Survivor

One of those blip-ironic days when you have enough interesting pictures to fill a fortnight, but no time to write about even one of them. We spent the day looking for and at stones. Megaliths, stone walls, stone churches, stone castles, grave stones, a spiral stone staircase, a 17th century stone bridge, and the Welsh/Irish equivalent of the Rosetta Stone (but used to facilitate transcription between Latin script and Irish runic script, rather than Greek and Egyptian)

Too many stones to choose between, so here is a wicker sculpture of Nest - Wales's analogue of Helen of Troy. She was a princess, daughter of the last Welsh king of south-west Wales. Her father was killed and, a child, she was taken as spoils of war in an 11th century battle with the Anglo-Normans. She was raised at court and became a renound beauty. She was taken as a "mistress" by the king's libidinous brother - the future Henry I - and bore him one of his many illegitimate children

Eventually she was 'given' in marriage to a Norman lord, Gerald, governor of Pembroke castle and her family's former kingdom - a political manoeuvre; who knows what either of them thought about it. Nevertheless, they had four children together. They moved 'house' to Cilgerran castle, just up-(Teifi)river from Cardigan, where this picture was taken

Her Welsh second-cousin took it upon himself at this point to 'rescue' her (a bit late, lad). Here the legends take full control of the story, but none of them mention a thousand ships (or even coracles, which are a big thing in Cilgerran). Cousin Owain broke in with his mates and set the place alight before searching out Nest and her lord. His lordship bravely slipped away via the latrine chute, leaving Nest to her fate. Once more, Nest (and children) became a trophy of battle. She might have been complicit, she might have been raped and abducted; pick your favourite version

Occupying powers cannot let this kind of indignity pass so a manhunt was launched. It's not clear how long she was gone. In some versions, the children were released but she bore Owain one or more children before he eventually ran away to Ireland and Nest was restored to her husband. Gerald eventually killed Owain and may or may not have perished at the same time. 

Certainly, Nest survived her husband and married one, possibly two, more times, bearing further children. For sure, she survived a turbulent life in a hard, male world and, a thousand years later, her name is still known and people make sculptures of her

One last detail: the Fitzgerald dynasty she founded with her second husband - another Norman lord - eventually produced another well-known historical figure: one John Fitzgerald Kennedy