In The Cross and the Crown Series, Sarah Kennedy Tells the Story of Former Nuns During the Time of Henry VIII

When Renaissance scholar and poet Sarah Kennedy began researching the fates of nuns under Henry VIII, she didn’t imagine that the record would be virtually non-existent . . . and that it would take an act of imagination to bring these women to life. Like Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies and Phillipa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance, Sarah Kennedy’s acclaimed The Cross and the Crown series retells the Tudor history that we all think we know. Each title in the series can be read as a stand-alone.

The King’s Sisters continues the story of former nun, Catherine Havens, who later married. It’s now 1542, and she is a wealthy widow with two children, a boy who has successfully joined the young Prince Edward’s household and a daughter who lives with her at Richmond Palace, home to Henry’s cast-off fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, who is now designated “The King’s Beloved Sister.” Catherine also enjoys the attentions of Benjamin Davies, a widower with large properties near London, and in the newly festive court atmosphere, she has furtively indulged her passion for him.

But suddenly the girl queen Catherine Howard is convicted of adultery and treason. She is beheaded, and in the wake of her death, the atmosphere of England changes yet again. Courtiers become suspicious of each other, and the king, deep in melancholy, questions the faith and loyalty of those around him. Anne of Cleves hopes for reinstatement as queen—until questions are asked about the finances of the houses she keeps and the ladies who serve her. Catherine, as one of the King’s “reformed sisters,” is singled out, and she will have to use all of her wits to stay alive and to protect her two living children, as well as the one she secretly and illegally carries. In a world where love is labelled a sin and error is called heresy, will Catherine follow the rule of English law or her conscience and her heart?

Sarah Kennedy holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance Literature from Purdue University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. The author of seven books of poems as well as The Altarpiece and City of Ladies, books one and two in The Cross and the Crown series, she has received individual artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts, as well as an award for scholarship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She teaches at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia. Her website is http://sarahkennedybooks.com/.