What do you think?
Rate this book
Fortune de France #4
Le Prince que voilà
1572-1588: années « venteuses et tracasseuses » où catholiques et protestants continuent de s'entredéchirer.
Quittant de nouveau son château périgourdin, le huguenot Pierre de Siorac retrouve Paris où il devient le médecin, puis l'agent secret d'Henri III.
Mûri, mais non vieilli, Pierre va découvrir, au cours de périlleuses missions, les menaces qui guettent le royaume, A l'heure où l'ambitieux Philippe II d'Espagne, mettant à profit nos discordes, arme contre le roi de France le bras du duc de Guise, chef redouté de la Ligue…
Tableau saisissant d'un roi au milieu de ses grands féaux, des « quarante-cinq » qui le protègent contre les dagues, du Paris fanatique et rebelle qui le chassera du trône, Le Prince que voilà nous mène parmi les complots, les rivalités, les intrigues qui semblent bien devoir anéantir la « fortune de France ». Pourtant ni l'amitié ni le bonheur de vivre ne perdent leurs droits. Ni l'entrain inépuisable et fécond d'un romancier plus captivant que jamais.
Quittant de nouveau son château périgourdin, le huguenot Pierre de Siorac retrouve Paris où il devient le médecin, puis l'agent secret d'Henri III.
Mûri, mais non vieilli, Pierre va découvrir, au cours de périlleuses missions, les menaces qui guettent le royaume, A l'heure où l'ambitieux Philippe II d'Espagne, mettant à profit nos discordes, arme contre le roi de France le bras du duc de Guise, chef redouté de la Ligue…
Tableau saisissant d'un roi au milieu de ses grands féaux, des « quarante-cinq » qui le protègent contre les dagues, du Paris fanatique et rebelle qui le chassera du trône, Le Prince que voilà nous mène parmi les complots, les rivalités, les intrigues qui semblent bien devoir anéantir la « fortune de France ». Pourtant ni l'amitié ni le bonheur de vivre ne perdent leurs droits. Ni l'entrain inépuisable et fécond d'un romancier plus captivant que jamais.
Pocket Book
First published January 1, 1982
17 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
Robert Merle
123 books269 followersBorn in Tebessa located in ,what was then, the French colony of Algeria. Robert Merle and his family moved to France in 1918. Merle wrote in many styles and won the Prix Goncourt for his novel Week-end à Zuydcoote. He has also written a 13 book series of historical novels, Fortune de France. Recreating 16th and 17th century France through the eyes of a fictitious Protestant doctor turned spy, he went so far as to write it in the period's French making it virtually untranslatable.
His novels Un animal doué de la raison (A Sentient Animal, 1967), a stark Cold War satire inspired by John Lilly's studies of dolphins and the Caribbean Crisis, and Malevil (1972), a post-apocalyptic story, were both translated into English and filmed, the former as Day of the Dolphin. The film The Day of the Dolphin bore very little resemblance to Merle's story.
He died of a heart attack at his home La Malmaison in Grosrouvre near Paris.
His novels Un animal doué de la raison (A Sentient Animal, 1967), a stark Cold War satire inspired by John Lilly's studies of dolphins and the Caribbean Crisis, and Malevil (1972), a post-apocalyptic story, were both translated into English and filmed, the former as Day of the Dolphin. The film The Day of the Dolphin bore very little resemblance to Merle's story.
