Spanish Woman, The

- Blurb -

The Spanish Woman is a book based on a true story that occurred in the middle of the 17th century. A seventeen year old orphan and noblewoman, Donna Luisa Maria Isabella de Coyos Franchanos, was promised, in an arranged marriage, to Conde Ferdinand de Guadelupe, Spain's first envoy at the Court of the Two Sicilies, an older man whom she had not met. Escorted by her brother, Jaime, and with her maidservant, she boards a sailing ship in Barcelona, Spain, that will deliver , her to her betrothed in Naples, Italy. Following a storm at sea, they are becalmed. A Turkish pirate ship, rowed by dozens of slaves, attacks and boards, taking crew and passengers to either sell as slaves or to ransom to their families. The Turkish captain takes Luisa as his own. Luisa has been ruined. Should she return home, she will be forced to live the rest of her life in seclusion in a convent. She encourages the captain to take her with him to Constantinople, and to marry her. The Sultan is infuriated. Luisa, along with her jewellery, as spoils of piracy, belongs to him. Her husband is imprisoned. Aware she needs protection, Luisa befriends the Sultan's mother. A brave and resourceful woman, Luisa survives many incidents that jeopardise her life in a strange country - the summer plague, the Grand Vizier's and the Sultan's unwanted attentions, bandits' attacks, and an earthquake.