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| ISBN-13: | 9780752486918 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2007 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 800 KB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
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Princess Nest of Wales
Seductress of the English
By Kari Maund
The History Press
Copyright © 2012 Kari MaundAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-8691-8
CHAPTER 1
NEST'S WALES
Nest of Deheubarth was born at a crossroads in the history of Wales. Had her birth occurred as little as twenty years earlier, it is likely that her name would be no more to us now than a brief note in an old genealogical manuscript – someone's mother, someone's wife. But she was born in a time and place where everything was changing in Wales for men and women alike, and those changes were to bring her to the attention of an English king, an influential nobleman, a swashbuckling Welsh rebel, and to lead to at least some aspects of her life being recorded for posterity.
Early medieval Wales was in many aspects conservative, and, although its internal politics were dynamic and often dramatic, Welsh events had, up until the middle of the eleventh century, only intermittently drawn the attention or interest of their English neighbours. Although the country was much the same shape, geographically, at that time as it is now, its political map was considerably different. It was divided into several fiercely independent kingdoms, each with their own native ruling house. The number of these varied from period-to-period, as kings warred with one another, annexed or lost territories, allied, intermarried and schemed, but by Nest's time the major units were Gwynedd, in the north-west; Powys, in the northeast; Deheubarth, in the south-west; and Morgannwg, in the south-east. Nest's father, Rhys ap Tewdwr, was king of Deheubarth, then a land of good arable and grazing, forests and notable fishing resources. Its core land was the ancient kingdom of Dyfed, to which earlier kings had annexed the neighbouring territories of Ystrad Twyi, and, intermittently, Gower and Ceredigion. Nest's grandson, the writer and clergyman Gerald of Wales, was born and brought up in southern Deheubarth, in what is now Pembrokeshire, and retained a life-long love of the land. Writing in the last decades of the twelfth century, he described it as, '... a region rich in wheat, with fish from the sea and plenty of wine for sale ... Of all the different parts of Wales, Dyfed with its seven cantrefs is at once the most beautiful and the most productive.' In terms of the internal politics of Wales, the king of Deheubarth was one of the most powerful figures. Indeed, for much of the tenth century Wales had been dominated by a succession of effective kings from that kingdom. They were Nest's ancestors, and from what we can tell, she was proud of them and their history.
What was the nature of the culture in which she spent her childhood? Society was hierarchical and heavily male dominated. Our extant historical sources concentrate on the deeds of kings and their teulu (warbands), and upon the upper clergy; the bulk of the population – and nearly all the women – go unrecorded, outside the descriptions given in law codes, the occasional reference in a land grant or Life of a saint. Status was largely a matter of birth – born into a royal line, Nest herself was a member of a privileged group. Welsh kings were expected to be effective military leaders, generous patrons and upholders of the law. They seem to have been semi-nomadic, travelling about their kingdoms, visiting both their own estates and those of their aristocracy and clergy. They were accompanied in this by their warband, which was made up of young noblemen and royal kinsmen, as well as by their immediate family and the royal household of servants and officials. This peripatetic lifestyle allowed them to monitor continuously the mood of their country, and to keep a close eye on their people. Also, it served another purpose: Wales at this time was largely a non-monetary economy, but kings nevertheless were due renders from their people. These could take a variety of forms – consumables, such as bread, dairy products, beer, mead and honey; grain for sowing or milling; animal skins and livestock including pigs, cattle and sheep; services such as building work or military support; and, in some instances, precious metals, either by weight or in the form of coins of Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Norman origin. Moving from place to place allowed the kings both to collect and consume these renders efficiently, without placing too great a burden upon any one area for too long, or risking that perishable goods might rot before they could be used. While kings may have stayed as guests with members of their nobility from time to time, it is likely that in many cases, the places in which they stayed were their property – royal estates seem to have been scattered throughout each kingdom. This in itself was practical: it helped to maintain the distance between king and subject – wherever he was, he was usually on his own territory, which gave him both practical and psychological advantages. He would be employing his familiar warband as his defenders, rather than leaving his security in the hands of outsiders.