He died of a heart attack at his home La Malmaison in Grosrouvre near Paris.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 18, 2018
Heard of this series (Fortunes of France) for a while - even before the English translation project started a few years back - but while I took a look at it at various times, I never progressed much in the first book; by chance this one (4th book) attracted my attention recently and then it kept my interest though overall while I greatly enjoyed it in parts, it definitely could have been superb - here I think the translation is at fault at least comparing to the famous Druon series, The accused Kings, which I read in both Romanian translation and French original and found it superb in both, while the English translation seemed almost a travesty, butchering it from an interesting series to a run of the mill adventure series that uses 5 common words only so to speak; I cannot say it for sure for League of Spies though i will try to see a French-language sample, but again the language is really childish in many instances and I kind of doubt it was so in the original French; anyway, worth reading but a better translation would help a lot
As for the book itself, it starts in 1574 just after the Huguenot massacre in Paris which our hero has barely escaped (in volume 3 I guess) and returned to his father's estate, and continues the story for a while until things get settled (the hero finally marries his lady love and moves to Paris for good) and then it jumps to 1584, when the narrator, now personal physician to King Henry III in Paris, starts acting as secret agent for the king as troubles with the Duke de Guise and his Holy League mount; as expected the story follows the well-known events of the times and ends with the Blois Estates General and the notable events there in December 1588, but in the meantime, we get to see the Queen of England, hear about the machinations of Spain and the Armada etc; lots of interesting and colorful characters, action, intrigue - this should have been an awesome book, but the language is often very puerile and as noted I strongly believe the translation is just bad
As for the book itself, it starts in 1574 just after the Huguenot massacre in Paris which our hero has barely escaped (in volume 3 I guess) and returned to his father's estate, and continues the story for a while until things get settled (the hero finally marries his lady love and moves to Paris for good) and then it jumps to 1584, when the narrator, now personal physician to King Henry III in Paris, starts acting as secret agent for the king as troubles with the Duke de Guise and his Holy League mount; as expected the story follows the well-known events of the times and ends with the Blois Estates General and the notable events there in December 1588, but in the meantime, we get to see the Queen of England, hear about the machinations of Spain and the Armada etc; lots of interesting and colorful characters, action, intrigue - this should have been an awesome book, but the language is often very puerile and as noted I strongly believe the translation is just bad
December 18, 2018
Machiavelli in France
Each of the three preceding volumes in the Fortunes of France series has ended with a bloodbath and this one is no exception. However, the reader has to wait a very long time for the bloody denouement. For most of its length this novel focuses on the cat and mouse chess game between Henri III of France’s dogged defence of his rule against the aggression of the fanatical Catholic Duc De Guise and his supporters.
Henri has repented of his anti-Protestant excesses during the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre and has come to see that a prosperous France depends on peace between the religions. He faces very strong opposition. Luckily he has Pierrre Siorac on his side, officially court surgeon, unofficially Henri’s spy and agent plenipotentiary. Pierre, now married to his beloved Catherine, has become a nominal Catholic, but fights for reason against fanaticism.
There is a lot to enjoy in this fourth outing for Pierre Siorac: a visit to Queen Elizabeth of England, negotiations between Henri and his Protestant cousin, Henri of Navarre, the Spanish Armada, as well as a running joke on the half-Florentine Henri’s ‘Machiavellian’ plans, which inevitably leave the king and his kingdom worse off than before. In the end the only solution to the impasse is bloodshed. Roll on volume 5.
Each of the three preceding volumes in the Fortunes of France series has ended with a bloodbath and this one is no exception. However, the reader has to wait a very long time for the bloody denouement. For most of its length this novel focuses on the cat and mouse chess game between Henri III of France’s dogged defence of his rule against the aggression of the fanatical Catholic Duc De Guise and his supporters.
Henri has repented of his anti-Protestant excesses during the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre and has come to see that a prosperous France depends on peace between the religions. He faces very strong opposition. Luckily he has Pierrre Siorac on his side, officially court surgeon, unofficially Henri’s spy and agent plenipotentiary. Pierre, now married to his beloved Catherine, has become a nominal Catholic, but fights for reason against fanaticism.
There is a lot to enjoy in this fourth outing for Pierre Siorac: a visit to Queen Elizabeth of England, negotiations between Henri and his Protestant cousin, Henri of Navarre, the Spanish Armada, as well as a running joke on the half-Florentine Henri’s ‘Machiavellian’ plans, which inevitably leave the king and his kingdom worse off than before. In the end the only solution to the impasse is bloodshed. Roll on volume 5.
May 1, 2021
Le style était amusant au début, mais à la longue il ne suffit pas à sauver le livre, qui se place pourtant dans une passionnante partie de l’Histoire de France. Le rythme ne fonctionne pas, l’histoire est décousue, basée sur la recherche d’une soeur jumelle limite maléfique (ridicule), avec des trous d’air conséquents. Pour moi, Fortune de France s’arrête ici
March 12, 2019
This English version of the fourth installment of Merle’s Fortunes de France series is superb. Pierre de Siorac, the perigordin Huguenot doctor is turned into a spy by king Henry III, who finds himself in a weakened state due to the intrigues of powerful Felipe II of Spain and of his followers in France, the Catholic League, headed by the Duke Henry of Guise and his siblings, who come to a sticky end by the book’s end. One shouldn’t feel too sorry about them, since they were mainly married clergy responsible for the Saint Bartholomeus Day massacre of the Protestants. Guise saw himself as the natural successor of Henry III, because he was a Catholic, unlike Henry of Navarre. This wasn’t an unreasonable expectation, since the Guises were of royal blood.
