each work in the cycle stood meticulous research in the National Archives—studying documents written in archaic French or Latin. “It is unseemly for lilies to spin” continues this series of historical frescoes started by the novels “The Iron King,” “The Prisoner of Château-Gaillard,” and “Poison and the Crown.” The curse of the Grand Master of the Templars comes true. France is left without a king. Louis X the Quarrelsome reigned only eighteen months and died, leaving Queen Clementia in the fourth month of pregnancy. The life of the unborn child—future monarch—becomes the stake in the struggle for power and the crown among the most powerful representatives of French nobility. They rush toward the throne, not understanding that they are pushing the country into the abyss of a fratricidal civil war…