The Crusades

Thirteenth-century England: The nobility is aligning against King John in a struggle for power. The kingdom is embroiled in war and bankrupt, and the Crusades are rampaging through the Middle East. The Dawnings are a once-powerful family of English knights who are facing the bleak prospects of their declining power and imminent destruction at the hands of enemies that surround them both at home and abroad. Join the Dawnings as they feud over power, love, jealousies, and old grudges that threaten to destroy the family from within at the moment they most need to stand united.

The Dawnings are at war! After narrowly surviving a surprise attack on their own soil, the family is passionately divided over how to use their failing resources to respond to the Braddock army at their gates, the escalating tension with the crown, and an unknown enemy in their midst. The mounting danger to the family and their way of life exposes the deep rifts among the brothers, and drives them even further apart as the struggle for control of Dawning Court rages ever hotter.

When it was clear that defeat was inevitable, Richard ordered the remnants of the Dawning chivalry back to fortify Dawning Castle in a last desperate attempt to preserve the barony, while he and William attempted to delay the enemy. Now sealed in the castle with only a handful of trained soldiers remaining, the Dawnings struggle to hold the gates against a superior army, while an unseen enemy within the castle works to undermine them at every step.