Gormflaith, Legendary for Her Beauty and Her Wickedness
Extraordinary Women, Part 5
My mother, Helen Isabella Estes Seltzer, died Dec. 28, 2010, at the age of 90. She had a life-long interest in family history. In her memory, I compiled profiles of powerful and strong-willed women among her ancestors, thinking those women might inspire her descendants. These brief biographies are grouped by the lines of descent, which are shown afterwards, leading down to the present.
Gormflaith — Legendary for Her Beauty and Her Wickedness
One of the best-known Icelandic sagas — Njal’s Saga — says that Gormflaith was “endowed with great beauty… [but] was utterly wicked”
Daughter of the King of Leinster (in what is now County Kildare in Ireland), Gormflaith married Olaf Cuaran (our ancestor), the Viking king of Dublin and York. After his death, she married the legendary Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, as part of a peace treaty. In that same deal, her son Sigtrygg “Silkbeard”, King of Dublin married a daughter of Brian Boru. In other words Gormflaith married the father of her daughter-in-law, and Gormflaith’s son married his step-father’s daughter. As a result, we are descended from both Gormflaith and Brian Boru.
Her marriage with Brian was not a happy one. She later instigated a war against Brian that ended in the Battle of Clontarf at which he was killed.
Joan, Lady of Wales — An Affair to Remember
Joan married the five greats grandson of Gormflaith
Joan was a natural daughter of King John of England. The pope eventually ruled that she was “legitimate” even though her parents were not married to each other at the time of her birth.
John was the enemy of his brother Richard I “the Lionhearted” and of the legendary Robin Hood. He was the king who was forced to sign the Magna Carta, the first step toward democracy in England and later in America.
John arranged for Joan to marry Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales, as part of a political alliance.
Llewelyn, was the last monarch to claim sovereignty over all of Wales (though his power base was in North Wales, in particular in Anglesey, the county from which our ancestors the Griffiths came). This was in the days of frequent wars with England. His successors faced one challenge after another until 1301 when King Edward I of England (our ancestor) named his son Edward II (our ancestor) “Prince of Wales” and it became the tradition to give that title to the eldest son of the King of England.
In 1230, Joan and her lover, William de Braose, a prisioner of Llywelyn, were found in Llywelyn’s bedchamber. William was hanged, and Joan was placed under house arrest for a year. She eventually reconciled with her husband.
Llewelyn and his wife Joan are main characters in several historical novels, including “Here Be Dragons” by Sharon Kay Penman and “The Heaven Tree Trilogy” by Edith Pargeter.
Helen, Princess of North Wales — My Mother’s Namesake
daughter of Joan. Lady of Wales
Mom would have loved to have known that she had an ancestor on her father’s side named Helen, who was princess of the same part of Wales that her Griffith ancestors, on her mother’s side, came from.
Her Welsh name was Elen ferch Llywelyn, i.e. Helen daughter of Llewelyn. Little is known of her except that she married twice; her second husband, Robert de Quincy, Lord of Ware is the one we are descended from.
Joan, “the Fair Maid of Kent” — the Most Beautiful Woman in England and Her Two Secret Marriages
great-great granddaughter of Helen
The French historian Froissart called Joan “the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving”.
Joan’s father, Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, was grandson of King Edward I of England and half-brother of King Edward II (also our ancestor) Edmund supported the King as opposed to the Queen, Isabella (also our ancestor). Hence when the King died, the Queen had him executed and placed Joan (age two) and her mother under house arrest at the Castle of Arundel.
Joan came back in favor under the new king, Edward III and his wife Queen Philippa (our ancestors) and was raised at court.
At the age of 12 she secretly married Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent (our ancestor), without getting the required royal consent. While Thomas was off fighting in the Crusades, her parents forced her to marry someone else. Eventually, Pope Clement VI ruled that her real husband was Thomas, and she lived with him for eleven years.
When Thomas died in 1360, she secretly married Edward “the Black Prince,” the heir apparent to the throne of England, her first cousin once removed. They were too closely related for the marriage to be legal, so the King got a dispensation from the Pope, and they then had an official church wedding presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. As Edward’s wife she was known as the “first English Princess of Wales.”
In 1362, Edward became Prince of Aquitaine, a province in the south of France on the Mediterranean that English kings of that day inherited by way of Eleanor of Aquitaine (our ancestor). The couple moved there and Edward became embroiled in wars with Castile (a kingdom in what is now Spain), in which he gained military renown.
Edward died in 1376 and his father the king died the next year, which meant that Joan’s son Richard II became king at the age of 10. (See Shakespeare’s play Richard II). As the power behind the throne during his minority, she was reportedly well-loved by the English people.
Line of Descent
This line includes Viking Kings of Dublin, Princes of Wales, King John of England, and Kings James I and II and III and IV of Scotland.
1) Gormflaith (960–1010) (md. Olaf or Amlaib Curan, King of York and Dublin)
2) Sigtrygg Silkbeard (d. 1042) King of Dublin (md. daughter of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland)
3) Olaf of Dublin
4) Raignaillt (md. Cynan ab Iago, 1014–1063, King of Gwynedd in Wales)
5) Gruffydd ap Cynan (1055–1137), King of Gwynedd in Wales (md. Angharad ferch Owain)
6) Owain Gwynedd (1100–1170), King of Gwynedd in Wales (md. Gladys ferch Llywarch)
7) Iorwerth ab Owain Gwynedd, “the Broken-Nosed”(1145–1174) (md. Mared ferch Madog)
8) Llywelyn ap Iorwerth = Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales (1173–1240) (md. Joan of Wales, 1191–1237, daughter of King John of England)
9) Helen of North Wales (1207–1253) (md. Robert de Quincy, Lord of Ware)
10) Hawsie de Quincy (1250–1295) (md. Baldwin Wake, Lord of Bourne, d. 1281)
11) John Wake (d. 1300) (md. Joan de Fiennes)
12) Margaret Wake (1297–1349) (md. Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, executed for treason in 1330)
13) Joan, Countess of Kent “the Fair Maid of Kent” (1327–1385) (md. Thomas Holland, First Earl of Kent, 1314–1360)
14) Thomas Holland, (1350–1397) Second Earl of Kent, councillor of his half-brother King Richard II of England
15) Margaret Holland (1385–1439)( md. John Beaufort, First Earl of Somerset)
16) Joan Beaufort (1404–1445) (md. James I, King of Scotland, 1394–1437))
we are descended from their daughter Annabella, also from their daughter Joan Stewart and also from their son James II, King of Scotland
17) James II, King of Scotland (1430–1460) (md. Mary Gueldres)
18) James III, King of Scotland (1451–1488) (md. Margaret of Denmark)
19) James IV, King of Scotland (1473–1513) (md. Agnes Stewart
20) Janet Stewart, “Lady Janet” (1505–1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
21) John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming (1537–1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
22) John Fleming, 6th Lord Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567–1619) (md. Lilias Graham)
23) John Fleming (1589–1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
24) Alexander Fleming, emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612–1668) (md. Elizabeth Anderson)
25) John Fleming, emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627–1686) (md. Mary)
26) Charles Fleming (1659–1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
27) Susannah Tarleton Fleming (md. John Bates)
28) James Bates (1721–1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
29) Daniel Bates (1756–1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
30) Sarah Langhorne Bates, moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781–1825) (md. Joel Estes)
31) Albert Monroe Estes (1804–1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
32) Louis Powhatan Estest (1849–1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
33) Smith William Estes, moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881–1943) (md. Mae Griffith)
34) Helen Isabella Estes (1920–2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer. Sr.)
