Walter Scott is the author of very popular historical novels, the founder of the genre of "historical novel" in England. Talisman is a novel that intertwines political intrigue and romantic love story during the Third Crusade. Against Richard the Lionheart conspiracy Austrian Duke Leopold and King Philip of France, and the Grandmaster of the Order of the Templars in general plans to kill him. Sultan Saladin suddenly breaks into this intrigue and the main characters of the novel are Knight Kenneth and Edith Plantagenet, a relative of Richard. At the end of the novel, Kenneth, now David of Scotland, is married to Edith Plantagenet, and as a gift to the young Saladin sends the famous talisman that cures diseases.