[Crusades 01] • Son of Blood

12th Century Italy. The domination of the Normans, the most feared warriors in Christendom, is causing trouble. At their head is the feared Robert de Hauteville, the Guiscard, who has colonized much of Italy, but Robert has made many enemies including the ever-powerful papacy in Rome. The newly elected Pope Gregory exercises his vendetta against the Normans by encouraging them to sail to Byzantium and fight the Turks. Robert s first-born son Bohemund, now seventeen, has come to fight in his army. Already recognized as a formidable warrior, Bohemund seeks to assert his natural right as the heir of Robert s dukedom but it is not without difficultly as Robert s second son Borsa is now legally entitled to inherit...a battle between the sons is inevitable and loyalties and blood ties will count for nothing.