by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Wales was divided into a number of separate kingdoms. The largest of these was Gwynedd in northwest Wales and Powys in east Wales. Gwynedd was the most powerful of the Welsh kingdoms. For one man to rule all of Wales during this period was rare. This was because of the inheritance system practiced in Wales. All sons received an equal share of their father’s property, including illegitimate sons, resulting in the division of territories.

The Principality of Wales was created in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi when it was agreed by Llywelyn the Great and the other Welsh princes that he was the paramount Welsh ruler and the other Welsh princes would pay homage to him. Although he never used the title, Llywelyn was the de facto Prince of Wales. Llywelyn dominated Wales for 45 years and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called “the Great”, the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great. Llywelyn was succeeded by his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn and then by his two grandsons who were the sons of his illegitimate son Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

The campaign of King Edward I of England in Wales (1276 – 1284) resulted in Wales being completely taken over by England. It ended with the deaths of the last two native Princes of Wales: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd who was ambushed and killed in 1282 and his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd, who was the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, in 1283. To ensure there would be no further members of the House of Aberffraw, the English imprisoned Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two young sons for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle and sent his daughter and the daughter of his brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to convents. To further humiliate the Welsh, King Edward I invested his son and heir, the future King Edward II, with the title Prince of Wales. Since then, the title has been granted (with a few exceptions) to the heir apparent of the English or British monarch.

• Unofficial Royalty: Principality of Wales Index

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(Note: In Welsh, “ap” means “son of” and “ferch” means “daughter of”)

Joan (also called Joanna), Lady of Wales was the wife of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, known as Llywelyn the Great, the longest-reigning ruler of the Welsh principalities, maintaining control for 45 years. Llywelyn was Prince of Gwynedd and Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn. In 1216, Llewellyn received the fealty of other Welsh lords and although he never used the title, was the de facto Prince of Wales. Llywelyn was one of two Welsh rulers to be called “the Great”, the other was his ancestor Rhodri the Great.

Joan was the illegitimate daughter of King John of England, the son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the younger brother of King Richard I of England. John had at least seven illegitimate children but Joan was his most noteworthy. It is probable that Joan was born in the Newark and Sherwood District, Nottinghamshire, England but her birth date is unknown. Since Joan gave birth to her first child in 1206, it would be logical to assume that Joan was born no later than around 1192. The identity of Joan’s mother is uncertain. The Tewkesbury Annals, historical notes written in Latin by the Benedictine monks of the Tewkesbury Monastery in Gloucestershire, England, list a “Queen Clementia” as Joan’s mother. The genealogical website Geni identifies Clementia as Clementia d’Arcy, a “concubine” of John, the daughter of Geoffroy d’Arcy and Agnes (no surname), and the wife of Henry Pinel. There are hypotheses that Joan’s mother may have been Agatha Ferrers, daughter of William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby or Sibylla de Braose, daughter of William de Braose, 3rd Lord of Bramber.

Joan’s father King John was married twice – to his second cousin Isabella, 3rd Countess of Gloucester in her own right (no children, marriage annulled) and to Isabella of Angoulême, Countess of Angoulême in her own right. Joan had five half-siblings from her father’s second marriage to Isabella of Angoulême:

• King Henry III of England (1207 – 1272), married Eleanor of Provence, had five children
• Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans (1209 – 1272), married (1) Isabel Marshal, had three sons and a daughter but only one son survived childhood (2) Sanchia of Provence, had two sons but only one survived childhood (3) Beatrice of Falkenburg, no children
• Joan of England (1210 – 1238), married Alexander II, King of Scots, no children
• Isabella of England (1214 – 1241), married Friedrich II, Holy Roman Emperor, had at least four children
• Eleanor of England (1215 – 1275), married (1) William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, no children (2) Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, had seven children

On April 6, 1199, King Richard I, died of gangrene from an arrow wound received while sieging a castle in his French possessions, and John succeeded his childless elder brother as King of England. In 1203, a certain “king’s daughter” was transported to England from Normandy, and it could have been Joan.

Meanwhile, in present-day Wales, in 1194, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth defeated his uncle Dafydd ap Owain at the Battle of Aberconwy. Llywelyn’s victory allowed him to claim the title of Prince of Gwynedd. By 1200, he had united the kingdom under his authority and concluded a treaty with King John of England. To substantiate his position, Llywelyn married Joan in 1205 at St. Werburgh’s Abbey in Chester, Chesire, England. Joan’s illegitimate birth was not an issue. Under Welsh law, illegitimate children recognized by their fathers had equal rights with children born in marriage. In 1226, during a succession issue involving Joan and Llywelyn’s son Dafydd, Pope Honorius III officially declared Joan the legitimate daughter of King John of England.

