Review: “The Ill-Made Knight” by Christian Cameron

I’m continuing to catch up on book reviews after the launch of The Cauldron of God and work on my next novella. I’m taking a short break following a vacation to Scotland and Ireland, so it’s now or never!

My latest medieval fiction read was The Ill-Made Knight by Christian Cameron. It’s the first time I’ve read his work, but his writing evoked memories of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden, which is always good. The book is also the second I’ve read involving the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The first was Cornwell’s excellent 1356, which told the story from the point of view of an archer, while Cameron’s tale is told from the perspective of a knight.

In fact, the Ill-Made Knight may be the first full-length historical novel that I’ve read told entirely from a knight’s point of view. The knight in question is Sir William Gold, who is a famous veteran knight in the prologue. But after some time at an inn, he’s asked to tell his life story. The chapters that follow are the first part of that tale.

William begins the story as a young orphan in London who, along with his sister, survived the Black Death, which claimed their parents. They are raised by a horrible uncle who abuses his sister and accuses William of thievery when he tries to stop the abuse. This quickly makes William a character worth rooting for. William is saved by a pair of monks, including Brother John, who decides to turn in his habit and become a man-of-arms in an army led by the Black Prince. Young Will joins him on this adventure, becoming a cook’s boy in an English army headed to war in France.

During the following campaign, William experiences firsthand the horrors of war. As he states early on—the observations as a fifteen-year-old boy yearning to become a knight—“I had begun to think of France as a different world, like purgatory, or hell. The world of war.”

After surviving a harrowing castle siege, an English knight asks William to serve as his squire right before the famous Battle of Poitiers. Like so many others in the book, Cameron’s portrayal of the battle is intense, visceral, and gritty. It goes on for page after riveting page, and the reader gets a real sense of how frightening medieval hand-to-hand combat in a chaotic battle must have been. Through the fierce fighting, William finds himself alongside the Black Prince. The climax of that battle has a truly epic feel, and I won’t forget it anytime soon.

Most of the novel, however, takes place following the Battle of Poitiers. The English capture the French King, and the entire country devolves into anarchy. William’s unit is one of many ravaging and pillaging the countryside, eventually becoming mercenaries hungry for the spoils of war. This book is the first one I’ve read about the aftermath of the Battle of Poitiers, and Cameron vividly illustrates how brutal it was.

Eventually, the French peasantry revolts against their nobles, who cannot protect them from the English ravagers. This leads to one of my favorite parts in the book, where William and his companions must defend a castle housing the French princess and her ladies in waiting. William falls for one of them—a beautiful woman named Emile—adding a much-needed romantic subplot, but creating new problems for William when he discovers she’s married to a French lord.

My one knock on the book is that it fails to wrap up some significant loose ends. This is the first of Cameron’s six-book Chivalry series, so I imagine these storylines will eventually be resolved. But unlike Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Tales, where each novel in the 13-book series about the life of Uhtred of Bebbanberg was a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end, The Ill-Made Knight felt like the first part of a very long tale with storylines that will not be resolved any time soon.

In the author’s defense, William of Gold was an actual historical knight, and consequently, his story will have to unfold much like it did in real life, where loose ends are not so neatly tied up. Regardless, if you’re interested in a realistic story about knighthood and the Hundred Years’ War, this book is the best I’ve read, and I doubt you’ll be disappointed.