Nest Bloet

Nest Bloet (also Nest of Wales or Nest the Welshwoman ) († between September 28, 1224 and August 26, 1225) was a Welsh noblewoman. She was a brief lover of King Henry II of England .

Origin, marriage and affair with Heinrich II.

Nest was a daughter of Iorwerth ab Owain , the Welsh prince of Caerleon , and of his wife Angharad , a daughter of Bishop Uthred of Llandaff . According to the Durham Annals , before 1175 she was married to the Anglo-Norman nobleman Ralph Bloet , the principal vassal of the Honor of Striguil . Ralph Bloet's estates also bordered her father's rule in Gwent . According to the Durham Annals , King Henry II had an affair with Nest, possibly when he came to Gloucester in 1175 . On this occasion he reinstated her father as Lord of Caerleon , having met her father as early as 1172. Nest became the mother of Morgan , who was considered the illegitimate son of the king. Nest also had other children from their marriage.

Dispute over their inheritance

After her husband died before September 29, 1199, Nest immediately tried to claim an inheritance through lawsuits in court. She sued both her brother-in-law Robert Bloet , a brother of her late husband, but also her own brother Hywel ab Iorwerth , the Lord of Caerleon. She came to an agreement with her brother when he inherited land east of Newport that gave her an annual income of £ 15. Apparently, King Johann Ohneland , a son of Henry II, himself had ordered that an agreement had to be reached in the inheritance dispute. Nest had already had good contacts with Johann before he became king in 1199. Johann had already given her lands in Ireland and Pembrokeshire as fiefs, and later her younger sons Thomas , Roland and William served as knights in the royal household. In addition, Johann promoted the career of his half-brother Morgan, who became a clergyman. Nest is mentioned for the last time at Michaelis 1224. On August 26, 1225 the administration of her Irish possessions was handed over to John of Tew , so she must have died first.

progeny

From her relationship with Heinrich II, she had a son:

• Morgan (after 1275 – after 1215)

She had several children with her husband Ralph Bloet, including:

• Ralph Bloet († 1241/1242)
• Thomas († between 1211 and 1215)
• Roland († 1217)
• William († after 1261)
• Petronilla ∞ Diarmait Mac Carthaig

Her son Thomas served as a royal knight in Ireland, and he arranged the marriage of his sister Petronilla to Diarmait Mac Carthaig , an Irish petty king from Desmond . Their son Roland was killed in a campaign against his cousin Morgan ap Hywel of Caerleon during the First Barons' War . Her eldest son Ralph inherited the estates of the Bloet family , while their son William inherited the Salisbury estate before January 1226 , the Nest had received from her brother.

Web links

• David Crouch: Nest Bloet. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• Nesta (?) On thepeerage.com , accessed January 1, 2018.