The king's court was known as the llys. According to the extant Welsh law codes, this consisted of a number of buildings, including a hall, a sleeping chamber for the royal family, buildings to house domestic activities like cooking and baking, storehouses, shelter for livestock and sleeping quarters for the teulu and other members of the household. These would have been fortified in some fashion, presumably by some combination of gates, ditches and palisades. In addition to tax renders, the llys was supported by a nearby royal estate, or maerdref, worked on behalf of the king by tenants or bondsmen. No certain royal building complexes survive in Wales from the late eleventh century, but we have archaeological evidence of royal strongholds from both earlier and later periods. The hill-forts which may have characterised the royal, aristocratic and other elite inhabitations of the very early medieval period (fifth to seventh centuries) had fallen out of use long before Nest's birth – before, indeed, the rise to power of the royal house of which she was a member. These ancient strongholds bear witness to a relatively wealthy lifestyle. At Dinas Powys, near Cardiff, for instance, archaeological finds included pottery from south-west France and the Mediterranean, suggesting participation in European trade; alongside evidence for metalworking and jewellery making. Its inhabitants, whether royal or aristocratic, lived a comfortable lifestyle, produced surpluses for trade, and were able to support specialised craftsmen. By Nest's time, royal life seems to have been more mobile – and there is less evidence for craft specialisation, perhaps due to the lack of a settled royal centre. We know that a contemporary of her father, Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, king of Gwynedd 1039–1063/4, had a defended stronghold at Rhuddlan, and that one of the latter's successors, Gruffudd ap Cynan, had several major courts within that kingdom. By the mid to later twelfth century, one main hall complex of the kings of Deheubarth lay at Dinefwr, near Llandeilo in Dyfed. Gerald of Wales believed that this had been their main royal seat since ancient times. The castle which now stands there belongs to a later period than that of Nest, but there is some evidence to suggest that Gerald was correct in his belief that a royal centre had existed there before the coming of the Normans to Wales. Another llys of the kings of Deheubarth possibly lay at Carreg Cennen. In the Mabinogion, Pwyll, the king of Dyfed, has a court at Arberth, and his son and successor Pryderi has another further north at Rhuddlan Teivi in Ceredigion.
What might these llysoedd have looked like? A list of buildings as described by the Welsh law codes has been given above. Archaeological excavation in north Wales has revealed the remains of several llysoedd in Gwynedd. These date from the thirteenth century, and may thus have been influenced by Anglo-Norman and Angevin styles of building. Nevertheless, at Aber, the foundations of a large stone hall made up of three chambers have been uncovered, which may represent one of the dwellings of the princes of Gwynedd. At Rhosyr, rather more substantial remains have been uncovered, possibly representing the remains of a hall and a separate chamber, while early documentary evidence mentions the presence at the same site also of a chapel and a stable. The hall at Rhosyr may have been mainly constructed of timber, despite its stone foundations, and such a method was probably more common in eleventh-century Deheubarth. While references to royal llysoedd occur in Welsh medieval poetry and prose tales, there are no descriptions of the physical appearance of these halls. While Norman stone castles served as a potent symbol of the physical presence – and permanence – of the Norman invaders, the llys of the Welsh king seems to have had a more social function. It is mentioned in prose and poem as the location for rich feast and celebrations, presided over by an open-handed king. Hence in the prose tale Pwyll Pendeuic Dyuet (Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed), when the hero Pwyll comes to the court of Heveydd the Old, whose daughter Rhiannon he seeks to wed:
There was great joy at their arrival: a huge assembly rejoicing to see them and a great feast set out and all the resources of the court placed at their disposal. The hall was made ready and they entered and sat down: Heveydd sat on one side of Pwyll and Rhiannon on the other, and everyone else according to rank. They ate and caroused and conversed ...
Hospitality seems to have been prized not only in a king but in all householders. Gerald of Wales noted of the Welsh that, 'Everyone's house is open to all ... When you travel there is no question of your asking for accommodation or of their offering it: you simply march into a house and hand over your weapons to the person in charge.' The guest thus arriving could expect food, bed and entertainment, and element is again echoed in the prose tales. When in Culhwch ac Olwen the young warrior Culhwch arrives at King Arthur's court, he is welcomed, well fed and granted the aid of king and court, even though he has ignored proper custom by riding armed into the midst of the hall. When Kei questions Arthur's reception of this young upstart, Arthur replies, 'We are noble men so long as others come to us, and the more gifts we distribute, the greater will be our reputation and fame and glory.' Generosity was a valued attribute not only of kings but also of their wives. The Welsh law codes lay out at least some of the gift-giving obligations of queens, while after Pwyll has married Rhiannon and she has come to his court no visitor leaves without receiving a valuable gift from her. Care must be observed in applying the testimony of prose tales and law codes. The latter as extant date probably to the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and, as far as the king's wife is concerned, may have been influenced by Norman and Angevin practice; in particular to the circumstances attendant upon the intermarriages of the later princes of Gwynedd with illegitimate daughters of Angevin kings. Both law codes and prose tales, moreover, present us with ideal versions of a given situation: the actions of kings and queens are presented in terms of best practice, and this does not necessarily reflect everyday behaviour. Additionally, characters like Arthur or Pwyll or Rhiannon are almost by definition anomalous in terms of daily life. They are not realistic representations of people; they are heroes, whose demeanour and behaviour is expected to differ – sometimes immensely – from the norm. They possess unusual powers or attractions or resources, and they live in courts of unusual richness. Pwyll travels between his own, apparently mundane kingdom, and the supernatural realms both of Rhiannon's father Heveydd and of the underworld king Arawn. Rhiannon possesses almost magical knowledge and powers, and exemplary beauty. Arthur's court is the home of heroes and the fountain of legends. It is unlikely that Rhys ap Tewdwr and his court operated on the scale of opulence imagined in these stories, nor can we be certain that he possessed a formal queen. It is likely, however, that in her father's various houses Nest will have witnessed feasts and gatherings of the leading men of the kingdom, and seen her father (and perhaps her mother) reward favoured or valued supporters with gifts of food, clothing, livestock or ornamentation.
