Description
The history of women in medieval Wales before the English conquest of 1282 is one largely shrouded in mystery This misfortune touches even the most wellknown royal woman of the time Joan of England d 1237 the wife of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd illegitimate daughter of King John and halfsister to Henry III With evidence of her hand in thwarting a full scale English invasion of Wales to a notorious scandal that ended with the public execution of her supposed lover by her husband and her own imprisonment Joans is a known but littletold or understood story defined by family turmoil divided loyalties and political intrigue
From the time her hand was promised in marriage as the result of the first WelshEnglish alliance in 1201 to the end of her life Joans place in the political wranglings between England and the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd was a fundamental one This firstever account of Siwan as she was known to the Welsh interweaves the details of her life and relationships with a gendered reassessment of AngloWelsh politics by highlighting her involvement in affairs discussing events in which she may well have been involved but have gone unrecorded and her overall deployment of royal female agency
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