The King’s Sister

Elizabeth of Lancaster is the daughter of John of Gaunt, cousin to Richard II and sister to the future Henry IV. Her marriage to John Holland, Richard’s half-brother and favourite, places her at the centre of a royal family whose loyalties are shattered when Henry Bolingbroke seizes the throne.

When Holland joins the Epiphany Rising against Henry IV, Elizabeth must choose between husband, brother and children. The novel reconstructs the life of a poorly documented Plantagenet princess through the political consequences of deposition, rebellion and the destruction of a marriage by conflicting obligations of blood and allegiance.