Joan, Lady of Wales

Joan married Llywelyn of Wales, possibly at St Werburgh's Abbey (later the Cathedral), in 1204/5 giving rise to the only claim of a "royal wedding" at Chester. Whether the wedding actually took place at the Abbey during the abbacy of Geoffrey the seventh Abbot (1194-1208) could be disputed as the Abbey was in a "ruinous state" at the time and the event is not mentioned by Lucian the Monk (although he was no friend of the Welsh) who appears to have been actively writing at the time.

John's Daughter


Joan, Lady of Wales and Lady of Snowdon, also known by her Welsh name often written as Siwan (c. 1191/92 – February 1237) was the illegitimate daughter of King John of England, and was the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales (initially King of Gwynedd), effective ruler of all of Wales. Little is known about her early life. It is often written that her mother's name is known only from Joan's obituary in the Tewkesbury Annals, where she is called "Regina Clementina" (Queen Clemence):


 * "Obiit domina Johanna domina Walliae, uxor Lewelini filia regis Johannis et regina Clemencie, iii. kal. Aprilis." - The Lady Johanna of Wales died, the wife of Llywelyn, daughter of King John and Queen Clementia, 30 March.

However, there is also a mention of Clemence in a 1222 letter from Honorious III which is recorded in the Vatican archives:


 * "Nobili viro Lowelino domino Norwallie. Confirmat statutum quod ipse in terra suae ditioni subiecta cum consensu Henrici regis Anglorum fecerat, consentientibus quoque Stephano Cantuariensi archiepiscopo S R E Cardinali et Pandulpho Norwiciensi electo Apostolicae Sedis Legato, contra abusum in eius terra introductum, ut illegitimi succederent in hereditates sicut et legitimi, ordinando ut David filius suus quem ex Iohanna filia cl. mem. [et] regis Angliae uxore sua legitima suscepit, haereditario iure in omnibus bonis suis ei succedat." - To the nobleman Lord Llywelyn of North Wales. Bringing about from us the attached petition. Certainly your petition showed that since some detestable custom or rather corruption has developed in the land subject to your authority - as evidently the son of the slave girl could be the heir together with the son of the free woman and illegitimate sons could obtain the inheritance just as the legitimate - you [Llywelyn] and your Lord Henry, illustrious king of the English, beloved sons of Christ, have agreed in harmony and also further with the intervening authority of our beloved sons, our venerable brother Archbishop Stephen of Canterbury . . . that Dafydd your son, who from Joan the daughter of Clementia and the king of England, your legal wife, should succeed in receiving your inheritance by right in all your possessions..

Llywelyn had already fathered a son and daughter to a woman named Tangwystl ferch Llywarch Goch before he married Joan. Thus despite the Welsh tradition that, provided the father acknowledged paternity, all sons should inherit equally, whether legitimate or not, Llywelyn took steps before his death to declare his legitimate son Dafydd his heir, to the exclusion of Gruffudd. Llywelyn went to great lengths to strengthen Dafydd's position, probably aware that there would be considerable Welsh support for Gruffudd against the half-English Dafydd. As a consequence of this, Gruffudd was to spend a large proportion of his life in prison, firstly because he would not accept that his brother was to be his father’s successor, and secondly because he was a threat to Dafydd. He had earlier become a hostage for his father to King John in 1211, and he was released in 1215 as one of the conditions of Magna Carta. By 1228, however, he had been imprisoned by his father for his rebelliousness and remained there for six years. At the time of Llywelyn's death he was in captivity again. Following a successful invasion of the Welsh borders by King Henry III of England in 1241, Dafydd was obliged to hand over Gruffydd into the king's custody, he was then taken to London and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Gruffudd died while attempting to escape from the Tower in 1244. He is said to have used an improvised rope made from sheets and clothes to lower himself from his window, but as he was a heavy man, the rope broke and he fell to his death.

Joan was betrothed to Llywelyn the Great in 1204, and the marriage is thought to have taken place in 1205, although the Annals of Chester (those of the abbey of St Werburgh in Chester, now the Cathedral) say that it occurred in 1204. Joan’s illegitimate birth was not the stigma to the Welsh that it had been to the Norman French. Illegitimate children were even allowed to inherit in Wales as long as their father acknowledged them.

John (born 1166) had first married Isabella, Countess of Gloucester (1174-1217) in 1189. Isabella was the youngest daughter and co-heiress of William, second Earl of Gloucester, who was himself the son of Robert of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of King Henry I. William's sister was Maud of Gloucester the wife of Ranulph De Gernon. Isabella’s only brother Robert had died in 1166, making Isabella and her two sisters co-heiresses to the very wealthy earldom of Gloucester. When John's father (Henry II) arranged the betrothal he disinherited the other sisters to ensure that the entire wealth would become available for the upkeep and benefit of John.

