Review: Conquest: Daughter of the Last King

Tracey Warr, Conquest: Daughter of the Last King (Impress Books 2016)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31617066-conquest?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=kT5XiEq1x4&rank=1

Post-Conquest, Norman nobles are scrambling to wed the orphaned princesses of their vanquished Scottish and Welsh foes.
Nest verch Rhys, daughter of the last Dinefwr king Rhys ap Tewdwr, has been placed with Lady Sybil and her husband Robert FitzHamond, in Cardiff Castle. FitzHamond is tasked by the king with subduing the Welsh. Nest nurses hopes of rescuing the Royal Deheubarth line, and wants to realise her betrothal to her noble cousin Owain ap Cadwgan. But she realises she would miss Lady Sybil and her little daughters and the maid Amelina.
Meanwhile, there is a scramble for the English throne, and personal fortunes rest on backing the winning side. FitzHamond is for King Rufus. Duke Robert and other Norman lords depart on crusade. Owain comes to Cardiff dressed as a tinker and slips a whisper to Nest that he will come for her, but on the night he doesn’t show.
Listening around corners, Nest discovers a plot against the king involving Sybil’s brother Arnulf.
King Rufus denies marriage petitions from Arnulf and from Owain. When King Rufus dies, his brother Henry takes the throne, and alliances shift. Those who backed the new man are in favour. Some barons believe the older brother Duke Robert was the legitimate heir. Duke Robert thinks so, too, and challenges his brother in battle.
The new king marries the Scottish Princess Matilda, though Nest had entertained thoughts that he might choose her.
The story is told mainly through Nest’s point of view, but also through the knight Haith and his sister, nun Benedicta, in coded letters containing all the royal gossip.
Book 1 in the Conquest series, this novel is an enjoyable look at the daily lives of nobility during a period of great social change. The story illustrates how, unlike England, the Norman conquest of Wales was slow, though equally painful. Nest’s ‘desire to be resistantly Welsh is… necessarily compromised and hedged about by love’.

Nest’s brother Gruffydd ap Rhys was my 20th great grandfather.