Aliena

Aliena turns down William Hamleigh as a husband, and his family never forgets the insult. Soon after, Earl Bartholomew is arrested for backing Maud against King Stephen, and the Hamleighs take the earldom. William takes a violent revenge on her. Aliena and her younger brother Richard are left with no home, no title and no money.

In episode 3, Aliena begs King Stephen for her father's life, but Bartholomew is executed. Stephen offers Richard a knighthood, and Aliena takes on the job of funding her brother's fight to win back the earldom. The girl from court becomes the head of the family.

In Kingsbridge, with Prior Philip's backing, Aliena buys wool from the peasants and sells it on to merchants. The business grows, giving her an independence rare for a woman of her time. In town she meets Jack, Tom Builder's stepson, a young man who carves stone like no one else, and the two fall in love.

Even though she loves Jack, Aliena ends up married to Alfred, Tom's son and Jack's lifelong rival. The marriage is unhappy from the start. Still, in episode 5, when Alfred is drowning in a lake, she's the one who goes into the water to save him.

William never leaves Aliena alone. The Hamleighs keep attacking Kingsbridge and her business, and William's mother, Regan, manipulates her son and husband to grab everything. Aliena learns to fight back with what she has: money, allies like Philip and a patience her enemies don't expect from a girl raised in a castle. Every time she loses, she starts over from scratch.

Aliena and Jack end up together and have a son. At the final trial, when William lunges at her, the crowd holds him back, and William is the one who ends up on the gallows meant for Jack. Richard finally has a clear path.

Hayley Atwell, the show's Aliena, became Marvel's Peggy Carter the next year in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).