General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> Matilda of /Hay/
REFN: 1352AN
Alias:<ALIA> Matilda De /Saint Valery/
REFN: P1352
Died: 1210 in Windsor castle.
Maud (Matilda) De Braose was also known as the Lady of la Haie and to t
he Welsh as Moll Walbee. Married to William De Braose, the "Ogre of Aberga
venny", she was a significant warrior in her own right. Her long defen
ce of Pain's Castle when it was besieged by the Welsh earned it the name "
Matilda's Castle". The local people saw her as a supernatural character. S
he was said to have built Hay Castle (above) single handed in one night, c
arrying the stones in her apron. When one fell out and lodged in her slipp
er she picked it out and flung it to land in St Meilig's churchyard, thr
ee miles away across the River Wye at Llowes. The nine foot high standi
ng stone (left) can still be seen insiDe the church.
The final fall of her husband may owe a lot to her hasty reply to King Jo
hn when he requested her son William as a hostage in 1208. She refus
ed on the grounds that John had murdered his nephew Arthur whom he shou
ld have protected. The dispute between John and the De Braoses led to Ma
ud dying of starvation in the King's castle at Windsor along with her so
n, while her husband, stripped of all his lands, died the following ye
ar in exile in France.
Father: Bernard De St Valery (d.ca. 1190) (see note)
Mother: ???
Married to William De Braose, Lord of Brecknock, Bergavenny etc.
Child 1: William De Braose
Child 2: Maud (Susan) = Gruffyd ap Rhys
Child 3: Giles, Bishop of Hereford
Child 4: Roger
Child 5: Philip
Child 6: Bertha = William De Beauchamp
Child 7: Thomas
Child 8: Walter
Child 9: John = Amabil De Limesi
Child 10: Margaret = Walter De Lacy
Child 11: Henry
Child 12: Annora = Hugh De Mortimer
Child 13: Loretta = Robert De Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester
Child 14: Reginald De Braose
Child 15: Flandrina, Abbess of Godstow
Child 16: Bernard
This ordering of the children follows the Braose genealogy given in the 13
th century MS (British Library, Cotton Julius D, x) on the history of t
he Lords of Brecon.
Note.
Matilda's parentage was uncertain for a long time. Many writers have sugge
sted that she may have been a daughter of Reginald De St Valery. I recent
ly discovered a reference to her in L'Histoire des Ducs De Normandie et d
es Rois d'Angleterre, ed. Francisque Michel (Paris, 1840), written in t
he 13th century which describes her as a "daughter of Bernard De St Valery
". This appears to have finally settled the matter.
(See a copy of the post to soc.genealogy.medieval which gives more detail.