John and Isabella were half-second cousins as great-grandchildren of Henry I, and thus within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. Baldwin of Forde, Archbishop of Canterbury, declared the marriage null by reason of consanguinity and placed their lands under interdict. The interdict was lifted by the old and unwell Pope Clement III (1187-91), who granted a dispensation to marry but forbade the couple from having sexual relations. As a child John would hardly have been expected to become king - he was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. His older brothers were Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey. However the younger Henry (born 1155) died, aged 28, in the summer of 1183, during the course of a campaign in Limousin against his father and his brother Richard the Lionheart; Geoffrey (born 1158) died on 19 August 1186, at the age of 27, in Paris, where he was trampled to death in a jousting tournament; and Richard (born 1157) died in 1199 when he caught a crossbow bolt.



Shortly after John acceded to the throne in 1199, and before the end of August, John obtained an annulment of the marriage. Joan was born after the "marriage" of John and the Countess of Gloucester, although the future king and the Countess had been betrothed since 1175 (when John was 9 and Isabella of Gloucester was possibly a little older or a lot younger). John would have been about 25 when Joan was born, and he is known to have had more than ten "illegitimate" children including Richard FitzRoy (c1190-1246 ) whose mother was Adela, John's first cousin. After his "divorce" John took Isabella into wardship, holding her in ‘honourable confinement’ for the next fourteen years, and thereby hanging on to her assets.

John married Isabella of Angoulême (c1187-1246) in August 1200. It remains a little unclear why John chose to marry Isabella. Near-contemporary chroniclers argued that John had fallen deeply in love with her, and John may have been motivated by desire for an apparently beautiful, if rather young (she was no more than 12), girl. John was able to dispose of his first wife (who was now 26) by arguing that he had failed to get the necessary papal dispensation to marry the Countess as a cousin, John could therefore not have legally wedded her without this.

Matthew Paris suggests that Isobella was as bad as John and described her as guilty of adultery, sorcery and incest. One suggested lover is Isabella’s own half-brother, Peter de Joigny, and this would account for the accusation of incest. Peter visited England in 1215 and possibly 1207 so Isabella and her brother may have formed a close relationship with each other. However, Isabella was mostly pregnant during his visits and it is a mark of her unpopularity that this suggestion has been made. A further story grotesquely narrates how John had one of Isabella’s lovers strangled and his corpse suspended over her bed.

In 1226 Joan obtained a papal decree from Pope Honorius III (July 1216-March 1227) which declared her legitimate on the basis that neither of her parents had been married to other people at the time of her birth; though this didn’t give her any claim to the English throne, it did legitimise her children with Llywelyn over his others. The precise meaning of "when John was unmarried" is open to interpretation as John argued that he had never validly married his cousin, so Joan could have been born after 1189. John had died a decade before in October 1216. The question here is: who was Joan's Mother - the possible "Regina Clementina"?

The scope for the identity of Joan's mother is wide because one of John's more notorious proclivities as recorded by the chronicles was sleeping with the wives and daughters of his barons. The principal chronicles are set decidedly against John. Roger of Wendover never met John but thought he was a tyrant. Most of his work is probably based on gossip – possibly some barons visited the abbey & told him stories he later used. His work contains mistakes – he accuses John of having Geoffrey de Burgh, archdeacon of Norwich, arrested for a trivial offence & then put to death in a horrible fashion – crushed and/or starved inside a leaden cope. In fact, Geoffrey outlived John to become a bishop in 1225 (9 years after John died). Matthew Paris took over from Roger and continued with the tales of John being a tyrant, extortioner, sceptic in religion, and a seducer of wives & daughters of his own barons. A typical "rant" from Paris follows:


 * "In the meantime the king kept on oppressing one or other of the nobles of the kingdom, either by extorting money from them unjustly, or by stripping them of their privileges or properties; of some he seduced the wives, or deflowered the daughters, so that he became manifestly and notoriously odious and detestable both to God and man. Moreover, that his insatiable avarice and unappeasable gluttony and licentiousness might be concealed from no one, he prohibited all fowling and taking of winged game, and prevented the nobles from hunting, by which measures he not only lost the affections of all men, but incurred their unextinguishable hatred; so that even his own wife detested and loathed him." - Flowers of History

Matthew Paris concludes with:


 * "foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the foulness of King John"

It has been argued by many historians that John was not as evil as has been made out. Wilfred Lewis Warren in his "King John" points out many inconsistencies in the works of Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris as regards John and notes that their record of his times contains many fantastical stories which are also presented as true.

