Title: Excellent historical novel
Review: The Spider King is a wonderful account of the life of Louis XI of France, a very modern king at the end of the feudal age. This organizational genius established the borders of France, and France as a country, basically as we know it today. His intitiatives resulted in an excellent road system, reliable postal service, representative government, and uniform laws, but his real gift was for intrigue. He used a network of spies not only in the upper echelons of governments, but also among the people themselves. By this method, he incited uprisings in the states of rival lords, funded foreign states in wars against his enemies, assassinated pretenders to the crown and won the hearts of his subjects. All this he accomplished in spite of having physical deformities and epilepsy in an age when that was viewed as demonic. Mr. Schoonover's account is historically accurate, but has enough embellishment to make the inhabitants of the 15th century real to the reader.
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