Susan M. Johns - Gender, Nation and Conquest in the High Middle Ages: Nest of Deheubarth

For my family

This book has its origins in my work on Anglo-Norman women when I became intrigued by the lack of scholarly research on medieval Welsh women, particularly at a stage when my daughter was obsessed with princesses. Time has moved on, and whilst both of the former contentions are no longer true, Princess Nest of Deheubarth has remained for me a tempting figure, both because what we know of her is coloured by a dramatic and symbolic episode and because of what she represents about the rhythms and currents of medieval history and historiography. On a family visit to west Wales which included visits to Pembroke, Manorbier, Carew and Cilgerran castles, all of them distinct, dramatic ruins, I was even more convinced that the narrative of Nests past, as represented in the popular literature of those castles, was a subject which would have much to tell historians about the place and meaning of gender in the medieval past. The focus is not therefore limited to medieval Wales, but is inspired by scholarship and study of the medieval past more generally. I had become intrigued by these ideas whilst writing on Anglo-Norman women, and was able, whilst having a career-break looking after my young children, to think about these themes and ideas more broadly. I stepped back into academic life as a part-time tutor at Sheffield University where I had the good fortune to work with Ed King and Daniel Power, whose friendly interest in the project helped to sustain it through those early years of blending teaching, writing and childcare.