The Lords of Navarre

Book excerpt: An epic novel of breathtaking scope, The Lords of Navarre is skillfully conceived and masterfully written. It traces a Basque family's history from the last Ice Age to the present, an untold story of a people still speaking the haunting voices of its Cro-Magnon ancestors. Lacambra-Loizu weaves a compelling chronicle of successive generations of Basque warlords who settle in the western Pyrenean uplands. Over the course of centuries, their destinies and fortunes become intertwined with those of Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard the Lionheart, the Black Prince, Sancho el Fuerte, Cesare Borgia, and Ferdinand and Isabel of Castile. The Lords of Navarre is an authoritative, meticulously researched account of the Basques, their lives as early hunters and farmers, the dawning of Christianity in their land, their fierce battles to fend off Celts, Romans, Franks, Moors and Castilians from their beloved highlands.