Ivanhoe: (Annotated Edition)

Almost 130 years have passed since the Battle of Hastings (1066), when Norman Duke William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-American troops and took over England. English people are going through hard times. King Richard the Lionheart has not returned from the last crusade, and has been imprisoned by the treacherous Duke of Austria. Place of his detention is not known. Meanwhile, the king's brother, Prince John, recruits supporters, wanting in the case of the death of Richard to remove the rightful heir from power and grab the throne. A clever schemer, Prince John is wreaking havoc across the country, fueling a long-standing feud between the Saxons and the Normans. Proud thane Cedric Rotherwood does not give up a hope to throw off the Norman yoke, and to revive the former power of the Saxons, to put in charge of the liberation movement descendant of the royal family Athelstane of Conigsburgh. However, blunt and unadventurous Sir Athelstane provokes distrust. To give more weight to his figure, Cedric wants to marry Athelstane with his ward, the Lady Rowena, the last representative of the genus King Alfred family. When in the way of these plans stood attachment of Lady Rowena to Cedric's son Wilfred Ivanhoe, the inflexible thane banished his son from the parental home and disinherited him.