Book
The Handfasted Wife
First published 2013
After Harold Godwinson takes the English crown in 1066, Edith the Fair—remembered as Edith Swanneck—is set aside for a dynastic marriage. The Norman invasion then overturns her family’s world. Following Harold’s defeat at Hastings, Edith must protect her children, estates and freedom while William the Conqueror imposes a new regime across England.
The novel follows the Norman Conquest through the experience of the women left to survive it, including Harold’s mother, Gytha Thorkelsdóttir. Hostages, confiscation, resistance and the siege of Exeter turn a royal succession crisis into a struggle over family identity and belonging. McGrath’s focus remains on Edith’s attempts to preserve a future for her children when the political order that gave them status has collapsed.
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