In all of England in the year 1086 C.E., only one woman was working as a court jester. Her name was Adelina, and we know about her because she appears in the Domesday Book, the compendium of the English people and their property commissioned by William the Conqueror. However, we know little about her, except that she was employed by Earl Roger de Montgomery, and she owned land in her own name. Adelina’s possible life as a jester, her connection to Earl Roger and his participation in the Rebellion of 1088, and how she may have come to own her land form the basis for the plot of Adelina the Jester.