Giraldus Cambrensis

(Gerald of Wales)

(ca. 1146–ca. 1223)

   Gerald of Wales, or Giraldus Cambrensis, was a priest, a courtier, a scholar, and historian whose numerous Latin works established him as an important man of letters in 12th- and 13th-century England and Wales. Known for a tumultuous official career that saw him twice rejected in his bid to be bishop of St. David’s, Gerald is best known for his influential Itinerary through Wales and Description ofWales, both written in about 1188. Gerald was born in Pembrokeshire in southern Wales, the youngest son of an Anglo-Norman knight named William of Barri and a Welsh princess called Anharad.He received his early education at St. Peter’s in Gloucester and then attended the University of Paris, where he studied and also taught rhetoric in the 1160s. By 1174 he was a priest, with benefices in both England and Wales. He was also serving Archbishop Richard of Canterbury as his legate, or ecclesiastical ambassador, to the diocese of St. David’s in Wales, where Gerald’s uncle David fitz Gerald was bishop. Appointed Archdeacon of Brecon by his uncle, Gerald sought the bishopric when David died in 1176, but his nomination was rejected by King HENRY II, perhaps because of Gerald’s Welsh ancestry. Following this failure Gerald returned to Paris for further study in law and theology. In 1184, the king appointed him to the position of court chaplain. In that capacity he accompanied Prince John to Ireland in 1184. This proved the occasion of his writing the Topographia Hibernica, a description of the geography, the animal life, and the early history and legends of Ireland. He is reputed to have read the text aloud to scholars at Oxford University in about 1185. About the same time he wrote Expugnatio Hibernica, which tells the story of the Norman conquest of Ireland from 1169–85. In 1188, Gerald spent five weeks with Baldwin, then the archbishop of Canterbury, traveling thoughout Wales preaching the Third Crusade. From this experience, Gerald composed the Itinerarium Cambriae and Descripto Cambriae (The Itinerary through Wales and The Description ofWales), which remain his best-known works.

   In 1194, after 10 years of royal service, Gerald retired from court life and returned to the life of a scholar, spending time at Oxford and at Lincoln. When the bishopric of St. David’s became open once again in 1198, Gerald was elected to the post, but the new archbishop of Canterbury,Hubert Walter, blocked his appointment and was supported by Prince John, who became king in 1189.Unwilling to have his ambition thwarted a second time, Gerald tried to rally support among the Welsh for his appointment. He also made three separate trips to Rome to appeal directly to the pope to intervene. His defiance aroused the royal and pontifical wrath, and Gerald was outlawed and forced to flee England, only to be imprisoned eventually at Châtillon. Ultimately, though, Gerald was reconciled with King John and the archbishop, and in 1203 accepted his failure to achieve the see of St. David’s.He spent his last 20 years pursuing his literary career.When he died, he was buried at St. David’s. Gerald wrote several works about the disputed bishopric, as well as an autobiographical work called De rebus a se gestis. In addition he composed two theological works, seven SAINTS’ LIVES, and a collection of poems and short pieces called Symbolum electoram, assembled toward the end of his life. In his De principis instructione (ca. 1193), Gerald recounts the discovery and reinterment, in 1191, of the bodies of King ARTHUR and Queen Guenevere at Glastonbury Abbey. Of particular interest to Arthurian scholars, Gerald refers to Arthur and to Merlin in several of his works, repeating the traditions that Arthur was visited at Caerleon by ambassadors from Rome and that the kings of Ireland paid tribute to King Arthur. Gerald also respected Merlin’s famous prophecies, though he expresses serious reservations about the account of history given by the first Arthurian chronicler, GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.

   Bibliography

   ■ Bartlett, Robert. Gerald ofWales, 1146–1223. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.

   ■ Giraldus Cambrensis. The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis. Containing The Topography of Ireland, and The History of the Conquest of Ireland, translated by Thomas Forester; The Itinerary through Wales, and The Description of Wales, translated by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Revised and edited by Thomas Wright. 1863. Reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1968.

   ■ O’Meara, John J., trans. The History and Topography of Ireland. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1982.

   ■ Richter, Michael. Giraldus Cambrensis: The Growth of the Welsh Nation. Rev. ed. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1976.

   ■ Roberts, Brynley F. Gerald of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1982.

   ■ ———, ed. Itinerary Through Wales. Newtown, Wales: Gwasg Gregynog, 1989.

   ■ Rutherford, Anne, ed. I, Giraldus: The Autobiography of Giraldus Cambrensis (1145–1223). Based on the translation by H. E. Butler. Cambridge, Mass.: Rhwymbooks, 2002.