Gerald of Wales (c. 1146 – 1223) is said to have been the first great British travel writer. As well as a prolific author, he was a scholar, churchman, reformer, courtier, diplomat, agent of Henry II of England but champion of the Welsh church. Endlessly curious but also a compulsive gossip, his books paint a remarkably detailed and wide-ranging picture of the Wales of his day.
Wales in 1188
Late twelfth-century Wales has been described as a ‘patchwork of Norman lordships and Welsh principalities.’ Although William I’s conquest of England was completed quickly, the Norman subjugation of Wales took more than two centuries. At the time Gerald of Wales was writing, the Anglo-Norman advance had been halted and sometimes reversed. The March of Wales, or the borderlands under the control of Norman lords, was confined to a narrow strip of fertile and low-lying land along the south coast and eastern border. Most of Wales was ruled by native Welsh rulers, with three major principalities of Gwynedd in the north-west, Powys in the north-east and centre, and Deheubarth in the south-west. Gerald commented that the whole population, rather than merely the nobility, were trained for war and ‘entirely bred up to the use of arms.’ As guerrillas, fighting on their own terms, they were almost impossible to defeat decisively.
Like other European countries at this time, the church dominated much of the public life of Wales, as well as the religious. However, it was part of the archdiocese of Canterbury and therefore subject to the authority of the archbishop. A string of attempts, some of them by Gerald himself, to make St Davids an archbishopric were unsuccessful.
Most Welsh people lived extremely frugally. In his later work Descriptio Kambriae, Gerald described their way of life. ‘They neither inhabit towns, villages, nor castles, but lead a solitary life in the woods, on the borders of which they do not erect sumptuous palaces, nor lofty stone buildings, but content themselves with small huts made of the boughs of trees twisted together, constructed with little labour and expense, and sufficient to endure throughout the year.’ (By this time, there were some coastal and lowland towns in Gerald’s native south-west Wales, but few in the northern and western areas he visited on his 1188 tour).
Gerald reported that most people consumed only a single meal a day. ‘Accustomed to fast from morning till evening … they dedicate the whole day to business, and in the evening partake of a moderate meal; and even if they have none, or only a very scanty one, they patiently wait till the next evening.’ People lived on oats and on the produce of their herds, mostly milk, cheese, and butter. They ate plenty of meat but not much bread.
Yet everyone was hospitable. Gerald declared, ‘No one of this nation ever begs, for the houses of all are common to all … Those who arrive in the morning are entertained till evening with the conversation of young women, and the music of the harp.’
Gerald of Wales
Gerald was born in Manorbier Castle, on the south coast of Pembrokeshire. His father, William de Barry, came from a family of Norman settlers; his mother Angharad was the daughter of the Welsh princess Nest, by Gerald of Windsor. Thus, Gerald was related to the leading Anglo-Norman families as well as to the princes of Deheubarth. Indeed, he commented ‘I am descended from the Princes of Wales and the Barons of the March … and I hate to see injustice in either nation.’
Gerald was destined to become a priest from a very early age. As a child, he is said to have preferred building sand-churches to sand-castles. He was educated by his uncle David Fitzgerald, bishop of St Davids, and then at the abbey of St Peter, Gloucester. After this, he became a student at the University of Paris, where he studied the liberal arts and eventually became a teacher of the trivium. Returning to Britain, he visited Richard of Dover, the archbishop of Canterbury, to complain about the non-payment of tithes of wool and cheese in the diocese of St Davids. Richard sent Gerald back to the diocese to insist on payment. Gerald then discovered that Jordan, the Archdeacon of Brecon, was living with his mistress. In consequence of this, Jordan was suspended, and Gerald appointed archdeacon in his place.
Gerald’s uncle, David Fitzgerald, died in May 1176. Having failed to succeed him as bishop of St Davids, Gerald returned to Paris, where he studied for the next three years. In 1184, Gerald entered the service of Henry II of England. Related to Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth, the most powerful ruler in Wales, as well as to most of the other Welsh princes, Gerald became a useful liaison officer. A year later, in 1185, Gerald accompanied Henry II’s youngest son, the future King John, on a formal visit to Ireland. He began to write his first two books Topographia Hibernica (The topography of Ireland) and Expugnatio Hibernica (The conquest of Ireland).
