Emma of Anjou

{{Short description|Princess of Gwynedd from 1174 to 1195}}

Emma (Emme, or Agnes Griffith, John Edwards. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pedigrees%20of%20Anglesey%20and%20Carnarvonshire/3hVgegx0mNoC?hl=en Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families, with Their Collateral Branches in Denbighshire, Merionethshire, and Other Parts.] United Kingdom, Bridge Books, 1914.) of Anjou (c.1140–c.1214) was an illegitimate daughter of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and half-sister of King Henry II of England. She was married to Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, a Welsh prince.{{Dictionary of Welsh Biography|id=s-DAFY-ABO-1203|title=Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (died 1203), king of Gwynedd|author=John Edward Lloyd|access-date=24 September 2019}} She is occasionally confused with Emma de Laval (1200-1264), the daughter of Guy V de Laval.{{cite book|author1=John McNeill|author2=Daniel Prigent|title=Anjou: medieval art, architecture, and archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-6CfAAAAMAAJ|year=2003|publisher=British Archaeological Association|page=160|isbn=978-1-902653-68-6 }}

Emma married Dafydd in the summer of 1174, after an unsuccessful rebellion by the queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and her older sons had led her half-brother the king to disperse Eleanor's court in Aquitaine and bring Emma back to England.{{cite book|author=Lisa Hilton|title=Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens|year=2008|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|isbn=9780753826119|page=137}}

Emma had four children by Dafydd:

• Owain
• Einion
• Gwenllian
• Gwenhwyfar, who married one Meurig ap Roger,{{cite book|title=Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kjme027UeagC&pg=PA4|publisher=Douglas Richardson|isbn=978-1-4610-4513-7|pages=4}} the son of a Powys nobleman who had allied himself with Henry II{{cite book|title=Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QndnAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=University of Wales Press|page=16}}

In 1176, after her husband's rule in the Kingdom of Gwynedd had been challenged by his brother, Emma is known to have visited King Henry II and received a gift of manors in Shropshire and Worcestershire. After Henry's death in 1189, she continued to attempt to protect her children's interests by making representations to Henry's heirs.{{cite book|title=Thirteenth Century England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXkrAQAAIAAJ|year=1986|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-1-84383-122-8|page=84}}

In 1196, Emma and her husband, at the request of their son, Owain, gave property to Haughmond Abbey.[https://archive.org/stream/antiquitiesshro16eytogoog#page/n280/mode/2up Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume 10, p. 249] Shortly afterwards, Dafydd was deposed by his nephew, Llywelyn the Great, and was forced into exile in England, where he died in 1203.