(Of course, if you were a lowly peasant, you likely would still have spoken English.) This sounds rather bizarre to us nearly 900 years later, at least it did to me. The English king and ruling class were not English but Norman French, and the official language and language of court was French. This first book in a series takes place at a fascinating time in English history. Married off by her father at a tender age and against her wishes to Welsh prince Llewellyn, Joanna discovers that her political match is actually not so undesirable, and she eventually grows to love and appreciate her husband and his foreign Welsh culture and language, supporting him through the many 13-century political upheavals and grabs for power. This engaging work of historical fiction follows the life of Joanna, the illegitimate daughter of King John, the last Angevin king.
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