The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett
 Tom Builder roams southern England, seeking work. He had lost his wife in childbirth. He encounters a woman Ellen, who lives in a forest cave with her son, Jack. (Jack's father was French and was executed after washing ashore and being with Ellen.) Tom settles in Kingsbridge with Ellen and Jack, and his own two children. He works for Prior Philip, who wants to expand his priory by rebuilding a cathedral. Philip appeals to King Stephen for financial support and is given land and the right to take stone from the quarry. The quarry has been granted to Percy Hamleigh as part of the earldom of Shiring. His interests are not in supporting the cathedral. Hamleigh wants to topple the earl Bartholomew, as his daughter, Aliena, rejected Hamleigh’s son William. William attacks Aliena and her brother Richard at the castle; he rapes the girl and injures the boy. Homeless and destitute, Aliena and Richard go to petition the king for aid; at the court, they find their dying father Bartholomew in prison. The siblings swear an oath to work for Richard to regain the earldom. Aliena supports Richard financially by becoming a wool merchant. He becomes a knight for King Stephen, fighting in the civil war against Maud. Richard gains the king's favour by defending him at the Battle of Lincoln. Tom, meanwhile, has been building the cathedral, and living with his children, Alfred and Martha, his lover Ellen and her son Jack. Alfred bullies Jack. When Ellen and Tom are discovered to be unmarried, a charge of fornication is brought against them. Outraged, Ellen returns to the forest with Jack. Tom befriends Prior Philip and, when Ellen returns, he persuades Philip to allow them to marry. As masons, Jack and Alfred fight again. While the better mason and a skilled sculptor, Jack is expelled from the cathedral construction. He becomes a novice monk in order to stay in Kingsbridge. William and Richard compete for the earldom, but it has been bankrupted by the prosperity of Kingsbridge at Shiring's expense. Attempting to restore his fortunes, William burns down Kingsbridge and kills many people, including Tom Builder. After losing her fortune again, Aliena agrees to marry Alfred, as he promised to support Richard in exchange. Jack and Aliena make love on the morning of her wedding. When she marries Alfred anyway, Ellen curses the wedding and renders him impotent. Jack goes to France and hones his skills as a sculptor and mason. Having learned his father's identity, he meets his family in Cherbourg. He does not know that Aliena is pregnant. In Kingsbridge, Alfred persuades Philip to replace the wooden roof with a stone vault. The building collapses during a service, killing many people. Aliena gives birth to a red-headed son, and Alfred abandons her, as he has been impotent. Jack returns to England and they seek permission to marry. Philip forbids the union until her marriage is annulled. This requires Waleran Bigod’s recommendation to the archibishop, but Bigod and the Hamleighs are allies, and they intend to ruin Philip and Aliena. Meanwhile, Richard has joined the forces of Maud's son, Henry, Count of Anjou. When Henry invades, Stephen agrees to have Henry succeed him, with all properties to revert to those who had owned them prior to Stephen’s reign. Frustrated that Richard will not gain the earldom until Stephen's death, Aliena persuades William's young wife, Elizabeth, to hand the castle over to them. William returns to the village of Hamleigh as sheriff. After many years, Kingsbridge cathedral is completed. Waleran accuses Prior Philip of fornication by claiming the monk Jonathan is Philip's son. Ellen swears that Jonathan is Tom Builder’s son. After Waleran accuses her of perjury, she exposes his complicity in a conspiracy to sink the White Ship carrying William Adelin, heir of King Henry I. Ruined, Bigod lives out his days as a humble monk. Meanwhile, William Hamleigh has become involved with the plot to assassinate Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. William is convicted and hanged for his part. The Pope forces King Henry’s public repentance and symbolic subjugation of the crown to the church.