Joan, Princess of Wales and Lady of Snowdon, (c. 1188 – February 2, 1237) was the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales and Gwynedd and effective ruler of most of Wales.
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Early life
Joan was an illegitimate daughter of King John of England and a woman named Clemence. She should not be confused with her legitimate half-sister Joan, Queen Consort of Scotland. Little is known about her early life; she was possibly born before her father, King John of England, married his first wife in 1189. Her mother's name is known only from Joan's obituary in the Tewkesbury Annals, where she is mysteriously called "Regina Clementina" (Queen Clemence). Joan seems to have spent her childhood in France, as King John had her brought to the Kingdom of England from Normandy in preparation for her wedding in December 1203 at 15 years of age or so.
Marriage
Joan married Llywelyn the Great between December 1203 and October 1204. She and Llywelyn had at least two children together:
- Elen ferch Llywelyn (Helen or Ellen) (1207-1253), married (1) John the Scot, Earl of Chester and (2) Robert II de Quincy
- Dafydd ap Llywelyn (1208-1246) married Isabella de Broase, died at Garth Celyn, Aber Garth Celyn, (Aber).
Some of Llywelyn's other recorded children may also have been Joan's:
- Gwladus Ddu (1206-1251), married (1) Reginald de Braose and (2) Ralph de Mortimer.
- Susanna, who was sent to England as a hostage in 1228.
In April 1226 Joan obtained a papal decree from Pope Honorius III, declaring her legitimate on the basis that her parents had not been married to others at the time of her birth, but without giving her a claim to the English throne.
Adultery with William de Braose
At Easter 1230, William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny, who was Llywelyn's nominal prisoner at the time, was discovered together with Joan in Llywelyn's bedchamber. William de Braose was hanged in the marshland at the foot of Garth Celyn, the place known since as Gwern y Grog. Joan herself was placed out of public view, under virtual house arrest, at Garth Celyn, for twelve months after the incident. She may have given birth to a daughter early in 1231 . Joan was never called Princess of Wales, but, in Welsh, "Lady of Wales". She died at the royal home, Garth Celyn, Aber Garth Celyn, on the north coast of Gwynedd in 1237. Llywelyn's great grief at her death is recorded; he founded a Franciscan friary on the seashore at Llanfaes, opposite the royal home, in her honour. The friary was consecrated in 1240, shortly before Llywelyn died. It was closed down in 1537 by Henry VIII of England during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Joan's stone coffin can be seen in Beaumaris parish church, Anglesey.
Fiction
- Joan and her affair with William de Braose is the subject of Saunders Lewis's Welsh verse play Siwan.
- Edith Pargeter's novel The Green Branch.
- Sharon Kay Penman's novel Here Be Dragons.
Sources
- Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi I, p. 12.
- Henry Luard. Annales Monastici 1, 1864
- Tewkesbury Annals
- Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 By Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 27-27, 29A-28, 29A-29, 176B-27, 254-28, 254-29
