Joan of Ingleheim

Joan of Ingleheim is daughter of the Canon of Ingleheim and his wife, Gudrun, a Saxon heathen he rescues when he is a missionary. Joan is their youngest child, and outlives her two older brothers, as well as her parents. Being an extremely bright and resourceful person, Joan manages to save herself from a Viking attack by disguising herself as a man. Giving up her feminine identity, Joan finds it easier to attain the learning she craves and becomes involved in the world. After serving time as a monk, a priest, physician to the Pope and nomenclator, Joan, as John Anglicus, is elected to the seat of Pope, where she reigns in Rome until her death. Joan's longterm love affair with Count Gerold lives in Joan's heart throughout her life, but they are able to be together as man and woman only once, resulting in Joan's...