Review: History lives once again.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 6, 2013
This is one of the best stories I've read this year.  It brings history alive during the time when the Venetians plotted to destroy Constantinople and the younger royal prince of this huge eastern metropolis desired to take the throne away from his older brother.  Pope Innocent III sought to activate Christian Crusaders to defeat the Muslims and take back the Holy Land for the Christians.  It was days of brutality,  rape, little compassion or mercy, and asking for the utmost effort to survive, whether beggar or rich man.The protagonist was Ruggiero de Mirafiza, a young teenager when the story commenced, a gentle lad although continually at loggerheads with his younger brother Juan, who was constantly brawling.  He had a younger sister Maria and his father Rayjo was a veteran of the Third Crusade and still a good soldier, although now out of work.  Both his father and his mother Anja were fairly young and Rayjo spent more effort with Juan because of his soldierly qualities than he did Ruggi, although Ruggi also strived for his father's approval.  Since Ruggi didn't have the qualities of a soldier, Rayjo placed Ruggi in a monastery under the tutelage of Father Norleame.  Ordinarily the monastery would not have taken a boy of such low cultural birth, but Norleame owed Rayjo for his killing a man at Norleame's request.During the years that Ruggi spent learning to be a priest, he became extremely spiritual and spent hours asking God what to do.  It was the nature of the culture in that area of Europe to be mentally and emotionally strong  Christians, although most times their actions were very brutal.  The times were violent.Pope Innocent III ordered  a fourth crusade to take back the Holy Land from the Muslims, but could not finance it and it was up to the crusaders to provide for themselves.  Montferrats headed the Christian armies and the Doge of Venice said Venetians would provide the ships and finances if Constantinople was attacked first and conquered.  The  Pope ordered that many of the priests become warriors and Ruggi trained under his father's command.  He became a fair warrior although he continually asked God what a man of God was doing killing.  His only weapon was a bronze rod with a heavy spiked ball dangling, which was one of the weapons of knights.  He trained with a doctor for awhile, but when a man was suffering so that he couldn't be helped, the doctor advised Ruggi to kill him and put him out of his misery.  The Pope also laid down the edict that no Christians were to be attacked or killed by the Crusaders, but the generals never told the troops that and they attacked every Christian town they came across, utilizing their pillage and raping of women and murder to support themselves.  These actions tore Ruggi apart and he determined that he would return to Barcelona and report the truth of the crusade to King Peter of Aragon, which he did.Did the crusade accomplish its purpose?  What was King Peter's reaction to his tales?  The author at the end of the story reveals what was true history that he found through his research and that which he fictionalized.  This was a page turner for me and such little things as punctuation and perhaps verbage never even fazed me, I was so entranced with the narrative.I heartily recommend this book to those who enjoy learning history the easy way.