The King's Earl (The Earls of Mercia #5)

The Earls of Mercia (main series) Book 5 (or Book 8 if reading the side-stories as well - Wulfstan, Swein and Cnut).

The story of the Ealdorman of the Hwicce, Leofwine, continues in book 5 of the Earls of Mercia series.

Ealdorman Leofwine, bereaved and betrayed by the new Danish King of England, hides away from the politics of the Witan, desperate to forget his past links with Cnut and his father Swein only Cnut won’t let his most trusted ealdorman go quite so easily. He knows that for his fledgeling kingship to survive, he needs the old guard from the previous king’s reign to add legitimacy to his own. His new men, the men who’ve followed him from Denmark, know how to rule, but not how to rule the English. And Cnut has his eye on an even bigger prize than England alone.
Leofric, left reeling by the murder of his older brother and with an ageing father, and dying mother, tries to hold onto his family’s position against the sudden and magnificent rise of Earl Godwin, the newly promoted Earl of Wessex. As much as he despises the new King, he knows his family’s position needs to be upheld. His father has sacrificed too much to allow a usurper to claim the position that is rightfully his.
With Cnut’s view increasingly focused on conquering and ruling the Scandinavian lands, with bloody arguments between the Scandinavian men threatening the stability of the Crown, can the House of Leofwine survive the kingship of the new Danish king and keep their place at the heart of early eleventh-century politics whether they want it or not?

Covering the years from 1017-1025, The King's Earl is the fifth novel in the (main) Earls of Mercia series.

Recommended reading order

Viking Sword (AKA Ealdorman)
Viking Enemy (AKA Ealdormen0
Swein: The Danish King (side-story)
Northman Part 1
Wulfstan: An Anglo-Saxon Thegn (side-story)
Northman Part 2
The King's Earl
Cnut: The Conqueror (side-story)
The Earl of Mercia
The English Earl (coming 2018)