Nest ferch Rhys (b. c. 1085 - d. before 1136) was the only legitimate daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last King of Deheubarth, by his wife, Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of Powys. She is sometimes known, incorrectly, as "Nesta" or "Princess Nesta".
Nest had two younger brothers, Gruffydd ap Rhys and Hywel, and several older illegitimate half-brothers and half-sisters. After their father's death in battle in 1093, "the kingdom of the Britons fell" and was overrun by Normans. Nest's brother Gruffydd was spirited into Ireland for safety; their brother Hywel was captured by Arnulf de Montgomery. The immediate fate of Nest and her mother is unknown. In any event, after she reached puberty, she came to the attention of the youngest son of William the Conqueror, Henry I of England, by whom she bore Henry FitzHenry (c. 1103–1158), one of his numerous illegitimate children.
Read more about Nest Ferch Rhys: Ancestry, First Marriage, Second Marriage and Issue, In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the word nest:
“How then can we account for the persistence of the myth that inside the empty nest lives a shattered and depressed shell of a woman—a woman in constant pain because her children no longer live under her roof? Is it possible that a notion so pervasive is, in fact, just a myth?”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)