The Journey Through Wales and the Description of Wales (Penguin Classics)

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In December 2019 Professor Richard Sharpe was awarded a 5 year Leverhulme Research Project to begin in April 2020 on Gerald of Wales with the aim of publishing authoritative editions of most of his works, following the example of Robert Bartlett's recent edition of De principis instructione.

a b c [1] MacCaffrey, James. "Giraldus Cambrensis." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. Accessed 20 July 2015.On the other hand, his descriptions of the country are fantastical and in no way aligned with reality. One of his most famous descriptions is of witnessing a beaver and then claiming it castrated itself to avoid danger. Not sure at all what that was about. His descriptions of Ireland, where he also traveled are even more strange, at one point describing deer with golden teeth and a wolf that talked with a priest. He also routinely rails against the supposed abuses of doctrine widespread in the Welsh church, just as the Normans had done when they conquered England and then Ireland. The books that Giraldus produced after the journey, Itinerarium Cambriae and Descriptio Cambriae, still stand as valuable historical documents but their real importance lies in the fact that they set the tone for all travel writing ever since.

All upcoming public events are going ahead as planned and you can find more information on our events blog Gerald spent the remainder of his life in academic study, most probably in Lincoln, producing works of devotional instruction and politics, and revising the works on Ireland and Wales he had written earlier in his life. He spent two years (1204–6) in Ireland with his relatives and made a fourth visit to Rome, purely as a pilgrimage, in 1206. The controversy over St Davids soured his relationship with the crown. In 1216 a baronial plan to put Louis VIII of France on the throne of England in the First Barons' War was warmly welcomed by him. He died in about 1223 in his 77th year, probably in Hereford and he is, according to some accounts, buried at St Davids Cathedral. [5]

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The English are striving for power, the Welsh for freedom; the English are fighting for material gain, the Welsh to avoid a disaster; the English soldiers are hired mercenaries, the Welsh are defending their homeland. The English, I say, want to drive the Welsh out of the island and to capture it all for themselves. The Welsh, who for so long ruled over the whole kingdom, want only to find refuge together in the least attractive corner of it, the woods, the mountains and the marshes. . . . Yet Gerald’s attitude towards Wales was not completely hostile. He admired the freedom and boldness of the native Welsh and promoted the independence of the Welsh church from the authority of Canterbury.” One of the primary reasons we remember Gerald of Wales is for his journey through Wales with Archbishop Baldwin in 1188 AD, during the reign of King Henry II of England. On one hand, in his numerous writings, he spoke of the Welsh as evil, sinful, incestuous, and dishonest (and definitely didn’t have good things to say about the continuance of a Welsh law, separate from English law), but at the same time, he supported their continued quest for freedom from England. Over the centuries, the Welsh have had very few supporters in that regard.

June marks the return of our direct services linking Cardiff Central and Holyhead, known as “Y Gerallt Gymro” or “The Gerald of Wales” service. These are operated by our Mark 4 intercity carriages and include First Class carriages, free Wi-Fi throughout, an enhanced food and drink offer including a buffet car, accessible toilets and baby changing facilities.

When Was Gerald Of Wales Born?

Gerald was a product of what historians call the “Reform Church”. This was an ecclesiastical movement of the 11th and 12th centuries which sought to re-orientate the moral compass of society. Within the church, priestly marriage was a particular source of consternation, while in wider society it was again sex and marriage that formed the focus of the reformers’ zeal. He followed it up, shortly afterwards, with an account of Henry's conquest of Ireland, the Expugnatio Hibernica. Both works were revised and added to several times before his death, and display a notable degree of Latin learning, as well as a great deal of prejudice against foreign people. Gerald was proud to be related to some of the Norman invaders of Ireland, such as his maternal uncle Robert FitzStephen and Raymond FitzGerald, and his influential account, which portrays the Irish as barbaric savages, gives important insight into Cambro-Norman views of Ireland and the history of the invasion. [ citation needed]