Sarah Sprules, MA: 'The Clare Women: Stories of female freedom and fear in the Welsh Marches'.

When Irish princess Aoife MacMurrough married Norman baron Richard de Clare, she began a line of Clare women who were not merely passive wives, but courageous, daring and influential women in their own right. Their experience in the Welsh Marches, their connections and their stories are an interesting note in history and medieval women as partners in marriage and wielding their own power in a male dominated environment.
Sarah Spules a PhD student at University of Wales, Trinity St David, following completion of a Medieval History MA at the same university, my thesis for the MA considered the agency and power of several women in the Clare family. I am currently studying power in medieval Bristol with a particular focus on Bristol Castle and also have an interest in William Marshal and his time in the Welsh Marches.'