Behold the Bird in Flight

Author(s): Terri Lewis

Location(s): England, France

Genre(s): Fiction, Historical

Era(s): Early 1200s

Romantic and stubborn, eleven-year-old Isi plans to marry for love and be mistress of her own castle. But life in 1198 is full of threat and a series of tragic events teaches her growing up is hard. When Isi falls for Hugh, a French nobleman, he consents to marry her, but only for her dowry. She longs for more. Hoping a jealous man will fall in love, she flirts with a king. The flirtation backfires: King John abducts and marries her. Now trapped in cold, warring England with a malicious husband, Isi must hide her yearning for Hugh and find her own power. If she fails, she won’t live to return to her beloved. Inspired by real historical figures – Isabelle d’Angouleme, Hugh de Lusignan, and King John of Magna Carta fame – Behold the Bird in Flight is set in a period that valued women only for their dowries and childbearing. Isabelle’s story has been mainly erased by men, but the medieval chronicles suggest a woman who developed her own power and wielded it – in court and in bed. And as the woman behind the throne, who’s to say she didn’t influence history?

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