by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

King Henry I of England, father of Henry FitzRoy; Credit – Wikipedia

Born 1103 or 1105, and certainly by 1109, Henry FitzRoy was the illegitimate son of King Henry I of England and Princess Nest ferch Rhys, a Welsh princess, the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the last king of Deheubarth, and Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn. Through his son Gruffydd ap Rhys, Nest’s father is an ancestor of the House of Tudor. After the death in battle of Nest’s father, the Kingdom of Deheubarth was conquered by the English. As the daughter of the last king of Deheubarth, Nest was a valuable asset and was taken as a hostage to the court of King William II Rufus of England. Although only about fourteen years old at the time, Nest caught the eye of the brother of King William II Rufus, the future King Henry I, and gave birth to his son, Henry FitzRoy. Henry’s surname FitzRoy comes from the Anglo-Norman Fitz, meaning “son of” and Roy, meaning “king”, implying the original bearer of the surname was a child of a king. Henry FitzRoy’s paternal grandparents were King William I of England (the Conqueror) and Matilda of Flanders.

King Henry I holds the record for the British monarch with the most illegitimate children, 25 or so illegitimate children who were Henry FitzRoy’s half-siblings.

Henry FitzRoy’s royal half-siblings, the children of his father King Henry I and his first wife Matilda of Scotland:

• Empress Matilda, Lady of the English (1102 – 1167), married (1) Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor, no children (2) Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, had three sons including King Henry II of England
• William Ætheling, Duke of Normandy (1103 – 1120), married Matilda of Anjou, no children, William Ætheling, King Henry I’s only legitimate son and heir, died in the sinking of the White Ship

Henry FitzRoy also had five half-siblings from his mother’s marriage to Gerald FitzWalter of Windsor:

• William FitzGerald, Lord of Carew and Emlyn (circa 1100 – 1173), married Maria de Montgomery, has twelve children
• Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan, Naas, and Maynooth (circa 1105 – circa 1176), married Alice de Montgomery, had seven children
• David FitzGerald, Archdeacon of Cardigan and Bishop of St David’s (1106 – 1176)
• Angharad FitzGerald (circa 1104 – 1176), married William Fitz Odo de Barry, had five children
• Gwladys FitzGerald (1110 – 1136), married John de Cogan, had one son

Henry FitzRoy was married but his wife’s name is unknown. Henry and his wife had four children:

• Meiler FitzHenry, Justiciar of Ireland (? – 1220), wife’s name is unknown, had at least one daughter
• Robert FitzHenry (? – circa 1180)
• Elizabeth FitzHenry (? – circa 1164)
• Amabilis FitzHenry (? – 1185), married Walter de Riddlesford, I, Baron of Bray, County Wicklow and Kilkea, had two children

The ruins of Narbeth Castle; Credit – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narberth_Castle#/media/File:Narberth_castle_pembrokeshire.jpg:~:text=By%20WestWalesP%20%2D%20Own%20work%20by%20uploader%20as%20Gwala%20Images%2C%20CC%20BY%2DSA%203.0%2C%20https%3A//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php%3Fcurid%3D6894688

Henry FitzRoy was given land in Narberth and Pebidiog in Pembrokeshire, Wales by his father King Henry I, and was considered Lord of Narberth Castle. In 1157, during the reign of his nephew King Henry II of England, Henry FitzRoy led an English expedition to Wales to attack the Welsh forces under Owain Gwynedd, King of Gwynedd. On the Isle of Anglesey off the north-west coast of Wales, Henry’s forces torched the churches in Llanbedrgoch and Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf. During the next night, Owain Gwynedd’s forces gathered and then ambushed and defeated the English army the next morning, killing Henry FitzRoy in “a shower of lances”. His burial site is unknown.

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Works Cited

• Ashley, Mike. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens. Carroll & Graf Publishers.
• Flantzer, Susan. (2015). King Henry I of England. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-henry-i-of-england/
• Henry Fitzroy. geni_family_tree. (2022). https://www.geni.com/people/Henry-FitzRoy/6000000002134174332
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023b). Nest Ferch Rhys. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nest_ferch_Rhys
• Nest Verch Rhys. geni_family_tree. (2022). https://www.geni.com/people/Nest-verch-Rhys/6000000002931039490
• Princess Nest. Historic UK. (2023). https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/Princess-Nest/
• Weir, Alison. (2008). Britain’s Royal Families – The Complete Genealogy. Vintage Books.
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Henry Fitzroy. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_FitzRoy_(died_1158)
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). Henry FitzHenry. Wikipedia (German). https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_FitzHenry