Peter de Leia, the bishop of St Davids, died in 1198. Gerald was determined not only to succeed him but also to make St Davids an archbishopric. Gerald’s name headed the list of nominations, sent by the chapter of St Davids to Hubert Walter, the archbishop of Canterbury. However, despite the canons’ support for Gerald, there was little chance Hubert would accept him, (and his ambition to make the Welsh church independent). The long struggle went on for five years; Gerald visited Rome three times to plead his case before Pope Innocent III. However, Gerald’s labours were in vain; eventually he lost his supporters at St Davids itself. In 1203 Geoffrey of Henlawe, prior of Llanthony, was appointed bishop.
Gerald was to live for another twenty years. He seems to have spent much of this time in Lincoln, still writing compulsively but by now deeply disillusioned. Details of his death are uncertain; he is known to have died in or before 1223, possibly in Hereford.
Journey through Wales
In 1188 Gerald accompanied Baldwin, the archbishop of Canterbury, on a tour through Wales, recruiting soldiers for the Third Crusade. The party of travellers started their journey from Hereford towards the beginning of March. They met Rhys ap Gruffudd and other native princes at New Radnor, before going on to Newport via Hay-on-Wye and Brecon. From Newport, they rode round the coast of Wales, going west to St Davids, then north through Ceredigion, Merionydd and Gwynedd. They then turned east, passing through Bangor, Rhuddlan and St Asaph. They reached Chester in time for Easter, (Sunday 17 April). After this, the party returned to Hereford via Oswestry and Shrewsbury. The whole journey took around seven weeks. Baldwin celebrated mass at all four cathedrals, thus taking the opportunity to assert his disputed authority over the Welsh church.
It is likely that Gerald’s local knowledge and contacts eased a considerable party of the journey. However, it seems improbable that he was fluent in Welsh; like Baldwin, he preached in either Latin or Norman-French. This meant the party was accompanied by an interpreter, Alexander Cuhelyn, archdeacon of Bangor. Various people joined the group for part of the journey; the Cistercian abbots of Whitland and Strata Florida travelled from Strata Florida into North Wales. Bishop Peter de Leia of St Davids accompanied them through South Wales. Alongside these, the party must have included armed guards, personal servants, and mounted grooms.
Even the best roads would have been little more than rough tracks. These were probably either old Roman roads, including Sarn Helen, or routes maintained by roadside monasteries, such as Margam and Strata Florida. The worst paths would have included upland tracks, for instance the ‘evil pass’ of Coit Wroneu in the Black Mountains. Local knowledge was important in route-finding, and guides were always on hand for Baldwin’s mission. The most dangerous roads of all were those passing through woods or scrubland, likely to harbour bandits and brigands. Although the law theoretically prohibited priests from carrying weapons, Gerald owned a sword of the finest Lombardy steel.
The party met with considerable enthusiasm; three thousand people are said to have taken the cross. These included Gerald himself; he was also appointed to write the history of the crusade. With Archbishop Baldwin and the Justiciar Ranulph de Glanville, he sailed for France in spring 1189. By 10 May 1189, he was in Chinon, in the valley of the Loire. However, after Henry II’s death in Chinon later that summer, Richard I sent Gerald back to England. He was likely to be more political use in Britain than in the Near East! Archbishop Baldwin travelled on to the Holy Land; he died in the siege of Acre on 19 November 1190.
Gerald had kept a diary of his journey; as soon as the mission was over, he started to write up his notes. He was eventually to compose three versions of Itinerarium Kambriae or The journey through Wales. It seems he completed the first in 1191, the second around 1197 and the third in 1214. As McGurk has written, ‘For the visitor to Wales, this … guide still makes compulsive reading, full of entertaining and delightful folk tales, laced with the miraculous, the picturesque and every kind of curiosity associated with the different localities the preachers passed through.’