The story features Siorac escaping the machinations of a malignant Jesuit (is there any other kind of Jesuit in adventure novels sited in the early modern period?), and serving as a go-between between Henry III and Protestant Henry of Navarre and Elizabeth I of England, both of whom appear in the book. Although happily married, Siorac hardly ever misses an opportunity for a quick and pleasant dalliance with a French demoiselle or an English lady. He ends the book as a baron.
Besides the set pieces (the king is chased from Paris by the first of many barricades in that city’s history, in this case Catholic ones) and the high-jinks (both sexual and otherwise), the book has wonderful and very learned dialogues from many characters, including both king Henrys and queen Elizabeth, the fool Chicot, essayist Michel de Montaigne and various courtiers. The author’s learning is deep but he wears it lightly like he should. Henry III, whose reputation has never recovered from the devastation portrayal in Dumas’s novel La Reine Margot, is portrayed sympathetically, as a competent monarch fighting an unwinnable war against half his kingdom.
The book mentions the assassination of William the Silent of Orange in 1584, the execution of Mary Stuart in 1587 and the plight of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and features many references to foreign princes, such as Felipe II, Pope Sixtus VI and various polish nobles. It ends with the execution (or murder) or the Duke of Guise in December 23, 1589 in the king’s room and by his order. We know that his triumph against his Catholic enemies, and that he will meet a similar end barely 7 months later, and that his successor, Henry of Navarre will end likewise in 1610.
With the death of Henry III a strange situation materializes. All three main royal French dynasties ended in the same fashion: with three childless brothers. The Capetians after the death of the children of Philip the Fair, that is Louis X, Charles IV and Philip IV (1328). The Valois ended with the children of Henry II, that is Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III (1588). The Bourbon ended with the grandsons of Louis XV, that is Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X (1830). This I thought is remarkable.
The story features Siorac escaping the machinations of a malignant Jesuit (is there any other kind of Jesuit in adventure novels sited in the early modern period?), and serving as a go-between between Henry III and Protestant Henry of Navarre and Elizabeth I of England, both of whom appear in the book. Although happily married, Siorac hardly ever misses an opportunity for a quick and pleasant dalliance with a French demoiselle or an English lady. He ends the book as a baron.
Besides the set pieces (the king is chased from Paris by the first of many barricades in that city’s history, in this case Catholic ones) and the high-jinks (both sexual and otherwise), the book has wonderful and very learned dialogues from many characters, including both king Henrys and queen Elizabeth, the fool Chicot, essayist Michel de Montaigne and various courtiers. The author’s learning is deep but he wears it lightly like he should. Henry III, whose reputation has never recovered from the devastation portrayal in Dumas’s novel La Reine Margot, is portrayed sympathetically, as a competent monarch fighting an unwinnable war against half his kingdom.
The book mentions the assassination of William the Silent of Orange in 1584, the execution of Mary Stuart in 1587 and the plight of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and features many references to foreign princes, such as Felipe II, Pope Sixtus VI and various polish nobles. It ends with the execution (or murder) or the Duke of Guise in December 23, 1589 in the king’s room and by his order. We know that his triumph against his Catholic enemies, and that he will meet a similar end barely 7 months later, and that his successor, Henry of Navarre will end likewise in 1610.
With the death of Henry III a strange situation materializes. All three main royal French dynasties ended in the same fashion: with three childless brothers. The Capetians after the death of the children of Philip the Fair, that is Louis X, Charles IV and Philip IV (1328). The Valois ended with the children of Henry II, that is Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III (1588). The Bourbon ended with the grandsons of Louis XV, that is Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X (1830). This I thought is remarkable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2025
Un 4e opuscule de très belle facture pour cette saga magistrale. Si le début est quelque peu poussif, dès que la toile de fond historique du récit se déploie et que Pierre de Siorac prend place dans le rapport de force politique qui se joue entre Henri III et le Duc de Guise tout au long du roman, la magie opère et le lecteur se retrouve plongé dans les intrigues de cour, les relations secrètes entre États et les passions des peuples. L’écriture de Robert Merle, truffée de termes d’époque, si elle peut désarçonner au premier abord, contribue à vous envelopper dans cet univers et devient, progressivement, une évidence : on n’imaginerait pas, quand on la referme, que cette œuvre puisse être écrite en langue contemporaine tant l’interdépendance du fond et de la forme atteint un haut degré de perfection.
