Name: Harry, Edward-Rhys: Alina: The White Lady of Oystermouth?
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Harry, Edward-Rhys: Alina: The White Lady of Oystermouth?

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Commissioned by the Llantwit Major Chamber Music Festival 2024, this 4-movement work for solo violin and cello in duet attempts to tell the story of Alina De Breose. The De Breose family inherited the Lordship of Gower. William Debreose, Alina’s father had several children. Several of them died as well as their mother. The 2 who survived were his brother John and daughter Alina, who he arranged a marriage for when she was 7 years of age – for financial purposes. Precising the story, those financial ‘purposes’ - namely debt to a great number of neighbours, ended in William having to flee and his estate – the castles at Swansea and Oystermouth were seized by the king and handed to others. Alina’s father had arranged for Alina and John to inherit these estates but had also arranged for several others to do so. As a result of the lack of clarity the castles were lost and John was beheaded. Alina was sent to the Tower of London with her son John, aged 12. Her husband had died in battle.

When Edward III came to the throne, the barons were pardoned and their estates returned to them. Unfortunately, Alina de Braose did not qualify however because her right to inherit Gower had not, originally, been completed correctly by her father.

But Alina’s story had a happy outcome in two ways. Firstly, the king showed mercy to her and gave her Gower. Secondly, she married a man she met in the Tower, Richard de Peschale, and went on to have four more children. Sadly, she didn’t live long to enjoy it, and died in 1331, only four years after her release from the Tower. Her eldest son John, however, had an illustrious career and became a close companion in arms of the king.

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