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Lady Nephele’s Devilry is a 5-volume story of Elizabeth of Bosnia, a courageous young woman who never gave up her struggle to find self-agency in a political and religious culture that allotted to women only three roles: slave, whore, or saint. Jelisaveta Kotromanic was a Bosnian krstjani Princess born in 1339 and sent to Hungary against her will when she was 11 years old, to become its next queen, the second wife of King Louis of Hungary. Her strong will and independent nature immediately clashed with the Queen Mother’s determination to mold Jelisaveta into a pliable and controllable Christian princess, one who would further the Queen Mother’s agenda of Christianizing and controlling the entire Hungarian Kingdom that included five countries that did not want to be controlled by Hungary and three countries that did not want to become Christian.

Princess Jelisaveta threatened suicide if she could not take her young friend and tutor Nephele with her to Hungary. Nephele was the daughter of a Greek nobleman who had raised her to become a polymath, a person learned in all subjects. Nephele was four years younger than Jelisaveta, but wiser in the ways of the world. She remained steadfast by Jelisaveta’s side for life, first because of a sacred oath demanded by Jelisaveta, and later because Nephele recognized that she wanted to live her life in the orbit of Jelisaveta’s brilliance, no matter how challenging that was. The challenges were many.