The Anarchy, page 32
Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd ap Cynan, Nest’s sister-in-law, did lead a Welsh contingent into battle against the Normans at Kidwelly in 1136 and was defeated and beheaded. Andrew Breeze has argued that Gwenllian was the author of the ‘Four Branches of the Mabinogi’. The stories appear to map loosely onto geographies and histories in Deheubarth. Other scholars have not agreed with Breeze’s hypothesis. See Matthew Francis’ The Mabinogi for a beautiful poetic interpretation of the stories, which may have been written by Gwenllian.
There is no record of who murdered Gwenllian’s husband and Nest’s brother Gruffudd ap Rhys in 1137. In 1143, Gruffudd’s son Anarawd was murdered by a band of Cadwaladr’s men and Cadwaladr, who aspired to rule Ceredigion, was exiled by his brother, Owain.
Nest’s nephews, Cadell, Maredudd, and Rhys, seized several castles from the Normans in 1146, including Llansteffan. In 1149, Cadwaladr was driven out of Ceredigion, but that was not the end of his trouble-making. In 1151, Cadell was ambushed near Tenby and left for dead. Cadwaladr may have been to blame again on this occasion. Cadell’s injuries were so severe that his brothers Maredudd and Rhys had to assume rule of Deheubarth. In 1152, Cadwaladr was exiled to England by his brother Owain and moved to the court of Earl Ranulf de Gernon of Chester. Cadell, meanwhile, went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1153.
Among the real-life Normans who appear in this story, Waleran de Meulan went on pilgrimage to Compostella in 1144 and accompanied the king of France on crusade in 1146. Returning from crusade, Waleran was shipwrecked near the mouth of the Rhone, but survived. During the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Maud, Ranulf de Gernon changed sides on several occasions and was not trusted by either.
Geoffrey d’Anjou was recognised as duke of Normandy in 1144. He succeeded in gaining papal favour (no doubt through substantial bribes) for his son’s bid for the English throne in 1147. In 1148, Maud gave up the struggle for England to her son, Henry FitzEmpress, and returned to Normandy permanently.
King Louis and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, returned from crusade in 1149 when Eleanor made an unsuccessful attempt to have her marriage to the French king annulled. Geoffrey d’Anjou and Henry FitzEmpress were in Paris successfully lobbying Louis to accept Henry as duke of Normandy and Henry met Eleanor, for the first time, during this visit. In 1150, Henry FitzEmpress became duke of Normandy at the age of seventeen, and soon after, Geoffrey d’Anjou died and Henry also became count of Anjou. On 21 March 1152 Eleanor’s marriage to Louis, which had produced no male heirs, was finally annulled, and, on the 18 May, Henry FitzEmpress and Eleanor of Aquitaine were married in Poitiers Cathedral. Eleanor was ten years older than Henry. The marriage enabled Henry to add the rich domain of Aquitaine to his extensive territory.
Civil war between the forces of King Stephen and Henry FitzEmpress continued in a desultory fashion. In 1152, the archbishop of Canterbury refused Stephen’s request to anoint his son Eustace as junior king. His queen, Matilda of Boulogne, died in that year. 1153 was a bad year for King Stephen. He was fifty-seven years old and was wounded three times; his son Eustace died suddenly and his other son, William, broke his thigh in a riding accident. Many parts of England had been devastated by years of civil war and even the hyper-aggressive Norman barons wearied of the conflict. In November 1153, at Winchester, King Stephen and Henry FitzEmpress agreed Henry would become king on Stephen’s death, and this was ratified in a charter Stephen issued at Westminster in December.
In 1153, while Ranulf de Gernon was a guest at the house of William Peverel the Younger, his host attempted to kill him with poisoned wine. Three of his men, who had drunk the wine, died, while Ranulf suffered agonising pain. Ranulf succumbed to the poison on 16 December 1153. Some historians have speculated that Peverel and Ranulf’s wife Matilda (the daughter of Nest’s foster-sister Mabel in this novel) were lovers and that she was also implicated in the murder.
King Stephen died on 25 October 1154, and Henry and Eleanor were crowned king and queen of England on 19 December 1154. Henry’s mother, Empress Maud, continued to give him advice throughout her long life and died in Normandy in 1167. Despite the lack of male heirs resulting from Eleanor’s previous marriage to the French king, she and King Henry II had five sons and three daughters.
Nest’s youngest nephew, Rhys ap Gruffudd, regained most of the kingdom of Deheubarth and Ceredigion from the Normans and was one of the most successful and powerful Welsh princes in the late twelfth century. Cadwaladr was reinstated as a prince of Wales in Gwynedd in 1157 by King Henry II. In 1158, Rhys had to do homage to King Henry II, and when Henry invaded Deheubarth in 1163, Rhys was stripped of his lands and briefly imprisoned. In 1165, Rhys made an alliance with King Owain of Gwynedd. King Henry II’s second invasion of Wales failed, and Rhys was able to take back his kingdom. He made a major assault on Cardigan and captured the castellan, who was Nest’s son Robert FitzStephen, the son of Stephen de Marais, and Rhys’ cousin. After the death of King Owain of Gwynedd in 1170, Rhys was the dominant power in Wales. Rhys took a lesson from Cadwaladr and adopted Norman clothes and integrated with his Norman neighbours. Several of his children were married to Normans. Cadwaladr died in 1172. After a very long illness, Cadell died in 1175 at Strata Florida Abbey, which was established by his brother Rhys. Rhys made peace with King Henry II and ruled Deheubarth until his death in 1197. He was buried at Saint David’s Cathedral.