Candidates
So who was Joan's mother Clemence? The only "Queen Clemence" in Europe at that time was Clemence of Toulouse, the disputed second wife of Sancho VII of Navarre. Some sources mention her as Clemence, a daughter of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor (Frederick Barbarossa), while other sources claim she was the unlikely daughter of Yusuf II, an emir from Morocco. It seems doubtful that John had a liaison with such a prominant woman without some mention being made of it. Although John had at leasr one treaty with Sancho it is unlikely he would have ever met this Clemence. However it has been suggested that the epithet "queen" suggests that Joan's mother was a woman of some importance, and it was perhaps used to avoid giving away clues to her identity as might "duchess" or "countess".

The three most commonly named candidates are mentioned below and the peculiar and somewhat surprising link to Chester is that two of them were at some time married to Ranulf de Blondeville. The candidates are based on appearances in the literature (see links below) and mentions by the chroniclers of the time.

Clemence de Verdun
Clemence was the wife of Nicholas de Verdun and the daughter of Philip le Boteler (Curia Regis Roll, 1243 [17:281-2 (no. 1462)]) and she inherited lands in Steeple Lavington, Wiltshire that she later bestowed upon another granddaughter. She and Nicholas de Verdun had one known daughter and heiress, Rohese de Verdun. The main prop of evidence for this case is that in 1228 Llywelyn and Joan's daughter Susanna was handed over to Clemence for "safe-keeping" as a hostage, and it could be that this was because Clemence was the grandmother of the hostage. The Verdun's had interests at Rothley in Leicestershire and so did Joan, which might also imply a connection.

Constance of Brittany
Constance (Breton: Konstanza; c. 1161 – c. 5 September 1201) was Duchess of Brittany from 1166 to her death in 1201 and Countess of Richmond from 1171 to 1201. Constance was the daughter of Duke Conan IV by his wife, Margaret of Huntingdon, a sister of the Scottish kings Malcolm IV and William I. She was the first wife of Ranulf de Blondeville. She has a clear connection to John, as her first husband was John's brother Geoffrey (died 1185), but she became the mother of Arthur of Brittainy shortly after her husband's death and that would have greatly complicated her relationship with John, as Arthur would become John's only rival for the throne if Richard died. Arthur would become Ranulf's step-son and John is generally thought to have been implicated in his murder. Any form of carnal relationship between John and Constance would have been both unlikely to have happened and, if it had, impossible to keep under wraps given the political chaos it could have caused: John would have committed incest with the mother of nephew he then murdered. If this had come out any number of enemies could have petitioned the pope for approval of his deposition and excommunication of any who opposed it. If it is true that she was unmarried at the time of the affair this could only have placed it between c 1187 and 1189. The one bit of evidence in favour is the grounds of her eventual divorce from Ranulf in c1198: according to "The Judges of England" (Edward Foss, 1848) these were "by reason that King John haunted her company".

Clemence of Fougeres
Clementia was born before 1180, possibly in Fougères, Brittany, to William Fougeres (d.7 June 1187) and his wife, Agatha Hommet. Agatha was a granddaughter to Richard Humez Hommet (d.1181), the seneschal of Normandy for Henry II. Her ancestry is asserted in a copy of a charter, probably of 1232, when the widowed Clementia gave away her Lincolnshire lands of Freiston (Fotstun) and Bennington (Benyngton) on the death of her second husband, Ranulf de Blondeville to whom she was the second wife. In this she describes herself as Clemenciae filiae Willielmi de Fugeres. It is possible she presented Count John with an illegitimate daughter who was named after the king himself, Johanna. She was married to Alain de Vitré (seigneur de Vitré, de Dinan-Sud et de Bécherel) for some unspecified time before she was widowed and married Ranulf in 1200.

The evidence here is a little better than in the other two cases:


 * The 1204/5 wedding of Joan and Llywelyn probably took place in Chester, where Clementia was then countess.


 * By 1218 Ranulf had become remarkably close to Llywelyn for a Palatinate Norman Earl who shared a common border with a Prince of North Wales. That year Ranulf departed on Crusade and when he returned Llywelyn was waiting to greet him.


 * In 1222 Ranulf married his heir (John Canmore) to the daughter of Joan and Llywelyn, i.e. to the grand-daughter of his wife.


 * Ranulf was granted the manor of Twyford by John, but this did not form part of Clementia's dower rights, which suggests that John had some form of family relation with Clementia.

However Ranulf and Llywelyn did come to blows during John's Welsh wars of 1210-12. While John led his campaign against de Braose and his allies in Ireland, an army led by Earl Ranulph of Chester and Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, invaded Gwynedd then ruled by Llywelyn the Great. The reason for the breakdown of relations between England and Wales may have been due to Llywelyn forming an alliance with William de Braose, the 4th lord of Bramber. This was the de Braose who was potentially involved in the death of Arthur of Brittany. Llywelyn destroyed his own castle at Deganwy and retreated west of the River Conwy. The Earl of Chester rebuilt Deganwy (the castle was later demolished by Edward I when Conwy Castle was built opposite), and Llywelyn retaliated by ravaging the earl's lands. However another reason for the breakdown was that Innocent III at first encouraged the Welsh to oppose John and then, after John surrendered his Crown to the pope in May 1213, excommunicated the Welsh rulers. It is within that moment, fickly encouraging revolt then forbidding it because John agreed to become a papal vassal and pay regular tribute to Rome, that Innocent created the framework for both conflicts on the British mainland; that of 1212-13 between the Welsh and John, and the larger 1215-17 French invasion of England in support of the Magna Carta rebels.

