Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam

Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam (died 1454) was a Welsh noblewoman. She was the daughter of Dafydd ap Llewelyn ap Hywel, otherwise known as Dafydd Gam, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

Gwladys was named "the star of Abergavenny" She has been compared to the legendary Queen Marcia for her discretion and influence.

Childhood Monument to King Henry IV of England and his queen, Joan of Navarre, in Canterbury Cathedral, Kent. Gwladys served as a Maid-of-Honour to both of Henry's wives Gwladys's father, Dafydd, was a gentleman of considerable property and a celebrated military figure, descended from the native Welsh rulers of Brycheiniog. He was a prominent opponent of Owain Glyndŵr. Accounts of her mother are unclear. According to Prichard, Dafydd married Gwenllian, daughter of wealthy gentleman Gwilym ab Howel and grew up on an estate named "Petyn Gwyn" near the town of Brecon, in the parish of Garthbrengy, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography more recently reports that some genealogists claim Dafydd's wife to have been Gwladys, daughter of Gwilym ap Hywel Crach. (1374–6).

During opposition to Owain Glyndŵr, Dafydd's lands in and around Brecon became a target for Glyndŵr's attacks. Owain is recorded to have arrived at the family's principal residence at Petyn Gwyn where he captured and assaulted Lady Gwenllian. After imprisoning her inside the house, he burnt the mansion to the ground.

Driven from their last home in Wales, Gwladys, with her father, grandfather, and her two brothers, found refuge at King Henry IV's court, where Gwladys served as a Maid of Honour firstly to Mary de Bohun (c. 1368–1394), wife of Henry IV, and afterwards to Queen Joan (c. 1370–1437), his second wife and only queen consort.

First marriage

Sir Roger Vaughan

Gwladys married her first husband, Sir Roger Vaughan of Bredwardine also known as Roger Fychan (the younger), after her family returned to Wales. Roger, a gentleman of wealth, rank, and high respectability was a special friend of her father's, and would later be his companion in arms at the Battle of Agincourt.

Following her marriage, she never again left Wales. Gwladys was a supporter of Welsh culture, especially of the bards and minstrels of her time. In Lewus Glyn Cothi's elegy, Gwladys is called "the strength and support of Gwentland and the land of Brychan" (later the counties of Monmouth and Brecon): which she supported extensively. However, there is no contemporary validation that the legends are true. and Sir William ap Thomas's daughter, On Easter 1456, Watkin was murdered at home, Bredwardine Castle for which half-brother William Herbert and Walter Devereux forcibly ensured prosecution of execution of the culprits at Hereford. married Ellen Gethin,

There are other children less reliably attributed to this union: John Vaughan of Dursley, William Vaughan of Clifford and three more daughters not specifically identified. He was knighted in 1426 and was known, because of the colour of his armour, as "The Blue Knight of Gwent."

As Lady of Raglan Castle, Gwladys was able to entertain her guests and assist the needy and afflicted on an even greater scale than when the mistress of Bredwardine Castle. William's allegiance to Richard, Duke of York, and Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, branded him Edward IV's Welsh "master-lock". He was the first full-blooded Welshman to enter the English peerage and he was knighted in 1452. He married Anne Devereux daughter of Sir Walter Devereux in 1449, by whom he had issue. Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, near Abergavenny; died on the battlefield of Danesmoor. Margaret married Sir Henry Wogan, and treasurer of the Earldom of Pembroke, tasked with securing war material for the defence of Pembroke Castle. Henry and his father, John Wogan of Picton, witnessed an act of Bishop Benedict in 1418. Their son, Sir John Wogan, was killed at the battle of Banbury in 1469, fighting by the side of his uncle, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.

Other issue less consistently attributed to Gwladys and William include: Maud, Olivia, Elizabeth (who married Welsh country gentlemen, John ab Gwilym), The Thomas armorial achievement as borne by the living descendants of the Rev. William Courtenay Thomas, himself an agnatic descendant of William ap Thomas. one of the entries for the Cornish Thomas family from the 1620 Visitation. The Visitation records state "This coate of Pr pale nebule Ar. B. was ye coate armor of Sr Willm ap Thomas, from whom this familye chalengeth to be descended." members of the clergy such as Methodist minister the Reverend William Courtenay Thomas and his descendants, and related pioneering families in Australia.

Lady Gwladys mourned at length when William died in 1445.

Death She died in 1454. Gwladys and her husband William ap Thomas were patrons of Abergavenny Priory where they were both buried; their alabaster tomb and effigies can still be seen in the church of St Mary's.

Gwladys was so beloved by her people that, according to legend, 3,000 knights, nobles and weeping peasantry followed her body from Coldbrook House (her son Richard's manor) to the Herbert Chapel of St. Mary's Priory Church where she was buried.