A Knight of the White Cross Book Review.

Title: A Knight of the White Cross.
Author: G. A. Henty.
Gene: Christian Historical Fiction.
Plot: The tale opens by introducing us to Queen Margaret, who is living in exile in France with her son Edward and their good friends Sir Thomas and Dame Tresham with their young son Gervaise, in the summer of 1470. It is England's War of the Roses and for the majority of the next couple chapters war strategies are discussed, arrangements in case of Sir Thomas' death are made and two disastrous battles are recounted for us. Sir Thomas survives the first and he escapes with his family to a place on the coast of England where it was arranged for the queen to land and there he leaves his wife and son to follow Prince Edward into battle. He never returns. Dame Tresham follows her husband's last wishes and flees into France where, for the next two and a half years, she devotes herself to Gervaise's education and preparation for entering the Oder of St. John as a page. At the end of that time period Dame Tresham, a thin shadow of her former self, feels that it is time for her to hand her son over to the Knights of the Order and accordingly they take a ship to London and pay a visit to the Order's representative there, into who's hands she gives her son. Dame Tresham dies later that night.
At nearly twelve years old Gervaise is an orphan. He grieved sorely for his mother but was wisely preoccupied with his training and he "gained the encomiums, not only of his special preceptor, but of the various knights in the house, and of the grand prior himself, both for his strength and activity, and for the earnestness with which he worked." Some time later Gervaise and four other older knights-in-training {including a certain Robert Rivers who takes a dislike to young Gervaise} leave for the Island of Rhodes under the charge of Sir Guy Redcar, an older knight, and along the way they are instructed in how to manage and run a ship as part of their training for the knights protected the coast-lands from pirates and a knowledge of the workings of a ship was only practical. Upon arrival Gervaise becomes the page of the grand master and for the next three years he works very hard, cheerfully and diligently at his duties and training and he makes the most of all his hours, including his spare ones in which he engages in physical exercises on the water or in the saddle and was therefore "indisputably superior in strength, activity and skill in military exercises, to any of his companions." When he is fifteen or sixteen his page-ship ends and he embarks on his first of three required voyages to chase Muslim pirates around.
In the next several chapters Gervaise greatly distinguishes himself in the sea-battle with the pirates and is knighted alongside his good friend Ralph Harcourt because of their bravery during that first voyage, Gervaise then devotes nine months to learning the Turkish language at which he becomes fluent and takes his ransomed Muslim language instructor back to his homeland then returns safely home and is promptly introduced by Ralph to a merchant friend of his and the merchant's family. It is there that Gervaise notices one of the other guests, a Greek, trying to eavesdrop on his conversation with the merchant and the crafty expression of the man's face sets Gervaise on his guard and with good reason too, for later he espies the man speaking in a suspicious manner to a prison officer. Gervaise then disguises himself as a Muslim slave and lives among the galley slaves captured in battle for nearly two weeks before his suspicions are confirmed and a major escape plan of the slaves is foiled.
After the adventure with the galley slaves Gervaise is given his own ship to command with a crew of young knights and they chase down a couple pirate ships then, upon hearing a rumor of a pirate fleet assembling off the coast of Italy, they go in search of it and, following a brilliant plan, destroy most of it with the aid of darkness, fishermen and fire-ships. While he is still in town looking for men to man the captured ships Gervaise meets the fair young Lady Claudia who gives him as a token of favor her necklace which he vows to treasure above any other honors he may receive. Then off he goes on another adventure in which he is captured by pirates and is sold to a kind master who he faithfully serves till he is taken away and imprisoned. Some time later he escapes and makes his way back to the Island of Rhodes in dramatic fashion in may of 1480 in time to join in the defence of that stronghold wholeheartedly.
A Knight of the White Cross is a rather long book at four hundred eight pages but it's twenty-three chapters are filled with exciting adventures, narrow escapes and brilliant plans that will delight the boy or girl, man or woman who picks this tale up and braves it's one-inch-thick-intimidating-size to enjoy a good old fashion epic adventure told from a Christian perspective!
Likes/Dislikes of Book:Very good from cover to cover though I must admit that the first couple chapters of most Henty novels tend to be rather boring as he's setting the stage but the pace picks up considerably afterward. Very clean book, Gervaise is beaten by the pirate who captures him but he only gets a bunch of bruises and Henty doesn't go into detail on any of the other wounds Gervaise gets during the siege.
Rating: Twelve and up unless the younger readers listen to it on audio CDs or get an older person to read the book to them. It's highly recommended by the reviewer for personal enjoyment, a good family read-aloud or an exciting addition to a historical study of the time period.
Date Report Written: January 15, 2010.