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Historical person
1165–1199
Joan of England was born in 1165, a daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As part of Angevin dynastic diplomacy she was betrothed to William II of Sicily and travelled to his kingdom, where the marriage was celebrated at Palermo in 1177 and she was crowned queen consort.
After William’s death in 1189, Joan became caught in the Sicilian succession crisis before her brother Richard I secured her release during the Third Crusade. She later married Raymond VI of Toulouse and remained connected to the political networks of the Angevin family until her death in 1199.
In Ariana Franklin’s The Assassin’s Prayer, the young Joan’s journey from England to Sicily provides the historical framework for Adelia Aguilar’s fourth investigation. The royal marriage is historical, while the murders, assassin and Adelia’s role within the travelling household are fictional.
Series
The Mistress of the Art of Death series follows Adelia Aguilar, a physician trained in Salerno whose knowledge of anatomy makes her an extraordinary investigator in twelfth-century England. Beginning in Cambridge in 1171, the novels place murder inquiries inside the reign of Henry II, where royal government, church…
All books in this series
