The book that opens the saga. France under Philip the Fair destroys the Order of the Templars, and from the stake their Grand Master lays a curse on the king and his line. Everything the seven novels tell begins here.
The second part of the cycle. The old king's curse begins to work, a court scandal shakes the royal family, and a queen is shut away in a fortress above the Seine. The intrigue around the throne tightens.
The third part of the cycle. A new king sits on the throne of France, and poison, ambition and whispered plots swirl around the crown as the struggle for power grows sharper.
The fourth part of the cycle. A disputed succession divides the kingdom: who may wear the crown of France when direct heirs are few, and by what right. Princes and barons maneuver for the throne.
The fifth part of the cycle. The story crosses the Channel to England, where a French princess wed to an English king becomes a power in her own right. Two crowns drift toward open rivalry.
The sixth part of the cycle. The French lily and the English lion square off, and their quarrel sets the stage for a long war between the two kingdoms. The Capetian line nears its end.
The final book of the saga, written years after the rest. In the voice of a cardinal it looks back on how France slid toward ruin at the start of the Hundred Years' War. A late coda to the whole cycle.