The Iron Crown of Lombardy: from Ashes to Sword

In 814 AD, Emperor Charlemagne died in the palace in Aachen. His empire was divided into three thirty years after his death. In 851, a castle named Montevero in northern Italy was engulfed in flames overnight. Forty-seven members of the Amorli family died in the fire. Only a four-year-old boy survived by jumping into the moat in the arms of his wet nurse. The boy's name was Anthony Yarmoli. He will spend thirty-three years completing a revenge - from a novice monk in the monastery to the most powerful duke in Lombardy, from a penniless orphan to the actual ruler of northern Italy. Along the way, he gained power and lost his conscience; he won the war and lost his soul. When he finally kills his enemy the Duke of Friuli, the sharpest sentence in the book appears - "Is this the end?"