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JOAN (died 1237), princess

natural daughter of king John by an unknown mother. She was betrothed to Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1204, and married to him in 1205. Her role as ambassadress and intermediary between her husband and the Crown in the period 1211-32 was an important one. In spite of the tragic liaison with William de Breos (see Braose family), which resulted in a short term of imprisonment for Joan, Llywelyn's attachment to her appears to have been genuine. When she died at the palace of Aber on 2 February 1237 her body was conveyed across the Menai and buried in a new cemetery near the manor of Llan-faes, where Llywelyn founded a Franciscan friary in her memory. She was the mother of Dafydd ap Llywelyn.

A stone coffin, removed from Llan-faes at the Dissolution, and now preserved in S. Mary's church at Beaumaris, is reputed to be hers.

Author

• Professor Thomas Jones Pierce, (1905 - 1964)

Sources

• J. E. Lloyd, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (London 1911), Vol. I
• J. E. Lloyd, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (London 1911), Vol. II
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Published date: 1959

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