Hidden behind the battlements on the roof of the gatehouse crouched Randal, watching for the arrival of Hugh Goch, the new Lord of Arundel Castle. Randal, who had grown up among the castle hounds he tended, loved the pomp and excitement of the celebration. As the cavalcade approached the great gateway, a small thing happened: he dropped the fig he had been eating onto the nose of Hugh's mettlesome horse.
A trivial incident, but it changed the life of the boy. It led to Herluin, the gentle minstrel, and Sir Everard, a find old knight, and Bevis, who was to become his friend; it led to intrigue, and squirehood, and finally to knighthood, though the price he paid for this was a heavy one.
This is an absorbing story told against the backdrop of Norman England and its rulers, the sons of William the Conqueror. Hugh Goch really lived and died as is related here; the Mowbray revolt really took place in 1096. It has been said that "Few stories of the Middle Ages bring the whole ritual of knighthood and the life of the feudal manor within the realm of the reader as does this one. Anyone who has lived with these people within this world will not forget it soon."—Horn Book
In Knight's Fee, Miss Sutcliff once again proved her pre-eminence in the field of the historical novel.
—from the dust jacket
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