Llywelyn and Joan definitely had three children but probably had more.

• Gwladus Ddu (1206 – 1251), married (1) Reginald de Braose, no children (2) Ralph de Mortimer, had three sons
• Elen ferch Llywelyn (1207 – 1253), married (1) John the Scot, 9th Earl of Huntingdon and 7th Earl of Chester, no children (2) Sir Robert de Quincy, had one daughter Hawise whose granddaughter Margaret Wake was the mother of Joan, 4th Countess of Kent, the first English Princess of Wales and the mother of King Richard II of England
• Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd, Prince of Wales (circa 1212 – 1246), married Isabella de Braose, no children

Some of Llywelyn’s other recorded children may also have been Joan’s:

• Susanna (? – after 1228), was sent to England as a hostage in 1228
• Elen the Younger ferch Llywelyn (before 1230 – after 1295), married (1) Máel Coluim II, Earl of Fife, had two sons (2) Domhnall I, Earl of Mar, had five children (Elen and Domhall’s daughter Isabella of Mar married Robert the Bruce, King of Scots who had one child Marjorie Bruce, the mother of the first Stewart monarch, Robert II, King of Scots.)
• Angharad ferch Llywelyn (? – 1260) married Maelgwn Fychan of Deheubarth, had four children
• Marared ferch Llywelyn (? – after 1268) married (1) Sir John de Braose, had three sons (2) Sir Walter de Clifford, had one daughter

Joan often acted as a mediator between her husband and her father but despite this, hostilities between Wales and England broke out in 1210. Wales was invaded and some territory was lost. However, the lost territories were regained in 1212, and over the next several years, Llywelyn gained more Welsh territory. Llywelyn had established himself as the leader of the independent princes of Wales. In 1216, Llywelyn held a council at Aberdyfi to determine the territorial claims of the lesser Welsh princes, who affirmed their homage and allegiance to him. Llywelyn was now the de facto Prince of Wales.

In 1216, after the death of her father King John of England, Joan maintained a good relationship with her half-brother King Henry III of England. Joan and Henry III met in person in September 1224 in Worcester, England, and again in the fall of 1228 in Shrewsbury, England. On October 13, 1229, at Westminster, Joan and her son Dafydd, acting as representatives of Llywelyn, took an oath of fealty to King Henry III of England. Henry III granted his half-sister the manor of Rothley in Leicestershire, England, and the manor of Condover in Shropshire, England. However, in 1228 these manors were confiscated.

In 1229, Joan was found in her bedchamber with her son’s father-in-law William de Braose who was accused of being her lover and publicly hanged in 1230. Joan was imprisoned for a short time but was later released by her husband, who was genuinely fond of her.

Joan, Lady of Wales died in 1237, probably in her mid-40s, at Aber Garth Celyn, the royal palace in Abergwyngregyn, on the northeast coast of Wales. She was buried in Llanfaes on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where Llywelyn founded the Llanfaes Friary in her memory which was destroyed in 1537 by King Henry VIII of England during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. A stone coffin originally identified as Joan’s can be seen in St Mary’s and St Nicholas’s Church in Beaumaris, Isle of Anglesey in Wales.

Joan’s husband Llywelyn suffered a stroke the same year that Joan died and thereafter his son and heir Dafydd took an increasing role in the rule of the Principality of Wales. On April 11, 1240, Llywelyn, probably in his mid to late 60s, died and was buried at the Aberconwy Abbey in Aberconwy, Wales which he had founded.

Joan, Llywelyn, and their family are among the characters in the late Sharon Penman‘s wonderful historical fiction trilogy, The Welsh Trilogy (The Reckoning, Falls the Shadow, and Here Be Dragons which is centered on the marriage of Llywelyn and Joan, called Joanna in the books). Sharon Penman’s research was impeccable and this writer learned much about Welsh history by reading the three novels.

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Works Cited

• Clementia Pinel, Concubine #2 of John “Lackland” of England. geni_family_tree. (2022). https://www.geni.com/people/Clementia-Pinel-Concubine-2-of-John-Lackland-of-England/6000000001745046232
• Flantzer, Susan. (2016). King John of England. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-john-of-england/
• Flantzer, Susan. (2015). Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great). Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/llywelyn-ap-iorwerth-llywelyn-fawrllywelyn-the-great/
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Джоанна Уэльская (Joan of Wales). Wikipedia (Russia). https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%A3%D1%8D%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). Лливелин ап Иорверт (Llywelyn ap Iorwerth). Wikipedia Russian. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD_%D0%B0%D0%BF_%D0%98%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82