:Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam

File:Enric IV d'Anglaterra.JPG 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.Prichard p. 416, 441{{cite web | url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/ | title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Dafydd (David) Gam (d. 1415), warrior | first1=T | last1=Tout | first2=R | last2=Davies | publisher=Oxford University Press 2011 | year=2004–2011 | accessdate=2011-02-08}} {{ODNBsub}} 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,Prichard p. 416 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).

On 16 September 1400, Owain Glyndŵr instigated the Welsh Revolt against the rule of Henry IV of England from the House of Lancaster. Dafydd, "one of Owain's most die-hard opponents," supported the English monarchy for the next twelve years in opposition to his Welsh countrymen.Hodgdon & Thomas pp. 128-129

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.Prichard p. 419{{cite book | title=Tales and Sketches of Wales | author=Wilkins, C | publisher=Daniel Owen, Howell & Company | year=1879 |location=Cardiff |url=https://archive.org/stream/talessketchesofw00wilk | page=15 |oclc=13012228}}

Driven from their last home in Wales, Gwladys, with her father, grandfather, and her two brothers, found refuge at King Henry IV's court,Prichard p. 421 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.{{cite book | title=A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain |last1=Burke | first1=J. |last2=Burke |first2=J. B. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0NEKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1471 | year=1847 | page=1471 |volume=2 |publisher=Henry Colburn |location=London}}

File:Gateway and country lane near Bredwardine - geograph.org.uk - 141649.jpg]]

Gwladys married her first husband, Sir Roger Vaughan of Bredwardine also known as Roger Fychan (the younger),{{cite web | url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/ | title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Vaughan Family(per. c.1400–c.1504), gentry | author=Griffiths, R | publisher=Oxford University Press 2011 | year=2004–2011 | accessdate=2011-02-08}} {{ODNBsub}} 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.Prichard p. 422{{cite book | title=Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales: containing a record of all ranks of the gentry with many ancient pedigrees and memorials of old and extinct families | author=Nicholas, T.| publisher=Genealogical Publishing.Com | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M34ystsNDn8C&pg=PA95 | edition=Facsimile reprint | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-8063-1314-6 | page=95 |orig-year=1872}}

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.

File:Battle of Agincourt, St. Alban's Chronicle by Thomas Walsingham.jpg]]

Gwladys' father Dafydd, and her husband Roger, had been part of the Welsh contingent that fought with Henry V of England; they both died at the Battle of Agincourt in France in 1415. Legends appeared in the 16th century claiming that upon saving the life of Henry V at the expense of their own lives, both men were knighted by the king on the battlefield before they died.Prichard pp. 424-433 However, there is no contemporary validation that the legends are true.

In contrast to Gwladys and Roger's allegiance to the House of Lancaster{{cite book | title=A history of the county of Brecknockshire | first=Jones | last=Theophilus | author-link=Theophilus Jones (historian) | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9JDnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA503 |publisher=Self-published | year=1809 |pages=503–505 |volume=3 }} and Sir William ap Thomas's daughter, their three sons were staunch Yorkists during the Wars of the Roses. The brothers would fight with their Herbert half-brothers during the Battle of Edgecote Moor in 1469. Beyond their political pursuits, the Bredwardine and Hergest Vaughans supported Welsh poets. They took residence at the main Vaughan holdings of Bredwardine, Hergest, and Tretower, respectively.

• Watkin (Walter) Vaughan (d. 1456) of Bredwardine, Esquire, married Elinor, daughter of Sir Henry Wogan,Prichard p. 423 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.
• Thomas Vaughan (c.1400–1469) of Hergest, Esquire,Hodgdon & Thomas p. 120. married Ellen Gethin, daughter of Cadwgan ap Dafydd. From the mid-1440s, Thomas had interests in the Stafford lordships of Huntington, Brecon and Hay. September 1461, supporting the three Vaughan brother's allegiance to Yorkist rule, Edward IV appointed Thomas receiver of Brecon, Hay, and Huntington during the minority of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. In 1469, Thomas died at the Battle of Edgecote and entombed at Kington church, near Hergest.

File:Tretower Court - geograph.org.uk - 25906.jpg. A 15th-century manor house, rebuilt close to Tretower Castle by Sir Roger Vaughan.]]

• Sir Roger Vaughan (d. 1471) of Tretower Court married twice. Once to Cicely, daughter of Thomas ab Philip Vychan, of Talgarth and second Lady Margaret, daughter of Lord James Audley, another of the heroes of Agincourt.Prichard p. 437 Roger fought with his father and grandfather at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Roger was knighted for his activities supporting the Yorkist regime. In May 1471 Roger was captured by Jasper Tudor and beheaded at Chepstow.
• Elizabeth Vaughan married gentleman Griffith ab Eineon.
• Blanch Vaughan married wealthy Englishman John Milwater, commissioned by Edward IV to accompany Blanch's half-brother, William Herbert, to the siege of Harlech Castle.{{cite book | title=English works of the Rev. Walter Davies (Gwallter Mechain) | first1=W | last1=Davies | first2=Daniel | last2=Evans | location=London | publisher=Simpkin, Marshall & Co | page=iii | year=1861 |url=https://archive.org/details/gwaithyparchwal01evangoog | quote=John Milwater. }}

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.

File:Raglan Castle's main entrance.jpg, now ruined]]

Her second marriage was to Sir William ap Thomas of Raglan Castle who also fought at the Battle of Agincourt. William was the son of Thomas ap Gwilym ap Jenkyn, a local landowner and his wife Maud, daughter of Sir John Morley.Prichard pp. 435-437 He was knighted in 1426 and was known, because of the colour of his armour, as "The Blue Knight of Gwent."{{cite web | url=http://www.monasticwales.org/person/3 | title=Abergavenney Priory-William ap Thomas, Sir | accessdate=2011-02-07 | publisher=Aberystwyth University}}

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.

