Joan, Lady of Wales

Joan, Lady of Wales PDF Author: Danna R Messer
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526729326
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
The history of women in medieval Wales before the English conquest of 1282 is one largely shrouded in mystery. For the Age of Princes, an era defined by ever-increased threats of foreign hegemony, internal dynastic strife and constant warfare, the comings and goings of women are little noted in sources. This misfortune touches even the most well-known royal woman of the time, Joan of England (d. 1237), the wife of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd, illegitimate daughter of King John and half-sister 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, Joan’s is a known, but little-told 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 Welsh-English alliance in 1201 to the end of her life, Joan’s place in the political wranglings between England and the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd was a fundamental one. As the first woman to be designated Lady of Wales, her role as one a political diplomat in early thirteenth-century Anglo-Welsh relations was instrumental. This first-ever account of Siwan, as she was known to the Welsh, interweaves the details of her life and relationships with a gendered re-assessment of Anglo-Welsh 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.

Joan of Kent

Joan of Kent PDF Author: Penny Lawne
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445644711
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 610

Book Description
The story of the beautiful wife of the Black Prince and mother of Richard II.

Here Be Dragons

Here Be Dragons PDF Author: Sharon Kay Penman
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1429922990
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 718

Book Description
Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king's beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales---and Llewelyn---Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie. The turbulent clashes of two disparate worlds and the destinies of the individuals caught between them spring to life in this magnificent novel of power and passion, loyalty and lies. The book that began the trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.

Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England

Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England PDF Author: Mrs Joan Perkin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134985630
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Book Description
The 'bonds of matrimony' describes with cruel precision the social and political status of married women in the nineteenth century. Women of all classes had only the most limited rights of possession in their own bodies and property yet, as this remarkable book shows, women of all classes found room to manoeuvre within the narrow limits imposed on them. Upper-class women frequently circumvented the onerous limitations of the law, while middle-class women sought through reform to change their legal status. For working-class women, such legal changes were irrelevant, but they too found ways to ameliorate their position. Joan Perkin demonstrates clearly in this outstanding book, full of human insights, that women were not content to remain inferior or subservient to men.

Towton 1461

Towton 1461 PDF Author: Andrew Boardman
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 075099987X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
Palm Sunday 1461 was the date of a ruthless and bitterly contested battle, fought by two massive medieval armies on an exposed Yorkshire plateau for the prize of the crown of England. This singular engagement of the Wars of the Roses has acquired the auspicious title of the longest, biggest and bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil. But what drove the contending armies of York and Lancaster to fight at Towton and what is the truth behind the legends about this terrible encounter, where contemporaries record that the rivers ran red with blood? Andrew Boardman answers these questions and many more in the new updated edition of his classic account of Towton which provides a fascinating insight into the reality of the battlefield. The Battle of Towton is illustrated throughout with contemporary illustrations, modern photographs and specially drawn maps.

King John

King John PDF Author: Marc Morris
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1605988863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
King John is one of those historical characters who needs little in the way of introduction. If readers are not already familiar with him as the tyrant whose misgovernment gave rise to Magna Carta, we remember him as the villain in the stories of Robin Hood. Formidable and cunning, but also cruel, lecherous, treacherous and untrusting. Twelve years into his reign, John was regarded as a powerful king within the British Isles. But despite this immense early success, when he finally crosses to France to recover his lost empire, he meets with disaster. John returns home penniless to face a tide of criticism about his unjust rule. The result is Magna Carta – a ground-breaking document in posterity, but a worthless piece of parchment in 1215, since John had no intention of honoring it. Like all great tragedies, the world can only be put to rights by the tyrant’s death. John finally obliges at Newark Castle in October 1216, dying of dysentery as a great gale howls up the valley of the Trent.