Today, you can visit many of the castle sites that featured in Nest’s story, including Pembroke, Carew, Cilgerran, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Kidwelly, Dinefwr and Cardiff. It is not known where Nest ferch Rhys is buried, but the spectacular ruin of Llansteffan Castle on a headland overlooking the triple river estuary of Carmarthen Bay, which first inspired me to write the Conquest novels, seems a fitting memorial to her extraordinary life.
Afterword
The epigraph for Part One is an extract from Dafydd ap Gwilym’s poem, ‘Yr Wylan’ (‘To the Sea-gull’), which was written in the mid-fourteenth century and is, therefore, anachronistic in this story of the twelfth century. The translation is by Robert Gurney (1969, p. 130).
Gwenllian’s tale in Chapter 10 is a paraphrase of ‘The First Branch of the Mabinogi’ from The Mabinogion (2007).
The epigraph for Part Two is from St Augustine’s Sermons on New Testament Lessons (Sermon 1, verse 23).
Haith’s poet who writes that ‘a jewel grows pale on you and a crown does not shine’ in Chapter 18 is Henry of Huntingdon, cited in Weir, 2011, p. 188.
The translated extract of a poem by Hermann of Reichenau in Chapter 22 is from Peter Dronke’s book on the medieval lyric (1996, p. 45).
The image of a renegade nun kissing the defleshed skeleton of her lover in Chapter 25 is a quotation from a letter written by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury to Gunhild of Wessex, the daughter of King Harold, who left Wilton Abbey to live out of wedlock with Alan Rufus, Lord of Richmond (Southern, 1963, cited in Weir, 2017, p. 111).
The epigraph for Part Three is from Alfred Tennyson’s ‘The Princess’.
The epigraph for Part Four, lamenting the loss of King Henry I, is from Henry of Huntingdon’s Historia Anglorum and is available in the Medieval Sourcebook.
Several phrases here and there have been lifted from Matilda of Scotland’s lively correspondence with Archbishop Anselm, quoted in Weir, 2017.
Some of Amelina’s adages come from The Physicians of Myddvai.
Breri’s songs are extracts from the Welsh poetry of the Fairly Early Poets (as they are known), translated by the Celtic Literature Collective and derived from The Black Book of Carmarthen, The Book of Taliesin, The Red Book of Hergest and the Hendregadredd Manuscript, which are digitised and available online through the National Library of Wales and the Bodleian Library, Oxford and available in translation in the Celtic Literature Collective.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Medieval manuscripts including The Black Book of Carmarthen, The Book of Taliesin, and the Hendregadredd Manuscript, National Library of Wales, https://www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/manuscripts/the-middle-ages/.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Written ninth–twelfth century. Michael Swanton transl. (2000) London: Phoenix Press.
Brut y Tywysogion (Chronicle of the Princes). Written 681–1282. Thomas Jones transl. (1953) Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru.
Celtic Literature Collective, http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/clyweid.html
Epistolae: Medieval Women’s Latin Letters. Joan Ferrante transl. (2014). Available online: https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/
The Mabinogion. Written c. 1060–1120. Davies, Sioned, transl. (2007) Oxford: Oxford University Press. (And see Matthew Francis below.)
Medieval Sourcebook, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/henry-hunt1.asp
The Physicians of Myddvai, medical advice dating from the thirteenth century, some of which appeared in the MS The Red Book of Hergest. Collected and published by John Pughe in 1861.
The Red Book of Hergest, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
FitzStephen, William, Norman London. Written around 1183. Essay by Sir Frank Stenton & Introduction by F. Donald Logan (1990) New York: Italica Press.
Gerald of Wales, The Itinerary Through Wales and the Description of Wales. Written 1191 and 1194. Lewis Thorpe, transl. (1978), Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, c. 1154. Diana Greenway, ed. & transl. (1996) A History of the English People 1000-1154, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Henry of Huntingdon, The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon. Thomas Forester, transl. (1853/1876) London: Henry G. Bohn; London: George Bell and Sons, 1876, pp. 400–409; reprinted in Archibald R. Lewis, ed. (1970) The High Middle Ages, 814–1300, Englewood Cliffs; NJ: Prentice-Hall. Available online: Medieval Sourcebook, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/henry-hunt1.asp.
Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica. Written 1123–1141. Marjorie Chibnall, ed. & transl. (1969–1980) The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, Oxford Medieval Texts, 6 vol. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum. Written 1125–1142. R.A.B Mynors, R.M Thomson, M. Winterbottom, eds. & transl. (1998–1999) The History of the English Kings, Oxford Medieval Texts, 2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press.
