Ysbyty Cynfyn
Ysbyty Cynfyn was a hospital of the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. It is located along the pilgrim road to St. David’s and, later in history, to Strata Florida Abbey. It consists today of a church, dedicated to St John, situated within a wall that incorporates ancient standing stones. This is one of three standing stones built into the churchyard wall. Their presence indicates that the medieval church may have been built over a pagan site. The fact that the churchyard is circular is a further indication that worship has taken place here for possibly thousands of years. On the other side of the Rheidol gorge (accessed by a stiff hike, not for the faint of heart!) are the remains of a bronze age burial mound that has eroded away to reveal the stone circle Read more…
The Prince of Wales
What is the actual origin of the Prince of Wales? With the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the ascension of Charles to the throne of England, Charles has designated his son, William, to replace him as the Prince of Wales. Readers of my books will be aware that the reason the Prince of Wales is the son of the English king is because, back in 1284, after King Edward I conquered Wales, he hauled his 8 month pregnant wife to Caernarfon so she could give birth to Edward II in his half-built castle there. Then in 1301 Edward gave this son the title, Prince of Wales. Ever since, the Prince of Wales has been the son of the English king. King Charles himself was invested as the Prince of Wales in 1969 at Caernarfon Castle. Though both Wikipedia and many Read more…
St. Mary’s Church, Trefriw
Today we are talking about St Mary’s Church in Trefriw. Llanrhychwyn was also patronized and supported by Llywelyn Fawr. Why did he build another one? That’s the story we’re telling today, and it’s pretty simple, really. This area already had Llanrhychwyn, one of the oldest churches in all Wales, founded by St. Rhychwyn in the 6th century. We talked about it earlier in this season of videos. Llywelyn Fawr, who was the Prince of Wales, had many homes but came sometimes to his hunting lodge near Trefriw and in the early days always worshipped at the church at Llanrhychwyn. But, as anyone who has visited can’t help but notice, it’s quite a hike. Joan found the uphill walk to the church, followed by a steep descent, tiring. To please her, Llywelyn had St. Mary’s built at the bottom of the Read more…
Gareth & Gwen Podcast Interview
Alexandra Amor interviewed me for a podcast a few weeks ago about the Gareth & Gwen Medieval Mysteries if anyone is interested in giving it a listen … On her site: https://alexandraamor.com/solving-crime-in-medieval-wales-with-sarah-woodbury/
Medieval Welsh Armor
Whether or not Welsh wore armor into battle has come up today because a reader of my books reported an ‘error’ in Daughter of Time saying that her ‘reading of history says that the Welsh didn’t wear armor in the Middle Ages’. That simply isn’t true. They did. After I cooled down about the inherent prejudice that comment reflects, I decided a blog post was in order to address the matter. Basically, history is written by the victors, and the English were particularly good at propaganda at a very early point. King Edward I knew very well what he was doing when he plundered Welsh records, took Welsh iconography as his own, and put himself in the lineage of King Arthur (who was, without a doubt, Welsh). Depictions of Welsh people in the Middle Ages are few and far between, Read more…
Introduction to a new video series
All about medieval Britain in bite-sized pieces! With the help of my husband, I’m starting a new series of videos about the history of Britain as background to my books. Medieval Wales and Britain in general is my thing (obviously!), and since I can’t get enough, I kind of assume everyone around me can’t either 🙂 The videos will be put up weekly, starting with this first one, which is an introduction to the series. Next week … Making Sense of Medieval Britain. If you want to see the videos as soon as they go up, you can subscribe to my channel! Click on the link to get started!
Crossroads in Time released! No foolin’ :)
I am so excited to share with everyone my new book, Crossroads in Time, the third book in the After Cilmeri series. Four and a half years in the making, I began it soon after I finished Prince of Time. Life intervened in the writing process, however, and I only returned to it in 2011. And had to delete everything I’d written up until then and start over 🙂 As a side note, I have only realized as I type this that I began this book again just a few weeks after the death of my father at the far too young age of 68. And maybe that’s why Crossroads in Time is a story so close to my heart. It’s meant to be FUN. A fun, romantic read, following the adventures of David and Anna and their family and Read more…
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