Thirteenth Century England X

Thirteenth Century England X PDF Author: Michael Prestwich
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 9781843831228
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
Aspects of the political, social, cultural, economic and ecclesiastical history of medieval England re-examined. This collection presents new and original research into the long thirteenth century, from c.1180-c.1330, with a particular focus on the reign of Edward II and its aftermath. Other topics examined include crown finances, markets and fairs, royal stewards, the aftermath of the Barons' War, Wace's Roman de Brut, and authority in Yorkshire nunneries; and the volume also follows the tradition of the series by looking beyond England, with contributions onthe role of Joan, wife of Llywelyn the Great in Anglo-Welsh relations, Dublin, and English landholding in Ireland, while the continental connection is represented by a comparison of aspects of English and French kingship. Contributors: David Carpenter, Nick Barratt, Emilia Jamroziak, Michael Ray, Susan Stewart, Louise J. Wilkinson, Sean Duffy, Beth Hartland, Francoise Le Saux, Henry Summerson, Janet Burton, H.S.A. Fox, David Crook, Margo Todd, Seymour Phillips

The Last King of Wales

The Last King of Wales PDF Author: Michael Davies
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752479237
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Book Description
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn was Wales' greatest king. Ambitious and battle-sure, he succeeded in doing what no Welsh king before him was capable of: he ruled all Wales as a united and independent state. He went further by turning the Viking threat to his realm into a powerful weapon and conquering border land that had been in English hands for centuries. Having emerged as a war leader, Gruffudd also proved to be much more: a patron of the arts and church, with the trappings of a king who was respected and feared on the European stage. His eventual murder at the hands of his own men narrowed the country's political ambitions and left Wales in chaos on the eve of the arrival of the Normans. Those who betrayed Gruffudd were the forebears of the famous princes who would dominate Wales until the Edwardian Conquest, meaning that the former king left no one to tell of his glory. As a result, 1,000 years after his birth, the would-be nation builder is all but forgotten. Here, Sean and Michael Davies reveal the king in all his glory, telling for the first time the story of one of Wales' greatest figures and exploring the full implications of Gruffudd's rule. For, without Gruffudd, the fate of King Harold and the outcome of the Battle of Hastings would have been very different...

Joan, Lady of Wales

Joan, Lady of Wales PDF Author: Danna R. Messer
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 152672930X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
The first account of the life of the illegitimate daughter of King John of England and wife of Llwelyn the Great of Gwynedd. The history of women in medieval Wales before the English conquest of 1282 is one largely shrouded in mystery. For the Age of Princes, an era defined by ever-increased threats of foreign hegemony, internal dynastic strife and constant warfare, the comings and goings of women are little noted in sources. This misfortune touches even the most well-known royal woman of the time, Joan of England (d. 1237), the wife of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd, illegitimate daughter of King John and half-sister 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, Joan’s is a known, but little-told 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 Welsh-English alliance in 1201 to the end of her life, Joan’s place in the political wranglings between England and the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd was a fundamental one. As the first woman to be designated Lady of Wales, her role as one a political diplomat in early thirteenth-century Anglo-Welsh relations was instrumental. This first-ever account of Siwan, as she was known to the Welsh, interweaves the details of her life and relationships with a gendered re-assessment of Anglo-Welsh 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. Praise for Joan, Lady of Wales “A seminal, original, and ground-breaking work of simply outstanding scholarship.” —Midwest Book Review

Ladies of Magna Carta

Ladies of Magna Carta PDF Author: Sharon Bennett Connolly
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526745267
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
An innovative take on Magna Carta history that examines the impact and influence of women. 39. No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. This clause in Magna Carta was in response to the appalling imprisonment and starvation of Matilda de Braose, the wife of one of King John’s barons. Matilda was not the only woman who influenced, or was influenced by, the 1215 Charter of Liberties, now known as Magna Carta. Women from many of the great families of England were affected by the far-reaching legacy of Magna Carta, from their experiences in the civil war and as hostages, to calling on its use to protect their property and rights as widows. Ladies of Magna Carta looks into the relationships—through marriage and blood—of the various noble families and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta, and its aftermath—the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. Including the royal families of England and Scotland, the Marshals, the Warennes, the Braoses, and more, Ladies of Magna Carta focuses on the roles played by the women of the great families whose influences and experiences have reached far beyond the thirteenth century.