Gerald's visit to Swansea
Gerald and his group came to Margam Abbey some time around Wednesday 16 March. The next day they forded the River Avon, before following the sea-shore and rowing across the River Neath. They spent that night and probably also the one following in Swansea Castle. Gerald wrote,
‘Entering the province called Goer, we spent the night at the castle of Sweynsei, which in Welsh is called Abertaw, or the fall of the river Tawe into the sea. The next morning, the people being assembled after mass, and many people having been induced to take the cross …’
Gerald went on to recount a conversation between two monks, describing the difficulties of their journey,
‘On the same night, two monks, who waited in the archbishop’s chamber, conversing about the occurrences of their journey, and the dangers of the road, one of them said (alluding to the wildness of the country), “This is a hard province;” the other (alluding to the quicksands), wittily replied, “Yet yesterday it was found too soft.”’
Swansea in 1188
Swansea seems to have originated around 1100 AD, about ninety years before Gerald’s visit. Encouraged by Henry I of England, the Norman lord, Henry de Beaumont, earl of Warwick, had seized the commote of Gŵyr or Gower. De Beaumont’s castle, on the Tawe estuary, became the caput of the marcher-lordship of Gower; the adjacent settlement became Swansea. As the principal castle, it housed the administrative headquarters of the lordship, its courts of justice, its treasury, and its armoury. This was a good strategic site. The castle controlled both the lowest fording point on the River Tawe and the most vulnerable land routes into the Gower peninsula. There was a natural harbour; the river was navigable for about three miles inland.
Although strongly fortified, the castle Gerald saw was still constructed of timber. It was built on the summit of a motte (mound) and surrounded by a flat area (bailey), defended by a ditch, bank, and palisade. The first stone castle was probably not built until around 1218.
Unusually, Henry de Beaumont chose not to set up a Benedictine monastery in Swansea. It is not known when the first church was built. Although the first conclusive evidence of a church appears only in 1291, it is likely that St Mary’s goes back to the twelfth century.
At first, the small community was made up of people who served the castle and its garrison. As time went by, these were joined by artisans and craftsmen. As marcher lords, Henry de Beaumont and his successors had the right to create boroughs. They then strengthened their control over the surrounding area by encouraging English craftsmen and traders to settle there. It seems likely that Swansea became a borough early in the twelfth century.
Henry de Beaumont’s grandson, William de Newburgh, appears to have granted Swansea a charter of privileges some time between 1158 and his death in 1184. The wording suggests a settlement hedged in by woodland. The burgesses were permitted ‘to pasture their herds as far as they can go in a day and return the same night to their homes … [in] … the woods on all sides about my borough.’ They were also allowed to clear and root out trees, and to cultivate the land. They could take ‘oak to make their houses and fences and ships, rendering for a ship 12 pence, and all other wood for their fire … and to carry and sell wherever they shall wish and can.’ Although bigger than most Welsh towns, Swansea was still relatively small. Possibly by the thirteenth century there were around 80 houses.
Gerald reaches Carmarthen
The party seems to have reached Kidwelly Castle on or around Saturday 19 March. The next day they crossed the River Towy, left Llanstephan and Laugharne on their left, and travelled to Carmarthen. It is likely they spent the night there and then rode on to the monastery of Whitland. Gerald wrote of Carmarthen,
‘Caermardyn signifies the city of Merlin, because, according to the British History, he was there said to have been begotten of an incubus. This ancient city is situated on the banks of the noble river Tywy, surrounded by woods and pastures, and was strongly inclosed with walls of brick, part of which are still standing; having Cantref Mawr, the great cantred, or hundred, on the eastern side, a safe refuge, in times of danger, to the inhabitants of South Wales, on account of its thick lofty summit above the Tywy, the royal seat of the Princes of South Wales.’
Carmarthen in 1188
Carmarthen can claim to be the oldest town in Wales. It was the site first of a Roman military base, established in around 75 AD, and then of a small Roman town, (Moridunum or Sea-fort).
However, by the time Gerald visited, it was split into two settlements, Old and New Carmarthen. Old Carmarthen, north-east of the present town centre, was built on the site of Moridunum and, indeed, some of the Roman town walls were still standing. It was governed by the Priory of St John and St Teulyddog, originally a Celtic ‘clas’ church, possibly founded as early as the sixth century. Having failed to impose a Benedictine rule, the Normans installed a house of Augustinian canons there. Almost nothing of the priory remains, although, in its heyday, it was one of the richest monasteries in Wales. Several priors were Welsh; the Black Book of Carmarthen, the oldest written collection of Welsh poetry, was probably produced in its scriptorium, although possibly around sixty years after Gerald’s visit. The Priory may also have been responsible for the early association between Carmarthen and Merlin the magician.
At the time Gerald visited, New Carmarthen was still a small settlement. It was a settler community, which grew up in the shadow of the castle. This castle had been built by the Normans two miles south of the remains of Moridunum. Carmarthen castle was one of the largest in Wales and the English king’s administrative centre for south-west Wales. First established on its current site above the Towy in 1109, the first two fortresses were short-lived. The earliest was destroyed by Owain Gwynedd in 1137, the second by Llywelyn the Great in 1215. However, between 1181 and 1183, Henry II spent £160 on ‘our castle of Carmarthen’; possibly the expenditure related to an upgrade of its defences. Despite this, the castle Gerald saw would largely have been made of timber although possibly with some rebuilding in stone. It consisted of a motte, with a tower on top, surrounded by two baileys.
St Peter’s, still the parish church of Carmarthen, was located between the two settlements. The first mention of it comes early in the reign of Henry I (1100-1135), when, like the priory, it was given to Battle Abbey. At the time Gerald visited, it was probably still small, dark, and intimate.
The bridge over the Towy probably existed from early times. However, its first mention comes in 1220, when it was the scene of a violent struggle between Rhys Gryg and Prince Llywelyn.
Gerald's visit to Lampeter
The party seems to have visited Lampeter at the beginning of April 1188. Their previous stop had been in Cardigan, where Baldwin and Gerald had both preached at the bridgehead over the River Teifi. They then rode to Lampeter. Gerald wrote,
‘A sermon having been preached on the following morning at Pont Stephen, by the Archbishop and Archdeacon, and also by two abbots of the Cistercian order, John of Alba-domus, and Sisillus of Stratflur, who faithfully attended us in those parts, and as far as North Wales; many persons were induced to take the cross.’
That night they went on to Strata Florida, where they stayed for a short time. The next day, Gerald described their meeting with his relative Cynwrig ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, third son of the lord of Deheubarth. Gerald wrote,
‘On the following morning, having on our right hand the lofty mountains of Moruge, which in Welsh are called Ellennith, we were met near the side of a wood by Cynric, son of Rhys, accompanied by a body of light-armed youths. This young man was of a fair complexion, with curled hair; tall and handsome; clothed only, according to the custom of his country, with a thin cloak and inner garment; his legs and feet, regardless of thorns and thistles, were left bare: a man, not adorned by art, but nature; bearing in his presence an innate, not an acquired, dignity of manners.’
After this, Gerald and his party journeyed to Llanbadarn Fawr, going through Llanddewi Brefi en route.
Lampeter in 1188
Early in the 12th century, the Normans had built a motte and bailey castle in Lampeter, on the site later to be known as Castle Field and eventually to become part of UWTSD’s campus. However, by the time Gerald visited, the castle had already disappeared. Brut y Tywysogyon reports that in 1137, ‘for the third time, the sons of Gruffudd ap Cynan came into Ceredigion, and they burned the castle of Ystrad Meurig and Stephen’s Castle [i.e. Lampeter castle] and Humfrey’s Castle and Carmarthen.’ In History and antiquities of the county of Cardigan, Samuel Rush Meyrick mentioned a second ‘moated mound’ at Lampeter, said to lie north of St Peter’s Church. If this was correct, it is likely one castle was a successor of the other. However, nothing else is known of this second castle.
The churchyard of St Peter’s is circular, possibly indicating pre-Norman conquest religious use of the site. Then, sometime between 1100 and 1135, Cadell, grandson of Rhys ap Tewdwr, granted the church at Lampeter to Totnes Priory. However, Gerald did not mention a church in Lampeter. Around a century later, in 1291, St Peter’s was assessed at £5. In 1808, Meyrick described the medieval church as consisting of ‘a nave, south aisle, and chancel, the two former of which are divided from each other by a number of pointed arches …. ; and the latter is separated from them by an ornamented screen.’
It is likely too that medieval Lampeter was the home of a priory, thought to have been on the site now occupied by Shiloh Chapel and Temple Terrace. It was almost certainly dedicated to St Thomas Becket, who had been murdered in 1170 and canonized three years later. W.J. Lewis, the Lampeter local historian, suggests that Gerald and his party may have stayed in the priory.
In 1285, Edward I granted Lampeter the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair for the feast of St Dionysius, (8 to 10 October); it is likely that this was simply a confirmation of existing practice.
Gerald’s reference to Lampeter as Pont Stephen indicates that a bridge had already been constructed. Although its location is unknown, it is thought to have crossed the River Teifi to the south of the town.
Beavers
Gerald seems to have been fascinated by beavers. He included information about the colony of beavers on the Teifi, the river flowing through Lampeter, in three separate works, (Topographia Hibernica, Itinerarium Kambriae and Descriptio Kambriae). His description of beavers in Itinerarium Kambriae is long and detailed. He starts by explaining,
‘The Teivi has another singular particularity, being the only river in Wales, or even in England, which has beavers; in Scotland they are said to be found in one river, but are very scarce … The beavers, in order to construct their castles in the middle of rivers, make use of the animals of their own species instead of carts, who, by a wonderful mode of carriage, convey the timber from the woods to the rivers. Some of them, obeying the dictates of nature, receive on their bellies the logs of wood cut off by their associates, which they hold tight with their feet, and thus with transverse pieces placed in their mouths, are drawn along backwards, with their cargo, by other beavers, who fasten themselves with their teeth to the raft.’
He was thus the first person in the historical record to note that beavers build lodges from fallen logs. He was also the earliest writer to observe that the animals use each other as a kind of vehicle for moving their building materials.
Some other comments are less accurate. For instance, he thought that ‘This animal can remain in or under water at its pleasure, like the frog or seal … These three animals, therefore, live indifferently under the water, or in the air.’ In fact, beavers can stay under water for up to fifteen minutes; it seemed reasonable to Gerald that they could breathe there.
Gerald took other material from contemporary bestiaries, books that described real or fabulous creatures and their Christian allegorical significance. Classical authors, including Cicero and Pliny, had believed that male beavers would castrate themselves, when pursued by a hunter. It was believed the animal’s testicles had many medicinal uses. Knowing this, the creature would bite off its own gonads and throw them into the path of the hunter. The story found its way into the bestiaries, where it was illustrated vividly and suitably moralized.
Gerald was familiar both with the classical writers and with the bestiaries. He described the behaviour of a hunted animal thus,
‘When the beaver finds he cannot save himself from the pursuit of the dogs who follow him, that he may ransom his body by the sacrifice of a part, he throws away that, which by natural instinct he knows to be the object sought for, and in the sight of the hunter castrates himself, from which circumstance he has gained the name of Castor; and if by chance the dogs should chase an animal which had been previously castrated, he has the sagacity to run to an elevated spot, and there lifting up his leg, shews the hunter that the object of his pursuit is gone.’
In fact, beavers were hunted for castoreum, the substance they secreted to scent mark their territories. This was used to treat a range of human conditions, including skin diseases, hemorrhoids, and animal bites.
Printed editions of Itinerarium Cambriae
In 1585, David Powel included Itinerarium Cambriae in an omnibus volume, also containing Ponticus Virinnius’s Historia Britannica, Gerald’s Descriptio Cambriae and the letter entitled De Britannica historia recte intelligenda. There are some arbitrary omissions, for instance of Gerald’s praise of Thomas Becket in Book 2, chapter 14. UWTSD’s copy comes from the library of Bishop Thomas Burgess. It has been signed by Robert Burton, the author of The anatomy of melancholy. Powel’s text was reprinted by William Camden in 1602; (we do not hold this edition). In turn, Camden’s version was reprinted by Henry Wharton in 1691 and Sir Richard Colt Hoare in 1804, (both in UWTSD stock). Sir Richard Colt Hoare translated Itinerarium Cambriae into English in 1806, as The itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, A.D. MCLXXXVIII. Our Special Collections hold copies of this donated as part of the foundation collections, and also from the library of Bishop Burgess.