Kathleen asked Nancy Bilyeau:

How accurate his the other of The Chice? I mean, was there really that kind of necromancer going on in Tudor England?

Nancy Bilyeau Hi Kathleen: I'm sorry I haven't seen this question until now. Goodreads doesn't alert me when I have questions. I just discovered your query today! In response, there was a tremendous amount of interest and belief in prophecy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Elizabeth Barton, who is a minor but pivotal character in the book, based her warnings about Henry VIII on prophecy. She was a guiding influence on Gertrude Courtenay, as I write about in The Chalice. Elizabeth I chose her coronation date based on the advice of John Dee, a seer who was in league with necromancer Edward Kelley, who said he could communicate with the dead using the same methods as in The Chalice. Books of prophecy were popular. I took practices that were going on in the 16th century and used my imagination to come up with the plot of The Chalice.

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