* * *
Secondary Sources
Dictionary of Welsh Biography, https://biography.wales
Bradbury, Jim (1996) Stephen and Matilda: The Civil War of 1139–53, Stroud: Sutton.
Breeze, Andrew (2009) The Origins of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, Leominster: Gracewing.
Cawley, Charles (2014) Medieval Lands, http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/Search.htm
Chibnall, Marjorie (1993) The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and the Lady of the English. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Crouch, David (2008) The Beaumont Twins: The Roots and Branches of Power in the Twelfth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dronke, Peter (1996) The Medieval Lyric, Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer.
Erler, Mary & Kowaleski, Maryanne, eds. (2003) Gendering the Master Narrative: Women and Power in the Middle Ages, London: Cornell Press.
Francis, Matthew (2017) The Mabinogi, London: Faber & Faber.
Green, Judith A. (2009) Henry I King of England and Duke of Normandy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Green, Judith A. (1986) The Government of England under Henry I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gurney, Robert, ed. (1969) Bardic Heritage, London: Chatto & Windus.
Hingst, Amanda Jane (2009) The Written World: Past and Place in the Work of Orderic Vitalis, Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Indiana Press.
Hollister, C. Warren (2001) Henry I, New Haven/London: Yale University Press.
John, Susan (1995) ‘The wives and widows of the Earl of Chester 1100–1252’, Haskins Journal, 7, pp. 117–132.
Kealey, Edward J. (1972) Roger of Salisbury: Viceroy of England, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lacey, Robert (2003) Great Tales from English History, vol. 1, London: Little, Brown.
McDougall, Sara (2017) Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pryce, Huw (2008) ‘The Normans in Welsh History’, Anglo-Norman Studies, vol. 30, pp. 1–18.
Richards, Gwyneth (2009) Welsh Noblewomen in the 13th Century, Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press.
Truax, J. A. (2009) ‘All roads lead to Chartres: The House of Blois, the Papacy, and the Anglo-Norman succession of 1135’, Anglo-Norman Studies, vol. 30, pp. 118–134.
Turvey, Roger (2013) Owain Gwynedd: Prince of the Welsh, Talybont, Ceredigion: Y Lolfa.
Ward, J. C. (1988) ‘Royal service and reward: The Clare family and the crown, 1066–1154’, Anglo-Norman Studies, vol. 11, pp. 261–278.
Weir, Alison (2017) Queens of the Conquest: England’s Medieval Queens 1066–1167, London: Vintage.
* * *
See my blog:
* * *
https://traceywarrwriting.com
* * *
for posts and further information on my research.
Acknowledgements
I lived for several years in Pembrokeshire near many of the Welsh and Norman castles and places mentioned in the Conquest series. Walks around the Carmarthen Bay estuary with its triple river estuary and the ruins of Llansteffan Castle looming on the cliff-top were a major inspiration for these novels. I am very grateful to Literature Wales for awarding me a Writer’s Bursary.
Thanks to Bob Smillie, my muse who keeps me company through the ups and downs of writing and life in general. I am very grateful to my daughter Lola Warr. She is an inspiration when writing about strong women and brilliant mothers. Countless thanks to all my supportive family and friends.
I am grateful to my writing buddies who have been such good critical friends, especially Jack Turley, Marieke Ponsteen, Sara Perry, Orlando Hill and Julie Turley, and the Laguepie Writers: Tim Smith, Ann Hebert, Denise Gibbs, Gary Amphlett, Peggy Lee and Madeleine Hall. I am very grateful to Richard Willis, the founder of Impress Books, who was my first editor and encourager. Thank you to Sophie Evans, who worked as a research intern with me. I’m grateful to Jeff Collyer, Ellie Daniels and the team at Aelurus who published the first edition of this novel.
And finally, immense thanks to the readers of my books. It is always exciting to hear about other people’s experiences of living through the world of a book.
About the Author
Tracey Warr was born in London, lived in southwest Wales and now lives in southern France. The castles and landscapes of Wales and France inspire her historical fiction. She is the author of five historical novels set in medieval Europe and centred on strong female leads. She draws on old maps, chronicles, poems and objects to create fictional worlds for readers to step into. Her writing awards include an Author’s Foundation Award, a Literature Wales Writer’s Bursary, the Rome Film Festival Book Initiative and a Santander Research Award. Before becoming a full-time writer she worked as a contemporary art curator and art history academic.
You can sign up for the author’s quarterly newsletter, Meandering, at https://meandabooks.com and follow her blog at https://traceywarrwriting.com
Also by Tracey Warr
HISTORICAL FICTION
Conquest I: Daughter of the Last King
Conquest II: The Drowned Court
The Viking Hostage
Almodis the Peaceweaver
* * *
FUTURE FICTION
The Water Age and Other Fictions
Meanda (French)
Tracey Warr, The Anarchy
