Les Rois maudits/The Accursed Kings (1972 Miniseries - ENG SUB) | The Iron King (Episode 1)

The Accursed Kings (French title: Les Rois maudits) is a French mini-series in six 102-minute episodes, directed by Claude Barma based on Marcel Jullian's adaptation of the novels of the same name by Maurice Druon. Audio in French with English subtitles.

The 1972 TV adaptation of Les Rois maudits was broadcast by the ORTF from 21 December 1972 to 24 January 1973, and starred Jean Piat as Robert d'Artois and Hélène Duc as Mahaut d'Artois. Adapted by Marcel Jullian and directed by Claude Barma, its six episodes were directly based on—and named after—the first six novels in Druon's series. Music was composed by Georges Delerue.

Dubbed "the French I, Claudius", the series was hugely succesful, and brought the novels from cult to mainstream success. The production was shot in studio, with minimal sets. The series was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC in French with English subtitles in June–July 1974 and again in August–September 1975.

American author George R. R. Martin called the author "France's best historical novelist since Alexandre Dumas, père". Martin dubbed The Accursed Kings "the original game of thrones", citing Druon's novels as an inspiration for his own series A Song of Ice and Fire, which has been adapted for television as Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Martin's UK publisher HarperCollins began reissuing the long out of print Accursed Kings series in 2013, with Martin himself writing an introduction.

Les Rois maudits is a direct adaptation of the first six volumes of the eponymous novel by Maurice Druon, from the French Academy, published between 1955 and 1960 . The seventh volume of the series, "Quand un roi perd la France" (The King Without a Kingdom), published in 1977 , was not covered in this television adaptation, or the one in 2005.

The main actors in the cast are Jean Piat (Robert d'Artois), Hélène Duc (Mahaut d'Artois), Louis Seigner (The banker Spinello Tolomeï), Geneviève Casile (Isabelle de France), Muriel Baptiste (Marguerite de Bourgogne), Jean Deschamps (Charles de Valois), André Luguet (Hugues de Bouville), the Catalan actor José-Maria Flotats (Philippe V le long), Catherine Rouvel (Béatrice d'Hirson), Henri Virlojeux (Le Cardinal Duèze), Georges Marchal (Philippe le Bel), André Falcon (Enguerrand de Marigny), Jean Luc Moreau (Guccio Baglioni), Anne Kreiss (Marie de Cressay), Michel Beaune (Edouard II of England), Claude Giraud (Baron Roger Mortimer), Gilles Béhat (Charles IV Le Bel), Catherine Hubeau (Blanche de Bourgogne), Georges Ser (Louis X Le Hutin) and Jean-Louis Broust (Edward III of England).The voice-over comments are made by Jean Desailly.

Episode 1: March 1314 - To recover his county of which he claims to have been stripped, Robert of Artois will intrigue in London with his cousin Isabelle, daughter of King Philippe and denounce the adultery committed by the princesses of Burgundy, one of whom is the future queen of France.

At the beginning of the 14th century, Philip the Fair reigned with an iron fist over a kingdom with empty coffers. Consumed by jealousy, he attacks Jacques de Molay, grand master of the Templars with insolent wealth. Condemned to be burned alive, the Templar cursed the Capetians for 13 generations from the top of his pyre. A curse not without consequences!