Joan, Lady of Wales, Danna R. Messer
Joan, Lady of Wales, Danna R. Messer
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Joan, Lady of Wales
Power & Politics of King John’s Daughter

Author: Danna R. Messer

Narrator: Jennifer M. Dixon

Unabridged: 10 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/26/2022

Synopsis

The history of women in medieval Wales before the English conquest of 1282 is one largely shrouded in mystery. 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. 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.

About Danna R. Messer

Danna R. Messer has published on various aspects of the wives of the native Welsh rulers before 1282, providing a gendered perspective of medieval Welsh politics. As an editor and historian, she is widely involved in medieval history and queenship studies generally, including her roles as series editor for medieval history for Pen and Sword, editor for the Royal Studies Journal and editor for Normans to Early Plantagenet Consorts, the first volume of the forthcoming four-book series, English Consorts: Power, Influence, Dynasty. She is also acquisitions editor for Arc Humanities Press and the executive editor for the Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages, a partnership project with Bloomsbury Academic and Arc Humanities Press.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Caitlyn on September 08, 2020

Joan/Joanna of Wales was the first historical figure I ever became fascinated with, after many years ago reading Sharon Penman’s Here Be Dragons, about Joanna and Llewelyn Fawr, the Prince of Gwynedd. Very few facts are known about Joan; she was an illegitimate daughter of King John, she married Lle......more

Goodreads review by Melisende on September 02, 2020

This was a difficult review for me not due to the content but how to formulate my many and varied thoughts on this book as they are at odds with each other. On the one hand, this is a detailed study on the role of royal / noble women of the Welsh ruling houses (the titles are interchangeable) during......more

Goodreads review by Deyanira on June 23, 2023

Surprising. There is not tu much known About Joan Princess of Wales, the bastard daughter of John Lackaland, there is not even clear who was her mother? where did she spend her childhood? , when did she married? Etc.... There is a very few mentions about her in contemporary records and post contempor......more

Goodreads review by Heidi on September 17, 2020

Medieval women held many different titles that defined their roles and their connections. Mothers, daughters, and wives tended to be the most popular and the most common. Titles such as queen, political diplomat, and peace weaver tend to be rare and given to women of power. Yet, these words accurate......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on October 12, 2020

There is an unspoken assumption in much medieval scholarship, that women were helpless damsels under the watchful care of fathers or brothers. The ability of medieval women to take independent action or speak out was restricted by the stage of their “life cycle.” Aristocratic maidens and widows had......more

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