The Conqueror’s Daughter
Donna Jones
Type: Beta project
Genre: Historical fiction
Word count: 100,000
Daughter of William the Conqueror, Adela vows her story will be told–once she accomplishes enough. In a world that measures strength by the sword, she must prevail using only the subtler skills 11th century women are allowed to wield. First she must prove her worth to her husband’s family, then the world writ large and, finally, most importantly, to herself.
Daughter of William the Conqueror, Adela vows her story will be told—once she accomplishes enough. In a world that measures strength by the sword, she must prevail using only the subtler skills eleventh-century women are allowed to wield. First she must prove her worth to her husband’s family, then the world writ large and, finally, most importantly, to herself.
Set amid the turbulent courts of Normandy and Blois at the turn of the twelfth century, Adela of Normandy follows a king’s daughter who learns to rule through diplomacy, faith, and the art of persuasion rather than force. As her crusader husband departs for the Holy Land, Adela confronts betrayal, longing, and the burden of legacy—discovering that power and love are rarely aligned. Rich with political intrigue and emotional depth, her story reclaims the forgotten voice of a woman who shaped history, even as history tried to forget her.
A voracious reader and lifelong lover of history, Donna practiced law for thirty-five years before returning to her first passion—writing. Fascinated by the Norman world of William the Conqueror and his formidable family, she was struck by how little was written of his daughter Adela, beyond the claim she “nagged” her husband to his death. That dismissive footnote became Donna’s spark: to uncover the woman who ruled for nearly three decades, navigated popes and kings, and helped shape the destiny of England and Normandy—proof that history’s margins often hold its most remarkable stories.
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