Promise of the Black Monks

Religious war erupts between church and king and shapes a young man's fate in eleventh-century France . . .

Born of nobility in France in the year 1066, seven-year-old Tristan de Saint-Germain has his fate thrown to the winds upon the execution of his father for treason against William the Conqueror of Normandy. Abandoned by his mother, who remarries and departs for England, Tristan and his four-year-old brother, Guillaume, find themselves thrown into the monastic world of the Benedictine Black Monks of Cluny, France. Under the tutelage of Grand Prior Odo de Lagery, who one day will ascend to the very pinnacle of power within the Catholic Church in Rome, Tristan develops into an academic and linguistic prodigy by the age of twelve and becomes known as the Promise of the Black Monks.

Tristan's unusual talents will become useful to the Benedictines, as well as to Rome--and the boy soon finds himself pulled into the visceral power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Heinrich IV as they mercilessly wage spiritual, political, and military war upon each other to claim supremacy over the continent of Europe . . .

Author: Robert E. Hirsch
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 02/07/2023
Series: Dark Ages Saga of Tristan de Saint-Germain
Pages: 376
Weight: 1.21lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9781504079242

About the Author
Robert E. Hirsch was born in Pusan, Korea, in 1949. In 1953, Hirsch's mother sent him to the United States to live with his biological father due to Korea's harsh wartime conditions. He spent the next thirteen years as a military dependent, traveling all over America and passing three years in France, where he attended school at a French lycée.

Hirsch graduated from Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, and began teaching French and social studies. He retired in 2012 after forty years, having served during his career as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. Hirsch has lived with his wife, Melissa, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, along the Gulf Coast, since 1980.