She was betrothed to another man when King John of England — the villain of the Magna Carta and the Robin Hood legends — saw her and took her for himself. Isabella of Angoulême was perhaps twelve years old, called the most beautiful woman in Europe, and her stolen marriage helped ignite a war that cost John half his kingdom. Widowed, she returned to France, remarried the son of her first betrothed, and raised a second family that plunged England into chaos. This is the story of a queen the chroniclers called a Helen for her own age.

Let her story carry you to sleep — a quiet voice, a slow story, no loud music and no jump scares, just history unfolding gently until you drift off.

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