Book
A Wounded Realm
First published 2016
Twelve years after Gruffudd ap Cynan is captured, many in Wales believe the king of Gwynedd is dead. He survives as a degraded prisoner at Chester, sustained by the determination to escape and reclaim his position.
Nesta, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, is taken into the household of the English king after her father's death. Court life exposes her to a different form of captivity as the surviving Welsh dynasties struggle to keep their claims and families intact.
The two forms of captivity reveal different methods of Norman control. Gruffudd is physically imprisoned because his claim threatens English power in Gwynedd, while Nesta’s position at court turns marriage and household dependence into political instruments. Their separate experiences show Welsh dynasties surviving conquest through memory, kinship and opportunistic alliances even when territorial rule appears lost.
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