Princess Nest
The story of Nest: Princess of Deuhaubarth
She was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in Wales, daughter of
deafeated Welsh Prince Rhys ap Tewdwr. At a time when men and their deeds dominated history, she stands out as one of those exceptional women whose story is the stuff of romance.
After the death of Rhys in 1093,she spent much of her youth in the English court where her beauty won the attention of Henry Beauclerc, Henry I. She became his mistress and mother of one of his many illegitimate children, a son, afterwards known as Fitz Henry. (King Henry I had many liaisons and it is said that he holds the record for the largest number of acknowledged illegitimate children born to any English King).
Following her liaison with Henry, in 1100 Nest married Gerald de Windsor, the former castellan of Pembroke Castle, who lost his command when his traitorous master, Arnulph de Montgomery, fled to Ireland following his failed revolt against King Henry. He was after a short interval reinstated and his marriage to a Welsh Princess greatly strengthened his position making him the foremost man in West Wales. Nest brought with her the site of Carew Castle as a dowry and here they built the first castle on the site which was most probably the family home rather than Pembroke. There were three sons from the marriage and a daughter Angharad, who became the mother of Gerald of Wales.
But Nest was later to become connected with Owain, son of Cadwgan, Prince of Powys who abducted her. Edward Laws recounts the story thus, in his History of Little England Beyond Wales
“During the Christmas holidays of 1108 Cadwgan ap Blethyn, Prince of Powys, held an eisteddfod in Cardigan. To this entertainment every man of position throughout Wales was invited. Bards sang their songs, the mead passed round, the revelry was fast and furious;then one of these wandering minstrels told of Nesta, the fairest of the fair, old Rhys’s daughter, royal Gryfudd’s sister; told how she had enslaved the English king, and now was wife to the robber chief Gerald of Winsor, he who had seized on the Kymro’s land and had perched like a foul bird on Penvro Crag. Fired by this song Owain, Blethyn’s son, determined to wrest the Kymric Helen from her foreign lord. When the feast was over Owain collected a number of his friends together and sallied forth to Pembrokeshire. Claiming kinship with Nesta, he was well received by her husband Gerald, and left the castle lust mad. That night he returned with a considerable following, and having in some way obtained an entrance, laid siege to the room in which Nesta and her husband lay. The latter finding resistance hopeless was persuaded by his wife to escape through a garderobe, she herself letting him down with a rope and thus saving his life. Meanwhile the ruffian Owain burst in the door, seized Nesta, her two boys, and two other children (the illegitimate offspring of her husband), fired the castle, and carried off his prisoners into Powys.”
There appears to be a difference of opinion about the castle in which the action occurred – some accounts claim Cilgerran others Carew. But it would seem Carew as the family home would be the most likely. It would certainly not have occurred in Pembroke which was heavily fortified.
The children were returned to their father but Nest remained (willingly or unwillingly?). Eventually after several years, during which she gave birth to two children, Nesta returned to Gerald. Gerald later rode with a force against Owain and killed him in battle.
Nesta was later to marry Stephan, the Castellan of Cardigan and had yet more children by him.