Giraldus Cambrensis

Giraldus Cambrensis (born c. 1146, Manorbier Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales—died c. 1223) was the archdeacon of Brecknock, Brecknockshire (1175–1204), and historian, whose accounts of life in the late 12th century stand as a valuable historical source. His works contain vivid anecdotes about the Christian church, particularly in Wales, about the growing universities of Paris and Oxford, and about notable clerics and laymen.

Of noble birth, Gerald was educated in Paris, and, on returning to Wales (1175), he was appointed archdeacon of Brecknock. The following year, after he was nominated (but not elected) as bishop of the ancient see of St. David’s, Pembrokeshire, he returned to Paris to study canon law and theology.

Gerald entered the service of King Henry II of England probably in July 1184. Two journeys during that period led to the compilation of his important books on Ireland and Wales. He visited Ireland on a military expedition (1185–86) with Henry’s son, the future King John, and as a result wrote Topographia Hibernica (c. 1188; “Topography of Ireland”) and Expugnatio Hibernica (c. 1189; “Conquest of Ireland”). Gerald’s Welsh tour in 1188 with Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury, undertaken to raise soldiers for the Third Crusade, prompted his Itinerarium Cambriae (1191; “Itinerary of Wales”) and Cambriae descriptio (1194; “Description of Wales”). He left the king’s service in 1195, retiring to Lincoln to study theology.

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From 1199 to 1203 Gerald’s life was clouded by his frustrated ambition to become bishop of St. David’s and to make it independent of Canterbury, thereby restoring the see’s ancient power of exercising metropolitan rights over much of southern Wales as it had done prior to the Anglo-Norman penetration into Wales. This ambition led him to reject four Irish and two Welsh bishoprics. He was again nominated for St. David’s in 1199, but the archbishop of Canterbury promoted a rival candidate; Pope Innocent III quashed both elections in 1203. Gerald explained his career and especially his struggle over St. David’s in his autobiography, De rebus a se gestis (c. 1204–05; “Concerning the Facts of My History”; Eng. trans. The Autobiography of Giraldus Cambrensis). Gerald resigned his archdeaconry the following year. After revisiting Ireland (1205–06), he made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1207.