It ends with the event that Rogerson says haunts him – the Battle of the Three Kings. In 1578 the young King Sebastian of Portugal, an ascetic with a fervent stare – who made even his cousin the chilly Philip II of Spain look well balanced – embarked on an invasion of Morocco. Facing him on the field of battle was the dying Sultan Abdul Malik who had to be strapped into his saddle as his mounted tribesmen swept down on the Christian square. What ensued was an epic Custer’s Last Stand. The flower of Portugal’s nobility was wiped out in a single day, 26,000 men dead or captured, and with them died the crusading dream.