Diplomacy
Llywelyn (who had consolidated his power under protection of the English King) now seized the occasion to cross the border, while John was preparing for a new continental expedition. The King changed his plans, and prepared to lead his troops to Wales instead of France. A muster was summoned for September at Nottingham, and John went thither to meet his troops. Before tasting meat, in Roger of Wendover’s graphic narrative, he hanged twenty–eight Welsh hostages, boys of noble family, whom he held as sureties that Llywelyn would keep the peace.

Almost immediately thereafter, two messengers arrived simultaneously from Scotland and from Wales with unexpected tidings. John’s daughter, Joan, and the King of Scots, each independently warned him that his English barons were prepared to revolt, under shelter of the Pope’s absolution from their allegiance, and either to slay him or betray him to the Welsh. In a panic he disbanded the feudal levies; and, accompanied only by his mercenaries, moved slowly back to London.

Adultery
One of the most controversial aspects of Joan’s marriage to Llywelyn was that she committed adultery with William de Braose (the younger) in 1230. This is not the same William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber who was a court favourite of King John and the suspect in the death of Arthur of Brittany, but a grandson of that one. This particular de Braose was known to the Welsh as "Black William" and was imprisoned by Llewelyn ap Iorwerth in 1229 during Hubert de Burgh's disastrous Kerry (Ceri) campaign. He was ransomed and released after a short captivity during which he agreed:


 * to pay a ranaom of £2000, and agree never to take up arms against Llewelyn again,


 * to arrange the marriage between his eldest daughter Isabel to Dafydd, son and heir of Llewelyn and to cede Builth as a marriage portion on her betrothal.

The following Easter, Llewelyn discovered "an intrigue" between his wife, Joan, and William when De Braose was found alone with her in her bedroom. Thus, he was not a prisoner of Llewelyn at the time of the supposed adultery. De Barose was hanged and Joan was placed under house arrest for twelve months, after which, according to the Chronicle of Chester, Llywelyn took her back and restored her to all her former positions and titles. De Braose is traditionally said to have been hung at Crogen (on the River Dee near Llandderfel) before a crowd of 800.

Following William's execution, in his correspondence to Eva de Braose, William's widow, and her brother, William Marshall, Llywelyn himself does not refer to Joan's participation in the affair:


 * "L. prince of Aberfrau, lord of Snowdonia, to his esteemed friend E. de Braus, with love, greetings. We ask you in so far as you might inform us regarding your wish, whether you would want to persist with the alliance made between David, our son, and I., your daughter; because she will never remain with us except that the alliance will stand. And if you would not want this, lest any worse harm might be able to happen, you would want to make known soon your will regarding that alliance and regarding the authority of your daughter with us. And you may know that in no way might we have been able to avert what judgement the magnates of our land might not do, considering what revenge they have done because of the scandal and our outrage. And whatever you will have done from there you might take the trouble to make known to us." - Royal Letter No 763a

Deflecting responsibility for William's punishment, Llywelyn stressed it was his council who insisted that de Braose be hanged, but that he was still eager to ensure that plans for their children to marry remained intact. It is probable that the political advantages following the division of the de Braose lands amongst his daughters, including Isabella, swayed sentencing. Llywelyn may have also found popular support with the Welsh in making a move against a member of a historically cruel and oppressive Marcher family. In spite of the political reasoning behind de Braose's execution, the Marcher lord's fate was also very likely influenced by Llywelyn's own reaction to Joan's public betrayal and his loss of confidence in her as his foremost political partner, not to mention his wife of over twenty five years.

Related Pages

 * Ranulf de Blondeville;


 * John Canmore;

Online

 * Joan, Lady of Wales: on Wikipedia;


 * Joan, Lady of Wales: on The History Press;


 * Dictionary of Welsh Biography: on Joan;


 * Dictionary of Welsh Biography: on Llywelyn;


 * The First Marriage of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth 1195-1203;


 * Eva Marshall;


 * 13th Century in Wales;


 * MEDIEVAL DIPLOMATIC HISTORY: FRANCE AND THE WELSH, 1163-1417.


 * The Welsh Princess and her elusive mother;


 * Joan, daughter of King John;

Books

 * Ranulf of Chester: A Relic of the Conquest by James W. Alexander


 * Joan, Lady of Wales: Power and Politics of King John's Daughter by Danna R Messer


 * Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England