The Betrothed Sister

by Carol McGrath Book 3 in the The Daughters of Hastings Trilogy series.

First published 2015

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In 1068, Gytha of Wessex—called Thea in the novel—leaves England with members of Harold Godwinson’s defeated family. Exile carries her far from the world destroyed at Hastings and into the dynastic politics of Kievan Rus’, where marriage to Prince Vladimir Monomakh offers both security and a new set of constraints.

The novel moves beyond the Norman Conquest to show how an English royal daughter could become part of the interconnected aristocratic world of medieval Europe. Gytha must negotiate a foreign court, family expectation and political danger while deciding what independence can mean inside a strategic marriage. Her journey closes McGrath’s trilogy by transforming the legacy of 1066 from a story of defeat into one of migration, adaptation and dynastic survival.