Tag line for the Fourth Crusade: “No infidels were hurt in the making of this crusade.” This is the one Monty Python would surely have chosen if they’d made a crusading movie. A western military coalition decides (uninvited) to “liberate” a rich eastern land from its usurping tyrant, then gets stuck there as an occupation force fighting insurrectionists. No, it’s not the evening news, or the latest George Clooney flick – it’s the sack of Constantinople, one of the pivotal events of world history.

In a desperate attempt to protect his kingdom, a Welsh king marries Isabel Mortimer, his English enemy’s niece. Gwirion, the king’s oldest and oddest friend, has a particular, private reason to hate Mortimers; he uses his prankster humor to torment Isabel, with most unexpected results – some comic, some tragic, and some that put the entire kingdom’s future at risk.

Willem of Dole believed he’d spend his life in rural Burgundy, struggling to provide for his widowed mother and younger sister, Lienor. And so it’s with surprise — and apprehension — that he accepts a summons to the court of Konrad, Holy Roman Emperor. Willem’s mischievous friend Jouglet, Konrad’s favorite minstrel, is no doubt behind it… but what’s in it for Jouglet?