August 25, 2018
It is great written historical novel in the series, having a very well written and thought storyline which depicts the conflicts between the Catholic Church and the reformed church.
While reading the novel I realized that in many facts today's society and people in the novel's era have very much similarities, when it comes to religion, feminism (yes, in that part when Zara confesses in a family gathering that she just doesn't want to have kids because she doesn't feel that, although later in the book she slept with a random boy to get pregnant, just because she was desperate for being fired by Gertrude) and many other things.
While reading the novel I realized that in many facts today's society and people in the novel's era have very much similarities, when it comes to religion, feminism (yes, in that part when Zara confesses in a family gathering that she just doesn't want to have kids because she doesn't feel that, although later in the book she slept with a random boy to get pregnant, just because she was desperate for being fired by Gertrude) and many other things.
July 12, 2017
Myslím, že u tohoto dílu jsem přestal, když jsem tuto ságu četl poprvé. A je mi i dnes jasné proč. Už to totiž není ani tak kronika Petra ze Sioraku, ale spíš populárně převyprávěná část francouzských dějin. A to už kdysi udělal (asi nedostižně) André Maurois.
Pořád se to dobře čte, ale už to zkrátka není úplně ono.
Pořád se to dobře čte, ale už to zkrátka není úplně ono.
January 30, 2019
Ce 4ème tome nous place au coeur des intrigues de la cour du roi et du conflit entre le Duc de Guise et Henri III. C'est réjouissant que la narration se place très proche des faits historiques, et mêle les deux pour notre plus grand bonheur.
October 25, 2019
Extremely proud to have finished reading this in French. Only took 18 months!
November 15, 2022
Very well written and gripping book
February 12, 2023
Enjoyed the historical content and the storyline. Found it a little confusing with the French names! All in all, it's a good book.
November 18, 2024
Toujours aussi passionnant
January 16, 2016
On retrouve une nouvelle fois Pierre de Siorac accompagné de son fidèle valet Miroul et de son frère d'arme, l'Italien Giacomi. 10 ans après avoir échappé au massacre de la Saint Barthélémy, le chevalier de Siorac retrouve le chemin de la cour. Cependant, ce n'est pas le souverain du royaume qu'il y encontre mais le captif du duc de Guise et le jouet des intrigues de la ligue. La ligue nourrie de l'or des Espagnols ne rêve que de s'emparer du royaume et d'y extirper la nouvelle religion au moyen d'une nouvelle Saint Barthélemy. Notre héros sous le couvert de la charge de médecin du roi est en réalité agent secret et truchement auprès de la reine d'Angleterre. Menacé de toutes parts par les espions et les assassins de la ligue, réussira-t-il à aider le roi à retrouver son pouvoir légitime et à déjouer les complots des Guise et de leur entourage ?
Malgré les redites, le style de Robert Merle ne s’essouffle pas. C'est un plaisir que de goûter la saveur de la "parlature" restaurée comme par une archéologue des mots, mélant oc, latin et vieux français. Plaisir aussi de vivre les grandes heures de l'histoire du point de vue subjectif d'un acteur de second plan. On est ainsi transporté dans le temps tantôt par la narration tantôt par le langage.
Malgré les redites, le style de Robert Merle ne s’essouffle pas. C'est un plaisir que de goûter la saveur de la "parlature" restaurée comme par une archéologue des mots, mélant oc, latin et vieux français. Plaisir aussi de vivre les grandes heures de l'histoire du point de vue subjectif d'un acteur de second plan. On est ainsi transporté dans le temps tantôt par la narration tantôt par le langage.
December 19, 2015
Still well written and interesting concerning history, but I liked the more personal angle of the previous installments. Here Pierre started to feel like a camera. He was there where things were happening but nothing relly was happening *to* him.
November 20, 2018
A wonderful historical novel that reminded me of Dumas, a writer I really like.
It's enjoyable, entertaining, well written and full of interesting characters.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Pushkin Press for this ARC
It's enjoyable, entertaining, well written and full of interesting characters.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Pushkin Press for this ARC
December 24, 2018
Thankyou to NetGalley, Pushkin Press and the author, Robert Merle, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of League Of Spies in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I enjoy reading historical fiction and this book was no exception. It was wonderfully descriptive and entertaining. Definitely well worth a read for fans of the genre.
I enjoy reading historical fiction and this book was no exception. It was wonderfully descriptive and entertaining. Definitely well worth a read for fans of the genre.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews