A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gwenissa
GWENISSA,
Commonly spoken of as Gwenissa the Fair, was the daughter of the Emperor Claudius, and was given in marriage to Arviragus, King of the Iceni, in order to cement the union formed between that monarch and the Romans. Arviragus, however, did not long remain true either to his professions of friendship for the invaders of Britain, nor of love for the beautiful Gwenissa, for whom he had divorced his first wife, the famous Queen Boadicea. On the breaking out of hostilities between her husband and father, Gwenissa was much afflicted, and, it is said, by her importunities brought about an accommodation of their differences, on which account she was called "the winner of peace." This peace was, however, but of short duration; the King of the Iceni joined a confederacy against the Romans, became reconciled to Boadicea, and the deserted Gwenissa, overcome by the extremity of her grief, expired in childbirth, prematurely brought on by the anguish of her mind. She is said to have been as good as she was beautiful, and to have performed many acts of generosity and kindness for which her memory cherished in Britain.