Intermarriage With The Welsh
While fierce hostility between the Marcher lords and the Welsh was a fact of life, nevertheless, much intermarriage occurred between the Norman-descended barons and princely Welsh families, (often as a means of cementing a local agreement or alliance). The Mortimers, de Braoses, de Lacys, Grey de Ruthyns, Talbots, and the Le Strange families eventually acquired much Welsh blood through politically advantageous marriages with the Welsh nobility. Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer (1231–1282) was a son of Gwladys Ddu, daughter of Llewelyn the Great of Gwynedd. Matilda de Braose, a granddaughter of William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, married a Welsh prince. He was Rhyl Mechyll, Prince of Deheubarth. Their daughter Gwenllian married Gilbert Talbot, progenitor of the Earls of Shrewsbury. William de Braose was himself a descendant of Nesta verch Osborne of Wales through his mother Bertha of Hereford. Another member of the de Braose family, Isabella, daughter of Gwilym Ddu or Black William and Eva Marshal married Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn, whose mother Joan was an illegitimate daughter of King John of England. Queen consort Anne Boleyn descended directly from Gruffydd II ap Madog, Lord of Dinas Bran through his daughter, Angharad who married William Le Boteler of Wem, Shropshire.
Read more about this topic: Marcher Lords
Famous quotes containing the word welsh:
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)