author : Kari Maund

The Four Musketeers gives an account of the historical background of the real four musketeers, who came to Paris in the 1640s and thus witnessed some of the most dramatic moments of seventeenth-century France: the last years of Louis XIII and Richelieu, the turbulent rise to power of Cardinal Mazarin and the wars of the young Louis XIV.

When Edward I’s troops forced the destruction of Dafydd ap Gruffudd in 1283 they brought to an end the line of truly independent native rulers in Wales that had endured throughout recorded history. In the early middle ages Wales was composed of a variety of independent kingdoms with varying degrees of power, influence and stability, each ruled by proud and obdurate lineages. In this period a ‘Kingdom of Wales’ never existed, but the more powerful leaders, like Rhodri Mawr (‘the Great’), Gruffudd ap Llywelyn and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, sought to extend their rule over the entire country.

The author produces revealing pictures of the leading Welsh kings and princes of the day and explores both their contribution to Welsh history and their impact on the wider world. They were, of necessity, warriors, living in a violent political world and requiring ruthless skills to rule in Wales. Yet they showed wider vision, political acumen and statesmanship, and were patrons of the arts and the church.

This work revives the memory of the native leaders of the country from a time before the title ‘Prince of Wales’ became an honorary trinket in the gift of a foreign ruler. It restores these men to their rightful place among the past rulers of the island of Britain.