The legendary King Richard the Lionheart accomplished many glorious feats during his life, but he himself died an absurd and accidental death, leaving the country without a legitimate heir, and dark times came for England - the throne was taken by the insidious, cruel and depraved Prince John. His contemporaries considered him a fiend of hell and therefore called him the Prince of Darkness. This novel by Jean Plaidy tells about the atrocities and follies of the monarch, who went down in history under the name John the Landless.