Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Gwladus Ddu

Female - 1251


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  • Name Gwladus Ddu 
    Gender Female 
    Death 1251  Windsor, Berkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
    Person ID I3294  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of DDB, Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of EK, Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of LDN, Ancestor of LMW, Ancestor of TNH
    Last Modified 30 Nov 2023 

    Father Llywelyn Fawr ap Iorwerth,   b. Abt 1173   d. 11 Apr 1240, Aberconwy Abbey, Conwy, Wales Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 67 years) 
    Mother Joan of England,   b. Bef 1190   d. 30 Mar 1236 (Age > 46 years) 
    Marriage Bef 23 Mar 1205  [3, 9, 10
    Family ID F2856  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Reynold de Briouze,   b. of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Between 1227 and 1228 
    Marriage 1215  [2
    Family ID F1970  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 7 Dec 2015 

    Family 2 Ralph de Mortimer,   b. of Wigmore, Herefordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 6 Aug 1246 
    Marriage Bef 26 Oct 1230  [2, 3, 7, 8, 11
    Children 
    +1. Roger de Mortimer,   b. of Wigmore, Herefordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 27 Oct 1282, Kingsland, Herefordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location
    Family ID F3387  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 21 Apr 2018 

  • Notes 
    • Also called Gwladus ferch Llewelyn; Gladusia.

      Notes on the parentage of Gwladus and Margaret, daughters of Llwelyn ap Fawr:

      Complete Peerage (IX:276) and Royal Ancestry both give Gwladus as a daughter of Joan of England. Royal Ancestry gives Margaret as an illegitimate daughter of Llywelyn.

      The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that Joan was "probably" the mother of Gwladus and Margaret.

      In The American Genealogist 41:99 (1965), Walter Lee Sheppard notes that "DNB's account gives Joan only the son David with Helen as probable. Lloyd's History of Wales [...] includes a chart so drawn as to make the maternity of the daughters questionable, and omits Angharad altogether. Prof. Thomas Jones Pierce in his article on Joan in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography names David, but does not mention the daughters at all; but then his cited sources are ony DNB and Lloyd's History of Wales in earlier editions. The correspondence of the writer with Sir Anthony Richard Wagner, Garter Principal King of Arms, however, indicates that all these daughters, with the exception of Gwladys, have been accepted by Major Francis Jones, best known authority on Welsh pedigrees, and based on British Museum Manuscript Add. 15041, on folio 12a, which shows Joan to be mother of David, Gwenlian, Angharad, and Margaret. It is interesting to note that [Complete Peerage] 9:276, under Mortimer of Wigmore, identifies Gwaldys as Joan's daughter."

      Later in the same publication, TAG 41:22, Sheppard provides an addendum, first quoting a letter from E. D. Jones, Librarian of the National Library of Wales: "Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, a reliable seventeenth century authority, makes Gwladys full sister to Gruffydd, therefore the daughter of Tangwystl. He makes Gwenllian, Angharad and Marred (Margaret) to be daughters of Joan. I am inclined to accept the view that Gwladys Ddu was the daughter of Tangwystl, but in the absence of contemporary records it is not wise to be too dogmatic." Sheppard then continues: "Sir Anthony Richard Wagner KCVO, Garter Principal King of Arms, in a letter to the writer dated 24 Sept. 1964, states that he would accept Margaret as Joan's daughter and, presumably, the other daughters, except Gwladys. He refers to Major Francis Jones and the previously cited British Museum Additional MS, which shows Joan to be mother of David, and points out that the chronology also fits."

      Peter C. Bartrum's Welsh Genealogies (1974-83, searchable here; use the search term "Gruffudd ap Cynan 04"), gives Tangwystl as the mother of Gwladus and Joan as the probable mother of Margaret.

      William Addams Reitwiesner's "The Children of Joan, Princess of North Wales," in The Genealogist 1:80, Spring 1980, argues that we have no certain basis for regarding Joan as the mother of any of Llywelyn's daughters.

      On 9 April 1999, Douglas Richardson posted the following to SGM: "As for the Welsh tradition that any son, legitimate or otherwise, could make a claim to succeed Llywelyn, you may recall that Llywelyn and his son, David, went out of their way to have David recognized as Llywelyn's sole heir, to the exclusion of Llywelyn's illegitimate sons. To accomplish this, they had Llywelyn's wife, Joan, legitimized. The legitimization of Joan was no small feat seeing she was surely born out of wedlock to King John's mistress. Also, they sent David to England to be recognized as Llywelyn's sole heir by the English overlord, David's own uncle, King Henry III. Interestingly, the records of this trip show that David was accompanied by none other than his sister, Gladys. Due to the nature of this trip, it seems odd that Gladys would accompany David on this trip, UNLESS she too was a legitimate child of Llywelyn and Joan. These two pieces of evidence convince me that Gladys was legitimate." We find Richardson persuasive on this point.

  • Sources 
    1. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing., year only.

    2. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998.

    3. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.

    4. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008., year only.

    5. [S160] Wikipedia.

    6. [S839] William Addams Reitwiesner, "The Children of Joan, Princess of North Wales." The Genealogist 1:80, Spring 1980.

    7. [S1016] Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2001., year only.

    8. [S1526] The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, Wife of Reverend John Owsley, Generations 1-15, Fourth Preliminary Edition, by Ronny O. Bodine and Bro. Thomas Spalding, Jr. 2013., year only.

    9. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008., says "1206".

    10. [S839] William Addams Reitwiesner, "The Children of Joan, Princess of North Wales." The Genealogist 1:80, Spring 1980., "before 15 Oct 1204".

    11. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008.