Tangwystl of Chester

Not the same as Tangwystl ferch Llywarch Goch

Tangwystl, known as Tanglust, and also as Tanghurst, was a base (illegitimate) daughter of Earl Hugh "the Fat" d'Avranches of Chester by an unknown mistress. She was born about 1075.

She was likely the wife of William ll "le belward", born about 1060. His mother is not known, and he was likely the son of Sir William "le belward" "miles" (knight) son of Gruffudd ap Owain

Their children:

1. William III born about 1090. Married Mabel daughter of Robert fitz Hugh.
2. David, William lll's younger brother, born after 1090. Married his first-cousin, Margaret ferch Ralph ap Sir William.

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notes

http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id152.html

THE "MALPAS" FAMILY IN CHESHIRE By Darrell Wolcott

in 1071 Hugh the Fat, aka Hugh Lupus [d'Avranches], was made the Earl of Chester. Sir William of Malpas was then about 40 years old and had 3 sons yet minors; we suggest he continued to serve his new Norman lord just as he had served the Saxon Earls and now held Malpas as a tenant of Earl Hugh. About 1085, Earl Hugh settled the Lordship of Malpas (mostly a landlord's income stream, not actual possession of land) on his base son Robert-fitz-Hugh. To mitigate this intrusion on the Baron of Malpas,

Hugh gave one of his base daughters (Tanglust) as wife to William II, the eldest son of Sir William of Malpas.

3.  Other pedigree citations: 

•               a.  Burke's Dictionary of the Peerage & Baronetage claims that "William le Belward, baron of Malpas, married Beatrix, illegitimate daughter of Hugh, Earl of Chester
•               b.  County Families of Lancashire and Cheshire claims that "William le Belward married Tanglust a natural daughter of Hugh Cyfeiliog, Earl of Chester.
•               c.  The 1580 Visitation of Cheshire claims that Ralph, Baron of Malpas, married Beatrix sister of Hugh Cyfeiliog.

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comments

Seen as Tanghurst DE CHESTER

• Birth: 1170
• Kevelioc, Monmouthshire, Wales
• Death: November 2, 1247 (77)
• Ferrers, Derbyshire, England

Marriage Information:

Tanghurst married William "Le Belward" DE MALPAS, son of William "Le Belward" DE MALPAS and Mabel D' AVRANCHES. (William "Le Belward" DE MALPAS was born in 1129 in Malpas, Cheshire, England.)

Spouses/Children:

William "Le Belward" DE MALPAS

• Peter "Le Clerc" DE MALPAS+
• Robert DE MALPAS+

This configuration does not agree with the argument and evidence presented by Darrell Wolcott.

Peter Cotgreave. The barony of Malpas in the twelfth century. Transactions, Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 2008, 157.2. https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/157-2-Cotgreave.pdf Page 15-16. “The Belwards.”

The hazy details of these stories are contradicted by the assertion included in many pedigrees that William Belward’s wife was called Tanglust (sometimes spelled Tanghurst or Tanglusk),66 although these agree that she was Hugh II Earl of Chester’s daughter. The variant spellings are copying errors for Tanglwst, a corruption of the Welsh name Tangwystl.67. At the time the visitation pedigrees were being drawn up, there were clearly doubts about the details. A contemporary manuscript contradicted the story of Tanglwst because ‘W[illia]m le Belward maried Beatrix da & heire to Enion ap d[avi]d baron of Malpas...and not this Tanghurst wch I never hard of befor’ 68

Indeed, the evidence for Tanglwst is very questionable. She cannot have been mentioned in Sir William Brereton’s ancient roll of evidence or she would have been included in the 1578 pedigree drawn from it, and it is extremely suspicious that these ancient papers did not mention the supposed fact that Belward married a woman as illustrious as the earl of Chester’s daughter. We know Tanglwst was also omitted from the records at the College of Arms because, sometime around 1600, Brereton had her name inserted, on the basis of evidence about an ancient court case involving one Thomas Whitgreve.69

No early pedigrees or records provide any evidence about Tanglwst, but there is some reason to suppose that her story was based on a misinterpretation of genuinely ancient documents. In about 1200, Pope Innocent III mistakenly believed that the Welsh prince Llywelyn had previously been married to a sister of Ranulf II Earl of Chester.70The only woman he could have meant —the mother of Llywelyn’s children, sometimes called his wife - was called Tangwystl.71The coincidence of an unusual name with the suggestion that she was a sister of Earl Ranulf strongly point to this being the woman whom Whitgreve believed had married his ancestor. In fact, she was not the earl’s sister72 and her association with the Belwards was probably caused by confusion about a later marriage; the genuine Tangwystl’s grandson really did marry one of Belward’s descendents and heirs in the barony.

References

1. Peter Cotgreave. The barony of Malpas in the twelfth century. Transactions, Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 2008, 157.2. https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/157-2-Cotgreave.pdf