The Lymond Chronicles is a series of six novels, written by Dorothy Dunnett, which were first published between 1961 and 1975. The series is set in mid-sixteenth century Europe and the Mediterranean and tells the story of a young Scottish nobleman, Francis Crawford of Lymond, from 1547 through 1558.
Having cleared his name in Scotland Lymond takes on an unlikely alias in order to infiltrate the French Court and protect the future Mary - Queen of Scots from her would-be assassins, but in the whirl and rush of Europe's most decadent and reckless Court, he finds it increasingly difficult to remember where play-acting ends and self-destructive excess begins.
His reputation freshly restored after his actions in France, Lymond travels to the Isle of Malta, home to the Crusading Order of Knights Hospitaller of St John, just before the Ottoman Turks lay it under siege. There he becomes embroiled in a contest of wits with a man who may or may not be a living saint, and discovers a secret that will transform that intellectual contest into a visceral struggle for his native Scotland.