Gwladys and William's children were raised with the Vaughan children

The children of Gwladys and William were:

• William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1423–1469) took the surname Herbert.Evans p. 244 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.{{cite ODNB | chapter=Herbert, William, first earl of Pembroke (c.1423–1469) |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |edition=Online | author=Griffiths, R. A. |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48658 | year=2004–2011 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/48658 }}
• Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, near Abergavenny; died on the battlefield of Danesmoor.
• Elizabeth married Sir Henry Stradling (1423–1476), son of Sir Edward Stradling (d. c.1453) and the Lady Jane Joan Plantagenet de Beaufort (the bastard daughter of Cardinal Beaufort; m 1423).

Reversing alliances from the previous generation, Henry and his brothers-in-law were hostile to Henry VI's reign. Henry went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1476. Henry died on 31 August 1476 on his journey back to England and was buried at Famagusta, Cyprus. Thomas, Elizabeth and Henry's young son died on 8 September 1480.{{cite ODNB | chapter=Stradling (Stradelinges, de Estratlinges) family |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |edition=Online | author=Griffiths, R. A. |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48658 | year=2004–2011 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/48658 }}

• Margaret married Sir Henry Wogan, steward{{cite journal | journal=Cymmrodorion Record Series | title=Sloane Charters | volume=4 | publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion | location=London | year=1908 | page=618 }} and treasurer of the Earldom of Pembroke, tasked with securing war material for the defence of Pembroke Castle.Evans p.214 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.{{cite book | title=Old Pembroke Families in the Ancient County Palatine of Pembroke | author=Owen, Henry | url=https://archive.org/stream/oldpembrokefamil00owen#page/n5/mode/2up|year=1902 |publisher=C. J. Clarke |location=London | lccn=05015821 }}

Other issue less consistently attributed to Gwladys and William include: Maud, Olivia, Elizabeth (who married Welsh country gentlemen, John ab Gwilym), and Thomas Herbert.

The Cornish family of Thomas (Thomas of Lelant, Thomas of Crowan, Thomas of Tremayne, Thoms, and the Bosarvanes of St Just), all patrilineally descended from "Richard Thomas gent. of Wales" are acknowledged as legitimate agnatic descendants of William ap Thomas in the 1620 Visitation of Cornwall, and thus of Gwladys.{{Cite web|url=https://ukga.org/england/Cornwall/visitations/p449.html|title=The Visitations of Cornwall|website=ukga.org|access-date=2019-08-20}}

File:Armorial Achievement Jeffrey Thomas.jpg

File:1620 Visitation of Cornwall for THOMAS.jpg

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."

Descendants of this family include Members of Parliament, such as John Thomas who sat in the 1555 Parliament for the Cornish borough of Mitchell,{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/thomas-john-ii-153i-8190|title=THOMAS, John II (c.153I-81/90), of the Middle Temple, London and Constantine, Cornw. {{!}} History of Parliament Online|website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org|access-date=2019-08-20}} members of the clergy such as Methodist minister the Reverend William Courtenay ThomasJoseph A. Alexander (ed.), Who's Who in Australia 1955 (Melbourne: Colorgravure Publications, 1955), p.749. and his descendants,{{Cite web|url=https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php/Jeffrey_Raeder_Thomas|title=Jeffrey Raeder Thomas - Coat of arms (crest) of Jeffrey Raeder Thomas|website=www.heraldry-wiki.com|language=en|access-date=2019-08-20}} and related pioneering families in Australia.{{Cite web|url=https://westerndistrictfamilies.com/hamiltons-ww1/hamiltons-soldiers/u-to-z/thomas-edward-courtney/|title=THOMAS, Edward Courtney|date=2017-09-21|website=Western District Families|language=en|access-date=2019-08-20}}

Lady Gwladys mourned at length when William died in 1445.Prichard p. 440

She died in 1454.{{cite web |url=http://www.monasticwales.org/person/101 |title=Gwladys |publisher=Aberystwyth University |accessdate=2011-05-28}} 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.Prichard pp. 440–441{{cite web | url=http://www.stmarys-priory.org/history/monuments.htm | title=St. Mary's Priory of Abergavenny, William ap Thomas and Gwladys Monuments | publisher=St Mary's Priory Church | year=2008 | accessdate=2011-02-07 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112093845/http://www.stmarys-priory.org/history/monuments.htm | archive-date=12 November 2010 | url-status=dead }}

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.{{cite web | url=http://irenamorgan.users.btopenworld.com/epriory.htm | title=St Mary's Priory Church |publisher=Abergavenny Local History Society | accessdate=2011-02-07}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book | title=The Heroines of Welsh History: Or Memoirs of the Celebrated Women of Wales | author=Prichard, T. J. Llewelyn. | publisher=W & F G Cash |location=London |year=1854 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_lgJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA416 |ref=Prichard}}
• {{cite book | title=The Heroines of Welsh History: Or Memoirs of the Celebrated Women of Wales | author=Prichard, T. J. Llewelyn. | publisher=Kessinger Publishing, LLC |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4325-2662-7 |edition=Reprinted |orig-year=1854 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxKTGgAACAAJ}}
• {{cite book | title=Reminiscences and genealogical record of the Vaughan family of New Hampshire | last1=Hodgdon |first1=George E. |last2=Hancock |first2=Thomas W. |url=https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesan00hancgoog |publisher=Rochester |location=New York |year=1918 |ref=Hodgdon | lccn=18007045}}
• {{cite book|author=Evans, Howell T. |title=Wales and the wars of the Roses |year=1915 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924028052441 |ref=Evans|lccn=15019453}}

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