Royal places seem also to have been centres for trade and perhaps craft activity, although this is harder to trace after the early period. As has been mentioned, the elite complex at Dinas Powys was home to metalworkers and jewellers, presumably under the patronage of the lord. The law codes, however, in describing the royal court, do not make much reference to specific crafts: it seems that kings did not reliably support blacksmiths or carpenters or makers of personal ornaments. When another legendary hero, Manawyddan, has to turn to a craft to support himself, he leaves Wales and travels into England in order to find sufficient customers and raw materials. It appears that the needs of the Welsh courts for craftsmen in leather or metal, for example, were insufficient to support a court population of craftspeople. Wendy Davies, indeed, has suggested that many such crafts were carried out on an essentially part-time basis, as part of the regular round of domestic and agrarian work. Probably Rhys ap Tewdwr's household included men and women who could mend a metal pot or make shoes for horses or people, but who also served in other functions, be it cooking or caring for animals or fighting in the warband.
Wales was not a rich country, by the standards of the time, and wealth varied between its kingdoms. Some, such as Nest's native Dyfed and Ystrad Twyi, possessed a reasonable proportion of good agricultural land, particularly in the south and in coastal areas. This provided land suitable for crops of various kinds, particularly grain. Gerald of Wales thought that the main cereal crop was oats, but it is clear from other evidence that other cereals were also cultivated. In Manawydan uap Lyr, Manawyddan cultivates wheat at Arberth, and the Welsh law codes refer to land used for the growing of wheat in their account of the food renders due to the king. One of the most famous clauses of Welsh law is that referring to cats – should a cat belonging to the king be killed, the killer had to pay compensation as follows:
... her head is set down on a clean level floor, and her tail is raised up, and wheat grains are poured over her until they hide the end of her tail.
The law codes also mention the cultivation of barley and rye, while references to linen clothing suggest the cultivation of flax. Nest's family would have had access to all of these, either through direct cultivation on royal estates or from renders paid to her father. The king often received prepared foodstuffs – bread or beer rather than wheat or oats or barley, but Nest must have become familiar with the various methods of food production, watching the royal cooks or seeing people at work in the fields. Did she play a part in baking and brewing and general cooking? We don't know, but it is likely that she may have had some skills in this area, if only in the preparation of more complex dishes made from rarer ingredients. It may be, however, that cooking was not considered an appropriate activity for women of royal or noble blood. In the prose tale Branwen uerch Lyr, it is considered to be a great insult when Branwen is made to cook for the court of her husband, Matholwch. As she grew older, Nest may, however, have sometimes assisted in acquiring food – Rhiannon, at least, accompanies her husband and son to the hunt in Manawydan. As the daughter of the king of Deheubarth, Nest probably enjoyed a richer diet than most girls and young women. In addition to good arable land, her father's kingdom had a long coastline, and we know both from archaeology and from written sources that fish and shellfish were an important food resource. Shellfish and the remains of sea fish were found at Dinas Powys, and Gerald wrote of the value of the long coastline of south-west Wales.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Princess Nest of Wales by Kari Maund. Copyright © 2012 Kari Maund. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title,Introduction,
1 Nest's Wales,
2 Nest's Girlhood,
3 Nest and the Normans,
4 Nest and the Rebels,
Select Bibliography,
Genealogical tables and maps,
About the Author,
Copyright,