The year is 1523, in the reign of Francis I. Charles Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France, in league with Henry VIII of England and the Emperor Charles V, has launched a rebellion against the King. Francis, vital, brilliant, and pleasure-loving, is trying to gain possession of the Bourbon provinces, thus uniting the kingdom and eliminating the last of the French feudal states. In this he is ably abetted by his mother, Louise de Savoie, a shrewd , ambitious woman of an indomitable will.
