Title:

Vagabond

Author:

Bernard Cornwell

Category:

Literature

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

July 23, 2025

agabond is book two in Cornwell's Grail Quest trilogy. The murdered father of our hero, Thomas of Hookton, may or may not have once possessed the Holy Grail. Or perhaps his father was simply mad. But everyone who hears of the Holy Grail lusts to own it, believing it will bestow magical powers on its owner. Which means many ruthless men would like to know everything that Thomas knows. The fact that Thomas has a cryptic notebook written by his crazy(?) father adds to the mystery - perhaps somewhere in those pages lies a clue that reveals the Grail's location?

After the battle of Crecy (described in book one of this series), Thomas is in England searching for a monk who knew his father, hoping that Brother Collimore can shed some light on his father's madness. But as Thomas journeys north, an overwhelming army of invading Scots marches south. With the King of England fighting in France, the Scots have determined that this is the ideal time to loot and pillage on English soil. Thomas finds himself joining a hastily assembled, and greatly outnumbered, English army. Cornwell describes the battle of Neville's Cross. Once again, the longbow proves to be decisive. Only the English had this weapon, and Cornwell explains that it was a difficult weapon to master, requiring years of training and practice. The yew bow is six feet tall and has a draw strength of 100 pounds, which means only the most powerful man can fire it accurately. In the hands of a trained archer, arrows from the longbow could fly hundreds of yards and punch through shields and armor. It gave the English a decisive advantage in any armed conflict. Thomas is an English archer, and Cornwell describes the battle through his eyes.

Thomas is a commoner (though he is unusual in that he can read and write, and speak French and Latin). Thomas ends up in many desperate situations; Cornwell pulls no punches describing the brutality and violence of that age. Although the characters all claim piety and pray to the Lord, they relish murder and rape and will do anything for treasure. The belief in holy relics is strong, people pay huge money for the bone of a saint or a splinter of the true cross. The modern reader, of course, knows that all those blessed relics are fakes, but back then people truly believed in the magical powers of holy objects.

Thomas doubts that the Holy Grail actually exists. His ideal scenario would be to become a leader of a company of archers and forget all about quests. He never saw the Grail in his father's possession. If his dad had owned such a powerful object, then how come his circumstances were so poor? But the certainty and relentlessness of the other characters who are searching for the Holy Grail make him wonder if in fact it does exist.

Vagabond has great pacing. Although my trade paperback has 402 pages, it is a quick read. Thomas is always in peril or trapped in a desperate straits. Cornwell knows how to keep the action moving and the plot advancing. There are exciting boat chases, plots and treachery. And of course major medieval battles. The book ends with the description of the battle of La Roche-Derrien, in which a besieged town of English men is surrounded by a powerful French army. The French are not stupid - they know the lethal killing power of the English archers, and so Charles devises a strategy to nullify the advantage of the archers. "They cannot shoot what they cannot see!", he announces. Cornwell describes the battle from the historical record (while inserting his fictional hero, Thomas, in the middle of the action). I need to read the concluding volume, Heretic next, to see how Cornwell concludes Thomas's search for the Holy Grail.