In Clothar the Frank, the first novel of a two-book miniseries called The Golden Eagle, Jack Whyte invites us to explore his cast of fascinating characters during the reign and tragic downfall of the Riothamus Arthur, High King of All Britain. From Gaul, now the land of the Franks, comes young Clothar, the son of one king and the nephew of another. He has just survived a fierce civil war in Benwick, the land of his childhood—a war involving his own family, pitting brother against brother—to discover that his fate is not in his own hands. Instead it rests with his teacher and mentor, the renowned and powerful Bishop Germanus; Germanus's old friend, the elusive and enigmatic Caius Merlyn Britannicus; and Merlyn's young ward, the future king, Arthur Pendragon. Clothar's story is the story of Lancelot—his past, his loves, his loyalty and his role as King Arthur's friend and betrayer.