Hawise Lestrange

Hawise Lestrange (died 1310) was the daughter of the Marcher lord John Lestrange (d.1269) of Great Ness, Cheswardine and Knockin (Shropshire). Married at a young age to the ruler of southern Powys, Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, she became a key figure in border affairs and in the management of her family and estates until her death at a great age. She was deeply implicated in a plot to overthrow the prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, in 1274, and with her husband sided with Edward I in the English king's conquest of Wales.

The date of Hawise's birth is unknown, but she was probably still a teenager when she was married to Gruffudd around 1242. In that year that Gruffudd gained the king's permission to dower Hawise with land in the royal manor of Ashford in Derbyshire. Hawise and Gruffudd are unlikely to have been complete strangers at marriage, for Gruffudd - part-English by birth - had spent most of his life to that point in exile in England and the Marches. His mother Margaret was a member of the prominent Corbet family from the nearby Marcher lordship of Caus, and appears to have considerable contact with her son and daughter-in-law until her death around 1250.

During the early years of the marriage, the couple resided mainly in the castle of Pool or Powis Castle, lying to the west of the town of Welshpool. Gruffudd served Henry III loyally, for which he received various rewards and inducements to further loyalty. In 1248 Hawise received two stags from the king, perhaps for her own loyal service. In 1257, however, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Gwynedd and would-be ruler of Wales at large, invaded southern Powys and Hawise and Gruffudd were driven out. Finding a lack of royal support for their plight, in 1263 Gwenwynwyn transferred his allegiance to Llywelyn.

Although her husband allied himself to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1263, Hawise's natal family were (with one or two exceptions) notable allies of the Crown. Hawise herself seems to have remained hostile to Llywelyn for much of her career.

By 1274, Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn was firmly back in royal favour. In that year his family became involved in an attempt on the life of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Hawise and her eldest son, Owain, were leading participants in the plot, which also involved Llywelyn's disaffected younger brother, Dafydd ap Gruffudd. The intention had been for Dafydd and Owain to murder Llywelyn at his court and for Dafydd to take his place, while Owain would marry Dafydd's daughter and take the commotes of Ceri and Cydewain as a marriage settlement. Ultimately the plot failed, foiled by a snowstorm that prevented the would-be assassins from carrying out their mission, and Llywelyn's suspicions were aroused. Owain was taken into captivity. Our knowledge of Hawise's involvement comes from a confession allegedly made by Owain in the presence of the bishop of Bangor and others, and set down in a letter written by the Bangor clergy to the archbishop of Canterbury in the spring of 1276. In this confession Owain identified his mother as the designated guardian of the conspirators' plot documents, keeping them under lock and key in her own private chest in the family residence at Pool. The historian Emma Cavell argues that Hawise's status as a married woman, and her resulting centrality to family and household management, made her an"ideal focus for the protection and/or transmission of privileged information."