Lord of the Pyrenees

<p>The reign of Gaston III Count of Foix and self-proclaimed sovereign Lord of Béarn stands out as one of the rare success stories of the `calamitous' fourteenth century. By playing a skilful game of shifting allegiances and timely defiance he avoided being drawn into the conflicts between his more powerful neighbours - France and English Aquitaine Aragon and Castile -- thus sparing his domains the devastations of warfare. Best known as a patron of the arts and the author of a celebrated <em>Book of the Hunt</em> Fébus - as he styled himself - also prefigures the eighteenth-century `enlightened despots' with his effort to centralize government protect natural resources and promote enterprise. But a sequence of mysterious tragedies -- the abrupt dismissal of his wife the slaying of his only legitimate son - reveal the dark side of the brilliant and enigmatic `Sun Prince of the Pyrenees'.<br /><br />RICHARD VERNIER is Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages and Literatures Wayne State University. He is the author of <em>The Flower of Chivalry: Bertrand du Guesclin and the Hundred Years War</em>.</p>